Wi-Fi Stakeholder Diversity: The Problem with Seams

WiFi & Stakeholder Diversity

Who has the user’s best interests at heart?

Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis

November 2015

[email protected] @disruptivedean

mailto:[email protected]



About Disruptive Analysis

Tech/telecom analyst house & strategic consulting firm

Cross-silo, contrarian, independent

Forecasting & anti-forecasting

Consultant & advisor to telcos, vendors, regulators & investors

Speaker at 30+ events per year in Europe, US & Asia

Reports on Mobile Broadband, WebRTC etc

Twitter @disruptivedean Blog: disruptivewireless.blogspot.com

Copyright Disruptive Analysis Ltd 2015 November 2015

The Future has broad drivers, beyond networks


Chapter by Dean Bubley:

“The Future of the Phone Call”

Other Chapters cover:

AI & machine-learning

Analytics & Big Data

Contextual computing

Crowds & the Sharing Economy

Wearables & quantified-self

3D-printing

IoT, Robots & drones

Autonomous vehicles

Longevity & human enhancement

Green Tech

Financial systems & money

Political & social change

Lif

es

tyle

Ch

an

ge

s

An

aly

tic

s &

Ma

ch

ine

le

arn

ing

Re

tail &

eC

om

me

rce

Sm

art

Cit

ies

& Io

T

Opportunity & value arises at intersections


New communications & network capabilities, eg WiFi

Yet much of the industry focus?


ANDSF

HOTSPOT 2.0

PASSPOINT

EAP-SIM

WIFI-CALLING

Or alternatively: “engagement & monetisation”


SPs & venues not the only stakeholders


User

Mobile operator

Venues Fixed/cable

Things

OS / OEM Enterprises

Broadcasters

Internet

Automotive City Brand Developers

Regulation & standards good at dealing with….

Standalone services

Well-defined products

Stable standards

National / regional

Service providers

Homogeneous

Similar models

Few in number

Commercial / Govt


Standards/regulations are bad at dealing with….

Generalised capabilities

Fluid products/features

No/changing standards

Non-geographic

Capability providers

Diverse stakeholders

Non-service models

Many players

New motivations


FREE!

Cloud-

based

Mashups

P2P & Crowd-

sourced

X-as-a-

Feature

Distributed

Diversity vs. Monoculture


Efficient & Productive Diversity & Future Optionality

Not everything wireless is a subscription model


Amenity Subscription

service

Owned

outright

Peer-to-peer

Sponsored Transactional Also:

“Monetisation”

Unexpected routes to digitalisation of society


Myth: WiFi / cellular should be “seamless”


Too-thick “seams” are

really bad as well

WiFi-Calling is a red herring


3%

Who is the best advocate for the end user?


The vision for 5G…


Ultra-fast mobile

broadband

Critical & low

latency

Super-dense

IoT

• All-embracing

• Many use-cases

• Strong arguments for

more spectrum, but…

• Unintended

consequences?

• Pre-defines model &

stakeholders?

• Extends oligopolies to

adjacent mkts?

• WiFi offload / LTE-U /

LAA as example?

Conclusion: Multi-stakeholder WiFi

Innovation comes from diversity, not monoculture

2nd-order stakeholder groups proliferating for wireless

“Service” model is not the only way forward for WiFi

“Seamless” is wrong

Burdensome “engagement” & “monetisation” is wrong too

Beware of assumptions & unintended consequences

Focus on design & genuine user behaviour


Dean Bubley

www.disruptive-analysis.com

disruptivewireless.blogspot.com

@disruptivedean

[email protected]

Skype:disruptiveanalysis


http://www.disruptive-analysis.com/





