WHITEPAPER

FOR NEXT GENERATION NETWORKS

Wi-Fi NEW SERVICE MODELS

www.greenpacket.com

WHITEPAPER

Abstract
Wi-Fi had its beginnings as a good to have technology, whereby its value were undermined by its range and found its place in niche markets. The evolution of Wi-Fi from its role of connectivity to Wi-Fi as a service has come a long way. Throughput speeds have leap-frog from 2Mbps to 11Mbps and now at an astounding rate of up to 150Mbps. The essence of todays communication is driven by the need for a networked society, which is dened from both the consumer and operator levels, where everything that can benet from a connection will be likely connected. With Wi-Fi beginning to claim its position as a mainstream technology, it has inspired many an application platform for developers, pipeline for operators and the boom of smarter gadgets and devices to pack in as many things as possible, in the realm of transmitting and sharing information in a connected society. By now, it is commonplace that data growth has exponentially outgrown revenue growth. And an observation and pain point of all operators offering broadband data. In this new era of explosive mobile data growth, rapid rise in mobile broadband services and rich digital content are contributing to unprecedented level of stress on mobile networks. Operators are feeling the pinch on their business models with the arrival of smart devices, leaving them in anxiety and unable to respond to the deluge of data. As a measure to reduce congestion on their network, several tier 1 operators have discontinued unlimited data plans and launched tiered plans to ensure network performance, in a similar move by AT&T in the US. At the same time, operators do not want to risk losing a signicant growing market of smartphone users that are looking for value added services. It is a challenge for operators to sustain the wave of data, let alone address the dwindling ARPU as the demand of data is outstripping the rate of supply. One of the marginal approach of focusing on generating revenue from free Wi-Fi venues (through retailers, cafes, hubs), can create stickiness for users through the appeal of zero cost access. The following section of this paper describes the possible options that operators can embrace to overcome the capacity crunch through innovative service models, the impact of Wi-Fi on delivering the right service experience and how emerging technology is pushing further the expectations of big data.

WHITEPAPER

Contents
Overview 01

Capacity Crunch How to Stay Ahead of the Game with Wi-Fi Mobile Optimized Small Screen Experience Wi-Fi Investment Strategies

03

Enabling the Right Wi-Fi Experience Convergence Standards Growth Loyalty

08

Maximize Mobile Data New Service Models Diversifying Service Models Big Data Potential Emerging Technology Cloud Services, the Next Frontier

12

Conclusion

18

Stay Ahead with Wi-Fi

20

WHITEPAPER

Overview - 01

Overview
Wireless technology has transformed lives beyond imagination. There is great interest and excitement that embedded connectivity brings to everyday devices, ranging from smartphones to tablets, to consumer electronics (CE), automated M2M communication that leads to more efcient energy consumption, healthcare and many more. These devices and solutions deliver benets to consumers, businesses, enterprises and society as a whole. Emerging wireless networking technologiesand the ability to embed connectivity to these networks in virtually all types of devicesare creating a new connected future. The growth of mobile Internet connectivity changed dramatically with the introduction of 3G connectivity. Price cuts, all you can eat plans further unleashed the power of Internet connectivity and with 4G and Wi-Fi technology contributing to it. According to some industry players like Ericsson, the predicted connected device segment will reach up to 50 billion by year 2020. The advent of smart devices and technologies are breaking down barriers to adoption and many uncertainties arise as to where and how the data explosion is impacting their businesses. From the infrastructure perspective, the major pain point occurs in the RAN bottleneck and transport layer which carries the bulk of radio signaling, device management and detection on the access network. At the backend, some sophistication is required for core network competencies to manage the network intelligence including enforcement of policy control to billing and mediation. It is worth mentioning, that the explosion of data is not an overnight phenomenon and the spike patterns are reasonably predictable. There is no doubting that the deluge of data is putting a strain on the operators networks. However, the series of intermittent and voracious appetite across certain high density locations are somewhat predictable and can be controlled through effective network monitoring approach and densication of coverage through multiple networks 3G/HSPA/Wi-Fi.

WHITEPAPER
The ultimate goal is to create excellent mobile performance, brand and better communicate with smartphone and tablet-savvy customer base. Many innovative operators have already hired PR rms to help them with their social media marketing strategies and are now looking to get even closer to their customer base, namely via their handsets. The tactical approach of allowing customers to take action when and how to connect, entice free downloads, request a product sample, or some other end goal to activate a marketing ad and spend time with the operators brand, so that it will give them a good reason to do it the rst time and then a great experience so theyll do it again and again.

