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Is YouTube trialling mobile optimised streaming?

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Is YouTube trialling mobile optimised streaming?

Experts have told Mobile Europe that YouTube appears to be trialling a new streaming protocol that, if implemented, could have a significant impact on the way YouTube videos are delivered over mobile networks.

Staff at video optimisation company Mobixell noticed that some YouTube videos appear to be using a different streaming technology to usual. The change seems to be designed to reduce the amount of “unwatched video”, and therefore unused data, delivered across fixed and mobile networks. Typically, if you start a YouTube video and then press pause the full video will continue to buffer while the player is paused. This is represented by a shadow progress bar loading from left to right, while the “pay” progress bar is stalled.

But Mobixell has noticed that in about 10% of videos it currently handles, when the pause button pressed the buffer stops as well.

Noam Greem of Mobixell, said, “We have noticed that YouTube has changed its buffering on some videos so that if you press play and then pause, the buffer does not continue to fill up.” The protocol seems to be applied to videos delivered to mobile and desktop devices, and is not limited to certain types of content, Green said.

Mobixell said that its files appear to show the new streaming protocol is called Toast and Buttered Sliced Bread, or TABSB. So what is TABSB? What is the logic YouTube is using to apply it to videos, and what benefits could it bring to users, content providers and carriers?

Well, Google’s YouTube press office was reluctant to provide any confirmation or further details about the new protocol, with the company limiting itself to the following statement:

“Optimising video streaming is important for the user experience and over the past year we’ve introduced a number of updates in the way some YouTube mobile clients perform buffering and caching. We continue experimenting and hope to introduce some exciting improvements in the upcoming months.”

Green said, “Our thinking is that there coud be two main reasons for this — one is that [YouTube] wants to combine or unify its online and on-demand delivery mechanisms, allowing more real time options and elements, to let users watch a full-length video, for example. The second is to do with mobile consumption: when people load a full buffer but only watch half the video, that’s a waste of data coming through the network. It also means people are potentially paying for data they are not using,” Green said.

Green added that a more mobile-optimsed streaming solution might also allow Google to say to carriers “we are on your side”, given some of the recent discussion about the effect video is having on bandwidth demands, and the issues operators have monetising that. Indeed, the effect of the protocol is similar to some of the pacing technologies that video optimisation companies currently apply to mobile video.

Patrick Lopez, analyst with Core Analysis and a former CMO of video optimsation company Vantrix, said, “I have not spoken to Google or observed the protocol  myself, but my discussions with Mobixell’s engineering teams and their take on the network traces that they have performed show that this protocol is an attempt to reduce waste. My understanding is that the protocol is based on HTTP progressive download and provides a delivery bitrate that is proportional to the encoding bitrate of the video and that it can detect events (play, pause, stop, seek…) and decide to stop the delivery or not based on these events.”

Substantial reduction in YouTube network traffic
Lopez added that as the average video on the internet is five minutes in duration, and over 50% of mobile users will stop watching that video within the first 60 seconds, this protocol could provide a substantial reduction in YouTube traffic in the network, by not delivering the part of the video that is not watched.

“While not the ultimate solution to networks congestion, it would be a step in the right direction to alleviate embattled mobile networks,” he said.

“Unfortunately, it could come also with its own problems, since the download time would be longer (the same as the play time), this protocol, if deployed, could tie up networks for longer than necessary to deliver a video, when there is no congestion.

“In my mind, this is an example that shows that network congestion cannot be resolved exclusively on the network side or on the content provider side. It is necessary for the operator to provide to the content provider means to control and audit the health of a video delivery.”

 

 

Visa and Samsung launch Olympics m-payments app

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Visa and Samsung launch Olympics m-payments app

Visa and Samsung have revealed the official mobile payments application of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Samsung and Visa will debut the application at Mobile World Congress at Visa’s stand (Hall 1, Stand 1B19) and Samsung’s stand (Hall 8, Stand 8B169). The application is based on Visa’s payWave technology, and will require users to have NFC-equipped devices.

