The Pragmatic Innovator

What’s the easiest way to publish rich media and video-based content to mobile devices? Introducing NetRover ePublisher!

It’s been a busy month over here at Opanga (as evidenced by the lack of blog posts!)  We’ve beenaccumulating record-breaking amounts of frequent flyer miles by trekking around the globe and meeting with savvy wireless operators who are searching for ways to alleviate the impact of mobile video on their networks, and on the homefront we’ve been busy growing our operations and working to protect our ever-expanding IP portfolio.  And last (but certainly not least!), we’ve been preparing for the launch of our new NetRover ePublisher platform!

We are very excited to have officially launched NetRover ePublisher, and with good reason – we strongly feel that this is the solution that operators have been searching for to help address the challenges surrounding the impact of mobile video on wireless networks.  You see, NetRover ePublisher is based on our patented NetRover technology, which transparently delivers large file video content using only surplus network capacity.  But in addition to being extremely network friendly, NetRover ePublisher also enables operators to provide consumers with the high quality mobile video they have been craving.

NetRover ePublisher accomplishes this by pre-positioning any form of rich media, e.g. video, text, images, audio, into the mobile device memory.  Pre-positioned content from subscription-based apps offers immediate and high-quality playback without freezing or buffering. Because the content is pre-positioned into device memory, the apps are always available, even when the device is offline.

We feel that NetRover ePublisher represents a tremendous advance in video delivery optimization technologies – by offering wireless operators and media companies a complete end-to-end media publishing platform that works outside data caps, we are providing them the tools that they need to thrive and succeed in today’s media-hungry world.

Instead of working against data caps, operators now have the tool they need to thrive within the cap.   As an example, wireless operators typically offer their consumers a monthly service plan that includes voice minutes, text and a data bucket (e.g. 500MB “cap” for $25). This data cap severely limits the amount of video that a consumer will view and consequently will reduce the value of video and associated advertising.

With NetRover ePublisher, this base plan can be augmented to add a number of NetRover-enabled “channels” that would not count towards the consumer’s monthly cap. This is only possible because of Opanga’s unique network friendly distribution technology, which also offers revenue growth that complements data caps or tariffs.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about data caps (see “Is AT&T’s new 150GB DSL data cap justified?” and the capacity crunch (see “Netflix Meets Its Kryptonite”), and we are so proud to be offering a platform that helps ease the burden of these challenges.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on our news!  Feel free to leave a comment or if you require an in-depth demo or briefing, shoot us an email at smarternetworks@opanga.com.

The Most Promising Technology in 2011 that People Are Starting to Talk About

Naturally CES was primarily focused on the latest and greatest devices – tablets and other connected CE devices were definitely the darlings of the show. But the bigger story was really how Internet connectivity is changing the way people watch – and expect to watch – video content.

In fact Ryan Lawler of GigaOM writes “If there’s one thing we learned from CES this year, it’s that there’s a paradigm shift happening in the way consumers discover and access content.” He notes that cable and satellite TV is becoming more like the online TV experience. “The cable program guide will become less important as a content discovery mechanism, and personalized recommendations will become a larger part of the way that consumers find videos they want to watch.”

In other words, consumers will be “ordering” the type of content they want to watch on the device they want. Currently this content is being delivering via some type of streaming technique, such as progressive download or adaptive rate streaming (HTTP Live Streaming, etc.).

As we know these delivery techniques require a tremendous amount of bandwidth and network capacity – especially when delivering higher quality video to tablets and connected TVs. It is the network owners who carry the burden of building and managing this capacity – and maintaining a high QoE.

They are struggling to keep up with demand and cover their costs. Case in point, we recently saw Sprint increase its unlimited data plan by $10/month.

Roger Entner of Recon Analytics aptly wrote about this in FierceWireless: “Sprint had to face the economic reality of success. Data usage and hence costs have increased substantially since it introduced its Simply Everything plan and it had to adjust prices to respond to this reality.”

We feel it is only a matter of time before Verizon feels the success of the iPhone and has to drop its unlimited data plan. Now is the time the industry needs to start talking about new ways to deliver data – outside of data caps.

Of course this is the position Opanga has held for the last few years. Since 2006, we’ve been developing and commercializing our content pre-positioning solutions that are designed to help operators manage the overwhelming network burden of delivering video while at the same time providing consumers with wonderful video applications on smartphones and tablets.

Our solutions manage the flow of content over constrained networks, actively seeking out surplus network capacity to transparently pre-position content in real time to any device without causing the network congestion or degradation typical of other video applications. We have invested substantially in our intellectual property rights (IPR) in this area and will soon announce some exciting developments.

And now we are seeing other companies jumping on the content pre-positioning bandwagon. For example, Alcatel-Lucent launched its Mobile Smartloading technology late last year, which was recently recognized by Andrew Seybold for the Most Innovative Mobile Technology at the 2011 Annual Choice Awards.

We predict that see more operators and content owners will be talking about how content pre-positioning is the most promising technology in 2011. You heard it here first.

Part 3: The Content Pre-Positioning Opportunity

We’ve talked quite a bit about how streaming video places enormous strain on wireless networks, degrades network performance and creates a massive capital burden for operators.   This strain also affects the end-consumer as it results in a very poor and inconsistent playback experience.  Many operators are imposing data caps (check out this video from o2 talking about why they chose this route), but data caps alone will not ease the strain on networks.