Where is Wi-Fi - 02 Overview

WHITEPAPER

Capacity Crunch - 01 Overview 03

Capacity Crunch How to Stay Ahead of the Game with Wi-Fi

Technology itself will not thrive, but the shift of customer centric focus is central to operators looking for ways of serving their subscribers to create customer value through innovations in products, services and business models to earn highest rewards. Consequently driving operators to look further in the long run rather than exploiting short-term opportunities to produce sustainability in the marketplace. The response to change will include assessment of cutting-edge technologies, network issues, IT challenges or operational barriers to execute innovation. Its an opportunity to increase customer loyalty by offering innovative services, but revenue potential may not be immediately visible. Operators need to build sustainable business models where the network transforms from a cost center and becomes a prot center. Similarly, the value added service becomes a value center central to the business. In recent years, OTT service players has captured the attention of subscribers due in large part of the relatively high quality best effort service ie. at rate plans that could carry the experience, albeit falling short on some quality. As a result, it has impacted mobile operators by limiting the opportunity to sell advanced services. As trafc volumes relentlessly rise, the expectation is that the service provider will continue to build out the infrastructure to support it. But unless the revenues associated with this incremental trafc is greater or equivalent to the ROI in the network itself, the ultimate outcome will be poor quality of service for most customers through the underlying under-investment in network infrastructure. It is therefore of interest to the whole industry for the service provider to better monetize trafc volume in general, and OTT trafc in particular to its advantage. Smartphones are set to dominate data growth. Gartner1 in a recent analysis report predicts that by 2015 approximately 39% of the smartphone device will be accountable for Android tablet sales and hence operators are aggressively addressing the capacity crunch in its network ofoad over Wi-Fi, densication of the macro cells or whichever methods that t their business needs.
1Source : Gartner April 2011

Forecast: Media Tablets by Operating System, Worldwide, 2010-2015

WHITEPAPER Mobile Optimized Small Screen Experience

Nowadays the value of the network, as perceived by subscribers, is straight forward and in many cases translates simply to speed, price and availability. One reason for this is the relative disconnect between the applications and the networks over which they run. To the consumers, it is about how well YouTube works on the network and not how sophisticated the network is. Operators must rethink how to fully leverage network capabilities such as higher performance or to mitigate network shortfalls such as congestion, with application awareness and how they connect. There is a need for networks, devices and applications to talk and recognize the screen size for an optimized experience. To move away from an approach based on inferring and deriving empirical models and towards an approach based on "known states". The behavior of smartphone (small screen) is markedly different from traditional laptops or notebooks. It inherently requires greater processors for optimized power, storage and performance with dissimilar design in terms of the network level resource control. Tablets deliver a richer experience that revolves around content consumption. The richer the ecosystem becomes, the stronger the stickiness factor on consumers as the dependencies on applications, services and overall user experience become apparent. Some smartphone or 802.11 compatible devices are designed to opportunistically connect to a network. Decisions to connect, roam or disconnecting to a particular access points are usually unspecied and unpredictable in time and pattern due to better radio conditions or performance2 indicators. However, the predictability of known surge of trafc at certain peak times of the day, and in certain high density locations, gives light to the known states of behavioral pattern.

Capacity is Wi-Fi - 02 Where Crunch 04

2Note : The impact of DHCP and

authentication servers, backhaul links, and wireless controllers are not discussed in this paper.

WHITEPAPER
Roaming algorithms are closely tied to the conguration of the connection manager and some smartphones depend on native device capability. Some handheld3 devices minimize roaming to prevent frequent service interruption, and preservation of the battery life of the device. On the contrary, some handheld devices rigorously try to achieve improved connection causing momentary interruptions during handoffs. Data services benet from this, since the data trafc streams are asymmetrical. But, it causes interruptions to real-time service which are jitter and latency sensitive (eg : voice, video). With the ability to recognize the device context, opportunities arise for new service models in which upstream and/or downstream customers can benet from accessing the networks intelligence.

Capacity is Wi-Fi - 02 Where Crunch 05

3Note : Handheld device will be

referred as smartphone and tablet throughout this paper, for clarity of description, unless otherwise specied.

