Here is a really fascinating article and I picked up today on the implementation of Multipath TCP in the new Apple iOS 7.
What on Earth is Multipath TCP? Put simply it's the future of a smarter Internet. Yes, if you can believe it the Internet is about to get just that bit cleverer and being an old TCP/IP hack I think this is the most exciting thing in the protocols development since Path MTU discovery :-)
So what's the big news? It means that you will be able to switch a stream of data on your phone. mobile device or wearable tech' and switch the data stream seamlessly from 4G to 3G to the wireless in your office and back again without losing the connection. so, you could be talking on your phone on 3G walk in to your office and have the call switch seamlessly to the nearest wireless hub same thing for video streams, location-based services or anything else that will stream over the Internet.
While for many this may all seem rather 'low level' Multipath TCP play a large part in the future development of the Internet heralding a whole new era of 'smart' Internet and I foresee that it will have a massive impact on the structure, function & performance of the global infrastructure including in delivering seamless load balancing.
Showing posts with label internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label internet. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Further disruption to Middle-East Internet Services
Interruptions to Middle Eastern Internet services seem to be a bit of a theme over the last few years; but when you actually look at the maps of the undersea networks in the area you get to see something of the scale of the difficulty. In the same way as virtually all trade with the East used to go through the old Silk Route the modern day equivalent is a cluster of submarine cable systems in and around the Red and Arabian Seas.
Here are very few submarine cable maps that you might find interesting.
SUBMARINE CABLE AND EQUINIX DATA CENTER MAP 2010
Monday, March 28, 2011
Experience with Cloud Computing after earthquake in Japan
While the Email and Web servers of local governments in the effected areas of Japan went down last month, government staff utilised Social Media technologies on the cloud, such as Twitter, Facebook and Google, to communicate with Japanese citizens.
The resiliency and the effectiveness of these Cloud providers in sustaining and enabling collaboration has been pretty impressive in enabling communications in very difficult circumstances and has done a lot to boost peoples positive view of Cloud services. Whether it is Japanese Government officials using Twitter from their mobiles, or Libyans using dial up Modems to access Facebook.
Lately I have read a number of comments suggesting that it is the resiliency of the Cloud that has been the facilitator, it hasn't it is the underlying architecture of the Internet.
Internet is Internet; a global IP based network, resilient self healing and designed to survive a global nuclear war. On top of which IP has had over 45 years of open development through groups like the IETF.
Cloud however is a philosophy of moving services to a more cost effective shared infrastructure where you gain the advantages economies of scale available there. At the moment what most people talk about as Cloud are a series of commercial services accessible over the Internet, developed to varying levels of resilience and vulnerable to influences such as the financial failure of the provider, the law, change in corporate direction; EMC briefly switched off their Atmos storage cloud service last year, before reopening it again almost immediately.
Whilst it is true that Twitter/Facebook etc are well managed, backed up, accessible and generally robust . We are a long way from the reality of bespoke Cloud delivered services for business that cannot be disrupted, switched off or simply become inaccessible.
Cloud however is a philosophy of moving services to a more cost effective shared infrastructure where you gain the advantages economies of scale available there. At the moment what most people talk about as Cloud are a series of commercial services accessible over the Internet, developed to varying levels of resilience and vulnerable to influences such as the financial failure of the provider, the law, change in corporate direction; EMC briefly switched off their Atmos storage cloud service last year, before reopening it again almost immediately.
Whilst it is true that Twitter/Facebook etc are well managed, backed up, accessible and generally robust . We are a long way from the reality of bespoke Cloud delivered services for business that cannot be disrupted, switched off or simply become inaccessible.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Another Mediterranean cable cut disrupts Internet Traffic
Good post regarding the current outage of the SeaMeWe-4 submarine cable, from our friends over at Telegeography - purveyors of fine mapping, graphics, data, etc.
The Middle Easts overworked networks rely on just one major connection to the Web – an underwater cable known as “Sea-ME-We 4” that runs from Europe to the UAE and was last week accidentally severed in the Mediterranean Sea.
The damaged cable carries the majority of the regions internet traffic today but according to Stephan Beckert Director of Research at Telegeography this will drop to around 40% by the end of 2010 as more capacity comes on line.
