AT & T adopts developers

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Read more! New networks require new apps. And what better way to make sure these apps work than to let the developers on to the networks and testbeds? This is what we have been arguing is continuing the chicken and egg lack of demand for FTTH in the UK.....lack of access to high speed networks because they simply don't exist means no-one is innovating to create the demand for the apps that require FTTH...

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com



AT & T are opening innovation centres to encourage developers to help bring telehealth etc apps to market far more quickly than AT&T would be able to alone.

Now, let's see similar approaches in the UK. There are literally hundreds of ideas out there for services and apps that require all that FTTH brings to the table which so-called "superfast broadband" cannot. Yet, how can anyone develop their ideas if they cannot test them without travelling abroad to do so?

Such innovation centres could be one possible spend of the money that should be returned to the public purse when all these non-viable areas prove to be economically profitable.... After all, there are going to continue to be advances in wireless for a long time to come which will need constant innovation, as well as a never-ending stretch of fibre networks to 10, 100 Gbps and beyond as apps and services are developed.

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Build it and they will come

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Read more! As has been discovered with roads, the wider you make them to cope with existing traffic, the more traffic seems to use them. Now, the mobile operators are facing a similar problem which is also taxing the fixed network operators.

Having encouraged data usage over mobile phones, the mobile operators are now finding that the infrastructure is struggling to cope. The conundrum is that even if they expand their networks, data usage will continue to grow exponentially. However, they cannot keep charging for usage to keep pace with the returns required on this (continuing) investment because they have instituted 'all you can eat' data plans that consumers have become accustomed to.

The same is going to occur on fixed line networks, and is already occurring in countries, such as the UK, where the core infrastructure was never designed to handle the phenomenal (and growing) usage we are seeing.

So, what are the potential solutions to this quandary? AT&T are proposing "education of users" so that people limit the amount of data they use and take some responsibility for not overstretching the under-powered network teh telcos are providing. A second solution is to look at intelligent routing and caching - such as that apparently being discussed by BT and Google with Content Connect

There is a third option that seems to terrify operators, both mobile and fixed. Become a big, fat, dumb pipe. Forget all the other bells and whistles you are trying to flog, and just focus on one thing - providing a profitable fat pipe that does its job.

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FCC lays into Apple over Google Voice

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Read more! Whilst not about fibre, the FCC furore about the iPhone app for Google voice has interesting connotations for next gen access...

It still appears to be unknown whether it was Apple or AT & T who insisted that the Google Voice app was rejected, but the FCC are endeavouring to find out.

The problem is that as far as users are concerned, the Google Voice app was pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. But for mobile operators, and particularly those with whom Apple has done a deal to be the carriers tied to the iPhone, having an app that suddenly turns their network into a dumb pipe and threatens their core business, is a No-no. (Or does it threaten their business? Benoit has argued otherwise.

The point is though that whatever solutions we seek for #digitalbritain, we need to understand tha sea change that is occurring at consumer level. Disruptive devices are here to stay. A mobile phone is no longer for making calls on - it can be, for many, their device to connect to the internet, and just as net neutrality insists that ISPs can't be allowed to dictate what we can and cannot access in the wired world, so is the same true in the wireless and mobile world.

Not only at a supplier level do we need open access to the middle mile to encourage innovation and competition, but users/consumers/citizens need open access in the first mile (even the first inch) to connect whatever device they wish to, wherever they choose to, to do whatever they choose to.

Trying to be both service and content provider to maximise revenues may well take out those ambitious (or foolish?) enough to try it. For many in the next generation, a dumb pipe may be enough, and there are always going to be those who focus on a single aspect of the telecoms business, such as providing a fat pipe, and aim for excellence with their product, and hence gain market share.

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