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Home · About · A-Z Index · Search · Contacts · Press · Register · Login Plenary - Boundaryless Information Flow:
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Conference Home Page Proceedings Index Allen Brown, The Open Group Kouji Ohboshi, NTT DoCoMo Rupert Reid, ARC Group Mark Briers, Manx Telecom Dr. Won-Sic Han, KT Dr. Terry Ahn Ryan Jarvis, CEO Megabeam Richard Paine, The Boeing Company Giles Allain, Symbian Amy Mokady, Qualcomm Mike Short, Vice President, Technology O2, Chairman MDA Emil Sturniolo, NetMotion Wireless Mikko Riepula, Wificom Mike Lambert, The Open Group Conference Home Page Proceedings Index
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IntroductionAllen Brown - President of The Open GroupAllan Brown welcomed attendees to the Wireless Data Summit and outlined the structure of the day. Following the keynote presentation from Mr. Ohboshi of NTT, during the rest of the morning participants would hear from an industry analyst and four service providers. The afternoon session will add the customer perspective, from Richard Paine of Boeing, the view from platform vendors before bringing together representatives of other consortia working in the same area. to understand their views and activities. Allen them welcomed the keynote speaker, Mr. Ohboshi from Japan. Ohboshi-san presided over NTT Docomo in the role of chairman during the phenomenal growth of I-mode, the most successful roll out of any wireless data activity. He is now a strategic advisor to NTT Docomo.
Mr. Ohboshi started by explaining the challenge of using IT to vitalize the Japanese economy and creating new markets. The average GDP growth in Japan between 1997 and 2000 was only 0.7% compared to 4.2% in the USA. Operational improvement through the use of IT should yield a surplus to invest in market creation. Increased use of IT in E-Japan should benefit suppliers, users and consumers and result in new employment. In terms of market size, Business to Consumer E-commerce is expected to grow by a factor of 20 between 1999 and 2004 to exceed 6 trillion yen in 2004. Revenue in Business to Business E-commerce will grow to more than 160 trillion yen in the same period, through the implementation of E-Japan and the broad availability of broadband connections. There are 4 major strategies to make Japan a world class IT country.
Although large Japanese companies are reluctant to invest in IT, the aggressive schedule for E-Japan is fixed because it is funded by the government. Mr. Ohboshi expressed confidence that the introduction of IT into government will trigger new growth in the Japanese economy. According to the Swiss Based IMT, Japanese companies have fallen to 30th in the world in terms of International Competitiveness. This is due to a lack of a "challenging spirit" and entrepreneurship. Japanese companies have been repeated the same mistakes. A breakthrough is necessary. Mr. Ohboshi then went on to describe the way in which he approached the creation of the mobile phone market in Japan and the way he applied socio-economic theory to achieve market growth. The first mobile car phones were launched in 1979, but market take-up was very slow. In 1992 Docomo was split out from NTT as a separate company. In then 1990s, Japanese people were becoming more affluent.
