By Philip Stanfield

Mobile World Congress (MWC) was different in 2010. I know it rained the whole time but there was a real buzz in Barcelona. 2010 was all about the lifestyle impact of Mobile through social media and the industry’s products, services and solutions to drive the use of data.  Everywhere one turned there were demos of applications and smartphones.

MWC is now two communities. The consumer focussed, mobile internet savvy community embracing everyone from media companies and handset manufacturers to innovative operators and software vendors; and the traditional world of voice and base stations and OSS/BSS.

The Mobile Monday ‘Where Mobile meets Media’ event was fascinating with a panel session including the BBC’s Lucie McClean, Helen Keegan, Mobile Marketer & Techno Kitten, and Steve Ives CEO TAPTU.  Over half the audience was female and under 35.  There were lively informed debates on the end of newspapers (yes) and magazines (no) with the arrival of iPad et al; whether App stores will be here in 5 years or if everything will be in the ‘The Cloud’ – oh and what young people really want from a phone (free IM); and the fact that most people don’t yet own an iPhone!  

The big boys made big announcements too. Google’s Eric Schmidt made a keynote speech and announced that Mobile was now at the heart of Google’s future. And his ‘Mobile First’ mantra states that 3 unique areas have now converged on the mobile device – Computing Power, Interconnectivity and the Cloud.  Schmidt said ‘If you don’t use the power of the Cloud – you’ll fail’.   He also said Google’s Android was selling on devices at a rate of 60,000 a day.

Vodafone’s CEO Vittorio Colao reported that ‘one in four of the handsets on Vodafone’s network were now smartphones with 40% annual growth.’ He also talked about the GSMA’s OneAPI initiative which is defining the standards to make it fast and cheap for developers and applications such as Facebook to access services such as location on the operator’s network.  Kevin Smith from Vodafone presented in a series of OneAPI workshops with some real progress reported including a live pilot in Canada across all its operators.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer drew the crowds for the launch of Windows Phone 7 Series and showcased, you guessed it, its social networking and content capabilities. Microsoft had a very busy stand for the whole show.

The Mobile Operator community made a big announcement to launch an international applications platform or Wholesale Applications Community. This initiative is backed by 15 of the world’s largest operators including AT&T, Docomo, China Mobile, and Vodafone with a combined 3 Billion consumers. The business model is likely to be similar to Apple’s App Store and Vodafone’s 360 App Store – with operators taking a 30% revenue share. The initiative should make it attractive to developers with a large potential market. And joining the dots the use of the OneAPI standard could make applications interesting, for example the ability for an App to know the location, at any moment, of your children who don’t have smartphones!

2010 promises to be a transformational year for the whole mobile ecosystem.  There is almost a perfect storm of forces at play:

• very high levels of consumer expectations based upon their internet experiences;
• big brands, such as Google, Apple & Facebook going ‘over the top’ to capture the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers;
• the mobile operator community responding with strategic initiatives such as OneAPI and the Wholesale Applications Community in an attempt to hold on to subscribers and monetise the mobile internet. 

I really believe 2010 will be a mobile year to remember.  The proof of course will be seen in the sunshine of Barcelona in February 2011.

The GSMA today announced that mobile operators around the world will invest up to $72 billion in Mobile Broadband* technologies in 2010. The new operator CAPEX investment data, compiled by global investment firm Deutsche Bank, reflects the continued consumer and enterprise demand for Mobile Broadband services and the need for underlying infrastructure, and comes as global HSPA connections reach the 200 million milestone.

Asia Pacific will see the greatest investment in Mobile Broadband with predicted capital expenditure of up to $34 billion. North America follows with up to $19 billion, with Europe expected to invest up to $14 billion. Mobile Broadband is set to account for 52 per cent of all operator investment in mobile infrastructure globally.  Of all the regions, North America will spend the greatest percentage – 80 per cent – of its total mobile CAPEX investment on Mobile Broadband.

“The forecasted investment in Mobile Broadband technologies reflects the importance the mobile industry places on enabling consumers to access any type of content on the move – whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer at the GSMA. “HSPA and HSPA+ have become the dominant global Mobile Broadband technologies and are set to benefit from a significant proportion of this CAPEX investment, resulting in faster and more reliable Mobile Broadband services being available to more subscribers around the world by the end of this year.”

HSPA connections have seen phenomenal growth in all markets since 2007, and this is set to continue in 2010 with the investment operators will make in Mobile Broadband technology. According to industry research firm Wireless Intelligence, the growth of HSPA is predicted to increase from an average of around nine million connections per month as of the end of 2009, to almost 13 million per month. Of the total estimated 342 million connections at the end of 2010, Europe will lead the way with 120 million connections, becoming the number one region for HSPA connections, with Asia Pacific accounting for 116 million and North America 58 million.

Operators around the world are pledging investment for continued HSPA and HSPA+ network upgrades to optimise available data speeds and maximise network capacity. In March 2009, mobilkom austria launched Europe’s first HSPA+ network to achieve competitive differentiation in a saturated mobile market. Through ongoing investment, mobilkom austria has developed an extremely successful mobile data offering and has seen its number of customers quadruple over the last three years.

“mobilkom austria was the first European mobile operator to deploy HSPA+ technology and we now have one of the fastest Mobile Broadband networks in Europe,” said Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO, Telekom Austria Group. “We’ve been able to cost effectively offer our customers peak download speeds up to 21Mbps, delivering an expansive mobile experience. mobilkom austria is committed to enriching this user experience through the provision of a solid and reliable supporting backhaul infrastructure using fibre technology.”

In Asia, Telstra, and its wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary CSL, is at the forefront of HSPA+ deployment. Telstra’s Next G™ HSPA+ network is the world’s largest 3G network, with speeds unsurpassed by any other national Mobile Broadband network, and covering more than 99% of the Australian population. Telstra has had HSPA+ with a peak network downlink speed of 21Mbps in commercial operation for over twelve months, and is currently testing dual carrier HSPA technology supporting peak network downlink speeds of 42Mbps. CSL currently offers the fastest Mobile Broadband network in Hong Kong, having deployed its Next G HSPA+ network last March.

“The strong technical performance of HSPA+ technology is a key differentiator for Telstra and its subsidiary CSL network in Hong Kong,” said David Thodey, CEO, Telstra. “The capabilities of HSPA+ have enabled us to deliver unparalleled network performance to our customers and enable them to enjoy a rich, next generation Mobile Broadband experience today.” 

There are currently 200 million HSPA connections worldwide, with more than 1,800 HSPA enabled devices available from more than 150 suppliers. Across 123 countries, there are currently 294 commercially live networks, of which 183 currently deliver peak data rates of above 3.6 Mbps, and 37 commercially live HSPA+ networks, each capable of delivering data speeds up to 21 Mbps.

SLA Mobile will be attending the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. 

*Deutsche Bank’s forecast on Mobile Broadband CAPEX covers spend on technologies including HSPA/HSPA+, WCDMA and EVDO/CDMA.