At Mobile World Congress last month we introduced our M.O.VE strategic framework and we’re already seeing the message take off. We recently announced our relationships with major mobile operators, MegaFon in Russia and Reliance Communications in India. Both of these operators are taking advantage of solutions within the M.O.VE strategic framework.
M.O.VE, with its targeted approach to helping operators monetize and optimize their mobile networks while enhancing the video experience, appears to be the right framework at the right time, and speaks to operators’ technical, financial, and business needs in a comprehensive and tangible way.
If you are a service provider, the title of this blog probably has you shaking your head. SPs know only too well that Internet video is costing them money because of the expense of maintaining an infrastructure capable of delivering high-quality online video. The good news is that there is a way to monetize that demanding video traffic.
In 10 to 15 years, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) estimates that consumers will be watching Internet video as much as 50 percent of their video-watching time. Rather than panicking at the thought of supporting that magnitude of video traffic, SPs should be thinking about how to turn it into profits.
SPs have a strategic advantage over current content delivery network (CDN) providers; traditional CDN services allow content providers to bypass Internet congestion points, but do not allow them to bypass potential congestion points within the SP network that provides Internet access to consumers. CDN services delivered via the SP’s network are delivered by CDN caches placed much closer to the final viewer, reducing the probability of having congestion issues over the delivery path.
Musings, factoids and random thoughts from the just-completed Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona:
This may be the only place on the planet in which there are lines outside the men’s rooms, but not at the ladies’ rooms.
But even more seriously, folks . . .
MWC continues to enhance its position as a major worldwide technology show and the most important event focusing on the service provider segment
The initial tally revealed that >60,000 – a record – attended
Verizon, AT&T and Google exhibited for the first time
Major topics of interest were monetization and video . . . conveniently, also major topics for Cisco.
IP has never been more relevant at MWC than it was this year
Policy was another major subject – also fitting nicely into the Cisco story of intelligence in the network. Quality of experience got a lot of attention, too
And applications enablement – “It’s not just the network that matters,” one analyst said. “It’s the network PLUS the apps that run on top of it. At the end of the day, it’s apps that make the real difference.”
Cisco enjoyed record interest, holding more than 600 meetings with customers, prospects, partners, analysts and media
Cisco’s MOVE (monetization, optimization, Videoscape experience) was well received by analysts
One operator told Cisco that voice is now comprises only 1% of its total traffic
Analyst Observations:
“The definition of the ‘busy hour’ for the network has expanded to 19 hours, thanks to video.”
“There is a lot more positive feeling this year . . . maybe that means the world economy is on the mend.”
Several analysts – unsolicited – remarked on Cisco’s ability to define a vision and drive conversations. “You’ve done a great job of launching visions and architectural plays,”
Regarding Cisco’s MOVE announcement, one analyst remarked, “A lot of smaller optimization guys are losing sleep because you’re moving into this space.”
“The big factor [to operators] is not necessarily [a vendor’s] technology portfolio. It’s about services and flexible business relationships. Especially in emerging markets.”
“Monetization is what is keeping operators awake at night.”
Regarding the continuing decline of the fixed lines: “At a lot of the operators, the mobile guys are in charge now, not the fixed-line guys.”
In closing . . .
MWC will start two weeks later in 2012 – even closer to the CTIA Wireless event than before . . . a coincidence??
Next year is the last of MWC‘s current pact with Barcelona. Munich, Paris and Milan are trying to lure the show from Barcelona, and some people were hearing that Munich had the inside track. We’ll see.
Wherever the event ends up, let’s do something about those lines at the men’s rooms. OK?
As mobility becomes a characteristic of an increasing number of networking services, Cisco is not just driving advancements with its mobile internet architecture, but as the MOVE announcements highlight, it is about interconnecting the mobility technology brought in last year with the acquisition of Starent with the routing and switching and video technology to create cross architectural differentiation.
For closing thoughts on Cisco at MWC 2011, I caught up with Kit Beall, VP of World Wide SP Mobility Sales, to discuss where Cisco mobility has been, how it is perceived by the customers today, and where it’s going next year:
Earlier, I also had a quick exhange with Nick Adamo, SVP of World Wide SP Sales where we talked about some of the feedback we heard during our customer meetings this week on Cisco’s vision for mobility and the network architecture:
Contributed by Ash Dahod, Cisco SVP/GM of the Mobile Internet Technology Group
Mobile communications are expanding rapidly, and this is changing the way we all work, live and entertain. We are now truly able to stay connected virtually anywhere, anytime. The market and its associated technological advancements are moving very quickly and this was even more apparent as I met with customers, partners and colleagues at 4G World in Chicago.
We are all aware of the Mobile Internet tidal wave that is upon us and a lot of the talk at the show was how we can prepare for this next wave of technical advancements. Additionally, what was on most of our minds was how we can do this profitably.
I had the opportunity to speak at the conference and shared some thoughts on how the right network with the right combination of performance and intelligence will drive mobile operator profitability.
In the simplest form, we have to change the way we are looking at the market from a technical and business point of view.
We need to look at profitability and the ways we will address revenue and expense. Intelligence will be central to our new business models, new revenue streams and the efficiency of the network. From this perspective, we see that we need to increase the investment in network intelligence.