Understanding these trends provided a basis for the decisions which built NTT Docomo. An initial ABC analysis revealed 3 major problems which needed to be overcome to grow the mobile phone market:
Within 18 months these three problems had been addressed, with a more 3 dimensional service, smaller phones and a reduction in tariffs by a factor of 3. The result was explosive growth in number of subscribers and revenue. By 1996, the growth curve was flattening out as the market approached saturation and more importantly, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) was dropping. With strong competition and almost identical services from different suppliers, the only competition was on price. Something new was needed to reverse the trend. The I-mode service was conceived to address the demand for information .. mental wealth, by connecting the mobile service to the internet. For NTT Docomo this represented a business shift from volume to value-added. The operating model is the same as for the Walkman and the Game Station. People don't purchase the hardware along .. their major value is in the music and entertainment. Mr. Ohboshi concluded by looking forward to an Information Renaissance stimulated by ubiquitous broadband connection. In Japan there is already an optical fiber service from NTT and other companies. E-Japan will result in 80% of households having a 50-100 Mb connection by 2005 with an always-on service for $20-$30 (per month). Broadband offers higher capacity and lower price. The virtual world becomes closer to the real world (e.g. Video conferencing, TV learning systems). Broadband will change information society in many ways. Broadband will enable ubiquitous networking, which is very important. Just like the invention of printing in the middle ages spread knowledge beyond the aristocracy and stimulated the Renaissance, ubiquitous networking will break down barriers and create a Renaissance of the Information Society. Medical world can access information about hospitals. Medical world know who is better than the others but don't disclose. In general there is information owned by suppliers is much greater than available to consumers. This will change in the future. Broadband and wearable mobile phones will eliminate barriers of time and space. Information and knowledge will spread in a flat horizontal manner to everyone. The Japanese economy is in recession because information is kept by top management. Young people with new ideas are not given enough information to utilize their talent. The ubiquitous network will collapse pyramid organizations and create horizontal organizations allowing young people to use their creativity. In future TV will become more interactive,. Viewer will be producer of information as well as consumer .. they will become "prosumers". In universities, knowledge is currently owned and monopolized by professors. Pyramid organization of universities will collapse. I hope that activities such as The Open Group will facilitate the ubiquitous network which will stimulate the intellectual interest of the general public and pyramid organizations will collapse. NTT itself is becoming bigger. It is becoming more difficult to be creative and make fast decisions. Venture companies will have more opportunities in the new world. SOHO is creating a big market in the information Renaissance. Lifetime education will become more unimportant. In the future we will create a new market, a new economic zone in Asia to exchange information to create an intellectually rich and affluent world. That is what we have to do as management of big companies. To establish infrastructure we need to rely on younger generations and the talents of organizations like The Open Group. Q&A
ARC is a UK based independent telecoms consultancy company. Rupert Reid gave a broad overview of how ARC sees the wireless data market evolving. In 5 years time voice will still account for 2/3 of operators revenue in 5 years time and the key mobile application will still be messaging and internet access. In that period, there will be an enormous proliferation of mobile devices; telematics and end-to-end solutions have enormous growth potential. Security and consistency of data are major strategic issues that need to be addressed at an enterprise level. A recent survey showed that the main drivers and inhibitors to growth of wireless data are handset usability, availability of applications and interoperability standards. For the wireless data market to grow, there needs to be a paradigm shift within enterprises, so that mobility is integrated at a strategic level, and service providers need to provide cost effective and easy to use services and focus on ROI to the enterprise. The presentation included a series of examples of how wireless technology can be integrated into various types of operation and concluded with ARC's view of how the market will evolve. Future revenue models will be a mix of subscription and flat fee services. Large companies in high technology, financial, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and courier markets will lead the way. SMEs and enterprises with large mobile work forces will form the early majority. In terms of applications, key areas will be the mobile office, mobile workforce and enterprise solutions. B2C usage will drop from 83% to 54% of mobile services revenue by 2007; the major growth will be in B2E. In summary, in the view of ARC, the critical success factors for realizing the mobile enterprise opportunity are
and the key implementation issues
Q&A
The Isle of Man is a small island in the middle of the Irish Sea. It was chosen to become the testbed for 3G technology, with the advantage of a manageable geography, a supportive government and a supportive parent company (o2). It represents a microcosm of larger markets, an opportunity for cost effective learning and a showcase for partners (information, equipment providers etc.). Manx Telecom has a history of early roll out of new technology. The 3G network was installed during December 2001 and July 2001. 28 nodes provide near full-island coverage. Alpha and beta trials took place in September 2001 and October 2001. The presentation included a promotion video showing what has been achieved to date, including video on demand, high speed internet access and innovative interactive applications (such as a location based information service). The project press launch was on December 4th 2001. Customer trials included 200 single mode devices (i.e. 3G only). The technology worked well .. the main issue is how to make a business out of the service. During the trials, the service was free of charge. Charges were introduced from August 2002. The 3G showcase applications included video telephony, on-line games, live and archive video, location services, information services and mobile office. At least parts of many of these applications can be and are being delivered satisfactorily on GSM and GPRS. The presentation included additional information about several application areas:
In summary, Manx Telecom sees 3G as a gradual evolution from their existing 2G and 2.5G services. The showcase yielded very positive press and analysts comments.
