NSN Goes Green to Woo Operator Hearts and Minds

On November 20th NSN launched its Energy Efficiency solution. Focused on profitable, environmentally sustainable business models, the solution includes four key elements: minimizing the number of network sites; energy efficient base stations; limiting base station cooling requirements; network usage optimizing software. In tandem, an "energy efficient" deployment with China Mobile was announced and NSN signaled energy efficiency as a core component of the company's operating strategy.

Analytical Summary

► Current Perspective: Very positive on Nokia Siemens Networks' (NSN) new Energy Efficiency initiative. By implementing incremental equipment changes (ambient cooling, coverage enhancing software) along with sound business practices, the vendor is in a position to tap operator concerns over the environment. More importantly, the moves address operator business concerns (deliver OpEx savings) and come with a commercial endorsement (a deployment with China Mobile). Ultimately, however, limited details on how efficiency gains are obtained may leave some operators doubting their credibility while a deeper foc

► Vendor Importance: High to NSN, because energy efficiency is increasingly important to mobile network operators. Like most companies, cellcos are looking to be good corporate citizens and limit their impact on the environment, if only to look good to their customers. And, in an effort to keep OpEx in check, energy efficient networks are a prime candidate for cost cutting. NSN had to respond to these demands if only to match the efforts of Ericsson, a fellow GSM/UMTS leader who has already taken the time to highlight its efforts to be “green.”

► Market Impact: High on the wireless infrastructure market, because with market leaders including NSN and Ericsson both moving to highlight their focus on the environment and energy efficiency, it’s only a matter of time before competitors need to follow suit. NSN’s win with China Mobile aside, it is too early to know how a focus on energy efficiency will impact its sales.

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Redknee Creates ATM on a Handset for Emerging Markets

On November 19th Redknee announced that it has extended its real-time Turnkey Converged Billing solution with the introduction of Mobile Money Services. The new feature is an option available to mobile operators who want to offer secure, easy-to-use and cost-effective mobile money capabilities to enable faster and easier remittances for emerging markets. For many emerging markets the mobile device is the only device available to support commerce and the adoption of new revenue sources.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Tekelec and Italtel that have both partnered with BEA to fill holes in each companies IMS/NGN product portfolio and because it helps fulfill the needs of the Service Delivery Platform (SDP) for both wireline and wireless networks should look to add similar capability to their solutions and services. This type of mobile banking is typical of the benefits that will be associated with FMC.

► ClairMail should highlight its offering in mobile banking and payment applications that enable the use of a phone’s existing messaging and mobile web software to extend the capabilities of third-party native client applications. ClairMail should note that previous generations of mobile banking software only worked on a subset of high-end PDAs, with its solution, virtually all mobile phones with text-based and Web-enabled capabilities can be leveraged to offer new high-value mobile banking services.

► Oracle should highlight the capabilities it offers mobile operators as part of its communications solutions. Oracle should show how its solutions enable revenue generation over fixed and mobile networks by supporting a variety of services (mobile voice, data, video, and content) that can be leveraged by operators to support mobile commerce. Oracle should highlight its carrier-grade applications, middleware, database, and decision-support tools which are based on the strengths of PeopleSoft, Siebel, Portal Software, MetaSolv and others.

► Tier 1 vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks should highlight their ability to provide a one-stop solution for everything from the mobile infrastructure to an integrated OSS/BSS turnkey solution. Each should highlight the success in helping mobile operators address the changing mobile services market and outline architectures and solutions that can provide flexible mobile services and new revenue opportunities derived from mobile commerce.

► VeriSign should highlight the solutions it provides for mobile banking to facilitate the delivery of easy-to-use mobile banking services. VeriSign should also stress its ability to offer managed services as well as its broad portfolio of mobile commerce services that help produce new revenue streams for targeted markets. VeriSign should also tout its security heritage and strong partnerships with leading suppliers and mobile operators.

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Why the Femto Forum Is (Somewhat) Important

For the past year, femtocells have been a hot topic. As operators investigate FMC as a way to grow their ARPU and cut their OpEx budgets, femtocells represent an attractive option; deploying a “mini base station” into the house avoids forcing users to choose from a small number of dual-mode WiFi devices (often expensive, often poorly featured) while giving the operator deeper control (i.e., ownership) over the solution.

Against this backdrop, the recent ballooning of the Femto Forum’s membership ranks garnered a lot of attention… and rightly so. Seemingly overnight, the Forum grew from seven founding members to nearly 40. What’s more, the Forum grew from a group of small companies (mostly start-ups) to an organization backed by major wireless infrastructure vendors, femtocells vendors, software suppliers, core network players, and mobile network operators. The basic importance of this transformation is obvious. New members signal a growing interest in the femtocell industry… interest from a broad cross-section of the telecom landscape.

Yet, with femtocell trials ongoing (and more planned over the next year), a broad interest in the market was already well understood. So, beyond the fact that it now has a larger set of dues-paying members, is there any reason to care about the Femto Forum and its new composition?

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