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The mobile industry must collaborate to reap the rewards of commercial growth

By Jason Friedler.

If you thought the last decade of mobile was disruptive, just wait until 4G/LTE overtakes 3G! End-users will demand even higher quality information and services, on a diversity of mobile devices. This represents a vast commercial opportunity, but will require numerous parties in the mobile value chain to work closer than ever before, if their services are to perform as expected.

Mobile is already a complex beast and in my opinion it’s going to be quite a task just keeping hold as it charges ahead – for all concerned. However, I believe that the beast can be tamed, if we all collaborate.

Collaboration strengthens the mobile value chain

The changes in mobile today are simply the beginning. The GSMA Mobile Global Economy Report forecasts that content and data delivered to mobile devices will grow by 66% per annum through 2017 to 11.2 Exabytes per month. To put it in context, that equates to more than five billion hours of HD video!

Video is likely to be the bulk of the 11.2 Exabytes – and is predicted to make up 75% of Western Europe’s mobile data in the next four years. This will place a great strain on the mobile value chain. Operators, content providers, aggregators, social networks, advertisers and many others will need to understand each other’s services. Where each takes a ‘silo’ approach, providing its own infrastructure to deliver services, latency stacks up and will detract from end-user experience.

In other words, it isn’t the mobile network’s bandwidth that is the limiting factor, but the tangle of systems at the other end of the line. And this can be as true for mobile gaming, for digital publications or for apps – to name but three – as it is for videos.

4G will shine a spotlight on such inefficiencies. To cope with the explosion in data over the next few years, value chain partners must collaborate, localise traffic and scale bandwidth. Maintaining services in-house in legacy data centres just won’t cut it with 66% data consumption growth!

Cost optimisation and monetisation, behind the scenes

One solution is for partners in the mobile value chain to converge inside network neutral, multi-tenant data centres. Within Equinix, for example, companies working in the mobile industry can collaborate more effectively. Rather than work in isolation, they have the power to connect to existing and new partners rapidly, securely and cost-effectively. And locating close to the internet backbone, with an open choice of networks, enables them to accelerate business performance.

The collaborative approach not only drives improvements in performance and revenues – it could be essential for an organisation’s future.

The Mobile Video Alliance – collaboration in action

To help prepare the mobile industry for the rise in data consumption, EE and Equinix formed the Mobile Video Alliance (MVA). The MVA is a cross-industry, knowledge-sharing group designed to create the best possible mobile video experience for consumers.

It is a forum for collaboration, as Matt Stagg, Senior Manager of Network Strategy at EE, explains, “The MVA looks to create an end-to-end ecosystem where we can share knowledge and understand each of the technology silos… We don’t need to get anybody to change their technology or their roadmaps, but what we do need to do is understand how each of the separate technologies influence the behaviour in the other areas.”

By collaborating in this way, the industry is preparing for the challenges of mobile video, and finding new ways to increase revenue –through new and existing streams.

Collaboration in the data centre

Wherever you fit in the mobile value chain, you can enhance performance by locating closer to your partners. The Equinix data centre platform enables you to connect to partners across the globe, as well as within the data centre via cross connects that are economic, fast and highly secure. Through colocation within Equinix you can enhance the value of your collaborations, monetise new services and accelerate business performance.

What do you think about the commercial value of collaboration?

Watch my video before you make your mind up.