Screen Size
Processing Power Connection Speed

Connections

Adoption

Usage

KB per Minute

= Traf c

Source

: Cisco VNI, 2010

Wi-Fi Investment Strategies

It is well recognized that mobile data trafc is growing at a faster rate than mobile data revenues. The imbalance will become more pressing as more sophisticated mobile internet devices and more media-rich mobile applications come on the market. While operators are rigorously testing and planning next generation LTE networks, many believes that the increased spectral efciency promise will not be the silver bullet to keep up with tomorrows mobile internet usage. Operators turning to the use of Wi-Fi hotspots have much to gain in this ercely competitive market. Market foresight and leadership is leading tier 1 operators to gain a strong foothold as evidenced China Mobile which already has about 60,0004 Wi-Fi hotspots and has aggressive plans to deploy up to 1 million in the next three years across China.
4Source : WBA Industry Report 2011

WHITEPAPER
Wi-Fi Access revenue Data of oading

Capacity Crunch - 01 Overview 06

Customer acquisition tool

Value-added service platform

Enhanced user experience

Churn reduction tool

Improve indoor coverage

Source

: Informa Telecom & Media

According to a study by Informa Telecom & Media, the potential of Wi-Fi is far greater than the commonly perceived benet of alleviating congestion. In the longer term, it can affect the industry and operators mobile internet strategies to stay relevant and competitive. The biggest inhibitor in Wi-Fi strategies comes down to the investment returns. A lean and efcient network should ideally be a prot center. Studies have indicated that the long term postpaid service contracts are the ones helping pay off the investments for expanding the data networks. However, the proportion of pre-paid lower ARPU customer base is catching up fast on mobile data trend with the price of smartphones becoming more affordable and operator race to sign-up more data customers as means to access a new segment of the market. The trade-off of device subsidies in postpaid models versus the prepaid model can be studied from the cost per byte acquisition. According to a study by consulting rm Bain & Company5, it is 6 times more cost to acquire a new subscriber, than retain an existing one. The innate behaviors of prepaid users exhibit a higher tendency to churn, that reect patterns that are still driven by price promotions. In contrast, graduating the postpaid users to a different type of plan at a time when renewals, cross selling and upgrading plans at contract point can in the mid to longer term reduce churn and convert these subscribers into higher ARPU potentials by effective marketing i.e. earn the customers love for their service. Several components come into play to ensure a right t of service mix is delivered;
5Source : Can communications

service providers earn their customers love? Domenico Azzarello and Mark Kovac; Bain & Company

WHITEPAPER
type of device, policy, proles, user preferences/behavioral patterns. Keep the users engaged, happy and reward them to build loyalty. The payoff can be dramatic, if done correctly into dening the customer experience. Given that Wi-Fi coverage can be offered at a fraction of the cost of a new cellular network site, Wi-Fi is becoming a strategic option for mobile operators to reduce the cost per byte of data trafc transported. Some operators are aggressively deploying extensive Wi-Fi networks, whereas others choose to develop partnerships with Wi-Fi aggregators (e.g. Boingo) and independent networks (e.g. Starbucks). Either way, operators are now seeing their strategies to pragmatic practice to strengthen its market position. Some of the potential returns are indirectly reaped from brand building. A positive customer experience can create positive effect on customer acquisition (loyal customers are more likely to recommend a product or service to friends).Wi-Fi investment is not without its shortfalls. Changing business operational modes will require careful assessment of security, integration, roaming, authentication and mobility frameworks.

