Mobile Service Price Points Are Reaching Fixed Line Prices, Says IDC
Announcement posted by IDC 14 Dec 2004
Fixed to mobile substitution has been touted for many years by mobile carriers without fixed line operations to protect. Carriers such as Hutchison and Vodafone in Australia are now trying to compete and grab some of the fixed line voice market. With mobile services price points reaching fixed line prices, market activity is certainly gaining momentum on all fronts.
The fixed to mobile paradigm of offering a seamless experience between a mobile and fixed line network is back on the agenda now with most network equipment vendors portfolios including this service. This time they seem to have got it right by providing a real value to end-users now that adequate broadband infrastructure and standards such as IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) are in place.
In a recently released report Australia Fixed-Mobile Convergence 2004: No Two Ways About It?, IDC describes the benefits of Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) for the three parties: the end-users, the network equipment vendors, and the services providers.
"FMC is expected to have profound impact on the telecom industry as it redefines how telecom services are delivered and how carrier businesses are structured. Using a mobile handset, future users will be seamlessly served and charged based on the services they use and the content they access, rather than on access technology", said Landry Fevre, IDC Research Director for Telecommunications.
FMC is currently one of the crucial strategic issues in the telecommunications industry as mobile telecommunication services are rapidly becoming a substitute for fixed telephony. Key highlights of the research are:
* While discussing FMC, it is important to include fixed-mobile substitution and bundling as adjacent industry drivers with the phenomenon. It is also important to distinguish convergence of services and convergence of networks that are occurring with different timing.
* The migration of carriers from "stove pipe" networks architecture to service-oriented or layered architecture is slowly gaining traction, thanks to IP enabling the collapse of several complex networks to a multi-service network. This will allow service providers to sell capability rather than capacity and move from a product to customer focused operation.
* Future network architecture will be access-agnostic, supporting all types of access methods including broadband DSL, cable, fibre, 3G and wireless broadband. It will be managed by a control and service layer allowing greater flexibility, speed to market, cost reduction and improved customer experience as result.
* Leading equipment vendors in the FMC field are Ericsson, Alcatel, Kineto, Commil, Longboard and Norwood Systems.
* The BT Bluephone project is considered the trailblazer of convergence today. The project was announced in mid-2004 and is still a showcase of FMC with a commercial launch due early in 2005.
"Early FMC services can be expected to hit the Australian market in the mid second half of this decade (2007/2008), when broadband in the home and office becomes commonplace and 3G mobile networks are ready for upgrade. By that time, IDC also expects SIP-enabled handsets, capable of carrying voice and data and multimode connectivity, to become widely available", added Landry Fevre.
IDC has also just released an IDC Flash commenting on the resignation of Telstra's Chief Executive Officer Ziggy Switkowski. You can download this free document at the following URL: http://www.idc.com.au/promotions/telstraziggy/
Subscribe to IDC press releases and newsletters online at http://www.idc.com.au/newsletters/register/
About IDC
IDC is the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm in the information technology and telecommunications industries. We analyse and predict technology trends so that our clients can make strategic, fact-based decisions on IT purchases and business strategy. Over 700 IDC analysts in 50 countries provide local expertise and insights on technology markets. Business executives and IT managers have relied for 40 years on our advice to make decisions that contribute to the success of their organisations. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the worlds leading technology media, research, and events company. Additional information can be found at www.idc.com.au.
The fixed to mobile paradigm of offering a seamless experience between a mobile and fixed line network is back on the agenda now with most network equipment vendors portfolios including this service. This time they seem to have got it right by providing a real value to end-users now that adequate broadband infrastructure and standards such as IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) are in place.
In a recently released report Australia Fixed-Mobile Convergence 2004: No Two Ways About It?, IDC describes the benefits of Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) for the three parties: the end-users, the network equipment vendors, and the services providers.
"FMC is expected to have profound impact on the telecom industry as it redefines how telecom services are delivered and how carrier businesses are structured. Using a mobile handset, future users will be seamlessly served and charged based on the services they use and the content they access, rather than on access technology", said Landry Fevre, IDC Research Director for Telecommunications.
FMC is currently one of the crucial strategic issues in the telecommunications industry as mobile telecommunication services are rapidly becoming a substitute for fixed telephony. Key highlights of the research are:
* While discussing FMC, it is important to include fixed-mobile substitution and bundling as adjacent industry drivers with the phenomenon. It is also important to distinguish convergence of services and convergence of networks that are occurring with different timing.
* The migration of carriers from "stove pipe" networks architecture to service-oriented or layered architecture is slowly gaining traction, thanks to IP enabling the collapse of several complex networks to a multi-service network. This will allow service providers to sell capability rather than capacity and move from a product to customer focused operation.
* Future network architecture will be access-agnostic, supporting all types of access methods including broadband DSL, cable, fibre, 3G and wireless broadband. It will be managed by a control and service layer allowing greater flexibility, speed to market, cost reduction and improved customer experience as result.
* Leading equipment vendors in the FMC field are Ericsson, Alcatel, Kineto, Commil, Longboard and Norwood Systems.
* The BT Bluephone project is considered the trailblazer of convergence today. The project was announced in mid-2004 and is still a showcase of FMC with a commercial launch due early in 2005.
"Early FMC services can be expected to hit the Australian market in the mid second half of this decade (2007/2008), when broadband in the home and office becomes commonplace and 3G mobile networks are ready for upgrade. By that time, IDC also expects SIP-enabled handsets, capable of carrying voice and data and multimode connectivity, to become widely available", added Landry Fevre.
IDC has also just released an IDC Flash commenting on the resignation of Telstra's Chief Executive Officer Ziggy Switkowski. You can download this free document at the following URL: http://www.idc.com.au/promotions/telstraziggy/
Subscribe to IDC press releases and newsletters online at http://www.idc.com.au/newsletters/register/
About IDC
IDC is the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm in the information technology and telecommunications industries. We analyse and predict technology trends so that our clients can make strategic, fact-based decisions on IT purchases and business strategy. Over 700 IDC analysts in 50 countries provide local expertise and insights on technology markets. Business executives and IT managers have relied for 40 years on our advice to make decisions that contribute to the success of their organisations. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the worlds leading technology media, research, and events company. Additional information can be found at www.idc.com.au.