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Technological developments and emergingcustomer demand mean fixed mobileconvergence is now a reality, says AndyHarwood, but this time it's about entertainmentas well

Fixed Mobile

-convergencethe comeback kid

The concept of fixedmobile convergencewas a hot topic in the

dot com era but went out offa.vouras the bubble burst.It has had a few quiet resur-gences in recent years butthese faded as quickly andquietly as they came. Thistime though, for a variety ofreasons, things look differ-ent. To understand why thisis the case, and what it maymean we need to dig into thecommercial imperatives driv-ing the change as well as thetechnologica.l developmentsunderpinning it. HopefuHywe'll even manage to shedorne light on the valu for

customers along the way,some obvious, some less so.

ir tly th ugh, what i fixedmobile conv rgenc (MC)?Tr ditionally MC wa u edby the tel com indu try tod crib th integration offi d line and wirel tech-nologies. But it' mar thanthat; it' al about th onver-

gence b tw n the m dia, dataand telecom indu tri . It willallowentertainm nt and infor-mation provider to delivercontent and ervice to mobileand Fix d multimedia capabl 'd vices.

Tru time all th.e ingredientfor the ucce sflll d elopment

Fa conv rged world eem tobe coming together: n twork ,device, a good do of com-mercial imperative and cu -tomer ne d.

NETWORKS ...Until re ently network forwireles , fixed line, data andTV ervi e hav i ted ini olation with limit d iF aninter-op rability. This willchange with the n xt genera-tion solution .. The long-termtr nd toward all IP networki cl ar and not in di. put . Thpath will b differ nt for eadlplayer invOlved dep nding ontheir legac po ition and willinvolv partner hip as wella wn buUd. Th obj cbv i

clear though; eaml sly int -grated platForm for delivering

amJ .lyintegrat d rvice,lower co t , in.no ative erv-ices and a deep r long la tiJlgcustom r relation hip.

DEVICES ...As th network d velopwill th device. Custom rwant to connect anywher ,any tim by their d vice ofchoice and the d vi e manu-factur 1-' won't I t u. down.Choice will not b the prob-lem. Multi acce d vice anddevice convergenc i a subjectin it own right. A we knowalready mobile ph nes canincorporate cam ra , vid 0,

TV,and music capabilities anddevice ar already on the mar-ket for th delivery f internet111U ic directly to a HiFi (e.g.PhiJip tr amium). Whetheryou are a con umer lectronics,mobUe d ice or hip manu-Factur r ou will b familiarwith th opportunities anddlalleng of FM .

Andy Harwood was untilrecently Chief CommercialOfficer,BT entertainment.

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At home BT Fusion phones transfer from the mobile network to thehome broadband line by connecting to a wireless access point

COMMERCIAL DRIVERS ...What all this does is pitch ara ft of n w busin ector.(cable, . at llite, m dia own-er and aggregator.) with thetraditional player (th fixedand mobile operator) on to th,arne playing field, or p rhapsthe battl field. Thi battlefieldis in many ways what is w,der-pinn.ing the belief that thi timeFMC is for real.

COMMUNICATIONSIf we look first at the deliveryof communication ervicwe have operator. who arfixed only, mobile only, fixedand mobile, cable and the newVoice 0 r IF (VoIP) up tart.The incumbents in this spa- the fixed netv,rork provider'- ar 10 ing groLUld to all thother players du to a combi-nation of price, bundling andnew service, indeed this i. amarket that will b haped amud, by friction b tween fix dand wir less operators a, bycustom r demand. The .fixedline bus.ine ses are howev rfighting back with theil' owninnovations.

A prim exampl of thi

i th BT Fu ion rvice. BTFusion i the new intelligentmobil . rvic from BT. It' amobil phone that cl verlyandautomatically witche fr mmobil to landlin call ratewhen y u get home. Int gralto the rvice i wir Ie con-nectivity at home with the BTHome Hub, 0 not only dothi 'rvice win back revenuefrom m bile servi e but al 0

help r duce broadband churnand introduce mOl" home n t-work cu tomer to "vhom fur-ther ervices can b offered.

Where oncewe had loyalty

to channelsincreasingly

now the loyaltyis to programme

brands

Although many operatorshave t ted simi.lar sy t mover the past de ad thi i animportant milestone. The dooris now firmly op n for a raft

of new "converg d" servic s.The ervic is now in the pub-lic domain and other opera-tors and service provider willre pond, thi up r tanker willnow tak . orne topping.