Capacity is Wi-Fi - 02 Where Crunch 07

WHITEPAPER

Enabling the Right Wi-Fi Experience - 08

Enabling the Right Wi-Fi Experience

Where should we be focusing in Wi-Fi in relation to your business? The quantiable measure that is explicitly worthwhile experimenting is the incremental Wi-Fi access revenue through introduction of new service models. The intensity of data consumption in smartphones is much more aggressive in comparison to legacy mobile device. The transformational value of smartphones is multiplied by the capability to perform considerably. The obvious reasons for adopting Wi-Fi presents itself in several areas such as maximizing the use of available spectrum to deliver the best service experience. It is common for operators today to bundle Wi-Fi with existing subscription to give additional value on top of the mobile or broadband package, while serving as a retention tool to increase operators perceived service value which forms part of the operators mobile broadband strategies. on demand capacity, build-as-you-go model, letting operators serve pockets of users as needed and where needed, incrementally. The combination of the right devices to the alignment of how Wi-Fi is used to the best advantage of network capabilities is unbelievable in the way it shifts social preferences. The arrival of the iconic iPad has impacted peoples lives in more than one way or another. From the service providers perspective, various areas including app development, platforms and IT would require organization shift to enable simpler operation and delivery. Likewise, users experience have transformed tremendously and changed their views on services that are delivered through intuitive interface and access to wide range of apps. Most importantly, the usability factor is high even for the non-tech savvy consumer; a three year old can easily navigate and perform computing tasks that were previously performed on monolithic machines i.e. large and clunky desktops that were not Wi-Fi capable.

WHITEPAPER

Enabling the Right Wi-Fi Experience - 09

Smartphone

x 24*

Handheld Gaming Console

x 60*

Tablet

x 122*

Mobile phone Projector

x 300*

Laptop
*Monthly basic mobile phone data trafc Figure 1 : Data Trafc Generation of Smart Devices Source : Cisco VNI Mobile 2011

x 515*

Convergence
Emerging technology of cellular and Wi-Fi integration help make connections more streamlined and is common among operators that are multi-play service providers that want to converge the xed-mobile experiences across multiple devices, multiple networks and multiple environments. The amount of mobile data is expected to reach a whopping 6.3 exabytes per month by 2015 which will result in CAGR of 92%6 from 2010-2015. The stunning gures will require considerable investments from operators in all aspects of network and infrastructure upgrades to overcome capacity constraints. Increasingly, users have been turning to Wi-Fi hotspot services, in part, because modern day Wi-Fi can deliver carrier grade quality through improved security features and reliability. Users enjoy exibility without usage cap on Wi-Fi and it is often bundled with 3G service plans. More importantly, Wi-Fi offers faster connection speeds and the hotspot user experience had been greatly improved with automatic sign-on capability built into multi-mode devices. The main elements of service that customers
6Source : Cisco VNI 2011

WHITEPAPER

Enabling the Right Wi-Fi Experience - 10

are looking for, includes good value, service reliability, integrity (no bill shock, excessive roaming charges), to be offered what they want, when they want it, for a predictable price, with the choices presented in a simple fashion with painless activation.

Standards
The success of Wi-Fi is acknowledged by the industry ecosystem and is reinforced through large-scale production of Wi-Fi chipsets into virtually all consumer products ranging from smartphones, tablets, scanner, modems, CE like cameras, set-top box, embedded telematics and automation systems, smart metering and so forth. Compliance to a standard set of technical specication and framework makes Wi-Fi widely accepted and easily scalable. Wi-Fi being IEEE802.11 specication, has been ratied and evolved by leaps and bounds breaking the barrier to adoption signicantly. Standardization bodies like WBA and Wi-Fi Alliance are committed to simplify workows, authentication, roaming and network selection processes to make Wi-Fi realize untapped opportunities for carrying more data and growing beyond the traditional domain of hotels, airport and cafes. The second wave of Wi-Fi will come with even greater expectation in the Next Generation Hotspot initiative which is already creating interest in operators broadband strategies.

Growth
Shaping subscriber experience is imperative to extend revenues or create new growth opportunities. Operators need to understand their customers and markets to make the right choice for them. In short, their main criteria are protability, customer satisfaction and loyalty, the best use of resources and the rapid, efcient introduction of new services. If operators are determined to achieve reasonable returns to their stakeholders, they need to drive incremental revenues and prots, hold onto their customers and develop their relationships. Wi-Fi is a vehicle to create these services and is touted as the killer technology to take a share in the next billion dollar wireless industry growth.

WHITEPAPER

Enabling the Right Wi-Fi Experience - 11

To tap market dynamics, operators must act quickly to transform their traditional role of a dumb pipe to service centric provider that spells value, so that customers get excited about. The user paradigm has transformed into a new phase and demands more than connectivity. Wi-Fi is made part of the user experience, whether directly or indirectly. For operators, Wi-Fi is now viewed as a platform for service innovation and revenue growth, giving rise to heterogeneous networks and it is the way to evolve. Multi-modal content delivery over multiple devices with a single subscription is favorable. According to a Strategy Analytics report, up to 60% of smartphone owners favor the exibility of a shared data plan across multiple devices (tablets, smartphone, laptop). Operators can leverage on the underlying cellular network and xed network to converge that experience across Wi-Fi as Wi-Fi is well-suited to the demands of applications that use data in bursts and for functions such as video and music streaming (e.g Cable operators in the US have bundled data, voice, content, Wi-Fi into their broadband internet plans, with nationwide coverage over to cellular network or Wi-Fi hotpots. The same cable experience is extended with newfound mobility to create ubiquitous connectivity to multiple devices).