“London 2012 is a unique opportunity to show the future of payments coming to life and leave a lasting legacy post-2012. The new mobile payment application is central to this showcase,” said Sandra Alzetta, Head of Innovation at Visa Europe. “We are also working with a number of partners to put live mobile payment technology into consumer hands. We’ve recently announced the certification of a number of major manufacturer handsets for NFC payments, which brings mainstream commercial mobile payments a step closer to reality.”

“Samsung is extremely thrilled to work with Visa to launch mobile payment services for the London 2012 Olympic Games. We believe that this showcase will motivate people to experience and adopt easy and safe payment through mobile devices. As a long-time Olympic partner and a mobile technology leader, Samsung is fully committed to providing our customers with reliable and convenient mobile experiences during the Olympic Games through our partnership with Visa,” said DJ Lee, executive vice president and head of Sales and Marketing team of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business.

As a Worldwide Sponsor of the Olympic Games for more than 25 years and the Paralympic Games since 2002, Visa implements and manages the entire payment system infrastructure and network throughout all Games’ venues. For London 2012, there will be more than 3,000 contactless terminals installed across the Olympic and Paralympic venues showcasing prepaid, contactless payments, mobile technologies, and other innovations.

Video traffic now half of all mobile data traffic: Bytemobile

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The average volume of video traffic now stands at 50% of all data traffic, according to Bytemobile’s Mobile Analytics Report – February 2012. Bytemobile said a years ago mobile video traffic accounted for 40% of all traffic. In some networks video is now peaking at up to 69% of total traffic, the optimisation vendor said.

According to Bytemobile’s report, an iPad user generates three times the data traffic that an iPhone subscriber does. Also of note, mobile social networking is taking off, as smartphone users spend an average of 4.57 minutes per session on Twitter, 8.51 minutes per session on YouTube and 9.06 minutes per session on Facebook.

The report also shows that a majority of traffic generated by iOS devices – 83% – comes from just three native Apple sources – Media Player, Safari and App Store/iTunes, at 47%, 21% and 15%, respectively. Safari accounts for over 60% of transactions between the device and the network.

Android devices generate more advertising transactions and corresponding data volume on mobile networks than iOS devices. In addition, Google is far and away the most dominant source of mobile data traffic produced by advertisements, with an average of 75% of the total ad-generated data.

“Our latest Mobile Analytics Report substantiates anecdotal evidence that demand for mobile content continues to grow. As devices continue to get smarter – with faster processors, more memory and bigger, sharper screens – content consumption, particularly video, continues to grow aggressively,” said Chris Koopmans, chief operating officer, Bytemobile. “The report also demonstrates very clearly that carriers use optimization techniques to keep up with exploding traffic demand, while continuing to deliver a superior user experience.”

The findings in the Mobile Analytics Report are generated from Smart Capacity Mobile Analytics, Bytemobile’s mobile data traffic reporting solution. The Mobile Analytics Report anonymously sources data traffic statistics from the 3G and 4G networks of Bytemobile’s customer base.

UPDATED: Three UK launching femtocell service

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UPDATED: Three UK launching femtocell service

UPDATED 11:30am, 24/2: Customer rention tool only – free to customers

We’ve heard back from Three UK with some answers to the questions we pose below. The femtocell is already available. It is being used as a “retention tool for those experiencing quite bad signal problems.” As such, it is free, with no fee to be paid either up front or as an added subscriptiion. Three UK doesn’t think it wll be actively promoting the femtocell on its website or in its shops, keeping it as a tool for its customer support teams when customers encounter serious problems that require action beyond the normal troubleshooting methods.

Original story:

Three UK appears to have become the latest operator to be very close to launching a femtocell service in the UK. A support page on Three UK’s website currently gives information for a product called Home Signal, clearly a femtocell.

There’s not much else about it on the Three website beyond this support page – nowhere to order the product, for instance, or any information on pricing or availability, etc. Three’s own consumer PR people didn’t seem to know much about it at our first enquiry – suggesting that Three is still pre-launch, or is going for the softest of launches.

And its customer support video (see below) was only uploaded to YouTube on 17 February.

However, the support page does seem to suggest that the service will be made available in a fairly targetted way, suggesting it may be something Three will push out to users reporting coverage issues. The page says: “You may be eligible to get a Home Signal box if you have trouble connecting to the network indoors, you live in a rural area or if your house has thick walls that block your signal.”

