Verizon's Executive VP & CFO Fran Shammo today revealed a very interesting fact about the success of the Verizon Wireless 'Share Everything' multi-device shared data plans: the plans are working - that is, they are acheiving the goal of increasing the number of connected devices per account - but it has been a different device than expected that has driven success to date.

Move over 3G/4G tablet - the MiFi is king

MiFi®

Shammo noted that when launching the Share Everything plans in mid- 2012 (see Strategy Analytics report: Shared Data Plans from Verizon Wireless "Shifting the Way We Sell Wireless"), Verizon thought that they would drive tablet subscriptions. Tablets have seen some growth in net adds, but underperformed the carrier's expectation. What has proven to be more popular and contribute more to net adds is portable mobile hotspots (referred to as MiFi after the device category was started by Novatel Wireless)

 

The Strategy Analytics View

The success of the mobile hotspot at Verizon should not be a surprise for three main reasons:

1. the installed base of WiFi-only tablets in the US is much larger than the base of 3G or 4G capable tablets, and for people with WiFi tablets a mobile hotspot provides a better user experience than tethering from a smartphone and it is cheaper than upgrading to an LTE tablet

2. a mobile hotspot, while costing $20/month to add to a Share Everything plan compared to $10 to add a 4G tablet, can be used to connect up to 5 devices - so multiple tablets or laptops at once
3. 4G LTE tablets still pack a hefty price on top of a WiFi-only tablet, so even today's purchasers of a tablet may lean away from 4G

Mobile Tablet Subscriptions Will Grow, but How Much? How can Operators Succeed?

Shared data plans and LTE networks with good performance and geographic coverage have eroded some of the barriers for mobile tablet subscriptions, but the cost differential to buy a tablet with embedded mobile connectivity plus the fact that most tablet use occurs where WiFi is often available means LTE tablets subscriptions still face an uphill battle. Growth outlook for tablets subscriptions is positive, but not overwhelmingly so. On the otherhand, the mobile hotspot market seems to have outperformed industry expectations - and should have continued growth even as embedded device subscriptions grow.

What do you think? We are working on an update to our tablet subscriptions...so keep watching this site for an update and let us know what your view is.

Susan Welsh de Grimaldo

Director, Global Wireless Practice 

Merging T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS makes sense on many fronts. For stakeholders, René Obermann, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Telekom, explained this merger “feels like unboxing a new smartphone to you” – discovering all the benefits. Strategy Analytics looks at some of the potential benefits—starting with spectrum as the main driver:

Spectrum:

Both companies needed additional spectrum for stronger LTE deployments, and their contiguous AWS spectrum makes a good fit. As MetroPCS chairman stated in a call to go over the merger details, this deal allows for “minimum cost, time, and risk associated with acquiring spectrum”. For T-Mobile, they also get the benefit of PCS spectrum in some of their most spectrum constrained markets. The combined spectrum position, which will allow for 20x20 MHz LTE deployments in many markets, was noted by company leaders as “fundamental to deliver enhanced customer experience.”

Seamless Migration and Network Evolution, not Disaster of Combining Disparate Networks:

Both companies were very clear that they are not planning to “smash together two networks”. The companies will focus on migrating MetroPCS customers to T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network, which has sufficient capacity, in order to refarm MetroPCS spectrum, with a target to close the MetroPCS network by the end of 2015. With T-Mobile network upgrades already underway for its LTE launch in 2013, the timing is also good for migrating MetroPCS subscribers to TMO-US LTE as it is launched.

With 60-65% of MetroPCS customers upgrading their handsets each year, the new company will use this rapid upgrade cycle to their benefit to have customer-driven transition. They anticipate heavy users will self-migrate first, freeing up spectrum for refarming faster, and expect some need for incentives in the last 12 months to encourage remaining customers to upgrade, but most of upgrades will be driven by customers.

Of the US $6-7 billion in synergies identified, 5-6 billion will be in the network - decommissioning of redundant sites as refarming occurs is big part of that savings.

Personally, I agree with them calling Neville Ray, CTO of TMO-US, a “rock star” – he has done a lot of work on refarming TMO 1900 spectrum for HSPA+  to target iPhone owners, planning for LTE upgrades with newest technology innovtions, and did a superb job of tackling backhaul upgrades to support 4G RAN evolution.