Loyalty
The importance of customer experience differentiation is no less important than the performance. Loyalty goes beyond price and product promotions. Operators must learn from maturing and best practices to generate the wow effect; make the service as easy as possible in a single touch and look for ways to maximize the lifetime value. The convenience and accessibility to a variety of content is crucial in delivering the ultimate customer experience. The essence of multi-touch, new user interfaces are engaging users more than ever to try new things. A tactical approach can be modeled on solid loyalty program that rewards its customers for using its services. These rewards can be in the form of free downloads, equivalent to limit of 3G that can be partially funded through content partners, advertising and so forth. Simply put, delight them, win them and keep them. Create a value proposition to satisfy the subscribers and use effective processes to drive the best customer experience programs.

WHITEPAPER

Maximizing Mobile Data - 12

Maximizing Mobile Data New Service Models

In the long run, Wi-Fi adoption will be a business strategy as there are many key areas in which mobile operators can derive value beyond CAPEX savings (reduces operator expansion of cost per bit) e.g. creating new Wi-Fi access revenue, enhanced user experience, customer acquisition tool and creating value added service platform in facing competition from non-traditional companies entering the telco space. Mobile operators must now get ahead and not play catch-up. Reducing time to market and smart monetizing new service channels are high on the list of operator concerns. Transparency is necessary for a truly meaningful mobile experience. The ability to bring visibility to the user experience is game changing. The institution of usage caps brings little meaning to the user, if it is not communicated in a language that is understood. Only through smart mobile measurements that operators can understand how subscribers use the network. Similarly, users need to understand, where and how much data is used. The simplest form of allowing the user to correlate the service plans to the value offered is through a comparison of how many video downloads can a 5GB limit allow or the indication of how many bytes it takes for an email. This allows them to track their usage and know what it will cost for any overages. By having a two-way interaction operators that implement alert notication when customers have used a certain amount of data and users having the exibility to dynamically track usage can bridge the gaps of service expectation. At a certain point, operators will not sufce to sustain its business needs by fullling the users communication needs, but shift the users wallet into other areas like entertainment and content-based plans. Henceforth, future price models can shift towards analytics which have intelligent data mining to reveal dependencies on which and what type of device a customer has and inferring from business modeling, the type of behaviors behind the users. The long term goal is to keep the subscribers with in-demand services and stretch the dollar further in CAPEX and OPEX.

WHITEPAPER Diversifying Service Models

Dynamic Content to-go Access to premium content is widely gaining acceptance as advanced mobile devices and associated applications proliferate in the marketplace, more and more users want content to go, high-value premium content such as on demand movies and episodes of TV shows through partnership and extension of services with content aggregator, to create yet another revenue stream. The aggregator can offer a virtual catalog of hundreds of thousands of movie and TV titles, all of which the operator makes available for downloading or streaming by the user. The lock-in effect to lure customers into a service is highly dependent on the certainty that it brings value. When users are certain that a premium service guarantees, they are willing to pay for it. Operators that can give the visibility and transparency of service show it willing to delight their customers. Implementation of tiered pricing to a particular application is a way to allow users greater control over their behavior and some level of predictability on the pricing mechanism; users can become disenchanted with bill shock. With good practice, subscribers can then learn to adjust their usage within their plan limits when they understand how applications are tied to a particular consumption pattern. Consumers generally favor price plans that allow them to control their expenditure. Value Added Service Consumers clearly will continue to use mobile broadband devices for access to a growing array of applications and services. People want to identify with favorites, for instance, social networking and video applications, which they integrate with their everyday lives. In other words, these applications and services provide value to consumers, above and beyond access to the network. In addition to creating new revenue streams and helping to reduce costs, value added service shifts the operators role from just a utility provider of a dumb-pipe to an important partner in the customers lifestyle. The ability to create customized services that are content and context aware gives insights to the customer behavior as the value to the subscriber rise more new customers join the service and the customer

