The blog YTD2525 contains a collection of clippings news and on telecom network technology.
Cloud is a major opportunity for operators to avoid simply becoming bit-pipes.
23 MayHrvoje Jerkovic, service quality assurance manager, VIPnet, Croatia, is speaking on Day One of the LTE World Summit, taking place on the 24th-26th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Ahead of the show we find out more about his views on various topics, including cloud, RCS, and VoLTE.
What major developments have there been with regards to the LTE industry in your region this past year?
VIPnet launched LTE commercially in March 2012 and currently we provide LTE in four major cities, making up almost 50 per cent of the country’s population coverage. The fact that we have widely available dual-carrier 3G on 2100 MHz for several years, offering speeds up to 42MBps, makes LTE a logical next step technology but it’s not a quantum leap.
What are the key techniques for network optimisation in LTE and what effect can it have on the customer experience?
Despite moderate LTE coverage our top customers with state-of-the-art smartphones should benefit from it whenever possible. In terms of network optimisation, in particular VIPnet has recognised the importance of smooth handovers between 3G and 4G networks in idle as well as in dedicated mode. LTE brings an additional challenge on 800MHz because there is no 3G layer, which makes handover from 2G to 4G and vice versa, even more interesting for operators to solve.
Why do you think that cloud services are now so important for telcos?
The cloud is really being hyped right now by operators as it is a good story to cover the real issues. Cloud is all about reducing costs by merging a number of utilities into one cost-efficient environment that delivers a secure and reliable service, and it is something that operators can offer to their customers. A few years ago it was called hosting, but now it has evolved. Cloud is a major opportunity for operators to avoid simply becoming bit-pipes.
Do you believe that RCS services can genuinely help the industry compete with OTT?
OTT players are gaining ground but for the huge majority of customers we are still “service providers”, and adopting RCS services is the next step in the evolution of telcos. Giving customers new ways of communication, in combination with good marketing will lead to a success story. The biggest issue with RCS is that is taking a long time to get to market and is in danger of dying before it starts, but maybe it still has a chance.
Is VoLTE part of your plans and what benefits will it bring both to operators and consumers?
Since we are the premium operator in the Croatian market, our promise to customers is to support all features they might need. As far as VoLTE is concerned we have been providing our customers with an HD Voice service for over two years. However, in conjunction with the development of handsets that support it we will implement VoLTE. We have to be very careful with the customer perception of VoLTE because they must find some significant value in it in order to accept it. It is very unlikely that VoLTE will find its way to the market merely because it is a new technology.
Should operators charge a premium for LTE just because it’s a faster service?
Investment in LTE requires that significant resources so therefore it’s expected that a premium charge should be applied. However, LTE should not only be faster but, according to standards, offer a quality level that guaranteed to be better than 3G.
What do you think will be the most exciting new development in LTE in 2013?
There are several technologies that will shape LTE in near future and one of them is heterogeneous networks. With higher bandwidth we can expect an even higher signalling load on the network, which is challenging to handle and control. The other will be controlling roaming pricing. Since Croatia is a very tourist oriented country, and will very soon become a full member of EU, it is our obligation to fully apply all the regulations regarding roaming pricing.
Our Favorite 40+ Big Data use-cases. What's your?
23 May
One of the key best practices for successful implementation of a big data analytics solution is to validate the business use case for big data. It will help organization with two important aspects for success:
1. Keeping the scope limited
2. Helping to measure the success of a solution that addresses a key business problem
In case the same data set addresses multiple use cases, an organization may need to prioritize their use case and apply an iterative and phased approach.
Grid-locked
22 May
There’s an expanding need for data over voice, and network traffic is feeling the strain. Optimising your network is a crucial step for embracing LTE and 4G, but what are the tricks of the trade in this constant struggle?
Operators are at their wits’ end in an attempt to provide their customers with the maximum network resources due to an unprecedented volume of data demand. Mobile apps such as instant messaging, video messaging, picture sharing, social media, and Web-based games are guzzling bandwidth, expanding the demand and adding weight to the operator’s job.
