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To: djane who wrote (3434)	3/16/1999 4:26:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

*Roaming study reveals scale of over-charging totaltele.com By David Molony and Joanne Taaffe 15 March 1999 Mobile business users are paying as much as three times the basic cost for international roaming in Europe, according to a new study commissioned by Europe's main user association. The European branch of the International Telecommunications User Group (INTUG-Europe), based in Montrichard, France, said business mobile phone users should be paying about E1 for a typical call lasting two-and-a-quarter minutes. But preliminary results from a review commissioned from Copenhagen-based independent consultancy Fischer & Lorenz AS show that roaming business subscribers in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom are paying as much as E3 for a call that long. "INTUG has been highly successful in bringing down tariffs for fixed line," said Patrick Donegan, mobile analyst at the Yankee Group Europe, of Watford, England. "With mobile growing rapidly as a proportion of total telecom costs, INTUG is finally starting to turn its attention to mobile tariffs." The study is the first comparative review of mobile roaming charges across Europe. Although the European Commission undertook an investigation of the mobile sector last year, that study only looked at the charges made for delivering a call to a mobile phone across the fixed network. Even though the new study has so far only collected data from operators in six countries, INTUG claims it already shows that mobile operators are charging too much. "All the operators in this study are overcharging roaming guests," said Allan Fischer-Madsen, consultant at Fischer & Lorenz. "Many are also overcharging their own domestic subscribers [for international calls]." The study compares the price a visiting mobile user pays to roam across a local operator's network with the charge the operator levies on its own domestic subscribers for making international calls from a mobile phone. But Yankee's Donegan said the real costs of international roaming lay in excessive underlying international call charges, rather than in the roaming premium. And not all user groups are as concerned as INTUG. The French association, Cigref of Paris, which represents the chief information officers of large French companies such as Renault SA and Framatome SA, is instead focusing on the overall cost of mobility, according to Olivier Porte, Cigref's telecommunications adviser. And U.K. telecoms managers are also more concerned by fixed-mobile termination charges, which make up a much larger chunk of their monthly bills than international roaming, said David Harrington, managing director of the U.K. Telecommunications Managers Association, based in Leatherhead, England. Margrit Sessions, managing director of pricing consultancy Phillips Tarifica Ltd., in London, said telecoms managers are often not responsible for international mobile roaming bills. Instead the costs are met by an individual employee's project manager. But INTUG insists that managers should be concerned with the level of roaming costs. The user group asserts that operators will only reduce rates if users put pressure on them to do so. "All we are doing is pointing at what is a reasonable price," said Fischer-Madsen. "We are not even near costs - just near what is a normal end-user price combining fixed plus mobile charges." Information : info@total.emap.com URL : totaltele.com © EMAP Media 1999

To: djane who wrote (3434)	3/16/1999 4:31:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Market Strategies: International outlook vital for carriers totaltele.com By David Molony 15 March 1999 Today's telecoms operators should look at the bigger picture - even if they are not planning a global strategy themselves. That is the message from one U.K. telecoms consultancy. With companies such as MCI WorldCom Inc., Level 3 Communications Inc. and Global TeleSystems Group Inc. (GTS) attracting much media coverage and the attention of investors, transatlantic or pan-European network build might appear to be the telecoms model in vogue in the late 1990s. But these ambitious, cross-border broadband network owners for the Internet age constitute just one of many strategic models in the current telecommunications service operator environment. There are at least 50 distinct and equally valid strategic models for competitive telecoms operators today, according to a new study from Cambridge, England-based Analysys Ltd. And any of them can be successfully implemented if the operator has a "unitary" management structure to support its market strategy. The report concludes that success in the telecoms market is not just about finding the right market position, but also about recognizing the global nature of the business and ensuring that your strategic plan takes account of global market forces as they affect your chosen market position. According to Analysys, to be "globalized" means to think globally, without necessarily being a global operator. [Now, that makes sense :-)] "The market is irrevocably globalized," said Tim Hills, senior writer at Analysys. "Even if you are not ambitious by nature as a telecoms operator, and [don't] plan to do things globally, you are still in a global environment and have to think ... strategically