Cisco to Acquire Mobile Internet Leader Starent Networks
The Internet has already had a profound impact on the world over the last several decades, with more than 1.6 billion people connected, and we are still in the early stages of the Internet revolution with billions of users and devices still waiting to be connected. The internet’s open and innovative environment has helped create compelling applications such as Google Earth, YouTube, Skype, Facebook, salesforce.com and Flickr, to name but a few. The Web 2.0 phenomenon has been truly impressive as we’ve seen the power of collaboration, social networking and user-generated content.
The next step in the evolution of the Internet is to make it available anywhere and at any time, which requires the convergence of the mobile world and the Internet. The ‘Mobile Internet’ will offer the services and applications from the Internet on-the-move, and on any device. This market is growing rapidly, with IP-enabled Smartphones like the iPhone and Blackberry, low-cost netbooks, games handsets, digital cameras and other consumer electronics, mobile connected devices are becoming a part of everyday life for millions of people around the world.
The Mobile Internet is also enabling a range of new visual and virtual services that are changing the way we work, live and play. Consumers and businesses are using mobile devices in innovative ways for entertainment, social networking, collaboration and business productivity – often accessing services and information that are stored and run centrally. As an example of the growth of new services on the Mobile Internet, almost 64% of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2013 according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index
The growth in the Mobile Internet presents enormous opportunities and a few challenges for service providers. Ever-increasing demand for new services is reflected in the growth of mobile data traffic. We expect global mobile data traffic to more than double every year through 2013, with a 66-fold increase in mobile data traffic between 2008-2013 (Cisco Visual Networking Index). Service providers need a completely new approach to deliver these new services and build efficient mobile networks for this enormous growth in traffic.
The Mobile Internet uses a rich tapestry of radio access technologies from 3G to 4G, including high-speed packet access (HSPA), evolution-data optimized (EV-DO), WiMAX, Wi-Fi and soon long term evolution (LTE). For service providers to efficiently offer new services and to intelligently deliver the underlying traffic requires a single integrated architecture. Cisco believes that the underlying IP-based network is the platform that binds these different services and technologies together. Combining Cisco’s IP and video strength with Starent Networks’ leading mobile infrastructure technologies creates a portfolio of solutions that address the needs of our service provider customers to offer rich, high-quality multimedia experiences to mobile subscribers on 3G and 4G radio networks, and make a smooth transition to become experience providers.
As a fast-growing provider of multimedia solutions designed to enable mobile operators to deliver Mobile Internet to their subscribers, Starent Networks is a key player in the Mobile Internet transformation. The company has more than 100 customer deployments in 45 countries worldwide, with many of the world’s most prominent and innovative mobile operators. We believe that, together, Cisco and Starent Networks bring complementary solutions designed to help accelerate the transition to the rapidly growing Mobile Internet. We believe the Mobile Internet is a huge transition that is happening very quickly, and we believe this is the right time for Cisco and Starent Networks to combine their strengths to enable operators to launch, deliver and profit from the next wave of mobile multimedia applications and services.
Cisco and Starent Networks share a common vision to lead innovation in the rapidly growing market for IP-based mobile infrastructure. This acquisition will extend Cisco’s world-class offerings to help our mobile-operator customers innovate to deliver the rapid growth in data traffic, deploy more intelligent and effective networks, and efficiently deliver the next-generation of mobile services. For more on how Starent Networks will expand Cisco’s Mobile Internet offerings, see a video from Pankaj Patel, SVP / GM of Cisco’s Service Provider Business.
In closing, I would simply like to remind you that this blog contains forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the risk factors discussed in Cisco’s recently filed Form 10-K and in the press release announcing this transaction. Such risks could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. For further information, please consult such Form 10-K, and Cisco’s recently-filed 8-K covering such press release, each available free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or by going to Cisco’s Investor Relations Website at http://www.cisco.com/go/investors.
Posted by Simon Aspinall at 09:06AM PST
Alexander Oct 13, 2009
Will this growing trend end up creating a two class society with people who are able to access the internet with suitable smartphones included in the “always on” class and all others who maybe cannot afford the appropriate hardware stuck without the means to participate in society fully? I suppose if hardware continues the trend of getting ever cheaper it will become more of a commodity, but I still wonder…