“Network optimisation is a comprehensive set of processes and technologies used to enhance customer experience and utilisation,” says Saleem AlBalooshi, Executive Vice President, Customer Operations, du.
“They are used at different layers of the network from radio access to transport, core, and IP. The objective of network optimisation is to enhance radio coverage, relieve network congestion, and ensure that customer traffic traverses the network with the least possible latency and delay variation. All of these factors contribute to an optimal customer experience for all customer applications such as voice, video, browsing, and download.”
Cisco has predicted that, by the year 2016, there will be 6.6 zettabytes of global data traffic. This exponential growth only adds to the importance of the initial design and optimisation phase of the network.
“Network optimisation is as important as network design itself. This is due to the fact that people are now carrying their office on the mobile gadgets they carry, while at the same time, increasingly using real-time data applications,” says Anurag Verma, Telecom Operations and Managed Services Lead, Smartworld.
“Network performance degradation can result in dropped calls, which is the lack of bandwidth causing phones to reduce the audio bandwidth and tardy response times for data downloads. Good customer experience in the use of mobile is critical for the success of an operator. Optimisation leads to efficient use of spectrum and enables better service quality across the network, thereby reducing churn, which is inimical in the mobile industry. In a way, it is an enabler to reduce operating costs for the cellular network and gain market share.”
Karl Osswald, General Manager, Aviat Networks, agrees that reducing churn and cost is crucial.
“Networks cost money, and lots of it. The rising operational costs of mobile networks coupled with revenue pressures faced by mobile operators, mean network optimisation techniques are key in ensuring that operators keep their networks efficient to avoid customer churn,” he says.
Both external factors and internal configuration changes or addition of subscribers or traffic can continuously impact the network as well as the customer experience. Fady Younes, Client Director, Cisco, says that these elements weigh heavy on the shoulders of operators in the region.
“Real-time dynamic optimisation is critical as it ensures a high quality of the network, reduced drop calls, and therefore enhanced customer satisfaction, brand image, and reduced churn rate,” he explains.
Optimisation tips?
With this in mind, one of the key elements for operators will be nailing optimisation techniques. The experts have laid out the crucial points.
“While optimisation is an ongoing process, it should not be done in a reactive mode. There should be a continuous proactive optimisation process supported by tools. Service providers should avoid optimisation in silos as the subsystems are all interlinked. Instead, a holistic end-to-end network optimisation approach should be driven to avoid creating a new issue while fixing one. Having a controlled environment with the right processes and tools in place is critical,” says Younes.
“An exhaustive network optimisation should be viewed as the mandatory step before the services go live and should be repeated periodically. The old focus on drive tests and dropped calls should be augmented to include extensive data download and response time for real-time applications. Network operators should view a ‘self-healing network’ as the future of network optimisation,” adds Verma.
Younes Abad, Head of Mobile Broadband Network Performance, Ericsson MEA, says that the two most important ingredients that need to be present in order to deliver expected results to the users are tools and methodologies, and people.
“Some key elements of success for operators are the advanced and sophisticated tools that allow as much automation as possible – like self-organising networks (SON),” he says.
With the complexity of the smartphone environment, average KPIs do not reflect the user anymore. KPIs were traditionally developed for voice, where customer expectation is clearly defined and quite predictable.
“Smartphone users’ expectations are much more complex to define and very hard to predict now. The way KPIs are defined and measured sometimes do not keep up with the changes brought by smartphones. For example, KPIs are still network-centric instead of user-centric, and are domain-centric instead of end-to-end,” Abad adds.
On the people front, he says that with the fast change in technology, it is important to continuously invest in competence to make sure resources are up to date. Incentives should be tailored in a way that encourages actions geared towards improving end-user experience instead of merely improving network KPIs.
The new customer demand
Above all, it’s the influx of mobile applications and the availability to work extensively on a mobile platform which has changed the way a customer works and lives. As a result, the demands on operators and bandwidth providers have been completely intensified. Not half a decade ago, operators would not have predicted this paradigm shift into the mobile world – a world which is only growing as we speak. The demands will also continue to grow.
