Yrjo Raivio

Open Telco: a new business potential

Until today, most mobile operators have still been very profitable, although Average Revenue per User (ARPU) has been steadily declining. The core mobile services, voice and text messaging, bring the majority of the income. In addition to those, new innovations have actively been searched for the last decade with insignificant success. One reason for the modest results can be found from the so-called walled garden approach. The situation is finally changing: openness and Open Innovation are the new paradigms. For a long time, open APIs have been utilized by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Google, Flickr and Yahoo, and now the same approach has been proposed for mobile operators, as well. However, mobile operators have difficulties in justifying the opening of the walled garden: the major challenge is the lack of business case. This paper proposes an Open Telco approach to accelerate the innovativeness in the mobile space. The proposal is analyzed utilizing the so-called STOF (Service, Technology, Organization, and Finance) Model. Finally, recommendations for the next steps are given.

P2P media streaming with HTML5 and WebRTC

Video-on-demand (VoD) services, such as YouTube, generate most of the Internet traffic today, and the popularity of video services is growing. Service and CDN providers have to invest more and more in distribution networks, which creates pressure to innovate novel approaches. Peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming is a viable alternative that is scalable and can meet the increasing demand. The emerging HTML5 standard introduces APIs that give web browsers an ability to communicate directly with each other in real time. New standards also enable a setup, where browsers can act as P2P nodes. This paper reviews whether the new HTML5 and WebRTC standards are a fit for P2P video streaming, evaluates the performance challenges and proposes solutions. Preliminary analysis indicates that HTML5 can be applied to VoD, but there are concerns.

Towards Open Telco - Business Models of API Management Providers

The term Open Telco refers to a new phenomenon where telecommunication operators provide open APIs for 3rd party developers and content providers. Multi-operator support requires cross network service providers (CNSPs) or network brokers between operators and developers. In the mobile domain brokers have already stepped into the SMS and data roaming businesses, but API brokering is still an emerging phenomenon. Business models based on mobile brokering are also in an early phase. On the other hand, internet API management providers have been offering services to various API publishers for a long time. This paper utilizes internet case studies in order to find out the best mobile broker business models. The analysis is carried through using the STOF model. At the end, the results are verified with the literature review, and recommendations for mobile brokering and for the next steps are given.

Mobile networks as a two-sided platform: case open telco

Internet companies have utilized the benefits of open innovation and open APIs for a long time, but mobile operators are just entering the open domain with a concept referred to here as Open Telco. This paper investigates how open APIs can be applied to mobile networks in order to transform them from a one-sided into a two-sided platform where new business models can be utilized. The research method is based on a single case study using a representative usage scenario. The research framework, applied in this case study, was driven by the literature analysis. The research was started by creating a set of usage scenarios for analysis by an expert group. The most representative case was then selected for a closer examination with the results presented in accordance with the research framework. According to the results, the Open Telco concept creates an ecosystem that enables a two-sided platform. However, positive network effects require at least national coverage; developers want innovative pricing schema and novel payment services need changes for regulation. Finally, the research limitations are expressed, the proposals for the next steps are given, results are compared with the literature findings, and conclusions are drawn.

Applicability of NoSQL Databases to Mobile Networks: Case Home Location Register

Cloud computing is slowly reaching mobile networks. Experts have doubts that cloud technologies can guarantee carrier grade service level, but the situation is rapidly changing. First of all, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offers a complete computation platform, where instances can be virtually hosted either locally, remotely or in a hybrid fashion. Secondly, NoSQL (Not only SQL) databases are widely used in internet services, such as Amazon and Google, but they have not yet been applied to telecom applications. This paper evaluates, whether cloud technologies can meet the carrier grade requirements. The home location register (HLR) is benchmarked using IaaS cloud computing platforms and the HBase NoSQL database system. The main measurements are carried out in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). The Discussion section evaluates and compares the results with other similar research. Finally, the conclusions and proposals for the next research steps are given.