Telecoms & Broadband Business Newsletter - September 2011

Key telecoms trends moving into 2012

With the NBN and mobile broadband networks now well and truly underway it is important to look at what the real value of this new infrastructure will be. 

The infrastructure that is now being built offers a range of features – ubiquity, affordability, low latency, high speed and high capacity. It will link millions of devices and sensors that will enable us to more efficiently and effectively manage our environment, traffic, infrastructures and our society as a whole. 

This ‘Internet of Things’ is going to be a real game-changer. It will transform every single sector of society and the economy and it will be out of this environment that new businesses – and indeed new industries – will be born. This is one of the reasons so many overseas ICT companies are increasing their presence in Australia. The NBN is an ideal test-bed for such developments. A great deal of attention is being paid to cloud computing and the NBN can be viewed as one gigantic cloud. 

The development of cloud computing involves a business transition, and company strategies and policies will need to be changed before its potential can be monetised by businesses. A key factor here is that organisations will have to raise ICT from the level of an infrastructure issue to that of a business opportunity. Cloud computing will need to be seen as a valuable business tool – one that will differentiate one company from others. 

Key trends for 2012:

• The first million NBN customers will be connected.
• The NBN will start showing its first results in customer uptake, application development and customer feedback. It will become a must-have product.
• The transition from the current telecoms market to one where the NBN will dominate will lead to further merger and acquisition activities, in both the telco and the content/application markets.
• Improvements in customer service will be boosted by new technologies such as Ubiquitous Complex Event Processing and Behavioural Attitudinal Geolocation, aiming at lifetime customer relationships.
• Australian and overseas companies will start testing new services in IPTV, e-health, e-education, disability broadband, e-government and so on.
• The full extent of the cloud computing opportunity is dependent on the availability of robust, high-capacity networks like the NBN. It will be a slow journey from hype to reality.
• The triple play market will finally start taking off, with IPTV taking centre-stage.
• The Smart City/Smart Grid project in Newcastle will become the showcase for a range of new energy services in relation to home energy management, electric vehicles, management of renewable energy and competitive time-of-use pricing.
• The Carbon Price Scheme will stimulate investments and innovations in energy efficiency technologies in and around smart grids. Significant new business opportunities exist here for ICT-based investments. This will become the first large-scale market for the ‘Internet of Things’.
• The focus of attention will shift to smart city concepts, with communities and cities becoming actively involved in shaping their own digital future.
• Competition in mobile broadband will see the penetration of smartphones increase by 10%, to around 60% of mobile phone users. Mobile ARPU will remain flat.
• Social network sites will be used regularly by over ten million Australians.