“The explosive growth of connected broadband, wireless devices and its usage have created a new bandwidth-demanding customer. Specific to the region where adoption of the latest gadgets is very quick, MNOs have been led to look for the best way to fine tune the network according to changing requirements,” says Verma.
Osswald adds, “Customers no longer simply want coverage. Customers want a consistent service and a high quality of experience. The downside is they want to pay less for this, as it is becoming more of a commodity service.”
And AlBalooshi concludes, saying that customer demand, up until around 2000, has mostly been voice- and messaging-centric. With the internet becoming an integral part of people’s lives – be it for leisure or business – the customer demand changed into broadband internet.
“Whether it is via wireline service (DSL and Fibre), or via wireless service (3G and LTE). Mobility, along with broadband internet, became the latest trend in customer demand during the past five years, whereby people would like to be able to access all their favourite content or applications wherever they are. These trends have exerted increased pressure on mobile service providers to provide higher speeds and seamless experience,” he says.
Without question, devices with the capabilities to support larger applications and a higher volume of applications will continue to surface in the market area. This tussle between app developers and bandwidth providers will shape the network landscape over the next few years.
Future Proofing With LTE-Advanced
22 MayBriefly about eXplanoTechRequirementAnalysisProjectManagementDesign, Implement.Integration &DeploymentTesting Services MaintenanceEnd to End SolutionsTechnology ConsultingTechnology TrainingSystem IntegrationNon Confidential – Public, © eXplanoTech Ltd. 2
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/zahidtg/future-proofing-with-lteadvanced
How the Internet of Things Changes Everything
22 MayIf you are not familiar with the term, the Internet of Things refers to a dramatic development in the internet’s function: the fact that, even more than among people, it now enables communication among physical objects. By 2015, according to my own firm’s projections, not only will 75 percent of the world’s population have access to the internet. So will some six billion devices. The fact that there will be a global system of interconnected computer networks, sensors, actuators, and devices all using the internet protocol holds so much potential to change our lives that it is often referred to as the internet’s next generation.
For managers, this development creates challenges both long-term and urgent. They need to envision the valuable new offerings that become possible when the physical world is merged with the virtual world and potentially every physical object can be both intelligent and networked. And, starting now, they must create the organizations and web-based business models that can turn these ideas into reality.
As consumers, we have all had a glimpse of how the relationship between buyer and seller changes when devices are connected to the internet. Nobody these days carries a Sony Walkman and cassettes; instead we carry Apple iPods — and our major access point for music has become the online iTunes Store, also by Apple. The company sells the devices and the music, profiting handsomely from both. In the same way, industrial product buyers are seeing their relationship to equipment manufacturers changed by smart, connected things. In the field of mechanical and plant engineering, consider the advent of predictive maintenance. When a machine is fitted with sensors, it can know what condition it is in and, whenever necessary, initiate its own maintenance.
Clearly, when things are networked, that has an impact on how actual value is produced. In many cases, it is no longer the industrially manufactured product that is the focus, but rather the web-based service that users access through that device. So, for example, we see the Daimler Groupinvesting in mobility services such as car2go, myTaxi, and moovel; GE using what it prefers to callthe “Industrial Internet” for mechanical and plant engineering services; LG paving the way to “smart homes” with IP-enabled televisions and home appliances and related services.
A study undertaken by researchers from the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland (Service Business Development: Strategies for Value Creation in Manufacturing Firms) concludes that these services are most definitely lucrative for traditional manufacturers. Considering the example of a papermaking machine, they note that the sale of the machine itself generates a margin of around one to three percent, while selling a related service yields five to ten times as much. The ratio is much the same for the sale of rail cars versus related mobility and maintenance services.
For “Old Economy” companies, the mere prospect of remaking traditional products into smart and connected ones is daunting. (My own company, for example, the Bosch Group, produces over half a million things each day across more than 1,500 product categories.) But embedding them into a services-based business model is much more fundamentally challenging. The new models have major impacts on processes at the corporate center such as product management and production and sales planning. And given the dynamism of the net, the innovations will have to come more quickly. In short order at Bosch we have founded Bosch Software Innovations as a new software and systems unit; launched an electromobility service in Singapore; introduced cloud-based security products; an IP-enabled Bosch security camera , and provided customers with an iPhone app forremote access to heating systems. (We also demonstrated ideas about the near-future of networked living at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.)