The Middle Easts overworked networks rely on just one major connection to the Web – an underwater cable known as “Sea-ME-We 4” that runs from Europe to the UAE and was last week accidentally severed in the Mediterranean Sea.
The damaged cable carries the majority of the regions internet traffic today but according to Stephan Beckert Director of Research at Telegeography this will drop to around 40% by the end of 2010 as more capacity comes on line.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
UK Government to push ahead for Superfast Broadband but for when?
Further pronouncements on the eventual roll out of 'Super-Fast' 40-100Mb broadband to every home in the land were made by both major this week. As the UK heads relentlessly towards a General Election in the Spring, both government and opposition have alighted on this 'utility' as a vote winner / chance to bash the other.
But note the confusion over dates 2012 / 2017 / 2020!! In July 2009 BT said it was impossible to get more than 80% of the country on broadband, then in January this year the Digital Britain report said we were all going to get Fast broadband @ 2Mb in 2012, (I can't even get 500kb to my house) Now we're all going to have Super Fast by 2017 (well 90% by 2017 and 100% by 2020)
Well that's pretty good - except that the BT Infinity Service that this relies on is targeting 40% coverage (ie Cities and Metropolitan area) by 2012, and BT's record on delivering things like the 21CN all IP network is pretty poor, so if left to BT it will all be to slow, to late!
In an attempt to speed up the process and with an eye to improved competition the Conservatives are suggesting that BT opens up not just it's exchanges but all of it's trunking and conduits to the likes of Virgin Media, even suggestions now that the NTL Fibre at the top of the village could be broken out and strung from the old GPO telephone pole outside the house.
However the question of funding will almost certainly kill it the 50p tax on landlines is already getting push back and will certainly be an election issue, and the Conservative suggestion of top slicing the BBCs budget by £120m is frankly widdling into the wind, we're talking billions to deliver on any of these promises and no company can afford to raise the amount of long-term debt that would be required.
On the upside opening up the BT trunks would make it easier to run business servics around th Cities which would certainly help and would reduce the number of new digs and roadworks in places like London.
I think the solution is a mixture of public and private investment, with which ever party wins taking the same approach as the Dutch "we will invest in this network and you the service providers can lease the resulting infrastructure from us" If you would like to invest alongside us and own a percentage of the income you're welcome to pitch in"
Well that's pretty good - except that the BT Infinity Service that this relies on is targeting 40% coverage (ie Cities and Metropolitan area) by 2012, and BT's record on delivering things like the 21CN all IP network is pretty poor, so if left to BT it will all be to slow, to late!
In an attempt to speed up the process and with an eye to improved competition the Conservatives are suggesting that BT opens up not just it's exchanges but all of it's trunking and conduits to the likes of Virgin Media, even suggestions now that the NTL Fibre at the top of the village could be broken out and strung from the old GPO telephone pole outside the house.
However the question of funding will almost certainly kill it the 50p tax on landlines is already getting push back and will certainly be an election issue, and the Conservative suggestion of top slicing the BBCs budget by £120m is frankly widdling into the wind, we're talking billions to deliver on any of these promises and no company can afford to raise the amount of long-term debt that would be required.
On the upside opening up the BT trunks would make it easier to run business servics around th Cities which would certainly help and would reduce the number of new digs and roadworks in places like London.
I think the solution is a mixture of public and private investment, with which ever party wins taking the same approach as the Dutch "we will invest in this network and you the service providers can lease the resulting infrastructure from us" If you would like to invest alongside us and own a percentage of the income you're welcome to pitch in"
Thursday, February 11, 2010
BT £9m Pension deficit slams stock price
BT unveiled profits from operations up this quarter, mostly off the back of improvements in the group known, or formerly known, as BT Global Services, which is good, yes?! Well no they they also announced a pension deficit of £9Bn, for those of you in Metric that's €10.2Bn or in greenbacks $14Bn. They said they were going into a 17 year recovery plan.
