Day 2 – Session 3: Innovation in Services
Andreas Anastasopoulos, President of Greek Licensed Telecommunication Providers Association (SATPE) discussed the opportunities and challenges of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). He argued that MVNOs is the next best thing for service innovation in the telecommunications industry. The core argument behind that is that services and products differentiation can retain customer base (of fixed-line operators). Market and prices comparisons were made amongst various European markets and the Greek market indicating the lack of competition in this field in Greece and the negative impact on services prices. He concluded that regulatory enforcement of MVNO business is obligatory for new innovative services development. He also sees a unique business opportunity for fixed operators to enter the MVNO market.
[I agree that enhanced service competition is required in the mobile market. But I don’t agree with the proposed strategy for fixed-line operators. Mobile services offerings might present in some respects a business opportunity for fixed-line operators, but this strategy totally neglects the key competitive advantage for fixed-line operators which is the enormous bandwidth they can offer to end-users, that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) don’t have and probably never will. Besides, this is the reason why MNOs are starting to horizontally integrate via various forms of partnerships (mergers, coordinated marketing efforts, network leases etc) with fixed operators through out the world.]
Alexandros Papaspyrides, General Manager Commercial Affairs, Vivodi discussed the IPTV case. IPTV (SD, HD) is required a 5-30 Mbps pipe to be offered effectively. However, although ADSL2+ can offer up to 24Mbps downstream the current state of OTE network cannot support these speeds. So he proposes a network re-engineering of OTE network to increase signal quality and nominal speeds over the existing copper, SLA measurements and subLLU with VDSL. For the new FTTx networks he proposes an a-priori structural separation.
Karolos Gikas, CEO ON Telecoms presented the IPTV platforms of ON Telecoms. According to Mr. Gikas, the principal success factors for IPTV offerings are summarized below:
- Careful selection of service platform (to support marketing requirements)
- Service creation in coordination with IP network development
- Careful selection of equipment vendors
- Experienced staff and technical know-how
- High quality project management to reduce risk of failure and delivery time
Michalis Tamilos, Mayor of Trikala discussed the issues faced by the local governments in respect to NGANs. He spoke about social services [that spread beyond IPTV] such as e-participation, e-health, e-government, e-transportation. He sees a broadband future with no social foreclosures and a new form of e-democracy where all citizens will have the possibility to participate in decision taking from work or home. He concluded by sharing a vision of local governments and private operators collaboration to remove social barriers, offer broadband services universally and create local content focused on communities needs.
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I didn’t watch much of the third day. So, that’s were I wish to conclude with this brief review. You can find most of the speakers presentation notes at EETT’s website here. Enjoy it!
Related posts:
- 3rd International Conference of EETT “Innovation in Broadband Networks & Services” – Part B
- 3rd International Conference of EETT “Innovation in Broadband Networks & Services” – Part D
- 3rd International Conference of EETT “Innovation in Broadband Networks & Services” – Part C
- 3rd International Conference of EETT "Innovation in Broadband Networks & Services" – Part A
- EETT Consultation on Quality Indicators for Electronic Communications Services