Anyway, despite Three telling us it wouldn’t divulge who the supplier is, Three’s own customer support video makes it clear the unit is an NEC femtocell, built on Ubquisys Femto-Engine core technology.


I’ve asked for some more details from Three, namely,

  • When/if the service is publicly available?
  • Who is “eligible” for the service?
  • What would the Home Signal cost?
  • Where can users order one?

Let’s see what comes back.

(Hat-tip to Mindspeed’s @Rupert_Baines for noticing the page on Three UK’s website.)

Alcatel-Lucent gets femtocell supplier status at Telenor

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Alcatel-Lucent has signed a global frame femtocell supply agreement with Telenor — giving it the opportunity to provide the operator with small cell base stations in the 11 countries in which Telenor operates across Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia.

Alcatel-Lucent will be able to provide its end-to-end Femto-technology based 9360 Small Cell solution, including the 9361 Home Cell, the 9362 Enterprise Cell and the 9366 Small Cell Gateway. The solution includes a network management system which combines Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireless Management System, Wireless Provisioning System and the Home Device Manager from its Motive Product Division. Alcatel-Lucent is providing full deployment and integration services along with design, installation and commissioning, software integration and project management.

Robert Malm, Managing Director of Alcatel-Lucent in the Nordics and Baltics said: “Alcatel-Lucent has a long history of providing service providers such as Telenor with technical innovations and solutions that address their unique needs as well as those of their subscribers. We are pleased to be working hand-in-hand with Telenor to deliver our market-leading Femtocells to enhance mobile broadband speeds and coverage for their customers.

“Our Femtocells and ground-breaking lightRadio product portfolio help service providers as they evolve their networks to meet the growing demand from their customers for mobile data services, and give them opportunities to expand their business into new areas. Our work with Telenor under this agreement also will allow us to jointly explore how our lightRadio Metrocell product can help meet the company’s evolving needs.”

Operators complete Next Generation WiFi trials

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NGH rollouts expected within a year – Wireless Broadband Alliance

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has said it expects the first Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) deployments to take place over the next 12 months, following “successful” trials of the technology by operators including AT&T, BT, China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, PCCW Mobile and TeliaSonera.

The operators, along with equioment vendors Accuris Networks, Aruba Networks, BelAir Networks, Cisco, and Ruckus Wireless tested the NGH requirements for network discovery and selection, security, automatic authentication in a production environment on, and between, different operators’ actual networks using equipment and devices from various vendors.

It also aimed to identify and recommend how best to implement automatic authentication and the measures needed to upgrade home networks to NGH. The trials also made the NGH service requirements, developed by the operator-led WBA, available to vendors who use the ‘HotSpot 2.0’ device standards from the vendor led Wi-Fi Alliance.

The Wireless Broadband Alliance said it will be organizing trials of more advanced technology features in second half of 2012.

The development of Next Generation Hotspots has come about to find the means to authenticate users onto hotspots operated by different users automaticallay and securely. This overcomes the issue of users knowing which hotspots they can access or how to connect and allows mobile operators, who increasingly have their own or partner hotspot networks, to ‘offload’ many more users. The new hotspot technology feature radio link encryption and SIM authentication.

Chris Bruce, Chair of the WBA said, “The complementary relationship between Wi-Fi and mobile networks is finally becoming a reality. Next Generation Hotspots allow smartphones and tablets to automatically roam from the cellular network on to Wi-Fi hotspots thereby augmenting the coverage and capacity of both. Fixed and mobile operators alike are leading a Wi-Fi hotspot renaissance in a renewed effort to sate the seemingly unquenchable desire for ubiquitous broadband connectivity. What has made this trial so unique is that the key players from both the mobile operator community and the Wi-Fi ecosystem have actively come together and supported each other for this industry-wide program.”

Full list of trial participants:

Operators:
AT&T, BT, China Mobile, DOCOMO InterTouch, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, PCCW Mobile, Portugal Telecom, Smart Communications, Swisscom, TeliaSonera & True Corp.