Dr. Won-Sic Hahn, presented plans and current status of the deployment of a public Wireless Lan service. Korea is a world leader in broadband data, with 53% of the world's connections. KT has almost 50% of the Korean market, largely through its DSL connections. To develop the market, KT identified an opportunity between the existing wired broadband service (with high throughput and low mobility) and the CDMA wireless service (with low throughput but high mobility). Home, office and hot spot based wireless LAN services provides high throughput with some mobility. There is estimated to be a market for more than 4 million subscribers of such a service by 2006. The motivation for KT to create the service is the raid growth of both mobile phone services and internet usage and a growing demand from high-end power users for high-speed and reasonably priced internet service, together with the development of smaller, smarter terminals. The business objective of the KT-NESPOT service is to meet the increasing demands for mobile internet access through the convergence of fixed-line broadband and mobile internet access. The framework is a combination of xDSL + Wireless LAN for indoor wireless internet and W-CDMA for outdoor mobile internet. KT is well positioned to deliver this service, with a large target marker, existing xDSL network, cheap access point technology and a back-end service to handle security and authorization. As of September 2002, more than 5000 hot spots were in service, with another 7000 planned by the end of the year. Target locations include university campuses, exhibitions centers and theaters, shopping centers, hotels, coffee shops banks etc. By developing the NESPOT business model by convergence of wired and wireless, KT Group will provide broadband mobility solution for home, office and hot spot users, will give roaming service with KT mobile service players for mobile users and support the introduction of applications and services in support of mobile users.
KTF was founded in 1997. It is 40% owned by KT and has a 33% share of the Korean wireless market. 65% of the Korean population now have a cellular phone; in the 25-35 age band this is 98%. The KTF mobile internet service has evolved from interactive SMS in 1998 to the launch of 3G in the middle. KT have used their wireless internet services to maintain ARPU (Average Revenue Per User).
The key to success is delivery of value to customers .. "Fast, Easy, Fun and Useful". KT was an early mover with the launch of Data Services in 1998 together with data enabled handsets and the basic infrastructure for the mobile internet. Handset functions were defined by KT, not by the manufacturer. The key elements of success were effective marketing and promotion,
effective customer training and a large number of content and service
providers.
Megabeam is a pan-European wireless LAN hotspot provider, having deals with 12 airports across Europe. growing to about 18 by the end of 2002, with service across 11 countries. Together with roaming agreements, this gives Megabeam a unique footprint, with 500 locations across Europe, focused entirely on the business traveler. Megabeam is looking at a wholesale model, selling service through existing service providers. Customer opportunity: Early adopters belong to multi-national corporate customers, who have issues with high cost and low speed of dial-up and GPRS. Such companies have the technology and capability and are able to support VPNs. Specific needs
Business travelers need to connect from
Does this satisfy all corporate needs? No
Forecast for subscribers to wireless LAN in Europe is about 100,000 now, growing very quickly. How will corporate customers set about buying wireless LAN services?
To many corporate customers, wireless LAN access looks more like an IT service than a telecom service. Market ecology developing where corporate service providers, rather than wireless LAN service providers are best placed to sell the service in the long term. Wireless LAN operators have taken the lead in deployment. In summary, the wireless ISPs represent an opportunity to corporate service providers because they already have the agreements with locations and installed infrastructures.
Richard Paine introduced the vision of the MMF any data over any network to any device. The MMF has developed an architecture for session management using a client server architecture to maintain state across multiple bearers. The Secure Mobile Architecture activity builds on this work. 2000/2001 deployment scenarios:
Boeing strategy:
Wireless LAN background:
Deployment plans in Boeing:
Expecting to see convergence of cellular and WLAN with seemless transition between networks. There are a number of projects already in progress, mostly driven by the service providers. Seamless Mobility Deployments: The goal is a distributed IP-based infrastructure with rapid seemless service deployment. This needs to support transitions between all kinds of networks, including staellite, wide area, neighborhood, in-building, personal. The most important one to focus on is that between WANs and WLANs. This leads to the fundamental requirements for a Secure Messaging Architecture
There are many that need to be addressed
The requirements are captured in the "Executive on the Move Scenario" developed by the MMF, which includes secure communications over:]
The vision is for a simple set of IP based protocols which include an integrated approach to security. Basic principles are
Conclusions and recommendations
Giles Allain set up to explain where Symbian fits into enterprise IT strategy and how Symbian can help the enterprise. Overall, the most important needs for enterprises for the operating platform for mobile computing:
All of these requirements are met by the Symbian OS. The Symbian OS is open in 2 ways:
Key features includesd to allow enterprises to deploy mobile devices, include
Symbian started with non-interoperable PDAs and has developed to high volume, interoperable devices with a variety of form factors. Symbian OS is becoming a dominant OS because it is working to build the features that enterprises need. It is jointly owned by a group of phone manufacturers and licensed by many other companies.