A 17 year recovery plan!! This is a company that has been in recovery since 2001 when it finally figured out that it had a £30bn debt mountain. Whilst smaller atthe time France Telecom and DT where quietly beavering away being modern Telcos BT and their arch rivals CW seemed to lose the plot completely, determinedly launching and relaunching on the International markets, in ever more crazy, expensive and vain-glorious attempts to out AT&T, AT&T.
You have to feel for the current BT management team who will be cleaning up Sir Peter Bonfields mess for another 20 years.
A 17 year recovery plan!! This is a company that has been in recovery since 2001 when it finally figured out that it had a £30bn debt mountain. Whilst smaller atthe time France Telecom and DT where quietly beavering away being modern Telcos BT and their arch rivals CW seemed to lose the plot completely, determinedly launching and relaunching on the International markets, in ever more crazy, expensive and vain-glorious attempts to out AT&T, AT&T.
You have to feel for the current BT management team who will be cleaning up Sir Peter Bonfields mess for another 20 years.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Rackspace Customers in Bristol
We have been improving the mapping in our Market Intelligence product. Here's a screenshot showing a selection of Rackspace customers in the Gloucester area.
In the software you can drill down and see details on both the customer and the services they buy.
In the software you can drill down and see details on both the customer and the services they buy.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Abovenet Customer Distribution
Following on from my earlier post today here is a nice article on fibre rings and whether the OK Government should invest directly in laying fibre. They mention US based Abovenet's success in the greater London Area after it invested in multi-gig' fibre in he late 90's. I thought I would have a quick look at 1,500 random Abovenet customers. See below...
And whilst they do have a good regional spread the investment has certainly paid off.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Cisco the latest to announce Dis-employments
The reduction in the build out of new networking infrastructure has led the worlds leading provider of telecommunications hardware,Cisco, to sort of announce a round of redundancies. Around 2,000 staff are to be "restructured out of employment" from the global workforce of about 70,000.
A great company, but perhaps as Scott Adams observes, one that could afford to thin the ranks just a little.
A great company, but perhaps as Scott Adams observes, one that could afford to thin the ranks just a little.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Oh good grief: Digital Britain - Digital Donuts
Per the norm; Despite having been one of the most innovative nations in the introduction of Internet, the Worldwide Web, and Digital Media. Britain's politicians and business leaders still cannot get their 1980's brains around the online world.
Lord Carters main hopes seem to be that consumers will behave online, that BT will roll out broadband to their remaining exchanges a bit faster. That the BBC might get together a small team to look into this digital media stuff. No mention of investing in or supporting the British high tech business sector, or ISPs, or the computer games industry which makes more for UK Plc than the Film industry.
Top marks chaps, a few more kids able to download music and housewives able to order groceries... Yep, that'll see us through!
Lord Carters main hopes seem to be that consumers will behave online, that BT will roll out broadband to their remaining exchanges a bit faster. That the BBC might get together a small team to look into this digital media stuff. No mention of investing in or supporting the British high tech business sector, or ISPs, or the computer games industry which makes more for UK Plc than the Film industry.
Top marks chaps, a few more kids able to download music and housewives able to order groceries... Yep, that'll see us through!
Banking Crisis: May force Governments to invest in Telco infrastructure
I spend a lot of time with Telcos, ISPs and equipment vendors in the UK and EMEA and their is a constant stream of; Headcount cuts, projects put off, scaled back, '08/'09 capex suspended and no clear visibility into this years budgets.
Problem, inability to raise debt to fund infrastructure. Banks won't/can't lend for all the reasons we hear in the press. Confidence in a banks is linked to their stock price & their market capitalisation, they can't value their assets properly and that effects the amount they can lend, blah, blah, blah... and, that impacts on their attitude towards lending money to Telco, which lost it's low-risk utility status many years ago.
I wondered how bad was it for Banking last year? Well take a look at this...
Not a pretty picture, but interesting.
I wonder how European many countries will follow President Obama down the Keynesian route of the US government investing directly in telecommunications infrastructure, the same way they invested in physical infrastructure in the 1930's. we heard today that the Canadian government will start a programme of investment this year. The question is whether the European governments have the guts to ignore EU rules and directly subsidise the telecoms industry in their home countries - I doubt it, but we live in hope.
