Two strong user needs, wireless and video, are driving the new market inflection point. The options for wireless video in-premise networks including DLNA, Airplay, WiDi and Miracast, are growing quickly. These technologies all add value to smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks for wireless-video distribution for in-premise networks. These additions could also become the mainstream technology for connecting all video-centric devices. The day we can eliminate premises wiring to large TV and desktop screens, set-top boxes and video-centric storage, will be the day we see a real premise-network revolution.

In the Wi-Fi ecosystem, Miracast is the new control mechanism making network-enabled delivery of video content possible. Miracast is the control layer for exchange of real-time video streaming between two Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as a tablet and an access-point. It builds on a range of underlying elements in the Wi-Fi ecosystem:

• the soon to-be-released 802.11ac with dedicated connectivity,
• Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 and enhancements to Wi-Fi security,
• and Wi-Fi Multimedia and Quality of Security mechanisms that separate real-time and best-effort IP traffic.

These new Wi-Fi additions are important steps for taking Wi-Fi beyond the free and best-effort service-delivery role it has played over the last decade.

My predictions of the future are:

• Wires at residential and business premises for the connection of devices will go away – and sooner than we think.
• The cost and hassle of deploying and maintaining in-home and in-business wiring is high, and is the key driver for shifting to wire-free in-premise networks.
• A critical success factor is to secure simultaneous use of voice, data and video services at user premises. Any technology must be able to be used simultaneously while mixing best-effort and real-time services.
• There will be new business models for developing Wi-Fi capabilities when used stand alone or integrated with 3G/4G. Why is free Wi-Fi the only model for enhanced capabilities when significant values are still delivered to users?

The post Miracast moves multimedia methodically appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

The solution is to make the mobile network itself mobile!

A Cell on Wheels, a “COW” is a complete mobile base station including radio antennas and backhaul placed on a truck. They are used to support major events requiring a temporary mobile solution. Multiple COWs can be deployed to boost network capacity extensively. COW’s are today primarily deployed in the events of natural disasters and at premium sports events, both of which require quick and temporary high network capacity.

NASCAR is one example of a sporting event requiring COW’s. In order to support the 39 annual NASCAR events, 10 COWs are on tour with the race teams. Without these COWs and crews, the mobile screens of fans would be dark for both tailgating and possibly the race event itself. Check out this NASCAR video to get a hint of the benefits.

Another alternative solution to COW’s are the installation of a permanent antenna solution at the venue, known as a Distributed Antenna System (DAS). DOW’s or “DAS on Wheels” systems are marvels as they eliminate the engineering needs for antenna design and deployment – the solution complexity is now reduced to radio and transmission equipment.

There is an emerging third tier for even smaller configurations. These are COLT’s or “Cell on Light Trucks” which enable even faster capacity augmentation at sporting venues and disaster recovery support. Because they can be deployed in larger volumes and much closer to potential disaster zones, they are extremely economical as well.

My predictions of the future are:
* Mobile units are becoming an integrated part of the densification strategy for a mobile network.
* The evolution and diversification of the original COW into DOWs and COLTs make it possible to support a variety of deployment scenarios.
* As Sandy recently proved, Mobile units play a key role in disaster recovery situations given the primary need to bring up mobile communications first.
* Future concert and sports venues without voice and data coverage will struggle to attract fans as the future of live events is about the integration and access of live and multimedia coverage.

The post COWs – cruising cells complement classic celltowers appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

So now I have justified a reason to tell you about our holiday vacation. We took one of those enormous boats from Stockholm to Helsinki. The dimensions on the ferry are not unlike the dimensions in these convention centers. The ceilings are high, the noise is a few decibels above what’s pleasant, and you’re kind of trapped in the same zone for a determined amount of time.

The floor space at CES is larger, obviously. During my short walk, with a colleague, we circled back a few times in search of one exhibitor. There were lots of huge TV screens (110 inches! For your home!) all staring at us. There were shells of cars, electric cars, golf carts moving people from one hall to another. So, yes, we got lost in a proverbial closet. Do I need to tell you how often I went looking for our berth on the wrong end of the boat?

