Survey Sez 09/27/12

Bad news for bundle providers: The days of the old-style triple or quad-play bundles are numbered. According to Informa Telecoms & Media, “Operators will have to offer a whole range of new content and applications within their bundled products – including OTT content from companies like Netflix and Spotify and even VoIP from providers like Skype – to keep their subscribers happy.” Adds Senior Analyst Tony Brown, the next-gen bundling market will be a challenging one in which operators will not necessarily reap direct financial rewards from the new products they include in their bundled offers. “We have already seen from the early deployment of multiscreen TV services by operators that many subscribers are highly resistant to paying extra for new services – so many of these new services really have to be included as part of the existing bundled price,” he notes…Deloitte believes the United States’ global leadership position in 4G is at risk as other countries make significant investments in mobile broadband innovation. Its new report contends costs of freeing spectrum to handle the growth of commercial mobile broadband services should be compared to the economic benefits that result, including increased tax revenues. Deloitte notes that its analysis indicates mobile broadband network investments over the period 2012-16 could expand U.S. GDP between $73 billion and $151 billion, and will account for between 371,000 and 771,000 jobs. Moreover, the benefits are becoming more widespread as 4G technology is applied to business enterprises in addition to consumer applications. However, the group notes America’s innovation in mobile broadband is far from assured, as other countries like China, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea are aggressively upgrading their wireless broadband infrastructure and have made steady gains over the last decade with government support and investment through tax incentives, R&D funding, and end-user subsidies. click here to read the entire report…Infonetics says Alcatel-Lucent is the favorite among service providers, particularly for its optical technology, management, product reliability, and service and support. Ciena ranks up there with Alcatel-Lucent in the areas of 40G/100G+ coherent technology and OTN switching, and ties for optical control plane technology. The research firm also notes China’s Huawei climbed from third place last year to first this year among vendors being evaluated for future optical purchases. And despite its smaller size, Infinera continues a trend of ranking relatively high in most optical leadership categories, and it has the best ratio of “evaluating” versus “installed."