Problem, inability to raise debt to fund infrastructure. Banks won't/can't lend for all the reasons we hear in the press. Confidence in a banks is linked to their stock price & their market capitalisation, they can't value their assets properly and that effects the amount they can lend, blah, blah, blah... and, that impacts on their attitude towards lending money to Telco, which lost it's low-risk utility status many years ago.
I wondered how bad was it for Banking last year? Well take a look at this...
Not a pretty picture, but interesting.I wonder how European many countries will follow President Obama down the Keynesian route of the US government investing directly in telecommunications infrastructure, the same way they invested in physical infrastructure in the 1930's. we heard today that the Canadian government will start a programme of investment this year. The question is whether the European governments have the guts to ignore EU rules and directly subsidise the telecoms industry in their home countries - I doubt it, but we live in hope.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Obamafication of the Internet: We will renew Information SuperHighway
In his weekly address to the US President Elect Barack Obama staed that it was unacceptable for the US to be ranked 15th out of 30 developed nations in the adoption of Broadband.
In his regular Saturday broadcast, Obama has promised that he would make the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. A high-tech new deal if you like, though he does suggest that his administration will move to bring all schools and hospitals on line so that they can communicate and share data across the Internet; I can hear Richard Granger and his NHS National Program for IT team dusting off their CV's as I type. But seriously in a month when over 1/2 a million Americans were released form their jobs and a further 1/4 million contractors sent home the proposals to revitalise the economy by investing tax $ in infrastructure and training is a lead that other countries should be following, giving people who have been laid off the opportunity to earn, learn and contribute to the future of their nation, perhaps for a short while it might remind people that creation of real things is what carries civilisation forward; not, pretend trading in made up things that benefit the very few.
In his regular Saturday broadcast, Obama has promised that he would make the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. A high-tech new deal if you like, though he does suggest that his administration will move to bring all schools and hospitals on line so that they can communicate and share data across the Internet; I can hear Richard Granger and his NHS National Program for IT team dusting off their CV's as I type. But seriously in a month when over 1/2 a million Americans were released form their jobs and a further 1/4 million contractors sent home the proposals to revitalise the economy by investing tax $ in infrastructure and training is a lead that other countries should be following, giving people who have been laid off the opportunity to earn, learn and contribute to the future of their nation, perhaps for a short while it might remind people that creation of real things is what carries civilisation forward; not, pretend trading in made up things that benefit the very few.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Sprint and Google show Wimax has legs with $3.2Bn Clearwire investment
Google, Comcast, Time Warner, Intel & Bright House have coughed up $3.2bn (about £2.1bn) and Sprint has 'donated' their country wide Wimax license to a new company Clearwire.As a connectivity nut I've been waiting for this since I first saw Wimax demo'ed at Intel back in 2003, it was low powered and pretty ropey but it worked. How things have changed take a look at this Clearwire Demo 7mb up 3mb down when your driving around, ok it's a demo: then again a $3.2Bn investment in the middle of the worst recession in 70+ yrs, tells me that they're sure it's going to work.
The reality of a truely mobile wireless high speed "broadband" internet is interesting (exciting) enough, but when it finally becomes ubiquitous as it will, forget personal Internet access for a moment think of the huge array options for in car entertainment, roadsafety, traffic management; streaming audio, video, headup displays, location based services and advertsing etc... I for one can't wait to see what opportunities this will eventually deliver.
In the realm of personal communications you can shove a lot down 7mbs; most of us will no longer need land-lines for home broadband, or telephony; most former PTTs can wave goodbye to their cash cows. You can see why the mobile service providers who have been poo-poo'ing Wimax for years, and who spent all those billions in overhyped auctions are certain to keep the Andrex puppy in dog biscuits for the next few years.
Remember as late as 2000 BT and Co were denying DSL Broadband would ever be widely available and that ISDN, X-25 and Dial-up was here to stay.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
THUS it came to pass, that CW finally squared up to BT...
For a couple of years we've felt Cable & Wireless has been heading in 'sort of' the right direction; focusing on profitable customers, core product lines, win-able business, etc. along with some pretty radical structural and staffing changes.