Back at CES, it does ring true that connectivity is the common thread among all the latest gadgets. The word “share” is all over the place – and projection, sensing, and access to information are all basic ingredients. My colleague and I passed a company that offers projectable ads with sensors that react to people’s movements. Example: Four boxes with language choices are projected onto a screen. Simply indicate with your arm which language to choose – NOT a touch screen. (Why interesting for advertisers? A way to interact and personalize for buyers without getting too close, is my guess.) This reminded me of the science center. At Heureka, the family visited “The future.” Projected characters at airports, information centers, and health centers all asked us multiple-choice questions. We answered by waving our arms.

Behind the Ericsson booth there is a place called Vuzix. They make augmented reality glasses, so that if you were in a new area and sought information, you could make selections on a menu projected to you within the glasses in order to find a good local restaurant and directions to it, for example.

The next booth we visited was Sony. I’m going to spend some time on this one, because it was mind-blowing. You walk into the booth and all around you is a “horizon” film screen, like a band around the top of the booth. It’s gorgeous and immersive. It’s like the IMAX at the science center, but it doesn’t cover the ceiling and you don’t have to sit in the chairs that lean back so far. The biggest crowds were around new Playstations and the OLED screens. The colors attack you, they are so bright, and nearly disturbing. When we went to see the Hobbit in 3D and 48 frames per second, the adults in the family were taken aback. The children in the family were perfectly happy.

As I walked back to my Ericsson comfort zone, I thought that CES is showing commercial products that the science center uses to stimulate our imaginations. Seems perfectly natural when I compare: My boys did not wonder about the technology in the science center – it was an invisible enabler for them to think about shaping their own lives in a networked society.

The post A stroll around CES: Here the science center’s future is reality. appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

In the Networked Society, everyone, everything and everywhere will be connected in real time. In the third quarter of 2012 there were an additional 13 million LTE subscriptions and those numbers are predicted to reach 1.6 billion by 2018 (according to Ericsson’s Mobility Report released in November 2012). The building blocks of the Networked Society are now in place including an increasing number of M2M devices and an increased demand for heterogeneous networks. This is having a broader impact than expected on the business landscape and will lead to the transformation of whole sectors and even further innovation.

So what strategy should telcos have in order to achieve growth and create a competitive edge?
I see four fundamental areas that are directly or indirectly impacted by the emergence of the Networked Society, and for which telcos should pay the most attention. These include: operating models, value chain, innovation and alliances. In this post I will explore the first of these four areas.

Operating models
The Networked Society creates the need for new organizational structures, processes and strategies. Telcos are excellent at tightly managing their procurement process and negotiating longer-term contracts with vendors and suppliers. However, the essence of the Networked Society is agile service activation, configuration, management and sourcing. The challenge therefore is to internally and externally decentralize purchasing and decision-making power. This means that telcos must align and adapt their organizations while creating strong cross-functional interfaces and organizational flexibility.

These changes will have a direct effect on the telecom operating model, for example in the OSS/BSS areas of customer service operations and network operations. Operational support services such as order fulfillment, service configuration, resource provisioning and invoice billing are becoming increasingly complex with millions of connected devices (e.g. subscriptions) involved and a variety of products. The operational cost to handle this environment is high and the infrastructure needed to cater to the increasing customer base can lead to greater financial overhead.

Cloud computing, which is an integral part of the Networked Society, incurs minimal capex since infrastructure is owned by the cloud providers themselves. The implementation of cloud solutions decreases capex and converts them into opex, thereby saving costs on the balance sheet and lowering taxes on operating profit.

The telco operating model should be restructured in order to incorporate cloud computing. The adoption of cloud solutions can have a significant effect on strategy, infrastructure and operation (also known as the eTOM process) by improving the cost structure through operational excellence and economies of scale. The shift from a capex to opex leads to new innovations as well as the development of new business models.