In many and diverse sectors of the global economy, new web-based business models being hatched for the Internet of Things are bringing together market players who previously had no business dealings with each other. Through partnerships and acquisitions, Old Economy and New Economy (software based) companies are combining complementary strengths so they can move quickly into vast spaces of “blue ocean.” In real time they are having to sort out how they will coordinate their business development efforts with customers and interfaces with other stakeholders.
What we have, then, is a competitive arena full of Old and New Economy companies, all jostling for position and attempting to shape the future. Long-standing producers in traditional industrial fields — whether they make coffee machines, cars, air conditioners, home gym equipment, or shoes — are suddenly not only competing with companies of their own breed; they are also confronting players the likes of which they have never faced before.
Most know that their strategy going forward will have to balance two imperatives. They have to protect the turf they already own — today’s product business — while pursuing growth through service offerings that leverage the fact that the product is in place to offer a richer overall value proposition to customers. (What no traditional manufacturer should conclude is that the Internet of Things is a threat that must be fought off in order to preserve the value of the manufactured product and safeguard the capital tied up in production facilities.) Given the reality of limited resources, this lands many traditional product companies at a crossroads. Every new investment they make can go either to strengthening their product-centric facilities, supply chains, human resources, and brands, or to stretching them into the new territory of higher-margin services. The wisest course, most find, is to make investments in both directions, looking to achieve that magic balance that maximizes margins.
As a result, not only in the marketplace but also within firms, completely contrasting business practices, corporate structures, and cultures are crashing into each other. And indeed, for the Internet of Things to fully emerge, they must collide.
As the New Economy and Old Economy galaxies clash, people tend to anticipate that one will destroy the other — and many would observe that the greater momentum is on the New Economy side. Certainly, many differences will need to be overcome before the Old Economy and the New Economy fit together. (Controlled systems on the one hand are opposed by open communities on the other. One keeps a vigilant eye on scant resources, whereas the other in essence gives its services away for free.) But most likely, the two galaxies will morph — as the Milky Way and Andromeda are expected to do: a new system with new dynamics will be created. In the dance around new centers of gravity, new solar systems of partnership will be formed. The question for you is: in this new cyber-physical galaxy, will your company become a new sun, a planet, a minor moon — or be reduced to stardust?
Broadband vs. Trains
22 May
The UK government is investing heavily in high speed trains, and not broadband. Is this a massive mistake in the making?
In the UK a debate is raging. Should we or shouldn’t we. The UK government has committed to spending £32.7bn on creating High Speed rail 2 – a project known asHS2. This involves the creation of a new railway line that will enable trains that run at speeds of up to 250mph running between London and the Midlands and then a second line continuing up to the North of England. The idea is to connect the cities north of London to Europe making them more accessible for business.
Both train and broadband are of course key parts of any economy’s infrastructure and making them faster and more accessible is vital. However, for one of these the UK government is willing to drop £32.7bn ($49.2bn), whereas for the other one the European Union decided to slash proposed funding to the Connected European Facility (CEF) by €8.2bn ($10.6bn), thus ruling out any spare cash for broadband network creation. Guess which way round this is?
And while the CEF is a European project the cuts were suggested by none other than UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who wanted to ensure that the UK paid less into the EU coffers. Luckily the UK isn’t actually affected by the CEF cuts as it has the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) fund instead but that totals just £425m. Wow. Not quite 32.7bn is it?
Some estimates claim that to cover the whole of the UK in fibre will cost £30bn. And that’s full fat fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), not just fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) that we or at least some have now. It’s quite clear then where the UK government’s priorities lie.
In fact lie is the active word. The UK government claims that HS2 will boost the economy by between $41.4 and £46.9bn, from job creation, ticket sales, and reduced congestion and presumably enabling people being able to get from place to place faster, encouraging them to do business – but the evidence for this is essentially web pages saying that this is the case. It’s not compelling.
