The Art of Asking

Not long ago I received a link from a friend to a TED talk called “The Art of Asking” by Amanda Palmer. This was a remarkable talk by music artist, Amanda Palmer, that demonstrated an alternative kind of thinking about music fans, sales, and human interaction.

Instead of just selling her music to her listeners, Amanda tries to connect with them. Rather than having people pay for her music, she uses social applications to ask for donations while offering her art for free. The results are astonishing. Amanda has made more money giving her music away for free than she would having selling it. And at the same time, she has developed a relationship with her fans that benefits both herself and her listeners. This is an unprecedented phenomena.

Mobile operators can learn a lot from Amanda. Just as the music industry and the way artists interact with their fans is changing, the way operators do business should also be changing.

Now, as LTE becomes increasingly pervasive, operators are looking for ways to return their massive investment in infrastructure. Some turn to the promotion of sophisticated pricing plans as a way to increase their revenues from LTE networks. However, taking an example from Amanda, mobile operators could generate revenues by engaging with their subscribers, rather than just focusing on selling data packages. They already provide their subscribers the means to connect to online content, applications, emails, videos and all other mobile data activity. And they now have a unique opportunity to become an integral part of the mobile Internet experience.

By changing their business model, mobile operators can generate revenues not directly from their subscribers, but indirectly from revenue-sharing agreements with content providers. It’s a win-win-win opportunity. Users benefit from more personalized and relevant content; content providers can promote their content directly to their desired audiences; and operators generate new revenues while offering their subscribers an improved and differentiated user experience.  

Just as Amanda has turned the music industry on its head, now is the time for mobile operators to do the same for the mobile Internet.

-- Yoav Shay Daniely, Director of Product Management

The Need for Speed

Commute, file downloads, Valentino Rossi, mantis shrimp.

What does this eclectic list of subjects have in common? If you read the title you probably already know. That’s right, if you are part of western culture you probably want all these things to be FAST. Not standard fast, I mean super-ultra-extra fast!

Mobile operators are no different in their quest for speed, investing more and more in frequencies and equipment in hopes of becoming the fastest mobile data network. One of the primary reasons operators invest billions of dollars in their LTE network is speed. Speed is the number 1 benefit operators use to publicize their new network, only to find out that their competitors are using the same trick. Because it’s not only about being fast – you have to be the fastest.

This is a given in our speed-obsessed world. Mobile Internet was in its infancy just a decade ago, and now we roll our eyes if it takes more than a couple of seconds for “Gangnam Style” to load on our iPhone. Therefore, it is no wonder that we see so much interest in network acceleration solutions. Once LTE networks are in place, to accelerate performance further requires additional investments in frequencies, antennas, and network equipment. Think of how much it would cost to accelerate an existing network by 50%.

Network acceleration solutions promise to accelerate downloads and browsing for a fraction of the cost of radio investments. At Flash Networks, we live up to this promise by delivering 50% acceleration with zero investment in network infrastructure.  By using our patented technology to adjust the TCP send rate to the wireless link, we utilize the available bandwidth, even as it fluctuates with network conditions, increasing the effective bandwidth and boosting download speed.

Network speed may not yet be as fast as “Beam me up Scotty”, but it’s getting there.

-- Tal Dagan, Director of Product Management

P.S. The mantis shrimp? Unexpected, but apparently this animal exercises the world’s fastest punch.

“All men are created equal”, but LTE Networks are not…

How many times have you compared the performance of commodity products and were disappointed with the results? Shouldn't all products perform on the same level regardless of their origin?  Do all LCD TV screens have the same visual quality (although they are most probably manufactured in China)? 

The same applies to LTE networks around the globe.

A recent research by OpenSignal, a crowd-sourced coverage mapping start up funded by Qualcomm Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures &Passion Capital, published some interesting statistics about the actual speed and performance of LTE networks by country and network.

