Communicasia, the south east Asian telecoms and broadcasting tradeshow, showed how operators in Asia have a pragmatic view on the telecommunications markets. Unlike many in Western markets, there is a much more sober approach to building a service platform in the residential and consumer market, particularly in south east Asia. These operators typically get less exposure in the industry mainly due to much smaller PR departments than their Western counter-parties.
Take Telecom Malaysia for example. The Malaysian operator is about to launch a cloud computing platform for the residential & consumer market, targeting primarily students with cloud services to increase the productivity of studies at low cost solutions. The engine can also provide services in areas such as information, gaming and entertainment services. The cloud engine is open to third parties, hence the operator is working closely with software developers to get them onto the cloud. Telecom Malaysia has a huge challenge ahead, as few industry players at the show were aware of the cloud initiative. Key for Malaysia Telecom will be how to attract mind-share of developers for their cloud. Operators and cloud computing was also the topic for my talk at Communicasia.
ITU-T was present and talked about the ITU-T specifications for IPTV terminals. The goal of the specifications is to separate the service layer from the device layer, so that service reception becomes independent of devices. ITU-T showed how the Japanese Hikari TV service is available on various consumer electronics devices (such as televisions from Toshiba and Sharp). The ITU-T H.721 specifications outline the basic functionality of terminals (linear TV, on demand, and interactive services) while other ITU-T specifications in the pipeline will evolve the H.721 specifications. ITU-T aims to leverage existing web technologies as much as possible.
The impacts of government policy on the telecoms market was clear in Singapore, and various government agencies and companies sponsored by the Singaporean government had a strong presence at the show. The main focus was on Opennet, the government driven alliance of Axia, Singtel, Singapore Press Holdings and SP Telecommunications. Opennet is an ambitious joint venture to connect all of Singapore to a fibre-to-the-home network. Opennet is backed with a SGD 750 million sponsorship from the government. Opennet provides wholesale solutions to any interested third party (Opennet will not deliver any retail solutions), where retail service providers (RSP, the term used by the Singaporean industry for residential and commercial access providers) buy wholesale access for SGD 15/month and 50/month for non-residential access. This is done on equal terms to all RSPs regardless of affiliation to Opennet. This means for example insurance companies could potentially become Opennet RSPs and bundle Internet access services with insurance services. We expect a strong push to bundle Internet access with other services to avoid cut-throat pricing wars on Internet access. Otherwise retail pricing for fibre access should converge towards SGD 15/month+operational costs. However, given the government sponsorship of this fibre network, it raises the question of what happens if privately funded 4G+ networks start competing with fibre access in the residential market. In many markets this will be seen as an unhealthy mixture of public policy and commercial business, so it will be of interest to monitor how the Singaporean government will respond to any such concerns if they should be raised by the industry. Will the Singaporean government take a similar view on 4G-type services and drive forth a wholesale market for cellular RSPs, as with the fibre network?