Maximizing Mobile Data - 13

WHITEPAPER
lock-in effect kicks in and thus, eventually gives greater chances of increasing prot. The other side of the equation is attributed to a heightened sense of being able to do more with their devices. Given that service providers are device, network and application agnostic, they present the right conditions to encourage content diversication and innovation from developers to be competitive. This can help create a sufciently large market perspective, while service providers can concentrate on delivering the best service rather than creating stand-alone content platforms. Enterprise Services Enterprise communications are high value customers for operator models and often have specic and unique requirements that are different from consumer models demands availability without compromising security. Unied communication, common in enterprise IT needs is rapidly being embraced. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is gaining popularity in organizations through multi-dimensional approach to integrate service level and security. With greater adoption of such practices to improve productivity and connectivity across multiple business units, the demand for customized services must be addressed. Together with cloud solutions, enterprise communication can diminish and reduce the fragmentation of siloed systems while at the same time give a reasonable level of operational efciency to the operators and deliver by the same token of convenience and performance to the end-user. As more M2M solutions impact the consumer lifestyle through the convenience it brings, such as mobile payments through NFC, smart metering and so forth, the greater the impact it is on service providers to leverage on the benets gained through these connectivity into competitive advantage over industry peers. Although the M2M value chain provides a lower ARPU, but the margins are greater and thus, create a differentiated enterprise business model from the consumer models. Most often, these M2M solutions consume very little resources in terms of the bytes per connection, and they are well predicted. When implemented in well-structured deployments, it has the potential to touch and transform multiple areas of an organization and generate sufcient business intelligence to the core business processes. According to Yankee Group report, it expects enterprise M2M connections worldwide to nearly triple from 81.3 million in 2011 to 219.2 million in 2015, a CAGR of 22 percent. It is still early to predict the contribution of enterprise models towards the

Maximizing Mobile Data - 14

WHITEPAPER
protability, but it is a clear trend, that operators are experimenting and nding ways to diversify the B2C, B2B and B2B2C models to stay on top of their game.

Maximizing Mobile Data - 15

Big Data Potential

The potential for big data is encouraging content, internet applications, and consumerization of Wi-Fi. Based on Gartners estimates, the potential for digital products and services market boom is worth more than USD2 trillion in 2015. One may ask where would the mobile internets wallet share be without the appropriate vehicle to drive its success? Wi-Fi is necessary in todays network than it was 10 years ago, when it was considered a good to have technology that was a poorer cousin to cellular to provide coverage deciencies. As operators scramble to differentiate their services and preparing for the unimaginable displacement of OTT players, Wi-Fi is being pursued as a long term option. Mobile services will continue to dominate with similar growth in the devices space as more and more sophisticated smart devices are introduced. The video and content segment is showing strong signs of uptake with greater CAGR of between 8 to 10 percent despite trailing behind mobile services in the overall spending wallet share and possibly eclipsing the mobile services in the mid-term, when voice, SMS will become secondary. Video Services 8% Content 10% Fixed Services 19%

Predicted CAGR 2010 - 2015

0% to <2% 0% to <2% 0% to <2% 0% to <2% 0% to <2%

Devices 28% Mobile Services 35%

Figure 2 : 2010 Consumer Wallet Spending on Selected Digital Products and Services Source : Gartner

WHITEPAPER Emerging Technology Cloud Services, the Next Frontier

Different types of devices are turning into hybrid based communication devices. Tablets and smartphones, in different forms and shapes are expected to evolve into the portals of integrated services and applications. With ubiquitous mobile broadband enabled internet access, connectivity and networking is becoming less dependent on location and time beyond the geographical boundaries. Wi-Fi is looking very promising in the lead-up to the next generation hotspot 2.0 initiative. Standards bodies such as Wi-Alliance and WBA are drafting technical specications to expand the Wi-Fi ecosystem to harmonized greater interworking with the visions of a connected world. It is inevitable for this growing trend observed in devices such as set-top boxes, audio equipment and embedded connectivity in telematic systems such as car automation, healthcare and point of sales terminals used in retail. The hosted model of cloud brings promise of more efcient use of IT needs served through cloud services. Big players like Google, Apple are already offering cloud services for enterprise applications and cloud storage for B2B and B2B2C. In our everyday use, we are already somehow in contact with cloud services, whether we realize it or otherwise. Take for example, the email service like Yahoo, Gmail is already run on cloud platform, where the mailbox lives in the cloud and other IT control, security and content are located on premise. Given a sample respondent study by Current Analysis, there will be optimism that cloud-based services for enterprise applications and storage will continue to grow. Other areas to look out for include email and unied communications. The alignment of application platforms and device management provides cohesive information access.