Has the government put enough effort into ascertaining the economic benefits that national, high-speed broadband could bring? While widescreen, high resolution video conferencing sounds cool and futuristic it’s not as funky as super slick trains whizzing round the country, at least not to old school politicians.
The same politicians that is, that are known for their vanity projects. The British politicians want to keep up with the rest of the continent, particularly France, which has enjoyed high-speed trains for ages. Now there’s nothing wrong with a bit of friendly national pride to get the engineering muscles moving, a bit of aspiration, nobility and pride in great engineering. After all, it got us to the moon. But then it also brought us two World Wars, so you know, two sides of the coin.
Intelligent thinking is what’s required, and if superfast trains come at the expense (literally) of decent broadband for the have-nots, then the country will still be all the poorer, especially if, to make matters worse, there’s not decent, affordable wifi or 4G LTE available on board, and to make matter worse, when you get there a full 30 minutes earlier than on the old slow trains, you can’t get online at decent speeds anyway.
Source: http://broadbandworldforum.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/broadband-vs-trains/
LTE Migration strategies pose challenges for CDMA Operators
21 MayCommercial, market, spectrum and regulatory factors will define the strategy that CDMA operators adopt to migrate to LTE.
CDMA is arguably superior to GSM in radio technology terms, but CDMA ultimately failed to achieve the same level of success as GSM mainly because of limited international roaming and handset variety. In most developed telecoms markets, CDMA operators have gradually migrated their networks to GSM (for example, Telstra in Australia, Hutchison Telecommunications in Hong Kong and M1 in Singapore). CDMA operators have enjoyed prolonged success in a limited number of countries – for example, Japan, South Korea and the USA.
CDMA operators have many options for migrating to LTE
Outside these countries, most CDMA operators have a small market share, limited network coverage and generally remain niche propositions. CDMA has dwindling vendor support and operators are now faced with an existential question: where do we go from here?
Several migration options are available (see Figure 1), but voice provision will be the key factor defining the strategy.
Figure 1: Migration options for CDMA operators [Source: Analysys Mason, 2013]
| Option | Voice | Data | Comments |
| 1 | None | LTE |
|
| 2 | GSM | LTE |
|
| 3 | UMTS | UMTS/LTE |
|
| 4 | GSM/UMTS | UMTS/LTE |
|
| 5 | National roaming (GMS/UMTS) | LTE |
|
| 6 | VoLTE | LTE |
|
However, the choice of LTE migration strategy is not straightforward
Replacing a CDMA network with GSM and/or UMTS networks (Options 2–5) will require significant investment and can be problematic because of limited available spectrum in standard GSM/UMTS bands. The operators may avoid network investments by signing a national roaming agreement with a GSM/UMTS operator for voice services (Option 5) but, because of low margins on voice services, CDMA operators are likely to evolve into data-centric operators, based on mobile broadband (closer towards Option 1).
Deploying VoLTE (Option 6) is a challenging and risky strategy. VoLTE-enabled devices are expensive and limited in variety, and it will take time, particularly in countries where handset subsidies are not prevalent, for such handsets to become widespread. Other challenges exist such as international roaming and general technological immaturity. MetroPCS Wireless, a CDMA operator in the USA, opted for the VoLTE route relying on handset subsidies and launched VoLTE in selected regions in 2012. However, the operator announced a merger with T-Mobile (USA) less than 3 months later. As a result, MetroPCS’s voice subscribers are being migrated to T-Mobile’s GSM network and MetroPCS’s CDMA spectrum is being used to support LTE.
So far, many CDMA operators have been consolidating their positions with an intention to focus on data. In Ukraine during October–November 2012, one small CDMA operator exited the market, and Intertelecom, a CDMA operator, and Astelit, a GSM operator with a CDMA licence, announced a network-sharing agreement. The operators are focusing on mobile broadband and plan to launch LTE when the regulator introduces technology-neutral licensing. In Nigeria, MTS, Multi-Links and Starcomms (all use 1900MHz spectrum) and were merged into Capcom, a new entity that plans to launch LTE focusing on data. It is not clear what will happen to Capcom’s voice subscribers (750 000 as of December 2012 according to the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)). The NCC is working with the CDMA operators to get them either to upgrade to LTE or vacate the valuable 850MHz spectrum for future LTE deployments.
