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How OTT is changing Media content delivery

August 15, 2016 / in Articles / by

Online video entertainment has created a huge impact to traditional media companies that didn’t believe in the huge opportunities that video-on-demand services where going to bring. They refused to acknowledge the market opportunities beyond traditional pay-TV services. This change has become a global phenomenon. The impact and implications are enormous.

But, what are Over-the-top services? Over-the-top, or OTT, is the term used for the delivery of film and TV content via the Internet, without requiring users to subscribe to a traditional cable or satellite pay-TV service like a Comcast or Time Warner Cable. OTT can be divided into three different revenue models:

  • SVOD: Subscription-based model, such as the well-known Netflix or Hulu
  • AVOD: Free and Ad-based services such as Cracked and Hulu
  • TVOD: Transactional services such as Itunes

 

SVOD will become the region’s largest OTT revenue source in 2018. AVOD is expected to surpass SVOD in 2020, due to the rapid expansion in mobile advertising.

In Western European countries, over-the-top (OTT) television and video revenues will more than double in the 5 coming years. This growth rates will vary a lot, depending on the country. OTT adoption is high in UK, the Netherlands and specially Sweden, were in the south (Spain, Portugal) it hasn’t make a difference, yet. This is mainly because these countries report a huge presence of piracy content.

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OTT TV and video revenues in Western Europe will be increased, between 2015 and 2021, in $8.25 billion. The UK will be the marked leader, with $2.30 billion, followed by Germany ($1.34 billion), France ($1.13 billion) and Italy ($0.99 billion)

However, growth will be tied to distribution. As internet-connected TVs become more and more popular, so will be OTT video services.

Traditional cable and satellite services are taking action to face these market changes. As an example, Time Warner has just taken 10% of Hulu stakes, one of the main OTT players.

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Connected cars, with more cell service connections than mobile phones

July 25, 2016 / in Articles / by

Cars are getting more and more connected. In the first quarter of 2016, more cars were added to mobile networks in the American market than smartphones.

More than a third of new connections were in cars, followed by 31% in mobiles. Finally, tablets constituted 23 percent of connections while M2M (machine to machine) was just 14 percent. Connected cars are becoming more and more widespread in the last few years with many users connecting their vehicles to a cell service.

As an example, US telecommunications company, AT&T has eight million cars on its network, probably the highest of any mobile operator in the world, states Chetan Sharma report. AT&T mobile car’s solutions is appealing automobile manufacturers, to the point that they have sealed deals with 9 out of 15 US car companies.

 

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One of the projects to improve cars convenience was started on 2015 by a University of Texas engineering student, Nancy Rodriguez, who was also an intern at AT&T Plano Foundry. After watching some tragic news about children left by accident in hot cars, she decided to build a product that detects living creatures on automobiles and triggers an alarm in certain situations. This prototype has been continued by AT&T and will probably be commercialized in some cars next year.

Despite the advantages of having a connected car (to detect other cars, or to track your way to a destination), many consumers aren’t aware their car is connected. 4 out of 10 don’t realize the cars they owned already had connectivity features on board. On the other hand, the rest said that connected features influenced their decision to buy a certain car.

 

The best tips to protect your smartphone

July 21, 2016 / in Articles / by

Smartphones need protection today, good maintenance and good use. These are essential tasks we must take to avoid irreparable damage to our phone.

 

There are different ways where mobiles can be hacked by true professionals who are dedicated to stealing information to access personal information such as bank details. Hackers can infect your device remotely, by malware or via Wi-Fi networks that are not secure. This is especially true for operating systems such as Android. To prevent this from happening, you can perform various actions, but first you must learn to recognize when your phone has been hacked:

 

  • If your device’s battery runs out quickly.

 

  • If apps are opened automatically.

 

  • If you get unexpected invoices charges.

 

And these are the actions to prevent and avoid future problems:

 

  • Block your mobile with passwords, if they are numbers, avoid tapping the same ones that you use in your bank. For other passwords, you should use capital letters, numbers and a word that no one can decipher, the more complicated the better. Try to change these passwords from time to time.

 

  • Never give anyone any of your passwords. You never know where this password can end up.

 

  • Back Up! Remember to create backups. Transports your data to another device, computer, hard disk, Tablet, but always have a copy, so you will never lose information in case of theft or hacking your mobile phone.

 

  • Use apps like FindMyIphone or alternatives for Android to protect your cell phone. These apps let you remotely locate and control your phone and even reset the entire device if this is necessary.

 

  • Keep away from some public networks without security codes (those you don’t know), because they provide easy access to hackers. Be also careful when using your Bluetooth. Always select the invisible mode so that other users cannot detect you.

 

  • Don’t click on links from unknown SMS. These links might be malware. Also avoid downloading Apps, via SMS, that can also introduce malware to your device.

 

Finally, update your software as often as you can, because it restores and corrects errors that have occurred on the device and prevents the mobile from new malware.

 

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The Internet developing in Latin America

July 11, 2016 / in Articles / by

The internet in Latin America, a unit like the US and other parts of the world have been essentially developed by the academic and research institutions. Within the context broadband in Latin America, statically Mexico and Uruguay are the front runners.

Research suggests that fixed broadband penetration in the LAC region remains below the global average. In comparison to the South East Asia countries, European and northern American markets. The reason is as a result of poor connectivity within the rural regions where there is relatively low computer use. The demographics within those areas are significantly poorer therefore they are only able to afford very basic telecom wireless (mobiles).

Reports show that the governments are indeed “on the ball” regarding broadband issues in these areas. Moreover, it is clear they are also realizing the magnitude of the situation. As a result the Mexico’s government is taking some measures to solve this problem. For example, issuing subsidies for STBs (a set-top box) to support the analogue vs. digital process, the national project such as Broadband for schools where refurbished computers are distributed for free. These processes go a long way in reinforcing GDP growth within the area and of course will improve the countries socio-economic status. Governments are also looking into extending the broadband project into countries like Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Uruguay.

 

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As for the telecom providers, it’s a bit of a gloomy situation as the new entrants are looming because incumbents are trying new ways to tackle the high cost of infrastructure, especially around the largely densely populated regions. Considering the building costs, telecommunication companies are improvising by coming up with innovative ways to help their falling revenue growth. As a consequence, they are developing Fttp (Fiber To The Premises) networks where households and businesses can be expected to pay a premium for the quality of service. They are also planning to be as efficient as humanly possible by using of their mobile and fixed assets to a strategic advantage. Therefore providing their new customers with a full portfolio of service while reducing costs as much as possible.

In the future, the fixed line infrastructures will come as a great benefit in increasing the regions economic growth and GDP. However while telecoms invest heavily in the urban areas, in the coming years they will  benefit mostly from the mobile users as most telecoms operators are just sizing up the amount of network upgrades just so they can provide a widespread, more efficient and more affordable mobile broadband and data offers. This growth is owned predominately to the mobile segment due to voice and data services across the region.  Almost all LAC markets have UMTS networks, while the key regional operators, including América Móvil and Telefónica, have focused investments on HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE upgrades. Commercial LTE networks are now widespread, and more are either planned or are in trial.

Considering the size and scale of the LAC region, there still lies a huge contrast of differences with broadband usage. Including St Kitts & Nevis, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico all have 11% to 30% fixed broadband penetration in their region while countries such as Haiti, Paraguay, Nicaragua and Cuba have significantly lower BB penetration.

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