It was another whiplash inducing day at MWC#16. After recovering from an early mishap with a broken-down metro line, we managed to get our Day #2 back on track (no pun intended).
Virtual Reality (VR) and 5G are really shaping up to be two of the major topics this year. Many of the device manufactures are putting on some amazing demonstrations of the VR capabilities and even Facebook has sent a call to operators to get ready to provide support. VR is literally all over the place at MWC#16. The biggest challenge I can see is how not to look silly while wearing one of those clunky headsets.
On a more serious note, Ericsson announced their OTT Cloud Connect (OCC), an open cloud service that allows mobile operators across the globe to ‘connect’ to multiple OTT players to deliver new and creative services to users. The Ericsson OCC service strives to bridge the gap between operator networks and OTT services by exposing the OSS and BSS capabilities of operators to OTT players, and vice versa. This brings simplicity to collaboration between OTTs and operators, making it possible to offer unique application-specific features to end users for better experiences.
This kind of initiative, if successful, can provide a platform for cooperation and partnership. It also helps level the playing field for both “Tier-2 OTTs” and smaller operators. I assume that if Vodafone decides it wants to create a partnership with Netflix, that’s fairly straight forward. If a smaller, lesser known operator from an emerging country want to partner with, let’s say, Disney, that might prove a little more difficult. Who do they call? Would anyone pick up the phone? And what about the flip side – new or smaller OTT entrants.
This kind of platform would give them an easier way to market. It looks like a win-win. Operators can create an OTT content store, share revenue with OTT content providers, and everyone is happy. I wonder if it will take off.
Still looking forward to the IOPN Awards dinner later tonight…
This article first appeared on Pricing Data Plans.
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