It will be interesting to see how the combined entity leads network innovation to support new services, as each had key strengths:

• TMO-US: strengths in refarming and preparing for industry leading LTE migration based on release 10 and using remote radio heads and strong fiber backhaul
• MetroPCS: network innovation focused on maximizing minimum spectrum with DAS, early use of six sectors per cell site,  and world leading VoLTE launch to migrate voice to LTE to support spectrum refarming

With less urgent need to migrate to VoLTE to move voice to LTE to be able to refarm PCS spectrum (a main driver behind MetroPCS early VoLTE launch), the new company should be able to focus  on how to use VoLTE along with RCS and IMS to create service value propositions,  particularly for SME focus of TMO-US and the high-tier users at MetroPCS—who have been  used to having extra content/services bundled into their unlimited.

Marketing and Target Segments:

For TMO- US, the merger with smaller MetroPCS has several main benefits in terms of market positioning:

• closes half the gap in subscriber base to number 3 operator Sprint, by going from TMO’s current 33M subs to 42M combined subs for the new company
• more importantly, should go a long way to support the rebuilding of T-Mobile’s brand equity in the US after its failed merger with AT&T
• should help to stem some of its customer losses to AYCE offerings
• prepares it for stronger LTE play
• positions both companies to continue to drive unlimited as a key differentiator (and target Sprint head-on)

DT and TMO suggest looking at contract, no-contract as a continuum of offerings and highlighted that the new company will have wider range of offerings including SIM-only  for bring-your-own-device and  handset financing plans (see the TMO blog)

For MetroPCS, the merger will stem churn based on users moving outside of their network areas. It will also will extend the value proposition of MetroPCS AYCE plans to more people—a benefit  TMO identified as an “upside” to the merger, stating that probably only 25% of the US has benefitted from MetroPCS plan innovation and they will be able to provide wider distribution.

As a combined company, the ability to position as an aggressive challenger is one of the main competitive benefits of the proposed merger. As company leadership noted, “we haven’t fired all our weapons yet…we will be a very innovative, edgy marketing machine, especially as our [LTE] networks come up.”

Impact on the Industry:

For vendors: Ericsson should be in a relatively good position, as a main vendor to both companies as LTE deployment work continues and as a main vendor behind VoLTE rollout at MetroPCS. NSN could benefit the most, as TMO was its first LTE win in US and it has a strong play with Liquid Net and refarming support.  Most impacted could be microwave vendors, as MetroPCS was playing catch-up with backhaul upgrades and had planned to focus on microwave.

For Other Carriers: Sprint could find itself the most affected, as it has been focusing on its unlimited LTE play. AT&T and Verizon Wireless may find they now have a stronger competitor in the SME and M2M space, particularly as TMO has its HSPA+ network to back up its leading-edge release 10 LTE deployment, and may also find it harder to grow in the prepaid arena. Smaller carriers like Leap’s Cricket service and US Cellular may also find themselves struggling more to retain customers with a stronger value player in town. MVNOs in the US may find they have another network that looks more appealing for wholesale, but could also find it harder to carve out a niche as an AYCE no contract play.

-Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Director, Mobile Broadband Opportunities

• the plans include unlimited voice calling and text messaging
• a per device fee is charged: smartphone for $40, feature phone for $30, adding a tablet is $10 a month, a USB stick modem or notebook/netbook is $20 a month (as they consume more data) - a real benefit for connecting tablets for example is that there is no contract for this extra device, so a user could drop the tablet from the account
• the fee per GB of data runs as low as $10 a GB for the highest plan (10 GB for $100) but the first GB is $50/month, users benefit from cost savings by doubling that to 2GB - the second GB comes in at $10. Other options include 4 GB for $70 (so adding those next two GB is only $5/GB), 6 GB for $80, or 8 GB for $90.

• Value-oriented users in this group could be attracted by plans with unlimited texting and a mid or low level of data (say, 500 MB or 1 GB) for a much lower monthly cost. Voice could be set at 100 minutes a month or even on a pay-by-the minute add-on basis.
• Heavy data users could be attracted by plans that offer a double the GB for the same price, but leave out voice and texting, which could be add-ons.