ENTERTAINMENTIntere t and opportunity comesnot only from ommunjcationervic provid rs but from

the m dia and entertainm ntsector a well. Although cau-tious in their adoption of newtechnologies, particularly a. aresult of piracy concerns, theentertainment indu try i nowwaking up to th opportunitiesprovid d by digital deliv ryand conv rged s rvices.

Th d livery of ent rtain-ment is becoming ino-ea inglyfragmented, th advent of the1000 channel univer e suppJe-.111 nted b PVR functionalityhas s en to that, and buildingbrand I yalty and monctisingcont nt is becoming increa -ingly compLcat d. Where on ewe had loyalty to channel(e.g. [TV], C4, BB ]) increa -ingly now the loyalty is to pro-gramme brand. ( .g. Pop Idol,Big Brother, T p Gear) andwe want to int ract with ourfavourite brand, when verand wh rever w want to. Thi .shift provide not only 11 w rev-enue-generating opportunitiesbu t i also syn rgi tic with therational of converged service.As arly examples, Orangehave launched two chann Isdedicated to th r ality howsCel brity Lov 1 land and BigBroth r, whiJ t in the US oxmad a eri s of one minuteepisod of it ries 24 xclu-ively for broadcast over 3 .In thi, spac ntrepreneurial

start-u ps a re push ing backthe frontier a well. W 'vealready had time hift:ing withPVR', like TIVO now wit],Slingbox a U.s. start-up we

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have the "place shifting" of TVcontent within and outside thhome. Harnessing broadbandth devic hooks up to th TVto redirect a custom r's livingroom programming to their PCanywhere in the world, via aWiFi lnt met connection. TheSlingbox extends your hom -living experience to whereveryou are. It beams your favour-it programmes to whereveryou have access to broadband,eLLrfentlyonly to P , but smartph nes are on the road map forth next 12 month .

A ever the mu ic i..ndll tryblazes a trail. Consider the n xtgen ration of mll ic servi.celike the"~ Go" ervices fromR al Networks' Rhapsody orfrom Nap ter. Here the piracyi ue is tackled and eli tom rcan, via a imple P ubscrip-tion, have ccess to a milliontracks and take th m on themov on their MP3 player,and oon I'm su r on thei rmobile ph nes.

CUSTOMER NEED ...I arly none of th above

will have any mor chanc ofsuccess than earli r incama-tions if th r i no custom r11 d. But there i. Peoplar rarely if ver "fixed", it'.purely a fun tion of technologyd v lopm nt to dat that wehav ended Lipwith the rath runnatural concept of fixed andm bile in our communicationand entertainment world. Peo-pi are mobile and th world ofteclmoLogy i catching Lipwiththi demand.

It' likely though that allthe e new d velopment andmarket entrants coming fr maJl 0 rts of diff r n tanglewill leave u tom r lightlydaz d and onfu d. The k yattribute of succe ful n wervice will th.erefor pay clo

h d to th f ur "e ",choic ,

conv nience, control and co t.Th e, plu' a clearly person-ali ed approach where ourch en pr ference and pro-fil are carried acro devicand network, will und rpin thelikely winning servic .

What th indu try caJlint IIigent adaptive networkshould mean in practkaI termthat a a CLl.tomer at work orat home I become les andIe bothered wruch network(br adca t, broadband, fixedlin or mobile) services ardeliver d ov r, or which devieI'm u ing at the tim and muchmore focll ed on the a t, qual-ity and value of the content andservices offer d which shouldincreasingly fit my n ds andIif tyle ]jke a glove.

Sit won't b long before 1'm

getting a trail r for a TV howbeing offered on VoD for thefir t time that vening ent tomy mobiLe(b cause they knowmy preferences) while I'm onthe way out for a beer. I'll beable to buy it, . et up the PVRto record it, and forward it tofriend (who buy it and get mea di aunt) all from the ammobile and all hown on thesame bill.

Th content will genuinelybe what I want, wher I wantit and the whole thing will beimple to manage and upport

with a few or a many pro-vider as I want. Well here'shoping. For now though I'd beplea d if wh n a phone riJlgin au r house I'd knowwhich of the four mobilor two fixed lines it wa ..

A 0

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