In the US, both Verizon and AT&T have begun to identify subscribers who violate their Terms of Service (TOS) by using unauthorized tethering applications on mobile networks.  Citing these violations, users are being migrated away from their current, often unlimited data plans, and being enrolled in premium plans that permit tethering.

These recent actions aren’t the first attempts by carriers to manage the usage of tethering applications.  This past May, US-based carriers demanded that Google restrict access to applications that allow tethering in the Android Marketplace. This restriction brought Google devices in line with Apple and Microsoft, who both don’t allow third-party tethering applications in their official app stores.

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The growing popularity and fidelity of real-time entertainment applications has dramatically increased consumer Internet data consumption, leaving Communication Service Providers to face higher operating costs.  As a result, it seems that unlimited bandwidth service plans on both fixed and mobile networks are becoming a thing of the past. 

In the last 14 months alone, the two largest mobile carriers in the US,  Verizon and AT&T have both eliminated unlimited data plans, while the second largest cable internet provider, Time Warner Cable, has begun to lay the groundwork to introduce usage-based billing.  Comcast has already had a 250GB policy in place for several years. 

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Sandvine returned to CommunicAsia as part of the Canadian Pavilion this year.  CommunicAsia is one of the largest information and communication technology (ICT) events in Asia, and takes place annually.  CommunicAsia was co-located with Enterprise IT.

The numbers are in, and all told, the combined events brought in more than 56,000 industry visitors, conference speakers, delegates, exhibitors and media.  Total attendance increased slightly year over year, proving that, in a period of frequent tradeshow consolidation, this event has staying power.

I presented during the CommunicAsia Summit, Next Generation Mobile Broadband Track, along with other industry contributors, as part of a session that tackled the over-arching theme of balancing demand with quality of experience (QoE).  Speakers covered issues such as scaling infrastructure to meet the increasing demand for high-speed data; how to effectively manage networks, and the resulting customer experience; the impact of video on 4G networks; and network policy control techniques to provide visibility into usage and enable tiered service plans.

The latter point speaks to my session where I set the stage by describing the current service provider landscape in which the competing challenges of leveraging capital infrastructure investment and finite network capacity, while attracting customers with differentiated services, are faced.

As Internet traffic profiles rapidly evolve and mobile data (like fixed) drive towards real-time ‘enjoy now’ entertainment, and away from traditional “enjoy later” applications, subscriber QoE demands skyrocket and these interactive, high-value communications must be protected.

I discussed network policy control techniques, treating the network of convergent conditions as a statistical process, and advising that implementation of network policy control solutions take place in a step-by-step framework:

• Planning (identifying how subscriber experience and policies will be base-lined and measured)
• Implementing (network policy control)
• Checking (comparing measurements to baselines and tweaking policies)
• Acting to deploy network-wide.

The theme can be summarized as “you can’t control what you can’t measure”.

I hoped to leave the audience with the message that a purpose-built network strategy is achievable as network technologies transition and subscriber behaviours evolve, through the network-wide visibility and astute decision-making made possible with network policy control (application-, device, subscriber-aware).

Another prevalent focus, both off (summit) and on the exhibit floor was cloud computing.  Mobile VAS Strategy, Satellite Communications, and Convergence were more topics highlighted in the conference program.

In addition to forward-looking discussions from the panel session floor, some notable launches were announced from the exhibit floor. The biggest buzz surrounded the Blackberry booth, where the PlayBook tablet in Singapore was unveiled, and the soon-to-be-released Bold Touch 9900 smartphone was announced; Huawei’s launch of the MediaPad, and smartphone launches by Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

The future of CommunicAsia at the swanky, new venue of Marina Bay Sands is bright and we look forward to another strong showing in 2012.

By applying the principles of business intelligence to a rich collection of consumer network traffic data, fixed and mobile broadband providers are able to increase revenue by capitalizing on Internet phenomena.

Simply speaking, there are three high-level ways in which service providers can increase their revenue:

• Attract more subscribers
• Deploy value-added personalized service tiers that generate incremental revenue (note that these could be monthly subscriptions like a social networking service or an on-demand service like prepaid unlimited usage for a day)
• Optimize the existing revenue base, for instance by giving subscribers reasons to shift to adopt existing premium packages

Each approach requires a fundamental understanding of subscribers, far beyond simple demographics like age and location.  Those facts play a role, but they’re woefully inadequate representations of an incredibly diverse market.  What’s needed is a detailed understanding of subscriber behaviour: What devices do subscribers use to get online?  Once they’re online, what do they do?  What clusters might emerge when you begin to group subscribers by common online characteristics? Read the rest of this entry »