However, patience seemed to be wearing a bit thin after a business update for City analysts back in March this year, comments were made along the lines of "... this is all good stuff; but on this business plan, we don;t think you can turn it around fast enough!" Here's the presentation, and what you won't see in there, is any reference to plans to grow the customer base in SMB, mid-market, business broadband, or increased infrastructure investment in the UK.
I guess the city feedback must have focused minds on shorter term revenue generation. For just 6 weeks later, in a stunning volte-face CW announced plans to acquire THUS Telecom; possibly the most successful mid-market ISP in the country, Bringing with it customers in each of those categories, as well as £450m in new revenues, some tasty data centres, a mass of IP services expertise and a country wide NextGen IP network.
The change in the market place is profound. BackChannels own research data shows that over the last two years the "re-Energised" C&W has turned the corner; increasingly good at serving the larger corporate market, with significant project wins and a marked decrease in customer churn, they are starting to give Verizon and Sprint a run for their money. In the UK market the merged company forms the only broad-spectrum competitor to BT.
The ability of C&Ws management to listen to its shareholders and then to turn the whole company on a dime, must be keeping a few people awake over at BT Centre.
Hmm... Wonder what they'll do with Demons broadband customers :0)
However, patience seemed to be wearing a bit thin after a business update for City analysts back in March this year, comments were made along the lines of "... this is all good stuff; but on this business plan, we don;t think you can turn it around fast enough!" Here's the presentation, and what you won't see in there, is any reference to plans to grow the customer base in SMB, mid-market, business broadband, or increased infrastructure investment in the UK.
I guess the city feedback must have focused minds on shorter term revenue generation. For just 6 weeks later, in a stunning volte-face CW announced plans to acquire THUS Telecom; possibly the most successful mid-market ISP in the country, Bringing with it customers in each of those categories, as well as £450m in new revenues, some tasty data centres, a mass of IP services expertise and a country wide NextGen IP network.
The change in the market place is profound. BackChannels own research data shows that over the last two years the "re-Energised" C&W has turned the corner; increasingly good at serving the larger corporate market, with significant project wins and a marked decrease in customer churn, they are starting to give Verizon and Sprint a run for their money. In the UK market the merged company forms the only broad-spectrum competitor to BT.
The ability of C&Ws management to listen to its shareholders and then to turn the whole company on a dime, must be keeping a few people awake over at BT Centre.
Hmm... Wonder what they'll do with Demons broadband customers :0)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Protect the European Internet industry from Copyright Hawks
BackChannel strongly supports Telcom TVs "Throttle the Package" campaign, we ask that you do too and that you sign the petition to get it stopped.
Check it out; because if EU legislation proposed for passage into law in September goes through; your kids could get you and your family 'permanently' removed from the Internet.
With three aged between 6 and 15, the chance that they will stupidly download a song or watch a copyrighted clip on Youtube which could result in me permanently losing access to the Internet, and changing my life, is a real issue.
Having bamboozeled the French government, and the lunch time o'boozers in Brussels, the US copyright hawks are finally winning the war to end the principle of network as a conduit; a principle that has previously protected the personal privacy and human rights of the individual, and ensured that ISPs are not forced to act as on-line content police for the media industry.
If you're an ISP think what it would do to your business if you're forced to monitor the traffic on your networks and maybe hand over your customers details in order that they can be permanently remove from the online world.
Check it out; because if EU legislation proposed for passage into law in September goes through; your kids could get you and your family 'permanently' removed from the Internet.
With three aged between 6 and 15, the chance that they will stupidly download a song or watch a copyrighted clip on Youtube which could result in me permanently losing access to the Internet, and changing my life, is a real issue.
Having bamboozeled the French government, and the lunch time o'boozers in Brussels, the US copyright hawks are finally winning the war to end the principle of network as a conduit; a principle that has previously protected the personal privacy and human rights of the individual, and ensured that ISPs are not forced to act as on-line content police for the media industry.
If you're an ISP think what it would do to your business if you're forced to monitor the traffic on your networks and maybe hand over your customers details in order that they can be permanently remove from the online world.