The post How telcos will achieve growth in the Networked Society appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

The first wave of networked stores has eliminated checkout cashiers, introduced product specialists in the back, and enabled staff to focus on helping consumers buy the right products. The backroom store of the internet already attracts knowledgeable customers and serves as a warehouse carrying the full product portfolio with all possible configurations and variations. The networks that support this are often based are leased lines to the store and traditional wireless LANs on the premises.

It is easy to pull this off with a couple of network wizards in the back of the store, but this is not always the case. Expansion into a fully networked retail concept requires a fundamental rethinking of the network needed to support this transformation. The network must support busy weekend hours and must work smoothly without support from on-site staff.

Reliability and the zero-support of a networked retail experience are driving the development of heterogeneous networks in shopping malls in a new direction – away from best effort wireless and legacy copper backhaul infrastructure to small, ultra-reliable WiFi/3G/4G cells with fiber backhaul.

This is only just the beginning so my predictions for the future are the following:
* There will be a shift in focus, especially for shopping mall developers, from networks that primarily support the buying experience to networks that optimize the selling process as well as the buying experience.
* Store owners and mobile network operators will form partnerships in order to realize their networked retail visions.
* Mobile offload solutions for in-mall traffic will be replaced by in-store revenue securing mobile network environments for multiple radio technologies.
* Paper-based retail tools such as in-store promotions, credit card slip management, etc., will lose traction to large digital promotional screens and more extensive use of tablets, phablets and smartphones by both sellers and buyers.

The post The rise of the networked retail experience appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

Together with the New Cities Foundation, University of California Berkeley, the San Jose Department of Transportation, and two smartphone commuting app start-ups, we have researched how increased networking among commuters may make the commute more tolerable – or perhaps even enjoyable.

Having looked at both public and private (car) commuting in San Jose, California, we conclude that real-time sharing of information between commuters proves useful for improving the overall commuting experience in a number of ways. In addition to being useful to commuters, this data provides valuable insights to local authorities, which can be used to improve transport infrastructure, for example.

Outside my window there is a snow blizzard and I feel as far away from the California sun as can be. However, the issues of commuting and congestion are global, and looking out on the freeway nearby, our findings feel very relevant. People driving a bit too fast, given the severe weather conditions, have caused long traffic jams and delays. I am sure many drivers wished they could have avoided the accident areas. According to the results of our research study, they would happily have done so by receiving a message from a fellow commuter five minutes or so ahead on the commuting route. Not only that, but they would have also felt satisfied by helping the community of commuters by sharing information with others.

Learn more about the study conducted in the heart of Silicon Valley, in the city of San Jose, California.

The post Is a connected commute a more pleasant one? appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

* users’ willingness to pay a premium when served by a small cell varies between applications, ranging from clear incremental revenue generators to pure churn-reduction needs
* the cost of deployment is to a limited extent equipment-driven and highly dependent on the 4Ps scenario * most Wi-Fi deployments to date have been carried out with Wi-Fi access services as a secondary revenue stream, resulting in a “free” service supporting the primary revenue stream
* the large variety of solutions that can solve problems – for example, remote radios, distributed antenna systems, micro and pico base stations and so on.

When evaluating the likely and most possible use cases, the following could serve as a starting point:

* train stations and airports – a very large number of daily users, traffic concentrated to peak hours during the day, churn protection where local commuting is concerned
* outdoor venues with few yearly high-profile events – temporary needs and a very high concentration of users keen on sharing their moments
* shopping malls – the retail revolution, with significant shifts in both buying and selling experiences along the way, has created a need for reliable real-time communication services
* indoor venues with weekly/daily events – high concentration of events and users often being close to the small cell locations
* school campuses – teaching inside and outside of the classroom being the new norm
* enterprise buildings – extensive 3G/4G/Wi-Fi access is the basic criterion for being able to rent out office space in the future
* urban outdoor coverage boost – hotspots such as bus stops, parks, plazas, where social media and entertainment are consumption driven
* residential white-spot elimination – high-rise apartment buildings with poor coverage and capacity on floors above street level, the basic criterion for being able to rent out or sell apartments.