The simple fact is that video is crippling our networks and the industry must explore new video distribution methodologies, as well as new consumer models that achieve superior service level characteristics.   We believe that new video distribution models must accomplish the following to be successful:

• Reduce operator CAPEX and OPEX. Operators have fronted the cost to build out the current network and the costs to maintain them.  Continuing to invest billions of dollars in network build out to facilitate other third party company revenue growth is simply not a long term viable business model   (see how much bandwidth Netflix is using without paying for the capacity)
• Creation of new revenue generating services. A more viable approach would be to create new services that generate revenue in a linear relationship with capacity consumption and provide wonderful video quality to consumers – something they will pay for.
• Improve quality of video for consumer. Operators must provide a substantially improved video playback experience.  The optimal playback experience should:
  • Never freeze and/or rebuffer;
  • Should leverage the high quality video components in today’s smartphone and tablet devices
  • Should utilize the ultra low cost of memory in wireless;
  • And allow consumers to enjoy their content without broadband connectivity.

It’s actually a rather basic proposition: operators simply need to provide a quality of experience that is worth paying for.  Innovative subscription-based applications allow consumers to subscribe to the content that they want, when they want it.  And that content is always available in flawless quality every single time. Everywhere. If operators can provide this type of high-quality service and experience, we think consumers would be willing to pay for it.  What do you think?

Part 2: Providing High-Quality Video Outside of the Mobile Data Caps

In my opinion, the end-user mobile video experience today leaves a lot to be desired. On any given day, I will visit an app for a leading cable news site on my iPhone.  Half of the time I wind up watching a video of decent quality, and half of the time, I get a video that freezes and buffers until I get frustrated and exit the app.  At best, the experience is mediocre.

Personally, I think this is unacceptable, and it looks like the majority of mobile video users today agree.  In fact, we expect that over time, consumers will migrate to those applications that provide better experience for their “video snacking” time and even premium video.

It is essential, therefore, for content owners to provide consumers with a better experience just to stay competitive.  One way to improve QoE and gain a strong competitive advantage is to enable apps with content pre-positioning technology.  Apps that utilize this exciting new technology eliminate consumer frustration by pre-positioning content into the end device memory using surplus capacity.  This allows content to be played back instantly, truly at any time (on an airplane, etc.) and with ultimate consistent quality.

We believe that pre-positioning technology, which is utilized by Opanga’s NetRover solution, can complement subscriber data usage limits and pricing plans that are becoming the norm today (see previous post).  For example, content pre-positioning can enable operators to offer new innovative revenue growth applications that are “outside of the cap,” and, when done properly, can maximize the efficiency of the operators’ networks by leveraging underutilized capacity.  This is in addition to providing consumers with a far superior playback experience on their device.  Consider, for example, the following possible use cases:

• Premium content distribution such as catch-up TV, Seasons Pass TV and “mobile DVR” functionality.
• New release VOD movie content delivered to smartphones that coincide with DVD and Blu-Ray release windows.
• Up-to-date news applications, where subscribers can open an app and watch all of the latest local or national news videos – without a broadband connection
• Personal file sharing, where subscribers can share sharing pictures and media with other devices or family members

What other use cases can you imagine with business use cases?  What is your favorite video-based app?

Part 1: Data Caps: Good for the Consumer or Good for the Operator?

AT&T and Verizon are doing it. And it is only a matter of time before all wireless operators are imposing some type of usage-based mobile data pricing, or data caps. The iPhone, surge of Android devices and now tablets are demanding an unprecedented amount of wireless bandwidth largely due to video-based apps. And bandwidth is something that operators have a limited amount of.

So data caps are here to stay (even with 4G, we believe) because operators simply cannot keep up with the growing demand of video, which uses a tremendous amount of capacity. Read more about how much capacity streaming video requires.

It has been argued that data caps are good for the operator (less network congestion so they can add more subscribers without building new base stations as quickly) and good for some subscribers as well (especially light users).

But how do you know how much data you use?

We did the math on AT&T’s pricing plan and we determined on average subscribers pay about 5¢ per MB. This is fairly meaningless unless you know how much data you can get per MB.

Streaming Video Clips

Costs for streaming YouTube videos to a smartphone based on watching 15 minutes of video each day, which is what the average person spends on YouTube. YouTube uses approximately 2MB/min to stream a video to a smartphone

Streaming Full Length Movies

Costs for downloading the movie Avatar to various devices using AT&T’s Data Connect Plan. Figures are calculated based on information taken from AT&T’s website.

No doubt subscribers will now have to think twice before viewing that 2 minute YouTube video, not to mention longer-form content that is proving popular on these devices. I’d argue that this is not good for content owners or over-the-top type of video service providers.

We believe operators are faced with two primary options:
1) Forget about allowing subscribers to stream video over 3G

2) Find alternative ways for subscribers to get their video fix

If you’ve read this blog before, you know that Opanga has developed solutions based on a concept called content pre-positioning. Operators can pre-position content into end devices by using surplus capacity found in their networks throughout a 24-hour period.

We believe that pre-positioning technology can complement subscriber data usage limits and pricing plans. Content pre-positioning can enable operators to offer new innovative revenue growth applications that are “outside the cap.”

Stay tuned for some business use cases that will benefit operators and media companies.

Are you surprised at how much a movie would cost on your smartphone? Would you pay it?