Amy Mokady gave an overview of the BREW system. She started by explaining that REW is substantially different to the previous presentation. The focus for BREW is getting data onto devices which are fundamentally mobile phones, the "device of last resort" that you will always have with you. BREW includes the complete end-to-end solution, including the back end information servers. The first commercial implementation started in November 2001 in Korea, with KDDI and Verizon deploying systems in 2002. There are now 2.5 million BREW users worldwide, with more than 30 handset manufacturer parners. BREW places great importance on application developers. Globally there are many ranging from enterprise applications to entertainment and games. The market for BREW is the corporate mobile user with the following requirements:
To achieve this, the key components of a complete mobile solution, such as BREW are:
BREW allows company with a large IT department to make available access to enterprise applications. A very important feature is remote provisioning, which gives the corporate IT department the ability to download AND REMOVE applications and information. (So if the phone is lost, sensitive data and applications cane be removed).
Mike Short introduced the MDA, one of the supporting organizations of the Wireless Data Summit. The MDA is a membership organization, with an extensive membership including all of the major wireless service providers, that
Activities include
The MDA operates the text-it campaign on behalf of the four GSM network operators in the UK, to promote and measure the use of SMS. One recent success has been the agreement of cross network short codes (especially useful in interactive TV shows using SMS for audience participation). The success of the campaign is seen in the continuing growth of SMS traffic, expected to hit 60 million messages per day by the end of 2002. These activities will be extended to WAP, which now enjoys 9 million messages per day. The main role of the MDA is to bring out case studies and statistics. The WEB site has recently been relaunched. http://www.text.it Emil Sturniolo gave a brief overview of the activities of the PCCA (Portable Computer & Communications Association), a long standing membership organisation formed in 1992, with a long list of members, primarily vendors.
The PCCA has been responsible for some significant standards work, primarily in the area of communication to modems, with a recent focus on ensuring that the needs of wireless modems are reflected:
Since 2000, PCCA has held quarterly technical meetings:
The next meeting will focus on the subject of Public Wireless Hot Spots (to be hosted by IBM in Raleigh, SC on November 6th 2002) The PCCA Wiireless Workshop Task Force meets alongside the quarterly
meetings and focuses on interoperability testing of all network components from the user/IT perspective.
The first joint meeting is likely to take place in San Francisco in
February 2002.
Mikko Riepula presented the objectives and status of Pass-One, an association of Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs). Wificom is a founder member of Pass-One. The WLAN hot-spot market faces a number of problems:
There is a need for roaming between hot spots. Currently:
The objective of Pass-One is to establish a framework for roaming between its current and future members. Pass-One is concerned with end-user (i.e. authentication roaming), not with seamless handover between or within technologies/networks. Pass-One works co-operatively with WECA, the technical standards body for WIFI interoperability. Pass-One is seeking to establish an easily recognized service mark for hot spots provided by its member WISPs. There is an opportunity for The Open Group in defining service standards.
The major problem was that the combination of fears over travel and the state of the US economy meant that a lot of people who would normally attend were unable or unwilling to do so. The information collected today will be fed into The Open Group. It will be made available to members of our Forums and more publicly through our WEB site and through WEBcasts. Mike was very keen to build bridges with other organizations. The Open Group wants Boundaryless Information Flow between consortia. The Open Group already have some liaisons in place. Discussions are already underway with Pass-One and OMA; these relationships are important to The Open Group. The relationships between cause and effect in the morning presentations was fascinating. In both Japan and Korea it was clear that a homogeneous service caused market growth. If we allow cross bearer roaming and hot spot roaming to become too complicated, customers will not use the services. |
