GLG News by Wimax Experts (EU)

Ian WoodPartnerWireless Foundry

Vodafone under the command of Colao can only be good news

June 18, 2008

Analysis of:Sarin Legacy Isn't All Aces | online.wsj.com

When Colao left McKinsey to help run Omnitel as the COO he showed that he was more that a "Strategy Man" working alongside Francesco Ciao he showed that he was someone vary capable at Operational matters.  With Cioa gone, he steppped up to the CEO role and integrated the Omnitel into Vodafone. On his return to Vodafone he has spent the last 18 months getting ready to succeed Sarin by Optimising the network. Now with an Italian at the head you can expect to see Emerging Markets take a back seat as he follows the startegy of the Spanish Subsiduary and stimulates the market.

Ian WoodPartnerWireless Foundry

What Qualcomm is doing is building a Services Business

June 16, 2008

Analysis of:Qualcomm Creates Mobile Internet Strategy To Go Head-To-Head With Internet Giants | www.washingtonpost.com

Looking at the services businesses of Qualcomm and what you see is the development of a number of verticals.  One of which is BREW; the others are Location, Advertising, Payments, Video.  These services are aimed at helping to create Federations for particular services.  Having created these Federations Qualcomm will be able to influence the strategy of Mobile Networks which will lift the spend on Handsets that run Qualcomm silicon.

Peter Curnow-FordChief Executive OfficerViatec Associates Ltd

Nortel-Alvarion is a good move

June 13, 2008

Analysis of:Nortel, Alvarion in wireless pact | biz.yahoo.com

Bringing these two stalwarts together is a good partnership and will allow Nortel to benefit from Alvarions huge market presence and for Alvarion to gain all the 'network core' expertise it needs to turnkey complete WiMAX networks.

Peter Curnow-FordChief Executive OfficerViatec Associates Ltd

Verizon needs $8B for airwave licenses

April 3, 2008

Analysis of:Vodafone looks to emerging markets for growth | www.telecomseurope.net

Further to my recent analysis above on Vodafone and Verizon, and Verizon's future capex spend:- Today Verizon announced that it:- " NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Verizon says it intends to sell $8 billion of of stock and debt notes to help finance the company's recent $9.36 billion acquisition of federal airwave licenses, according to a filing Tuesday. The New York phone giant hopes to build a fourth generation nationwide network using the swath of 700 megahertz radio frequencies. Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) needs to make a $1.4 billion down payment by Thursday on top of the $500 million installment made at the beginning of the Federal Communications Commission auction. The remaining $7.5 billion is due on April 17, hence the trip to the capital markets."

Peter Curnow-FordChief Executive OfficerViatec Associates Ltd

Vodafone - growth from acquisition

March 31, 2008

Analysis of:Vodafone looks to emerging markets for growth | www.telecomseurope.net

As one of the world's largest mobile operators, with presence on 4 continents Vodafone has 2 ways to grow - by adding new services to its existing base or by acquiring new customers. The latter is most easily done through acquisition. At the same time the number of freely available markets is diminishing, and those markets that are fast growth and dominated by local players are ripe to be hoovered up by the larger players. The single largest fragmented market is Africa, specifically sub-sahara, along with some of the more accessible mid-east states. What Vodafone needs to be careful of, is that it does not get locked out by fast moving Mid-East/Asian players. Witness Zain, previously MTC of Kuwait, buying MSI Celltel's 13 licenses in East Africa. So what can Vodafone dispose of to help it get the financials sorted in a depressed market to start on its next acquisition trail, Verizon!

Peter Curnow-FordChief Executive OfficerViatec Associates Ltd

Where does this leave the handset business and what future for the infrastructure side?

March 27, 2008

Analysis of:Moto spins off ailing handset unit | www.telecoms.com

This has been rumored for over a year, if not longer and finally brings to an end a tortuous 12 months for Motorola as its fortunes in the consumer handset business have faltered in the attack from Samsung and LG. The question now is, at what value will it be sold? The longer it stays separate the greater the potential for its competitors to overwhelm it and drive down its market cap even further. Further what chance does it have of raising capital for new projects. For the remaining mobility and broadband business, there are 2 key questions: first up it will be a very integrated business but dependent on key partners (Nortel, Ericsson, Cisco, etc) for the non-radio infrastructure taht its customers will need to complete a network and second as a much reduced market cap organization it will be competing in a very capital intensive marketplace, will it be able to do vendor financing, etc?

Ian WoodPartnerWireless Foundry

Don't panic this is not the end of the world

November 1, 2007

Analysis of:Skype and 3 launch mobile phone | www.reuters.com

What you get with a Skypephone is a service that allows another form of IM as long as you have spent a minimum of £10 per month.  This is not VoIPoM this is something aimed at retaining customers and getting them to keep the phone on so that they can recieve calls.

Ian WoodPartnerWireless Foundry

Form or Function?

October 12, 2007

Analysis of:Motorola Back On Track | www.forbes.com

The V3 was something that was a victim to fortune. Motorola built a very sexy looking handset they just forgot to do something with the software.  So you got a large number of users who discover that this is not a Nokia or a Sony Ericsson and you need to read the instruction book. Life is too short for instruction books, and so people became unhappy that this was a phone that just made calls and sent texts.  As an internet device it is a nightmare. Not a great device for networks looking to raise ARPU with data services so limited lifespan. Motorola have been playing with just what OS to run on the handset.  You can get the Q which is using Microsoft as the engine for the Smartphone.  However the latest Smartphone sees them return to UIQ (Symbian) for the software and it does not have a QWERTY keypad and so once again data services will be limited. David Beckham as a Brand is outdated, just as LA Galaxy about bang for buck.

Peter Curnow-FordChief Executive OfficerViatec Associates Ltd

Personal Broadband - does it have to be tied to a specific technology?

October 7, 2007

Analysis of:BT Group Takes Stake in Spain's FON - In Aim to Build Biggest WiFi Network | online.wsj.com

Broadband, especially wireless, is seen as the holy grail - its great when its everywhere and prefereably free or low cost. At the same time everyone is so dependent on internet access that it is hard to imagine what the world would be like if it wasn't there? In reality something else would have/or would come along to take its place and we'd all be doing what we do now but in a slightly different fashion. So we all need it, and it only has to be as successful as it needs to be an economic success - so why is the industry so focused on elevating 3G Mobile/Cellular broadband as the best solution and then insists on comparing each and every other technology against it?

Ian WoodPartnerWireless Foundry

DRM before we had digital and the spector of regulation

August 1, 2007

Analysis of:Welcome to BBC iPlayer Beta | www.bbc.co.uk

The problem is one of market regulation in the UK, BBC has a track record of innovating before the competition because it has a public broadcast remit.  The Internet activities of the BBC have been cut back because Government and Competitors have complained that it has abused it position and stifled innovation. Having to work in the regulated market the BBC has had to launch the service slowly, hence the fact that at present they are using a form of windows media player to show MP4 content.  The vast majority o the archieve of the BBC does not have rights to broadcast on demand.  Old shows were made before DRM was an issue.  Newer shows are made by independents who did not give the BBC rights for anything other than broadcast.

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