Source: http://www.telecoms.com/99671/real-world-lte-test-puts-japan-in-slow-lane/

It is true that users cannot just ‘relocate’ to another country for a better user experience, but they definitely can switch to the best performing mobile operator within their country – and they do.  Regulators are helping end users by conducting “beauty contests” to compare network speed between the various networks.

In order to avoid churn and succeed in these “beauty contests” mobile operators have started realizing the advantages of advanced optimization solutions to dramatically speed up their LTE networks.  Flash Networks, the global optimization leader, owns several patented technologies, such as TCP+, which is already implemented and proven to boost LTE network speed by over 50% and rank their respective operators as 1^st in their country.

On second thoughts “All men are created equal”, but both LTE Networks and 

definitely optimizations solutions are not… 

-- Gil Mildworth, Director of Business Development 

2012 Mobile Internet Statistics

A new year has started and after we sober up, we can look back at 2012 and quickly summarize it before moving on. Here are some interesting statistics on mobile internet usage:

So, the mobile usage broke its own record once again this year. Smartphones are everywhere and we use them more than ever:

• Mobile accounts for 10% of internet usage worldwide 
• Smartphone website traffic more than doubled in 2011-2012
• 20% of all YouTube views are from a mobile device
• The number of smartphone searchers doubles every two months

As we browse more on our mobiles, we expect browsing to be fast and smooth and don’t have the patience to wait for pages to download:

• 74% of consumers will wait 5 seconds for a web page to load on their mobile device before abandoning the site. 
• 46% of consumers are unlikely to return to a mobile site if it didn't work properly during their last visit.
• 71% of mobile browsers expect web pages to load almost as quickly as or faster than web pages on their desktop computers

When it comes to shopping, our smartphone becomes essential. It’s always handy, and if done properly, mobile shopping can be quick, simple and fun:

• US consumers spend almost 1 of every 10 e-commerce dollars using a mobile device 
• eBay sells something via a mobile phone every two seconds
• 67% of customers will like a Facebook page to save 25% or more
• 28% of consumers share deals through social media
• only 4% of consumers prefer to shop via an app (most prefer the mobile internet)

It's no secret that almost everything we do on our mobile is social - emails, text messages, Facebook, Instagram, tweeter, etc. Most people believe it’s another way to communicate with the people around us. The following statistics will make you wonder … 

• 24% of people have missed witnessing important moments because they are too busy trying to write about them on social networks
• 83% of people believe platforms like Twitter and Facebook help them make new friends
• 25% of people believe social networks have boosted their confidence
• 24% of Americans and 28% of Brits have admitted to lying or exaggerating on a social network about what they have done and/or who they have met
• 53% of people in the UK are ‘dual screening’ (using a phone whilst watching TV for example)
• 40% of people spend more time socializing online than they do face-to-face 

All in all it was a good year for the mobile internet industry.

Looking forward to 2013!

-- Chen Didi-Barnea, Product Marketing Manager

Competitive Edge

Runners train hard and frequently. They run up and down hills, long and slow, and work hard during intervals. They test their speed, increase their mileage and keep an eye on their competitors.

Runners use new technology to improve their results, they wear dry fit shirts, tights and even socks, measure their speed and heart rate with the latest Apple aps, Garmin or Polar. They listen to special playlists with songs that change rhythm according to their current running speed, and consume gels, sport drinks and protein shakes.

Runners do everything they can to shave off those extra seconds and become faster.

When shoe technology dramatically improved in the 80’s, and brands introduced a lighter shoe that promised  energy return, added  spring to your step and made you run faster, runners didn’t stop running up those steep hills, they didn't stop running in the right heart rate zone, or checking out their competitors - they carried on training.

Even with new technology improvements we still need to do all we can to keep a competitive edge.

So when upgrading to LTE, don’t sit back and watch your competitors overtake you – carry on optimization, check your systems heart rate - don’t let it struggle up those hills.