Friday, June 06, 2008
"Vodafone is a national operator in mobile and we'll take that philosophy to the fixed line world as well"
In recent years New Zealand has become the place where technology companies go to test products, and hone business models prior to releasing them on a world stage.
After my comments on the likelyhood of Vodafone buying up more fixed line capability, one of my colleagues passed me this news report on Vodafone's LLU 'Red' Network in New Zealand.
Vodafone Red has unbundled half the exchanges in NZ's major cities and is busy working it's new triple-play across the country. Russell Stanners CEO of Vodafone NZ said " Vodafone is a national operator in mobile and we'll take that philosophy to the fixed line world as well,"
NZ's a small country so costs are manageable, but if Vodafone were planning such a move in the UK, they should look at THUS Plc. THUS already has the country wide LLU network in place and their Demon Internet subsidiary has many years of experience in providing consumer broadband and telephony.
After my comments on the likelyhood of Vodafone buying up more fixed line capability, one of my colleagues passed me this news report on Vodafone's LLU 'Red' Network in New Zealand.
Vodafone Red has unbundled half the exchanges in NZ's major cities and is busy working it's new triple-play across the country. Russell Stanners CEO of Vodafone NZ said " Vodafone is a national operator in mobile and we'll take that philosophy to the fixed line world as well,"
NZ's a small country so costs are manageable, but if Vodafone were planning such a move in the UK, they should look at THUS Plc. THUS already has the country wide LLU network in place and their Demon Internet subsidiary has many years of experience in providing consumer broadband and telephony.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Vanco demise: Real beats virtual...
Great news for traditional telco as customers discover that sometimes, real beats virtual...
Vanco looks like going the way of the many margin traders - just like the city boys they too have been caught out by in the credit crunch.
Vanco is fundamentally a buy low, sell and live on margins, business. They're now finding that as the market turns against you, you had better hope and pray that your backers will cover the gaps in your cash-flow.
Having seen the April earnings announcements I was a bit surprised to read the news, especially to discover that analysts, whose praises just weeks ago drove the stock to an all time high, saying "we don't expect to see any value in the companies equity."
Could they have seen it coming? with hindsight probably: 3 things coming together have almost certainly caused a crunch in the companies cash flow, and collapse in the confidence of its backers and investors.
1) Tightening of economic climate causing slow payments from debtors
2) Channel stretching the elastic in the supply chain to breaking
3) Creditors unwilling to increase their risk and extend fresh terms
BackChannel work with enough Telco and ITC companies to know that the big customers are using their buying power to push out average payments, and with a growing and aggressive channel this will have been compounded by the number of links in the cashflow system.
This is always going to be an uncomfortable time in any board room especially bearing in mind and a few months ago Vanco CEO, Allen Timpany, hinted that their backers were not a very amenable bunch, "they want us to build a £200m business when we should be building a £2bn business". After they issued a profits warning in Aug 2007 we can only speculate how the relationship between founders and backers went, but it might have been opportune for someone should have reminded them of the Golden Rule: The man with the Gold makes the rules!
Vanco looks like going the way of the many margin traders - just like the city boys they too have been caught out by in the credit crunch.
Vanco is fundamentally a buy low, sell and live on margins, business. They're now finding that as the market turns against you, you had better hope and pray that your backers will cover the gaps in your cash-flow.
Having seen the April earnings announcements I was a bit surprised to read the news, especially to discover that analysts, whose praises just weeks ago drove the stock to an all time high, saying "we don't expect to see any value in the companies equity."
Could they have seen it coming? with hindsight probably: 3 things coming together have almost certainly caused a crunch in the companies cash flow, and collapse in the confidence of its backers and investors.
1) Tightening of economic climate causing slow payments from debtors
2) Channel stretching the elastic in the supply chain to breaking
3) Creditors unwilling to increase their risk and extend fresh terms
BackChannel work with enough Telco and ITC companies to know that the big customers are using their buying power to push out average payments, and with a growing and aggressive channel this will have been compounded by the number of links in the cashflow system.