Mobile Devices:
LG, Intel

Network Equipment:
Accuris Networks, Aruba Networks, BelAir Networks, Cisco & Ruckus Wireless

Clearing Houses:
Aicent, BSG & TNS

Orange fights back against reports of heavy losses to Free mobile

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Current status: 15,000 requests to port every day. Will make €1 billion in six years from wholesale contract

Orange has hit back at reports it is getting an unmitigated kicking following the launch of the Iliad-backed Free mobile in France.

In a statement it said that it has suffered a net loss of just over 200,000 customers since Free’s launch on 10 January 2012. Just over a million customers left Orange “in favour of the competition” Orange said, in the period between 1 January and 15 February, while 837,000 people joined the carrier in that period. To put that into context, Orange has 27 million subscribers in France.

Orange confirmed that on one day following Free’s launch it received 150,000 RIO (number portability) requests, but said it is now receiving around 15,000 requests a day. It also adds that not all requests lead to an actual termination of an account.

The operator also praised its own efforts in leading a “commercial counter attack” against Free, by pushing out some new tariffs through its low cost Sosh brand. The new tariffs included three commitment-free SIM-only offers from €9.90 (2 hours voice, unlimited SMS / MMS / WiFi) to €24.90 (100% unlimited). They had attracted a total of 90,000 Sosh subscribers as at 15 February 2012. The Orange Open range was also expanded and reached a total of 1.4 million subscribers as at 15 February 2012.

Orange also said that its network quality and customer care were giving it an edge. It claimed that in 2011 the percentage of ‘very satisfied’ customers with Orange rose 14%, while the percentage of ‘not very satisfied’ and ‘dissatisfied’ customers fell 26% compared to 2010.

Finally, Orange reminded the press that Free mobile has its 2G and 3G roaming contract with…Orange, therefore Orange is looking at an upside of €1 billion over a six year period to its wholesale division’s revenues.

Anticipating questions about the impact Free mobile usage could have on its network, Orange said, “The traffic generated by Free mobile subscribers could be substantially higher than expected without this having a negative impact on the quality of service for Orange customers.”

 

Mobile World Congress transport strike still on

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Barring a last minute change, it now seems likely that a planned transport strike will go ahead in Barcelona next week. A statement issued this morning from the GSMA said that negotiations were still ongoing between TMB, the main public transport operator in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, and the Government.

If they don’t come to a resolution, the TMB will bring its workers out on strike from 27 February to 1 March.

The GSMA has some plans in place to try and mitigate the disruption for its attendees. It says it will make these known on 25th February – Saturday – if the strike is still on.

The GSMA said it would distribute information and advice about alternative transport options at hotels and at registration points at the Fira and the airport. The organisation is also urging people to collect badges and/or register as soon as possible. There will also be expanded access points to the Fira and more registration points onsite and at the airport to speed up entry.

If you want to keep up to date with the latest info, you can use the GSMA’s Customer Care centre, or follow @GSMA_Care on Twitter.

Registration is open on Saturday, 25th February from 09.00 to 18.00 and on Sunday, 26th February from 09.00 to 20.00. The registration desks at the airport will be open from Sunday, 26th February through Tuesday, 28th February from 07.00 to 19.00 and on Wednesday, 29th February from 07.00 to 16.00.

 

NSN announces SON for the core, Flexi Zone small cell product and femto access point

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We have become used to network equipment vendors differentiating their SON capabilities in radio networks, but today Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) announced it is launching something called SON for core.

NSN said SON for Core helps operators to “automatically and rapidly allocate core network resources to meet unpredictable voice and mobile broadband demands”. Its statement continued:

With SON for Core, operators can automatically detect, analyze and react to changing traffic and core network conditions. The core network adapts instantly to balance traffic loads and help prevent demand peaks from causing bottlenecks. SON for Core also helps to optimize the use of transmission links between core network elements by automatically allocating unused capacity to overloaded connections. Furthermore, operators can route voice calls to a point of interconnection that is lowest cost and best quality to reduce operational expenditure and improve the customer experience. In addition, SON for Core enables the core network to handle smartphone signaling more efficiently and helps to avoid the need to build spare network capacity that is rarely used, or “over dimension”.