LTE offers an opportunity for CDMA operators to upgrade networks but also poses challenging questions. Commercial, market, spectrum and regulatory factors will define their migration strategy. Failure to migrate to LTE might mean that CDMA operators in countries other than Japan, South Korea and the USA are forced to exit the market and consolidate.
Source: Analysys Mason - http://afridigital.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/lte-migration-strategies-pose-challenges-for-cdma-operators/
5 common myths of Wireless Communication
21 MayMultiple antennas automatically mean MIMO: A common misconception is that multiple antennas would obviously mean MIMO technology, the truth however is that wireless radios have long since been using multiple antennas for what is called “antenna diversity” where the antenna with better RSSI level is used to receive the information.
Wireless LoS (line of sight) is a simple visual line of sight: Quite often explained as a mere line of sight, a wireless LoS is a little bit more complicated than that. A wireless LoS is best defined with the concept of “Fresnel Zone” where the LoS is actually a ellipse shape area that is required to be at least 60% clear of any obstruction to ensure the highest performance of wireless link. Below shown is the primary Fresnel zone as against a typical understanding of a Line of Sight
The higher the encryption standard, the lesser the throughput: One of the most common assumptions, is that because WPA2 (key size: 128 bits) is more secure and uses bigger key sizes than WPA (true key size: 104 bits) or WEP (40 bits).The overheads should consequently be higher. Well the fact is that WEP adds 8 bytes; WPA2 adds 16 bytes, while WPA adds 20 bytes to the overheads.
Mesh can work in non line of sight scenarios: Mesh is a technology implementation of the radios. The behavior, based on the laws of physics, of the radio waves generated by a radio used in a Mesh solution are the same as for other radios. Mesh solutions are often used in an urban environment where the radio waves are reflected by the buildings nearby. These reflections and the use of an omni-directional antenna make it look like that Mesh works in non line of sight conditions. This is only possible when you have your Mesh access points located close to each other (50-200 meter a part) and enough reflection objects.
Adjacent non-overlapping channels do interfere: Blindly assumed by many, that non-overlapping channels such as channel 1,6,11 in the 2.4 GHz frequency don’t interfere, however the actual fact is that there despite the best efforts, there is a small amount of spillover to the adjacent non-overlapping channels. As a matter of fact ,the transmit power of the radio is directly proportional to the spillover.
Source: http://worpspeed.proxim.com/2013/05/20/5-common-myths-of-wireless-communication/
5 Things you should be doing with Mobile and Data right now
17 MayBig data has enabled many firsts. It was used to develop the atomic bomb that ended WWII. It was used to put a man on the moon. And now it is used every day in every way through the devices we carry around in our pockets–our mobile phones. In the past, those who processed big data used supercomputers, doing then what Google and others can now bring together in four seconds.
What is big data? In short, big data is volume. It’s a collection and synthesis of internal and external datasets. The best big data solutions are the ones that marry internal first-party data and external third-party data together at scale and in real time–that’s true innovation.
Today, we’re not looking at whether processing big data is possible, but instead whether processing data can be done quickly and cost-effectively enough on mobile devices. Search capabilities, cloud computing, and the processing speed of mobile has enabled access to big data in one place in real time with more feasible costs and timelines. You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company–a startup can access this capability and pay as it goes.
But what does that mean for your business? Recent research shows that many executives are still searching to find the business value from big data. It can certainly be overwhelming with all that is available now, but don’t let it intimidate you. Look at your situation and assess what you have available that makes sense for your audience and your needs.
Here are five things to think about as you get started:
ASK THE AUDIENCE.