Skype today launched Video for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads. This new version of the Skype service application software lets users make and receive video calls from iPhones, iPod touch and iPads, with instant messaging for other Skype users, over both Wi-Fi and AT&T's 3G network. Was it a test for this iPhone video application that brought down Skype's Video Network Last week? The story going around last week was that a new release for Apple software - possibly the Skype iPhone Video application announced today - had a problem and triggered the Skype server failure when installed first on one and then several Skype 'supernodes'. But don't blame the Apple software application. Skype's supernodes act as both offline message (IM/SMS) relays and as Skype's Chief Information Officer noted yesterday "a directory, supporting other Skype clients, helping to establish connections between them and creating local clusters typically of several hundred peer nodes per each supernode." The initial crashes brought down 25% to 30% of the Skype supernode servers - just before the normal daily peak. This in turn led to traffic overload that created extensive delays in the support servers responsible for offline instant messaging. This resulted in long response delays to some to Skype Windows clients and 20% of these had an old software bug that then caused them to crash. The official Skype story was released yesterday by Lars Rabbe, Skype's Chief Information Officer, who describes the "snowball" effect that blocked most Skype users for 24 hours on 22^nd.- 23^rd. December 2010. "50% of all Skype users globally were running (an older) 5.0.0.152 version of Skype for Windows, and the supernode crashes caused approximately 40% of those clients to fail. These ... included 25–30% of the publicly available 'supernodes', (that) also failed as a result of this problem." "The failure of 25–30% of supernodes in the P2P network resulted in .. massively increased... load as (supernodes) reconnected to the peer-to-peer cloud... just before our usual daily peak-hour (1000 PST/1800 GMT)". As users tried to reconnect to the system, they generated "traffic to the supernodes that was about 100 times what would normally be expected at that time of day" and overwhelmed the remaining supernodes bringing the whole system to a standstill. It is interesting that some sources focus blame on Microsoft, not just Skype's network, servers and software, but maybe the problem is more profound. P2P Server Architecture. Serious questions need to be asked about a network service architecture that allows:

• Application software to crash what should be 'carrier class' servers performing network functions
• P2P software that causes both network and user device based clients to crash as a result of network overload problems
• Network server problems that spread automatically across a large number of supernodes

Network servers need to be especially resilient and intelligent in how they 'fail-over' in a distributed networking environment; but a robust Service Architecture is always a pre-requisite. Let other P2P and 'Cloud' service providers beware. On a positive note Skype brought in massive extra capacity to stabilize the network and was also able to restore Group Video Calling functionality in time for Christmas. Software Release Deployment Lars Rabbe also committed to review Skype's "testing processes to determine better ways of detecting and avoiding bugs which could affect the system.". Hopefully this promise includes:

• 'Old fashioned' regression testing of all old versions of client software
• Large scale network testing that does not impact live users - especially at peak traffic times!

These are rules that traditional service providers have followed for decades. Perhaps a little more respect for the "old fashioned" network operators and their software release processes is warranted.

At CTIA in San Francisco last week, away from the fanfare around LTE rollouts and the next dozen tablet devices (ok, I exaggerate a little), Sprint had an announcement which will have significantly higher impact on mobile broadband adoption and revenues: Sprint ID. 

Sprint ID promises to up the ante on personalization and ease current feature phone users into the smart phone ranks.

Sprint ID offers instant personalization along key themes/packs where the operator has done the heavy lifting of identifying and group related applications of interest to different persona from wallpaper to ringtones to apps. While the one click marketing line is not quite matched by reality given pesky little things like accepting terms and conditions etc, Sprint ID is a significant breakthrough in my opinion as:

• it broadens the market appeal of Smart phones to current feature phones users with a simple to understand offer in a range of device price points including the critical $49 and $99 levels.
• it tackles one of the biggest weakness of all app stores: discoverability of content and simple personalization.

Three handsets were featured at launch of Sprint ID: Sanyo Zio™, Samsung Transform™, LG Optimus S™. These three devices cover key price points in the Sprint portfolio and provide customers with a range of form factors, industrial design and brand to meet their tastes. Interesting to note that both LG and Sanyo retain the right to put their own packs on their handsets as well. This is a big win for LG as its Optimus S™ will be available for under $50 with contract giving the vendor a much needed boost in the smartphone space. Samsung meanwhile continues to shine at Sprint occupying the lucrative $149 spot with its Transform™. All three devices of course require a Sprint Everything Data plan.

However, for me the more significant impact is that operators and oems are finally realizing that customers don’t buy phones or services or apps… what they really want are positive experiences

… be that socially connected, sports, education, health and fitness, fashion etc. This is something that our User Experience team has been evangelizing for the last 7+ years. Whether its 80k apps on Android or 250k on Apple store or 10K on RIM, one common experience has been exasperation at the huge waste of time, energy and emotions in finding ANYTHING!!! Which happens first, eyes glazing over or fingers cramping with so much scrolling? Either way the net result is often a disappointing experience which the early smart phone coolaid drinkers have learned to live with.

Newbies to the smart phone arena, will certainly have less tolerance and spend less time to personalize their device and enable applications. Sprint ID is well tailored to the next wave who are taking tentative steps into the smart phone space

 

David Kerr

dkerr@strategyanalytics.com

September 23, 2010

While there has understandably been a lot of attention given to consumer apps post iPhone and the plethora of application stores that have emerged, business mobility and enterprise mobility offer huge potential from horizontal to vertical applications and from smartphones to iPads and tablets to superphones.