Maximizing Mobile Data - 16

WHITEPAPER
Hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure a Service E-mail Service Vertical Applications Desktop Applications Security as a Service Enterprise Applications Online Storage, Backup Unied Communications 0%
N = 1000 Source

Maximizing Mobile Data - 17

7%

15% 21% 26% 12% 13% 19% 23% 12% 48% 35% 17% 18% 15% 17%

16% 15% 15%

20% Currently There

40% Expected

60%

: Current Analysis Analysis Enterprise Cloud Service, 2011

Vendor partnerships will get more involved. Operators have already embraced network and IT outsourcing as one area for transformation in their business model and processes. As innovations are made in network architectures, partnership models with vendors will get more integrated. For example, some operators in APAC with plans to bring cloud RAN solution where a vendor provides equipment and the ber connectivity between the centrally hosted equipment and tower sites. Examples like this show that vendors are demonstrating greater willingness for deeper relationships, though operators are careful about being committed to single vendors not only for equipment, but also for connectivity.

WHITEPAPER

Conclusion - 18

Conclusion
Integration of multiple technologies is the norm in todays networks. Mobile and social interactions have gone beyond geographical boundaries. The granular study of context specic interactions is becoming more important. Harness the data and make sense and use of it. Segmentation of data is a powerful tool to identify the right t for business processes to work to its best advantage and facilitate quicker monetization of new services. The more information operators have about its customers, the more customized the services should be. Operators are feeling the heat from the increasingly tech savvy consumers. The embedded mobile opportunities are plentiful in the areas of M2M applications. The mobile space has evolved from connecting billions of people to billions of devices. The shift of mobile dynamics is pushing for greater need for efciency, convenience and accessibility to information, multimedia, marketing and business intelligence. Currently in the marketplace, operators are recognizing the incremental value in product information, engaging videos, exclusive deals, upgrades, or other purchase incentive to drive revenues. Integrating mobile services in the fundamental user experience is important. The evolution of technology has fast-forwarded beyond the connectivity it creates, optimized access and services. Interactions and user interface compose of multi-touch points. Its now more about understanding the behavior and needs of customers and how much value they derive from the service experience regardless of the device, network and conditions they work in. The process of buying, consuming and accessing information from smartphones and tablets is revolutionizing the communications value chain. Companies of every size and in every perspective have to start thinking about their customers in this way and plan accordingly.

WHITEPAPER
Mobile operators once dominant at the center of the mobile experience is being challenged by the increasing OTT players and other disruptive forces that is inuencing how consumers interact with their devices, products and services; forcing them to look at new and innovative ways to drive long-term growth. Whichever the motivation for deploying Wi-Fi, be it value proposition in terms of price sensitivity, market leadership, interoperability or scalability, operators are quick to embrace faster time to market solutions to grow its business model. Similarly, consumers benet from a connected society that brings them closer to families, enriching their lives and making it more efcient.

Conclusion - 19

WHITEPAPER

Stay Ahead with Wi-Fi - 20

Stay Ahead with Wi-Fi

Greenpacket welcomes you to embark on Wi-Fi solutions for optimizing your network operations and drive revenue. At Greenpacket, we understand the demands placed on Operators like you. Our solutions are designed to give you the exibility to constantly deliver cutting-edge offerings without exhausting your capital and operating expenditures. With Greenpacket, limitless freedom begins now!

Free Consultation If you would like a free consultation on how you can apply Wi-Fi solutions, feel free to contact us at marketing.gp@greenpacket.com. Kindly quote the reference code, SWPS1211-B when you contact us.

For more information on Greenpackets products and solutions, please contact us at marketing.gp@greenpacket.com San Francisco

Associate Member

Kuala Lumpur

Singapore

Shanghai

Taiwan

Sydney

Bahrain

Bangkok

Hong Kong

Copyright 2001-2012 Green Packet Berhad. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language, in any form by any means, without the written permission of Green Packet Berhad. Green Packet Berhad reserves the right to modify or discontinue any product or piece of literature at anytime without prior notice.