Telecoms Tech

Facebook has this week launched ‘Home’, software running on Android which turns a user’s phone lock screen into a news feed and a user interface for the social giant. But how does this align with other Facebook strategy, and what are the wider implications for the telecoms industry?

The French telecommunciations regulator ARCEP has informed the Paris public prosecutor that Skype has not registered itself as a telco, as per its obligation. According to ARCEP, the Luxembourg-based video call service will be committing a felony, but only by not declaring itself, in line with Article L. 33-1 of the French Postal and Electronic Communications Code.

Over-the-top (OTT) video entertainment had a banner year in 2012. It became a turning point for legacy pay-TV service providers. The savvy companies acknowledged the OTT phenomenon and have learned to adapt to the new market realities. The laggards are slowly coming to the conclusion that nothing will halt the market fragmentation caused by the adoption of OTT content.

Research body Strand Consult’s 2013 trends for the mobile telecom sphere have revealed an uptake in consumer pricing and government broadband targets, alongside predicting bad news for telecom investors.

A new piece of research has revealed that most service providers view OTT players as potential partners rather than as a threat, although it may all be skulduggery.

Telefonica’s commercial mobile operator O2 has announced that it will begin the UK trial of a new branded mobile VoiP application that will allow users to make calls and send texts via WiFi.

As broadband subscriptions continue to grow in the European Union (EU) countries, Point Topic has forecast that related pay-TV adoption is set to treble by 2020. “We’re projecting just over 160 million broadband subscribers in the EU27 by 2020 -- and just over one in three will take an IPTV subscription,” says Oliver Johnson, CEO at Point Topic.