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Please contact:
Jeffrey Geddes
Account Manager, Heavy Reading Insider Services
303-997-9135
or via email at:
geddes@
lightreading.com |
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| Content Delivery Platforms: The Next Big SDP Dilemma |
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Network operators recognize the revenue-earning potential of digital content services, but they have typically approached content services in a highly opportunistic and fragmented way, with different parts of their organizations seizing the initiative for particular types of content service, each often supported by its own "siloed" service delivery platform.
The commercial and technical difficulties involved in gaining access to mobile networks and handsets have allowed mobile operators tight control over their "on-portal" content value chains, enabling them to take a high percentage of service transaction revenue. The opportunity has been less rosy for content owners and providers, who have had to strike deals with different types of operators, and often with different groups within the same operator organization, depending on whether they deliver content over a broadband or mobile network. Only the largest content providers have been able to support multiple relationships with operators, leaving mobile subscribers unable to access the wealth of innovative services available on the fixed Internet.
In the past year, the mobile Internet has begun to free itself from operator-imposed constraints and is developing in leaps and bounds. Mobile devices can now access the Internet natively through sophisticated new browsers, rather than through an operator's (limited) wireless application protocol (WAP) portal. Companies such as Google and open source initiatives such as LiMo Foundation have promised developments to ensure application compatibility across many different devices, which are beginning to allow subscribers to download Web-based content services to any mobile device. The Apple iPhone, for example, has succeeded in getting U.S. mobile operators to take off-portal, Internet-based services seriously.
It is clear that operators will need a sharper set of content delivery functions that will not add cost or detract from an operator's flexibility by perpetuating functional silos. Content delivery platforms will need to be properly integrated with the service-layer infrastructure operators are putting in place to support core network services if they want to be able to offer innovative blends of content and core services, interesting and personalized service offers, and appropriate customer experience. The same service-layer function can also open up to third-party content partners, including content owners and aggregators, providing them with robust and downsizable office support functions and enabling an entire value chain to create profit from subscriber content service transactions.
Currently, many network operators see content delivery as "parked on the edge" of service delivery platform/operations support systems (OSS)/business support systems (BSS) transformation programs, while the content services market is moving on rapidly. The large vendors engaged with operators on these programs have begun to work on their content delivery strategies and have acquired technology companies for help, but there is still much work to do to secure the operator's role in this market.
This report examines the roles open to network operators in emerging content delivery value chains and the range of content delivery infrastructure functions needed to support those roles. It discusses and analyses the operators' need to strengthen and revise their content delivery capabilities for new technologies and tighten integration with common service-layer systems. The report evaluates the option to outsource infrastructure roles and capabilities, especially as new entrant content aggregators (that have invested in highly efficient content delivery platforms and processes) are likely to be more cost-effective in their provision of personalized customer interfaces and choice of services. It then analyses the impact that market change and new operator requirements will have on the vendor community, especially the myriad small mobile content delivery technology vendors. Finally, the report identifies and analyzes 16 leading technology suppliers in this emerging market sector.
Content Delivery Platforms: The Next Big SDP Dilemma provides critical insight and analysis for a range of industry participants, including:
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Telecom network operators needing insight into new revenue opportunities that are emerging in the content delivery sector, and which framework technologies will provide the best options for maximizing these new revenue streams |
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Technology suppliers assessing the most likely prospects for growth and development in the content delivery platform sector |
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Content suppliers looking for a detailed analysis of how network operators are likely to emerge within the content delivery value chain, and how their changing roles will affect the economics of digital content delivery |
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Investors looking for insight into the impact that content delivery frameworks will have on the telecom services sector, and which companies are best positioned to succeed |
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| Sample research data from the report is shown in the excerpts below: |
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 Table of Contents (ssi0708toc.pdf) |
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| Current content delivery products provide a wide array of features and options, but this is not necessarily a good thing for network operators. The wide disparity in features and functions reflects the ad hoc approach to how content delivery frameworks have been constructed by network operators and their suppliers. Operators now face the daunting task of rationalizing their content delivery silos to reduce costs, accelerate the time-to-market of new content, leverage service offers across multiple service types and multiple channels (for convergent fixed/mobile operators), and provide their customers with a better content service experience in the face of growing competition. The following table shows the varied nature of content delivery products from leading vendors in the market and highlights the challenges that operators face in rationalizing content delivery infrastructures. |
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| [click on the image above for the full excerpt] |
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 Companies profiled in this report include: Accenture Ltd. (NYSE: ACN); Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU); Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX); ChangingWorlds; EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC); Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC); Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ); IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM); Motricity Inc..; Myxer; Nokia Ovi, a subsidiary of Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK); Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture of Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) and Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE); Novarra Inc., Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM); Tira Wireless Inc.; and Volantis Systems Ltd. |
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| Total pages: 29 |
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| To view reports you will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader. If you do not have it, it can be obtained for free at the Adobe web site. |
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