SON for core seems at heart to be about automating allocation of resources within the core network to meet and balance demand.

 

“Today, core network management is largely manual and often reacts too slowly to maintain the best customer experience in the face of rapidly changing demands from smartphones. Manually configuring core network elements and their connectivity is a highly skilled task that can be prone to human error. SON for Core addresses these issues by helping to prevent harmful traffic congestion and other core network conditions that could degrade voice and data services,” said Thorsten Robrecht, head of Network Systems product management, Nokia Siemens Networks.

NSN also figures that automating these process could save operators up to 15% of their operating costs and cut the total cost of ownership of major network elements by up to 30%. It also claimed that transmission costs between radio access and core network elements can be more than halved by identifying and selecting co-located network elements.

SON for Core is part of NSN’s iSON, which extends the company’s capabilities of SON for heterogeneous radio networks. iSON is in turn part of NSN’s Liquid Net portfolio.

A note from a NSN spokesperson said that the company is viewing SON for core as one of three major mobile broadband announcements it will make before Mobile World Congress. The first was its CEM announcement, made last week. A third “major” announcement is due later today, the spokesperson said. Actually, as I write that, I think the third announcement has just gone live. See here.

The company seems to be announcing baseband pooling for small cell clusters, as well as a 3G femto access point and a small cell backhaul packet microwave solution. SON is still relevant here, of course, as is process automation, as the deployment of many dense clusters of small cells requires both. It is calling the small cell cluster + baseband pooling solution Flexi Zone, and the backhaul solution FlexiPacket Lite Microwave. It hasn’t said if the femto access point is its own tech or a branded product from one of the dedicated femto suppliers. Up until this point NSN has stayed out of femto APs, instead billing itself as a femto gateway provider and integrator.

Also notable is that NSN seems to be announcing some sort of In-Building design and build service. That one doesn’t seem to have a name yet.

Finally, the company has also announced a dual path cell edge technology it has developed for HSPA with Qualcomm.

 

 

CapGemini to integrate Matrixx Software charging technology

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Matrixx Software and Capgemini have signed a global partnership that will see CapGemini include Matrixx’s real time charging technology in its solution portfolio.

The partnership is intended to offer CSPs visibility, intelligence, and control of data services across their mobile networks. Matrixx Software said that its smart charging technology provides a 50 to 100 times efficiency gain — enabling CSPs to transform raw usage data into actionable information in real-time. This positions the joint solution to process usage on a large scale basis across all pre and postpaid retail consumers, enterprises, channels and ecosystem partners and drive more revenue from 3G and LTE network investments.

Network traffic is immediately transformed into useful information about customer behaviour, Over the Top usage patterns, machine to machine traffic profiles, subscriber spending, service uptake and profitability.

Over the last year, Capgemini and MATRIXX Software have trialled Matrixx’s patent-pending solution with multiple Tier I mobile operators, testing the scalability, availability and network and BSS-OSS interoperability required to power smart charging and policy decisions in real-time across all subscribers for a Tier I operator.

Capgemini has launched a Center of Excellence at its facility in Rennes, France. More than 15 leading CSPs have already visited to see the solution in action, demonstrating use cases in an end-to-end IT, CRM and network environment.

“For the last few years, CSPs have tried interim, inadequate solutions in an attempt to shore up issues with mobile data.  With MATRIXX as a partner we are anticipating the future – the need for real-time” explained Dee Burger, Telecom, Media and Entertainment Practice Sector Lead, Capgemini. “Mobile data is the main driver for growth in the Telco industry for the years to come. Capgemini is anticipating these future needs and, with MATRIXX, we now have the technology to deploy smart charging and policy on a commercial scale. Our partnership with MATRIXX is paving the way for more profitable services, through the ability to analyze, monitor and monetize data traffic in real-time.”

Dave Labuda, Founder and CEO of MATRIXX Software, added, “Having a partner with the worldwide reach of Capgemini is a great opportunity for us.  Combining Capgemini’s expertise and industry knowledge with MATRIXX Software’s innovation ensures that CSPs now have a solution for managing the traffic volumes and service complexity of the mobile broadband era.”

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