Buzz: Another new radio access technology has arrived being made commercially available to network operators.
When is the right or appropriate time to embrace these new technologies? The operator has just finished rolling out its 3rd Generation (3G) cellular mobile network to stay abreast of the competition. It took the operator 2 years to finish the project deploying this commercial 5 year-old technolgy; and yet another one year-old technology has arrived promising better speeds, improved performance, reduced capital, operating and maintenace costs, higher yield on investments in a shorter time catering to the same subscriber/customer base size with more advanced features and capable of incorporating top-of-the-line value-added services, in addition to easier future expansion with less expense, more value for expenditures with less use of resources relative to the newly deployed network.
Normally, operators want to get the most out of their investments fast, especially when the expenditure is fresh from the financial investors. Extract this and that, and more of them, with the new network; and if not enough do some hardware/software upgrades at the core and RAN to attain improved rates and performance, that are expected with the 3G technology. Further network upgrade/s shall be able to show significant improvement to the network performance until the network saturation point is attained; this means the full potential of the 3G technology has reached its limits.
Shall the operator start deploying the new technology at this point? Without hesitation, certainly!
But wait, has the operator done a feasibility study (testing the new technology locally, frequency spectrum available with valid licenses ready, financial/expertise/knowledge/ resources, equipment readily available from which suitable vendor, integration with the existing 3G network, among other critical considerations)? Is the operator going to keep the existing network/s for N years, and deploy the new technology at a later stage when proven what is expected from/with it? Will the operator wait for the competition to deploy the new technology first and follow at a later stage?
So when is the right/proper strategic time to go with the Wave? Is it at the point when the wave is going up, at the top of the wave, or at the tail of the wave? Of course, no one wants to "surf" under the Wave. Only good experienced Surfers know the best times to "surf", go on with the Wave, conquer the Wave, and end up Winners.
I love to say this but I am not a Surfer and I don't have the Board to conquer the Wave; I can just either watch and/or play with the Wave.
VB
Hi Val,
ReplyDeleteHow are you? Thanks for your comments on my blog and I enjoyed reading your post. Just a short comment on your question as when is the right time to ride the wave? In my perspective the right time is when the subscribers are just about ready to accept the new wave. This can be seen through customer experience management. For example LTE has been around in Sweden for a while and its quite successful since the data requirements of subscribers who are used to UMTS/HSPA is high and that there are lots of phones that allows data usage (browsing, email, social media). Once you see social media traffic going high, its about time to move to higher data rates and new technology such as LTE.
Thanks for your comments, Ian.
ReplyDeleteMy intentions in starting writing this blog is to enlighten and/or entertain people other than myself. In addition, I shall be able to gain/share ideas to people with the same interests; and of course to connect to people who are specialized in the industry.
I intend to give/share more ideas for us to enjoy. I hope you shall do the same.
Keep in touch.
I still remember when I was younger (so to speak, I am still young and looks younger than my age), these Waves were just ripples coming from the Horizon as the Surfers, who were then sailors, builders and navigators, were pre-occupied with other games and toys.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the specific time the first Wave came, but I can tell you that it came unnoticeably weak and slow. There were no Surfers then; these sailors, builders and navigators were hesitant to face the Wave until they started to realize the inevitable potential and power that comes with it, when properly utilized. They started to play with the Wave; most of them tried to "dive and swim" and felt how it was like in and with the Wave; the curious ones went to waddle and splash and saw how the Wave moved; there were small groups who saw the power of the Wave and wanted to harness it - they studied, and learned that to enjoy and use that power, they need to go with the Wave with minimal resources. That started the birth of the Surfers and the Boards.
The sailors, builders and navigators became Surfers who were quick enough to create and bring, or source out their own Boards. The first Waves had many smaller ripples that proved to be helpful for the learning/beginner Surfers.
The second next Waves proved to be a satisfying time for these so many Surfers waiting to test their turf learned from the previous Waves. The main aim: become first (or one of the firsts) to conquer the Wave.