In both NA and W. Europe, business customers account for under 30% of users but are the dominant streams of both revenue and profits for operators. On the device side, premium priced models from RIM, Nokia, and Microsoft Mobile licensees as well as the iPhone have long been key drivers of profits in a market where low single digit margins are the norm.  The explosion of smartphone choices has led to the battle ground moving beyond the corner office, to other executive and now increasingly the midlevel manager.

With a new range of devices competing for space in the corporate market, the issue of corporate versus individual liable has become an increasing priority for IT decision makers. Add on the complexity of managing an expanding list of OS (Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, MeeGo, Bada from Samsung) and the growing importance of mobile portable devices with access behind the firewall and one can already feel a corporate migraine forming…. And that’s before we even discuss device management, mobility policy, device retirement etc. etc.

I am looking forward to CTIA Fall (San Francisco October 5-7) and in particular to the Enterprise Mobility Boot Camp moderated by Philippe Winthrop of the Enterprise Mobility Foundation. The boot camp spread over two days will address many of the issue listed above with our own Andy Brown featured in an analyst roundtable on October 6^th.  I look forward to meeting you there. Don’t hesitate to contact Philippe for passes to this the deep dive enterprise mobility event.

David Kerr

David Kerr
Snr. VP - Global Wireless Practice
Tel: +1 617 614 0720
Mob: +1 262 271 8974

August 11^th 2010 Doing the FCC’s job? On Monday August 9^th. Verizon and Google issued a joint ‘suggested policy framework for lawmakers’ which reads as if it had come from the FCC, leading to an appropriate response from FCC commissioner Michael J. Copps that it is “time to reassert (FCC’s) authority”. The framework endorses all the good ‘motherhood’ concepts - openness for legal content, nondiscrimination that does not block or degrade the Internet, and transparency for both wireline and wireless. And it addresses some of the traffic and network management concerns raised in my blog of May 27^th . But the sting is in the tail. The fifth and sixth points posted in the expository blog carve out two major markets. The ‘Carve Out’.Two key markets are carved out for minimal FCC oversight and therefore would not be subject to many ‘net neutrality’ and access requirements. First area is ‘differentiated online services’ that integrate application services with bandwidth – “healthcare monitoring, the smart grid’ etc. i.e. vertical markets where performance and security must be guaranteed. The proposed Verizon and Google approach allows each application to be ‘nailed-up’ to a specific network - rather than the Virtual Private Networks VPNs) with Service Level Agreements(SLAs) that operate today. This could lead to significant innovation – if only it were not based on exclusive bi-lateral transport and applications vendor deals. Haven’t we been here before? Didn’t this lead to the original Enhanced vs. Basic Services split of Computer Enquiry II.  And it recreates the comparatively unsuccessful ‘Walled Garden’ approach to applications. Second ‘carve out’ is wireless broadband which is claimed to have “unique technical and operational characteristics” and to be “more competitive and changing rapidly”, so “in recognition of the still-nascent nature of the wireless broadband marketplace” Verizon and Google recommend against applying any of the “wireline principles” except transparency. Broadband is Broadband is Broadband….Although wireless has historically had special treatment, mobile broadband is rapidly reaching parity with wireline speeds and quality. Over the next two years applications will operate seamlessly across wireless and wireline networks and many users may not even be aware which network they are on. To users Broadband is Broadband. All applications require an appropriate class of service at a competitive price. Special value added networks and mobile broadband cannot and should not be carved out from the general area of FCC broadband service oversight. Reactions and Furor on both sides of the ‘pond’ In the US, Wall Street Journal welcomes this ‘Traffic Plan’ and TIA notes that the “Verizon and Google…rightly addressed important issues such as the need for network management welcoming it as a “step in the right direction … and a possible solution to the uncertainty created by the Comcast decision.” But bloggers and the New York Times Opinion page started discussing carrier/search engine business alliances and making jokes about ‘VerGoogle’ that have now prompted a strong tweet denial from Google “We've not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic. We remain committed to an open internet.” Wired magazine however, describes the ‘differentiated online services network’ as a “left-field proposal to anticipate an entirely new information highway for ‘fast lanes’” and believes that “Google and Verizon have proposed creating a second, paid-access-only internet” “over an unspecified global network”. Could that be Verizon’s new Packet Optical Transport Platform (P-OTP) network? Across the pond reactions are still evolving. Financial Times subtly points out that “industry insiders on Capitol Hill and at the FCC are questioning Google’s motives for an apparent about-face on its position as one of the most powerful advocates of net neutrality.” Others reflect the stronger view that the EU is taking on Net neutrality.with one blogger warning that “An obvious outcome … is that when Google is dragged backwards through an antitrust investigation by the EC or DoJ, it will find no favours from civil society after this betrayal…..Good luck, Google - you thought China was sticky in terms of political support, you'll find that was a storm in a delicate teacup.”

