Tag Archives: LBS

Is There Any Money in Service Exposure for Consumer Services? + Smart Pipes Conference (18-20 May) Update

There’s a great saying from Benjamin D’Israeli, ‘There’s lies, damned lies and statistics.’  To read the press, you’d think the trillion dollar telecommunications industry has been shaken to its core by Apple, a $33B consumer electronics company.  In April 2009 the Apple app store achieved 1B ‘application’ downloads in 9 months, estimates vary on the […]

Customer Behavior drives Operators to Open Innovation

Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Yahoo! are continuously offering new services for customers to experience, then refining those services within weeks/months based upon customer feedback.  The typical operator product development process is usually: an opportunity is identified, market research is performed, a project is created once budget can be found, the new product development process runs […]

Open Access Service Examples

The purpose of this weblog entry is to firstly provide some specific real-world examples of how opening up the network (exposing the Telco API) can significantly improve existing applications and stimulate revenue.  And secondly, look across some of the addressable markets the Telco API opens up. Mobile Communities airG’s mobile community has more than 30 […]

The need for a Telco Handset API: Using SUPL (Secure User Plane Location) and its failure to revolutionized LBS (Location Based Services) as a case study

Secure User Plane Location (SUPL, pronounced supple) in essence enables applications to directly talk to the AGPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) unit on the mobile phone, without the need to pay the operator for a location dip.  SUPL potentially side-lines the operator out of providing location information; without the need for a costly, complex and […]

An Industry at the Crossroads: Mobile World Congress 2008 Summary

Overall My impression of MWC (Mobile World Congress, nee 3GSM) is it was quieter than last year, less hype and less people; however, the organizers claim attendance was up 3000, perhaps they were all the pick-pockets?  I think the industry is at a crossroad, in my discussions with operators internet access is the product that’s […]

Is there resurgence in LBS (Location Based Services)?

Growth in LBS (Location Based Services) customers in North America (NA) last year (’05 to ’06) was roughly 150%, from 1.5M to 3.8M customers.  In ’05 NA LBS revenue was roughly $450M with Sprint accounting for 70% of that revenue.  Today Verizon and Sprint account for over 80% of operator LBS revenue in North America.  […]