-- Fiona Ungar, Corporate Marketing Manager

Sitting on a Gold Mine

It’s no secret that mobile advertising is the riddle that virtually every major digital player tries to solve. Mobile Advertising is expected to jump six-fold from $3.3B last year (2011) to $20.6B in 2015, according to Gartner. Although both companies reported a growth in mobile advertising this week, Facebook has admitted that while it has almost half a billion mobile device users, it still isn't sure whether it's mobile business model is working or  not, and Google hasn't blown anyone away with it's result so far either.

For mobile advertising to succeed, it needs to be optimized for small screens, and provide a highly contextual personalized mobile experience based on the customer’s past behavior and current intent. An ad which is too good for users to pass up.

If carriers want their fair share of the media pie, they need to fight against over-the–top players and leverage their unique valuable assets. Carriers can bring brands a more targeted audience and context relevancy, something missing from most mobile advertising initiatives.

Mobile carriers sit on a lucrative gold mine – they have access to their users preferences such as  Google searches, Facebook posts, Tweets, Call Detail Record’s (CDR’s), apps, etc., and can communicate with users over various medias (snail mail, calls, email, in-app advertising). Add this to the consumer’s preferences, billing relationship and a host of anonymized data on subscribers, and advertisers finally get a tool they can use in nearly every situation.

Mobile carriers can provide tailored offers triggered when relevant, for example when a consumer is near a store or e-commerce site they are offered a coupon and can pay via their mobile device. Carriers actually are the only ones that can link activities to a specific user and provide a closed loop.

The world’s largest carriers, AT&T, Telefonica, SingTel and others, have created new business units focusing on digital advertising. These carriers are realizing that mobile advertising represents the best opportunity for growth in their business in the face of rising infrastructure costs, churn and declining margins.

Will other carriers join? Who should and who shouldn’t? Which ecosystem, software and service solutions will best support mobile carriers for success?

-- Ilanit Zehut, Director of Business Development

Trains, Airplane and Seating Strategies

As an avid train commuter I have often wondered about the manner in which train seats are occupied. Suppose you board a train at the first station, half of the 4-seat areas are occupied with one or more passengers and half are empty, offering you the promise of a whole 4-seat area to yourself.

The inexperienced passenger will probably opt for one of the empty 4-seat areas. Alas there are more stations on the way and the train quickly fills up, people sit next to you, people you did not choose to sit beside. Sometimes it will be someone that invades your personal space, and sometimes it will be someone that feels compelled to shout into their cell phone. If you’re lucky it is someone pleasant and quiet, but a guy called Murphy will never let that happen.  

One way around this is to place your personal bag in the seat beside you and pretend to be deeply immersed in the sports section. This may earn you a neighbor less ride; however there are two problems with this approach:

1. It is anti-social and not very polite to deny someone a seat just because you want your ride to be more pleasant.
2. Most probably, it will be the less pleasant people that request you move your bag so they can have a seat.

Airplanes and first class trains solve this problem by assigning seats per ticket. They also sell different types of tickets at different prices. The main difference between the tickets is (you guessed right) the amount of space you have.This method has two main advantages:

1. It allows airlines to better monetize their service – this is crucial in high cost services.
2. It optimizes seat allocation – there are no disputes on seats, people get more or less what they paid for, and the space is allocated in the best possible manner - no passengers stand while other passengers take up two seats.

As Flash Networks is all about optimizing mobile data networks, the allegory is probably well understood by now. Fixed line ISPs are like trains – they have enough space to accommodate all types of behavior and do not need to invest in optimizing their service – their costs are very low so whenever there is a problem they just “add more wagons” or “throw bandwidth at the problem”. However mobile operators cannot use this method, they are like the airlines – they have very high costs, and their resources, like airplanes, need to be obtained well in advance, leaving them with the need to best optimize and monetize their service in order to prosper and avoid pitfalls.

-- Tal Dagan, Director of Product Management