This is always going to be an uncomfortable time in any board room especially bearing in mind and a few months ago Vanco CEO, Allen Timpany, hinted that their backers were not a very amenable bunch, "they want us to build a £200m business when we should be building a £2bn business". After they issued a profits warning in Aug 2007 we can only speculate how the relationship between founders and backers went, but it might have been opportune for someone should have reminded them of the Golden Rule: The man with the Gold makes the rules!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
SofNet 2008 - The great BT love-in
Barring a fire on the last day, the Sofnet 2008 conference and exhibition has been a great success, just about every industry Journalist and Analyst I know, or know of, has beaten a path here to London's Olympia Conference centre.
So for an event that emphasizes the convergence of the global ' telecom networks with software, why the 10meter stands filled up with hardware vendors? Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent, Hauwei, Nokia all showing a presence (no Cisco). I guess the answer is the identity of the host sponsor, BT, and in the list of speakers and panel members, which is rather heavy on BT senior staffers.
People tend to be a bit dismissive of BT on a world stage, but here is why the great and the good turn out to fate BT: - A report from the department of innovation, universities and skills shows BT as the UKs largest investor in R&D and in fixed line infrastructure. So for the vendors it's great opportunity to share a platform and network with the golden geese that will see them through the credit crunch.
So for an event that emphasizes the convergence of the global ' telecom networks with software, why the 10meter stands filled up with hardware vendors? Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent, Hauwei, Nokia all showing a presence (no Cisco). I guess the answer is the identity of the host sponsor, BT, and in the list of speakers and panel members, which is rather heavy on BT senior staffers.
People tend to be a bit dismissive of BT on a world stage, but here is why the great and the good turn out to fate BT: - A report from the department of innovation, universities and skills shows BT as the UKs largest investor in R&D and in fixed line infrastructure. So for the vendors it's great opportunity to share a platform and network with the golden geese that will see them through the credit crunch.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
CW: PanAm or VirginAtlantic
This weeks analyst call was a toughie for CWs pilgrim and his team of Energisers. I just watched webcast; skip the bit about the Caribbean, it's all phone minutes.
Times Online reported one analyst saying: “Their plans are far too long term for this market. They need a quicker fix than this.” Mate! Go find something else to analyse! If you haven't worked out that there is no quick fix for telco, you're' in the wrong job.
It's not a CW specific problem; it is the same for all the Telco's: After 100yrs of selling voice minutes somebody invented the Internet, and that's having the same effect that airliners had on oceanliners. Massive increase in traffic, loads of competition, and a huge drop in revenues per head as customer choice expands.
In todays financial markets this is a recipe for volatility, and volatility = risk. SO, vicious circle; everyone's risk averse, so everyone's looking for the quick fix, and there isn;t one. The answer for the service providers is to sell core services, to valuable customers over their own networks, and, once they have those customers keep them. Not so simple as it sounds.
After years of volatility, crashing stock prices and stranded passengers; the airline industry introduced Revenue Management in the '80's. They filled their planes with the customers who provided the best economic return. First class, business, early bookers, flexi-tickets, block bookers, loyalty card holders, late bookers all became categories that were given quota's, and managed using sophisticated booking models. They didn't invent anything, or come up with fabulous new killer services! They just provided a core service and managed their customers more effectively.
Telco's must do what the airlines did, introduce Revenue Management and fill their networks with valuable customers. It was realising this fact about 4 years ago that caused us to give up the day job and start BackChannel.
So, CW, PanAm or Virgin Atlantic? Personally, left to it's own devices I think CW has the potential to become a truly global telecoms provider; they have the network, the services, the contacts and the mindset to do the job. Question is; Do they have the time?
Times Online reported one analyst saying: “Their plans are far too long term for this market. They need a quicker fix than this.” Mate! Go find something else to analyse! If you haven't worked out that there is no quick fix for telco, you're' in the wrong job.
It's not a CW specific problem; it is the same for all the Telco's: After 100yrs of selling voice minutes somebody invented the Internet, and that's having the same effect that airliners had on oceanliners. Massive increase in traffic, loads of competition, and a huge drop in revenues per head as customer choice expands.
