Challenges for an MVNO in a saturated mobile penetration market; case of Cherry a wifi-GSM enabled solution. Presented dring MobileMonday Brussels meeting on MVNOs

1. "How SIP and VoIP is
transforming the model"
Davy Van De Moere
CTO Mondial Telecom

2. Content
• Short on Cherry
• Trends
• MVNO’s – the classic model (sales, sales, sales)
• The challenge – Differentiate
• Using IP on GSMs
• UMA
• IMS (Getting the V out of MVNO)
• The success matrix
• Integrate SIP with SS7
• Use correctly 802.11 networks
• User transparency
• CME – challenge
• God is the Detail
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3. How chocolate, French fries, beer and
Cherry relate…
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4. First off … what is Cherry actually
doing?
• You just want to see it right? Here it is…
• hat was:
T
• Wifi – calling on the beach of Knokke using Wifi
• See more at Youtube, google for “cherry world premiere”, and see the
Handover in action.
• Cherry is:
• Call out on Wifi with the same number
• Call in on Wifi with the same number
• Smooth handover in call
• QoS although differently implemented
• And some nice goodies
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5. The Cherry app on Nokia
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6. Cherry’s handover
• when walking out of wifi
the cellphone moves the
Wifi leg to a GSM leg
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7. Relevant trends
• Smartphone penetration is rising (In Belgium that’s about 6% now)
• Wifi networks become more spread, as well as the public wifi networks
• All communication is migrating towards a full IP world
• Integration of networks starts to happen
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8. MVNO – The classic model
• MVNO’s advantage was:
• other price models
• lower margins due to lower overhead
• different service
• good sales organizations
• MNO’s reached +100% market penetration, the rules have changed, it’s market
saturation time!
• MVNO’s and MNO’s need new differentiation
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9. MVNO – Differentiate
• FMC is one way to differentiate, there are a few ways to do that, and other
examples are here today!
• It allows for :
• Much lower cost structure when calls are on wifi, arbitrage possibilities!
• Major advantage when roaming
• Better coverage indoors!
• New/unique features for the end user
• Control by the MVNO on its customers calls, making it a MSSO ? (Mobile
Shared Spectrum Operator? )
• We all know one day all communication will be on IP, don’t ask me for a
timeframe ;), all we know, is it can only be a smooth transition.
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10. Mobile FMC had two paths until Cherry
came along…
• UMA vs IMS
• UMA : Change the CPE infrastructure
• IMS : No need to change, everything you need is already there
• PicoCells , FemtoCells?
• Nice technology, no really! But who’ll pay for all that radio power ? It’s only
a CAPEX to OPEX transformation for a MNO. And there are still quite some
technical difficulties.
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11. The success matrix
• Integrate SIP with SS7
• Use correctly 802.11 networks
• Making it transparent for the user
• CME – challenge
• God is the Detail : Get the OSS/BSS straightened out
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12. Integrate SIP with SS7
• SIP is from Venus, SS7 from Mars, as all marriages, it ain’t easy.
• There are no written rules yet, on SIP to SS7 integration on Mobile usage
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13. Use 802.11 networks in a good manner
• Users have a random behavior, they are walking in and out wifi networks
• We only want to put calls on wifi when we’re sure about the audio quality, still
that’s a huge % of the calls
• We don’t want to overuse it as well, to enlarge battery life
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14. Making it transparent for the user
• Users are stupid? No! They just don’t care about the cost of their next call. They
don’t want to bother with technicalities, but they appreciate a lower invoice at the
end of the month.
• Lower cost and a few nice extra features are key to convince the user, good
quality all the time, and ease of use is imperative to retain them.
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15. Making it transparent for the user
(cont.)
• Provisioning needs to be as simple as can be
• Legal aspects need to be covered
• Home/work wifi networks need to be sufficient from a range/bandwidth
perspective
• Application needs to as easy as possible, offcourse the hardest part is making
an application to be mostly in the background, not interfering with the user.
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16. Customer Mobile Equipment
• The market is very heterogeneous :
• Nokia has 3 main platforms on the market NOW, for smartphones.
• Iphone
• Windows Mobile has 2 relevant platforms
• Android has 2 release branches
• RIM
• …
• Much 3rd party apps
• Different CPU speeds, memory performance, screen displays, etc…
• And it is used in a random-like manner 16

17. God is in the detail
• A lab environment is different place then the actual field
• Hence, on OSS deep monitoring and analysis are required
• On BSS CDRs of handed over calls are not straight forward
• BSS has even wider multidisciplinary requirements
• Educate the user
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18. Cherry is open for business
• Cherry had a friendly user test with tech loving people in July, launched
commercially on 26/8 , distribution channels opened in october
• We have most of the ingredients on our shelves:
• CME support
• SIP expertise
• SS7 – SIP integration , in layman terms , how to connect to a MNO
• BSS experience
• Wifi knowledge
• Cherry is a solution provider, next up is International Expansion
• We’re open to discuss business opportunities
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19. Cherry is open for business (cont.)
Contact:
d.vandemoere@mondialtelecom.be (CTO) – yours thruly
bernard@mondialtelecom.be (CEO)
visit www.becherry.be & google for “Cherry world premiere”
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20. Q&A
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