in that context ... [or] somebody is going to [move into] your backyard." To help carriers understand where they fit into the global telecoms picture, Analysys has proposed a framework onto which its consultants have mapped the network reach of each carrier against capability, which encompasses technological facilities and business deals including partnerships. Underlying this are a half-dozen fundamental technological and economic forces, such as economies of scale, transport, separate service platform management and unpredictability of demand. "There are lots of elements in the market and you can play in one or more," said David Cleevely, managing director at Analysys. "The trick is to know which element you play in and which elements you need to combine." Analysys has identified specific approaches that have been adopted by operators around the world in an effort to position themselves in the globalized environment. This framework also helps get into perspective the strategic maneuvering of merging companies, such as the recent tie-up between AirTouch Communications Inc. of San Francisco and Vodafone Group plc of Newbury, England. "Everybody gets hysterical that this [combination] will wipe everybody else out," said Hills. "But actually they are just a very big global operator with mobility. Most of the grid is untouched by them. If they just stay here - although they are obviously part of the future of telecoms - it doesn't follow they are necessarily the winners." Hills claims the framework will help operators and market analysts view the telecoms industry with renewed clarity. "People talk a lot about globalization, tending to mean there are going to be three or four - maybe even just two - global telecoms operators, and that's going to be the end of history because of their economies of scale," continued Hills. "But it won't be the whole story, because capabilities can be broken down. You can do a lot to get into new bits of the grid. And you can create new bits of grid by doing new things with tariffs, business quality [and so on]." So although there will be some major players dominating large swathes of the market, the report shows there is scope for smaller operators to win market share. However, there will be instances when it is also important to have control of the network platform, allowing for local connectivity deals in more restricted markets. "Qwest [Communications Corp.] and Level 3 are really on a roll," said Hills. "They are single-strategy companies gambling heavily on IP taking over the world, and having enough money and backing to actually put it into practice." That does not mean there is not scope for smaller, regionalized companies to do well. Hills picks out Greece's national operator, Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE), which has taken its expertise in rural telephony into other Balkan markets. In addition to the conceptual framework, the consultancy has also looked at how carriers are coming to terms with the globalized environment, and the major issues commanding the attention of operators. One company profiled by Analysys is Swisscom, which has followed a home network extension program, moving out of its national market into the "regional" sector by building networks into the border regions of neighboring Germany and Italy. Other notable strategies in the global model include: having metropolitan area network loops in European cities and stringing fiber between them to build a European network, such as COLT has done; and offering long distance transport nationally and striking a deal with another carrier to provide local access - Energis, for example. "Anybody can get into your patch - anybody," concludes Cleevely. "The only way to protect against that is to understand exactly what your capabilities are in each of the elements of the market." Lining up on the grid The Analysys grid helps locate selected operators according to geographic reach and their technical and business capability. The grid, which here shows how a small selection of carriers would be represented, does not show whether one operator has a better position than another. And you cannot say that an operator is more likely to succeed by being in one section of the grid rather than another, said Tim Hills at Analysys. "Some companies may be able to exploit some things in one way [while] others may exploit the same position in another way." But, according to the consultancy, operators can use the grid to identify where potential competition may come from and be prepared to "move around the grid" themselves. And, they say, "unitary" companies, such as Level 3 and Qwest Communications Corp. - those with a single point of management control (no supervisory board structure), single approach, and single implementation all the way down through the company - are more likely to be successful. Information : info@total.emap.com URL : totaltele.com © EMAP Media 1999

