4G readiness index, fitce workshop 2010

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4G readiness index, fitce workshop 2010

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Twitter

This is an excellent video cartoon, highlighting the importance of the well-known social media platform called Twitter; you can also select the language you want to view the video, including Greek - enjoy:

Book

After 2 years of research on the business transition to the Next Generation Wireless Networks, I managed finally to publish a part of it to the book Fourth-Generation Wireless Networks: Applications and Innovations. Chapter 9, entitled "Potential Scenarios and Drivers of the 4G Evolution" is my contribution, including the assumptions and data analysis, modeling in order to define the "4G readiness" concept. An index of countries is presented that are the players and the forntiers to the 4th Generation evolution. These are ranked on their readiness to deploy the new technology, based on technology, economic and consumer drivers. The research is accomplished with Professor Hosein Fallah.

I strongly recommend you to purchase this book, if your interests are around this field either for your perosnal use or for your university's library. The book also presents a vision for the coming years in terms of emerging fourth generation (4G) wireless technology trends and best practices. It explores the resulting challenges and technical opportunities that will arise in creating and delivering 4G networks for the emerging applications and services. This book also examines the fundamentals of advanced physical layer and radio resource management as the basis for cross layer and cross network optimization that will emerge for increased mobility and services in video, cloud computing virtualization, entertainment, education, health, and security.

FTTH

I remember during the UBB project, trying to prove the need for 1Gbps speed, the maximum bandwidth needed for heavy Internet usage was no more than 35Mbps and seriously there arent any heavy users in Greece yet. Technologically it is possible to offer 1Gbps, but the demand for that speed will be created in 10-15 years


But, for Greece, is it really the right time to bring up the fiber optic networks case? Will FTTH implementation take Greece out of the economic slump? Usually the impact of technology, i.e. broadband implementation on an economy is positive, adding growth based on macroeconomic fundamentals (Solow model) but also empirical studies. It is said that broadband brings more rapid growth in employment, the number of businesses overall, and businesses in IT-intensive sectors, relative to comparable communities without broadband. But still these are theoretical academic studies with little practical use.


However, the model should be different per market. Should a small country with a huge deficit right now, having the EU commissioner threatening and supervising its economy and public expenses, care about fiber optic networks? Is that the right investment to warm up and stimulate the economy? Is there a real interest from businesses and households into hight-speed broadband that turns the FTTH implementation into a one-way solution? Have the businesses and households already understood the value of the Internet, and how they can make money when Greece is still the EU lagger in broadband penetration? Rather worry, when there is no serious interest on SD IPTV that could easily run on ADSL or VDSL speeds. And still, the market is small, the young care more about their cell phone functionalities and the mobile internet rather than DTV or HDTV. If Greece was Finland or any other Scandinavian country, cloudy and cold most of the year, it would have made perfect sense, to offer HDTV asap.


Greece is a developed country with very good infrastructure and communications national coverage based on telephony (#29 in the world) and mobile wireless network (99.9%). The first half of 2009 Greece showed a 2.19% increase in the broadband penetration rate. Is that a positive sign of demand and interest to run after the FTTH?


However, there is no serious planning for DTV, when other EU countries have already launched such as Spain or are ready to launch the new service. Greece is a beautiful, touristic country focusing on services. Is that really critical to offer HDTV (havent heard of any other service needed) to the tourists, when the price of the hotels is skyrocketing every summer and the rate of the visiting tourists is going down? Certainly the tourist will not come to Greece to enjoy the HDTV. Are there any e-gov services that need a high speed connection to advance into the next level? How can a country in crisis, with more taxes coming up, afford a triple-play of 60-70 euros/month if we compare to the Portugese case, that is similar size to Greece? Why is the download speed a serious problem for the households that fiber will overcome? Instead, implement P2P policies and add value to the downloads

Rushing to migrate into an advanced technology without having serious services planning or making full use of the DSL could increase the digital or better the bandwidth divide between the rural and urban areas with its implications. Is there a serious national, individual and organisational level's benefit measured or are we following others? Is there a reasonable ROI for the investors?


What are the other priorities? From an insight view, a serious spending on redesigning the tax system, that could track all the illegal activities, shrinking the deficit, promoting and educating into e-gov services, adding more speed and equipment to the school labs, that to my experience they run on a '2Mbps' speed, a real obstacle when running a seminar on new technologies. Serious spending and supervising the EU funds spending and investing into SMEs projects.


In the end of the day, examine what the market wants and dont rush into building a fiber optic network that will start creating revenues much much later from what it is expected, causing another balack hole for the economy. Technologists should collaborate with economists and consult with countries that have already implemented the fiber network and understand the rationality. Revise the techno-economic study, including some serious technological planning, setting as first priority the social benefit and not the investors'. Support the FTTH case study with more social services, broadband stimulus applications proving the real need for high speed broadband service, supporting the rural areas of Greece i.e. the islands that to my opinion should be covered from mobile broadband solutions following similar developing counries model. Thus the price of the mobile broadband should go down and offered more widely to the ruaral areas. HSPA+ (21Mbps) is already offered in Greece.

Proper technological choices and services diversity could be the solution and serious thinking on what people really need, collaborating with the governement agencies and running surveys to rural and urban areas. A small group of people shouldnt decide on behalf of the majority, cause its a huge public expense per year and a political decision that could easily turn against them in the future (goverment, investors, technologists)if not carefully supported and planned with a serious economic and technological model. Greece needs an ecosystem than an advanced leading technology that will bring no serious economic growth, cause tge country is not ready for that.


stay tuned~

dividends

Spain is leading the digital dividends matter, (GSMA newsflash) with the Spanish Ministry of Telecommunications issuing a press release stating that from 1 January 2015 the spectrum frequency band 790-862 MHz in Spain is to be reserved for services other than television broadcasting, such as mobile broadband. There are some great benefits that will fix some the 3G mobile broadband bottlenecks, such as rural coverage and in-building penetration offered by the UHF digital dividend spectrum.


Is that early or late? Giving the fact that most spectrum will be needed in the beginning of the 4G evolution by 2011 or 2012, then 2015 might be really late. On the other hand, the 4G could be deployed in different ways and by 2015 to achieve full expansion and harmonisation and that should be the Spanish position. Definetely the markets need some time to adpat a new technology that varies, but a 3-4 years sounds reasonable. We shouldnt forget that we transit every other 10 years from 1G to 2G and then 3G. Every generation is different and with diverse innovative trends.


The establishment of a common harmonised frequency band for mobile broadband services is very critical for the success and the best performance. That is translated into reliability and customer experience that will raise the operator's ARPU.


There are many developed countries that are still wondering and trying to make decision; perhaps they will follow Spain's clear decision if they could resolve their market issues with the TV broadcasters and similar 'obstacles'. A harmonised approach across Europe and not only will encourage economic growth and deliver consumers new services at lower cost.


The question that arises now is, if we give priority to mobile broadband services where will the DTV stand? what is the trade-off, winners-losers?