In todays financial markets this is a recipe for volatility, and volatility = risk. SO, vicious circle; everyone's risk averse, so everyone's looking for the quick fix, and there isn;t one. The answer for the service providers is to sell core services, to valuable customers over their own networks, and, once they have those customers keep them. Not so simple as it sounds.
After years of volatility, crashing stock prices and stranded passengers; the airline industry introduced Revenue Management in the '80's. They filled their planes with the customers who provided the best economic return. First class, business, early bookers, flexi-tickets, block bookers, loyalty card holders, late bookers all became categories that were given quota's, and managed using sophisticated booking models. They didn't invent anything, or come up with fabulous new killer services! They just provided a core service and managed their customers more effectively.
Telco's must do what the airlines did, introduce Revenue Management and fill their networks with valuable customers. It was realising this fact about 4 years ago that caused us to give up the day job and start BackChannel.
So, CW, PanAm or Virgin Atlantic? Personally, left to it's own devices I think CW has the potential to become a truly global telecoms provider; they have the network, the services, the contacts and the mindset to do the job. Question is; Do they have the time?
Monday, February 04, 2008
Pipex Business to lose prime asset - It's name!
Tiscali's acquisition of the Pipex Broadband last year, has had an interesting knock on. It appears that as part of the deal Tiscali acquired the PIPEX brand; so the business end of the operation has got to change it's name. The new name for PIPEX Business is apparently Vialtus .
It's been a long journey for the PIPEX name, since the Monday morning in 1991 when the original founder, Peter Dawe, bounced into my office and said "hey Steve; Public IP Exchange - PIPEX, what do you reckon?!" I doubt it mattered what I thought, but he was clearly excited. For weeks he had been struggling to find a really "meaningful and pointy" name for the UKs first commercial Internet services provider.
Despite many changes of hands, PIPEX has remained a benchmark of the UK internet scene; justifiably known for it's quality products, support and services ethos. Pipex continued to grow business customers even as it became better known for its consumer offerings.
Losing such an established brand identity is a big issue for any business. But for an established ISP, ouch!! Ofcom reference over 500 ISPs in the UK; even when you take out those who are just reselling other peoples services, it's still over 170 competitors servicing UK business.
The market is overcrowded, economic situation is tightening and competition for corporate customers is now from international players like AT&T, Colt, Verizon and Rackspace. Even with a big bag of money from the sale of the consumer business; it's a brave time to launch a new brand.
So what next, well with the PIPEX name gone we think another power brand is likely to step in and pick up the business; as well as a lot of customers it has some very desirable physical assets.
Cable & Wireless, THUS, and Oakley Capital have all been named as possible suitors. Given their stated strategy of shedding customers, it would be mixed signals to the city from C&W, Oakley would probably want it for "parts", increasingly successful UK operator THUS would seem to make much more sense.
Who knows, BT might even re-enter the fray; our latest research data, published next week, shows it could sorely use a couple of percent more market share in it's ongoing battle for corporate IP customers with US giant Verizon.
It's been a long journey for the PIPEX name, since the Monday morning in 1991 when
Despite many changes of hands, PIPEX has remained a benchmark of the UK internet scene; justifiably known for it's quality products, support and services ethos. Pipex continued to grow business customers even as it became better known for its consumer offerings.
Losing such an established brand identity is a big issue for any business. But for an established ISP, ouch!! Ofcom reference over 500 ISPs in the UK; even when you take out those who are just reselling other peoples services, it's still over 170 competitors servicing UK business.
The market is overcrowded, economic situation is tightening and competition for corporate customers is now from international players like AT&T, Colt, Verizon and Rackspace. Even with a big bag of money from the sale of the consumer business; it's a brave time to launch a new brand.
So what next, well with the PIPEX name gone we think another power brand is likely to step in and pick up the business; as well as a lot of customers it has some very desirable physical assets.
Cable & Wireless, THUS, and Oakley Capital have all been named as possible suitors. Given their stated strategy of shedding customers, it would be mixed signals to the city from C&W, Oakley would probably want it for "parts", increasingly successful UK operator
Who knows, BT might even re-enter the fray; our latest research data, published next week, shows it could sorely use a couple of percent more market share in it's ongoing battle for corporate IP customers with US giant Verizon.
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