To: djane who wrote (3434)	3/16/1999 4:34:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Mobile & Satellite: Vendors push DIY account handling for mobile users totaltele.com By Sheridan Nye 15 March 1999 In the race to bring the Internet to wireless mobile devices, some early applications are emerging that will hand greater control to end-users. Armed with microbrowser-enabled handsets, wireless customers could soon be setting up their own mobile accounts, then choosing and activating their own services. But for wireless network operators, "self provisioning" is primarily about the opportunity to save money - as much as $1 per minute on the cost of signing up new users, according to Lightbridge Inc., which provides customer acquisition and retention systems to carriers. Lightbridge, of Burlington, Massachusetts, is actively promoting the concept to U.S. wireless operators with a system based on the handset microbrowser from wireless software developer Unwired Planet Inc., of Redwood Shores, California. The prototype integrates Lightbridge's customer acquisition and retention platform, Telesto, with Unwired Planet's UP.Browser and server suite, UP.Link. Lightbridge's proposition is that corporate and consumer users can activate their phones straight off the shelf, using the browser to input their contact details and security information directly into the carrier's Telesto installation. Telesto then handles credit checks and service activation. The UP.Browser, licensed to around 20 handset manufacturers, is designed for easy navigation of messaging, directory and information services, mainly via standard mass-market phones retailing under $300, said Ben Linder, vice president of marketing, Unwired Planet. Web content is delivered via Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), which runs on top of the UDP/IP stack and optimizes IP traffic for the limited wireless bandwidth, while stripping down content for the small handset display screen. As one suitable application, the widespread adoption of WAP-based self-provisioning will happen "in the near future," said Linder. Karen Murphy, product marketing manager at Lightbridge, said corporates' mobile communications departments are keen to take as much control as possible over their wireless service, as are individual business users. But if carriers expect customers to set up their own accounts, they will have to simplify the processes involved, said Murphy. A typical sign-up procedure with a call center or retail outlet involves a new customer answering between 15 and 20 questions, ranging from contact details, security and credit information. Some carriers are considering whether complex rate plans could be scaled down to two basic options - introductory and advanced - for the purposes of self-activation, she added. Another option could be to use a voice-activated browser to make the process more palatable. "This is very much a custom-developed product. The hard part for us is that [the specification] is up to the carriers," said Murphy. For instance, some operators told Lightbridge they would like to feature on-line tutorials in the start-up package describing how to use the phone. However, while the cost-saving potential for the carriers is clear, analysts question whether end-users stand to gain anything more than an administrative burden. Jane Zweig, executive vice president at Herschel Shosteck Associates, in Washington DC, agrees that carriers are exploring every avenue in their quest to reduce customer-care costs. But she does wonder whether users really care about having the facility to set up their own services rather than simply dialing into a call center. Pre-paid services, although more expensive than subscription, are gaining popularity in both the United States and Europe among customers who are choosing to keep closer control over their phone costs, she points out. Even so, as long as carriers can see value in having more automation in their networks, then self-provisioning is likely to be gradually implemented, said Zweig. French wireless operator, SFR-Cegetel, will become the first carrier to deploy commercial WAP-based service later this month. The service features Internet-enabled unified messaging, e-commerce services and home banking, and is based on Alcatel's HomeTop Solutions platform. Alcatel is also supplying its One Touch phone featuring the UP.Browser. The service launches on 26 March and will be aimed initially at the consumer market. SFR's WAP server suite is integrated with its billing and customer-care system to allow customers to self-activate, as well as add, customize and remove services, said an Alcatel spokeswoman. Self-provisioning is also a planned feature of Nextel Communications Inc.'s wireless Internet portal unveiled last month. Nextel Online extends the operator's nationwide iDEN service to include IP-based applications such as e-mail, e-commerce and scheduling hosted by the Netscape Custom Netcenter portal. iDEN is a wireless technology developed by Motorola Inc. to integrate wireless voice, data, radio dispatch - mostly used by emergency services - and SMS messaging onto a single network. Nextel's service is predominantly designed for highly mobile industries and professions. Nextel, of McLean, Virginia, is not disclosing which acquisition system vendors it is working with. But "there is still a lot of integration work to do," before the company's legacy system is able to support customer-driven service provision, said Michael Riemer, director of product management. From the middle of this year iDEN users will be able to trial i1000plus handsets from Motorola featuring the UP.Browser. In the first phase of deployment, iDEN users will access Internet services via SMS only, with a dial-up modem option available later this year. Information : info@total.emap.com URL : totaltele.com © EMAP Media 1999