1. Telcos fight back with own OTT services
25/12/2012
Telecom operators are responding to the encroaching threat of over-the-top players with OTT offerings
of their own, new research shows.
There are now more than 80 OTT-style internet services run by telecom operators, according to a report
from Disruptive Analysis.
The OTT offerings span four main service categories – content, communications, cloud and connectivity.
Report author Dean Bubley said the rise of what the research firm calls Telco-OTT services shows that
operators are starting to acknowledge the “need to go on the attack.
“They must exploit the scale and ‘viral’ adoption of new services by billions of internet and smartphone
users, using similar tactics to the familiar web- or VoIP-type providers,” Bubley said.
Telco-OTT services will allow operators to expand their user-base beyond countries where they have no
network footprint, and benefit from new revenue streams, he said.
A telco-OTT strategy could prove an uphill battle, because few OTT-style services are easy to monetize,
he said. But as comsumers' expectations for open-internet services growth, the strategy could be key to
staying relevant.
“If telcos are to survive in the long-term, they need to embrace OTT, not fight it. If you can’t beat ‘em,
join ‘em.”
Telcos must become OTT 'toolbox' to survive
The growing popularity and power of OTT services has become a major worry for telcos that see such
services eating into their revenues. Telcos still have a role to play in the OTT value chain beyond simple
bandwidth provisioning, but finding that role starts with understanding what OTT players want from you,
said Mike McDonald, CTO and executive solution consultant at Huawei Technologies.

2. "Telcos have had the mentality that the OTT players need us and will come to us to partner, but that's
wrong," McDonald said during an OTT session at the CommunicAsia2012 Summit Thursday. "In reality
the OTT player mentality is that they don't need us Ð not the way we think they do."
For example, he said, "Telcos think there's a business case for guaranteeing a 4-Mbps connection for a
streaming video provider, but in reality they don't need that. The web guys have tricks to get around the
fact that our network is a bit shoddy for their purposes."
To that end, telcos need to stop telling OTT players how to use their network and transform it into a
tool they can use their own way, McDonald said. "We do have some core assets that can play a role in all
this. We can build APIs that help them use our network the way that makes sense to them."
McDonald admitted that some telcos are reluctant to share APIs because they see it as a crucial business
asset, "but the truth is they don't have the skills sets to capitalize on it that way."
McDonald advised telcos to focus on their core assets and capabilities, develop a simple and open API
and become a comprehensive consulting firm for OTT developers to help integrate them into their
network capabilities.
"We need to leverage OTT developers for innovation," he said. "Telcos can develop their own OTT
services, but it's more likely that they'll piggyback on [OTT players'] knowledge of the webscape and
users, and become a toolbox so the next generation can build on what we've done."
(Source:http://ictnews.vn/home/Vien-thong/5/Nha-mang-the-gioi-lo-doi-pho-voi-cac-dich-vu-
OTT/107040/index.ict
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Internet/107054/index.ict)