This morning I finalized a report that lists mobile device portfolio expansion as the top mobile broadband trend for 2010, so I should not have been surprised when I tuned into John Chambers’ presentation at the Cisco Live Online event to see a demonstration of a new Cisco tablet providing an interactive, collaborative education experience.

Cisco is billing its Cius as “a first-of-its-kind mobile collaboration business tablet that delivers virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access to the full range of Cisco collaboration and communication applications, including HD video.” (see Cisco’s press release)

You could almost feel the minds of the folks in attendance a the Cisco event churning out potential new ways to utilize a Cius setup in business, education, medical settings—and the people thinking, hey, I’d like one of those for myself. So while Cisco is not the name that would typically come to mind for mobile devices, we think this converged fixed/mobile device offers a new game changing model that will grab attention.

The new Cius, likely to be available in the September time frame, points to a number of new trends in mobile devices that will leverage the capabilities of 3G and 4G networks:

• The lines between consumer and business devices are blurring – price points of course make the biggest difference.
• Innovation in technology goes hand-in-hand with innovation in human processes, including business processes.
• HD video will have a very important role in the future not only for entertainment but also for communication for individuals, groups, and businesses—as Cisco claims, “Video is the New Voice.”
• Enabling collaboration and multimedia interactions at anytime or location is a big piece of the value mobile broadband promises to bring to consumers, enterprise, education and the public sector.

The Cius is of course just one of many new devices that will offer mobile connectivity on 3G and/or 4G, and by CES next January we expect a wave of new product and solution announcements. We will be following as Cius moves closer to launch to see how pricing and mobile operator partners evolve, particularly to see where it positions relative to the consumer market.

What does this mean for mobile operators? Data traffic will continue to ramp, networks will need to support HD video, and operators will need to collaborate to define value propositions and service offerings for specific sectors, including education.

 

-by Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Director, Mobile Broadband Opportunities

 

 

 

The inevitable movement to tiered pricing which started with Verizon Wireless acknowledging its plans to do so for LTE and has been accelerated with the much anticipated data plan announcement by AT&T this week.  So, what next?

• Will we see significant priced based competition for mobile data among the top US operators?
• Will we see significant movement in share of adds for AT&T as iPhone wannabees are tempted by a plan of only $15?
• What impact will lower data plans for smartphones have on AT&T’s Quick Messaging Devices and Verizon Wireless equivalent?
• How long before we see family data plans and shared usage across multiple devices?

The move by AT&T is a smart play to extend the smartphone momentum as the low hanging fruit of Apple aficionados, multimedia techies and style seekers willing to pay top dollar has been significantly penetrated.

There is no doubt that the iPhone remains the coolest device on the marketplace and the end to end user experience remains easily the best in class. So, reducing the TCO to attract the next 20% of customers to a paid data plans while educating customers about data usage levels and managing the traffic risk is very smart business in my opinion.

The lower price points will help AT&T maintain its current leading share of smartphone users and may be attractive to casual social networkers

• Although the 50 photos allowance is not exactly generous! For casual messenger, and social network status checking and moderate email the new DataPlus plan is quite attractive overall and will likely attract a portion of customers who would otherwise opt for a Quick Messaging Device from AT&T or a competitive offering from Verizon Wireless.

I do expect to see some modest price competition among the big operators

• with T-Mobile most likely to drive prices lower given their need for scale and to protect their predominantly youth centric customer base. but also expect an increasingly strong Verizon Wireless handset line up to compete strongly.

The impact on Quick Messaging Devices is in my opinion likely to be modest

• as a traditional qwerty remains overwhelmingly the input of choice for heavy messengers in the US although there is definitely room for lowering the $10 mandatory data plan on featurephones

Family data plans and data plans which allow access across multiple devices are in the pipeline

• but will probably not make an appearance until 2012+ as part of LTE offerings.

From a device vendor perspective, the move to lower priced iPhone plans is likely to put further pressure on vendors like LG who have yet to make a credible offer in this space as well as RIM who will find more competition in the consumer space.

The lower pricing on data plans will be music to the ears of ambitious new entrants like Huawei, ZTE who plan to bring mass market priced devices to the US & Europe. The lower TCO of smartphones as a result of downward pressure on service prices boost their addressable market.