We can expect a lot of dynamics in this market, both with regard to actual deployment use-cases, their order of priority, as well as technology of choice.

The post Small cell deployments: global urban use-cases uncovered appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

I use my mobile to check out bar-code based offerings and product information while shopping for groceries in the supermarket. I do quite extensive market research online before I invest in household white goods, such as a dishwasher or a vacuum cleaner; however, I tend to make the actual purchase in a physical store. When it comes to clothes and shoes I tend to choose outlets – online or traditional – based on the time available, rather than the quality. The online and offline worlds are obviously merging and it feels perfectly natural.

So how will this affect businesses? The shopping ecosystem is a big one and includes designers, producers, distribution companies, retail stores and banks among other players. Most of these will be affected by changing consumer behavior. Better-informed customers will place pressure on vendors to learn more about their rivals in order to deliver that little bit extra. Secure sales will also be expected. Similarly, internal competition may arise inside major brands that add online stores to their distribution channels. These online stores, which won’t be wedded to any particular location, may draw sales away from the physical stores owned by the same brand. The company as a whole might not be affected, but the internal structure – and some of the people working within it – will be. Engaging customers online will expose brands to criticism with global reach. This means even small companies will need to dedicate time to online tracking. Transparency in both quality and price has certainly already affected the price levels and packaging of offerings and I’m sure we’ll see price plans, bundling and packaging which are even more creative. Clearly, In-Liners are putting new requirements on the ecosystem of shopping and it will affect businesses in both positive and negative ways.

I wouldn’t dare forecast how shopping business models will develop over time – I’m sure we’ll see changes far more radical than the ones we have experienced so far. One thing is clear though, players who would like to win had better prepare for an In-Line world. To quote the ConsumerLab study: “It no longer makes sense to talk about online versus offline, because we are constantly switching between the two”.

The post The future of shopping: an In-Liner’s view appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

Wikipedia has 22 million articles in 285 languages and Google has scanned and digitized more that 130 million printed books. Change in this area is happening at breakneck speeds. Like author and media expert, Don Tapscott says in his book, Macrowikinomics: “Today when you graduate, you are set for about 15 minutes”.

Simply put, there is a revolution going on in the classroom. Empowered by technology, students and progressive teachers are turning established models on their heads while new skills and educational platforms are redefining our educational institutions.

In our new report, ‘Learning and Education in the Networked Society’, we explore how education technology, connected learning and the rise of the Networked Society is transforming the concept of learning, teachers’ roles and even the nature of knowledge itself.

These developments are fundamentally changing our notions of learning and education. Take a look at the new report and tell us know what you think the impact will be for students, teachers and schools in the future.

The post Empowered learning – how ICT is reshaping our classrooms appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

The music industry has become very creative in combining different live and multimedia innovations to create buzz for their artist. The traditional website has been customized with content targeting three different devices types: tablets, laptops/desktops and smartphones.

They have also come up with savvy ways of enticing customers to purchase the physical CDs. Music retailers will get additional promotional support by selling a special version of Rick’s new record, with four bonus songs not for sale anywhere online. Rick’s new physical album cover is also connected through an interactive application. You just download the app to your phone or tablet, and then point it at the cover to get bonus digital content on your device. The album comes with four different album covers, all with different songs and bonus content.

Last but not least, the weeklong record launch in New York was made more exciting with a variety of events. Rick sang his hit “Jessie’s Girl” to New Yorkers during their morning commute on October 10 at Penn Station. The aging rocker was surrounded by commuters holding not just their take away coffees, but also their video-recording smartphones to capture the moment.

My predictions about the future of mobile music in the Networked Society:
• Mobile devices shape how music is consumed
• Comprehensive multimedia approaches with multiple innovations fundamental to creating buzz
• Live element is and will remain key in driving music revenues because live experience is impossible to bring online
• Younger generations might not understand “record” concept, but launching a collection of songs will always be a key moment for music lovers.

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