If you want the most accurate utility in your category, you must tap into your audience. Of course, this is nothing new, but you can use your dynamic data to help understand patterns at the individual level–trends, market, competition, behavior, interaction between people. Amazon does a great job of this with its “customers who bought this item also bought …” recommendations.
TRACK EVERYTHING.
You can’t surface those Amazon recommendations if you don’t store the data. This is much more complex than it seems, and until recently the cost has been prohibitive. But not anymore. Moore’s Law is on our side here. You never know when something will suddenly become timely, or when new data will be available that, when combined with existing data, will create a new story. Even if you don’t think you need it today, track it for tomorrow.
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.
The dataset you want is a global one, but the most valuable individual queries are typically the hyperlocal ones. Design and build your platform solution for the broadest possible footprint, and then slice and dice it as necessary to create value. For example, the Weather Company uses its global weather data to create localized, sales-driven analytics on segments such as retail. Data says a high-temperature forecast of 60-degree weather prompts sales of shorts in Chicago, but the same encourages sales of jackets in Phoenix. This helps shape more effective messaging on our properties for both the consumer and the advertiser.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
If you can track a user’s location by law in your region or country, do–simple as that. Location is the human genome project of the next three decades. It’s a great way to learn about consumer behavior in order to provide contextual solutions, such as local weather or sports scores.
BE TRANSPARENT
As we begin to see more and more applications of big data, particularly in a mobile context, transparency is everything. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you” is a great rule to protect your users and your shareholders. Government intervention is at the doorstep, and it will only take a few scary use cases to play out. Companies must police themselves, or what holds enormous power and convenience could be delayed decades. Be careful and ask a lawyer to review before you release anything to your customers.
So we have defined big data and shared some things to keep in mind when getting started, but how does it apply to mobile and mobile applications in particular?
Big data for mobile has evolved from something that was used to place cell towers more accurately into something that can now crowdsource the traffic to give you an alternative route solution (See the Waze traffic app). Why does this matter? These improvements allow the utilities you use to be materially more accurate today. This creates not only convenience but also entirely new economic models based on the data you’re generating. (Who owns that data is a story for another day and another author.)
For mobile applications, it is important to leverage big data as part of an overall CRM strategy and think how mobile analytics can be connected with customer data warehouses. Marketers also need to leverage opportunities to link data to third-party consumer data to receive a more holistic view of targeted customers.
The Golden Rule for mobile is the user experience. This does not change, whether you’re working on an application for mobile or applying big data to your business. Sure big data is accessible today, but it’s not simple in most formats. Your job is to synthesize that big data into something the user can–and more important, something the user wants to–access, in a simple, easy-to-use way.
The intersection of mobile and big data has an amazing opportunity to make users’ lives easier. There is no vertical or sector where big data cannot be applied to reap great benefits, and it still has vast potential to do more. Think about it. Someone in your household is probably buying something right now using a mobile device in some way–research, a coupon, price comparison, store locations, reviews, loyalty programs, etc. Big data and mobile enable our world to be more personal, local, and social. I believe big data has the potential to be the greatest innovation for the mobile industry since the iPhone’s launch.
The most exciting business models, like the early days of Google and Apple, were about trying to make a better experience for the consumer, simplifying, giving them what they needed. Look at your goals and how big data can help improve consumers’ daily lives, converging online with an offline world. How is your company using big data within mobile?
The future is all about data–the companies that embrace and utilize big data relevant to their business to make decisions and add value for their consumers will be successful. There is a wealth of data available to you, but don’t let it intimidate you. Focus on obtaining unique relevant data, respecting the privacy of consumers, and analyzing data to deliver engaging content, insight, or advertising for consumers at the right time.
So is it Big Data or Mobile that gets you closer to your customer? I’ll let you decide, but my money is on the answer being both–a meaningful, smart collaboration of both.
Cameron Clayton is the president of the digital division at the Weather Company, the parent company of The Weather Channel, weather.com, Weather Underground, WSI, and Intellicast. He also serves as global chair of the Mobile Marketing Association. Follow @weatherchannel.
[Images: Flickr users Angie Harms, Gabriel Allon, Tony Hisgett, and Tim Caynes]
