Telnet Networks News

Telco Pay-TV Subscribers Approaching 100 Million

Telnet Networks — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:03:08 +0000

New data from TeleGeography show that at the end of Q3 2011 telcos worldwide had a total of 94 million pay-TV subscribers, giving them a 12% share of the global pay-TV market. Given current growth rates the subscriber total will be passing the 100-million milestone as this article is being written. Leading the telco charge is America Movil with ten million pay-TV subscribers, thanks to a dominant market position in Brazil and Colombia and substantial pay-TV operations in several other Latin American countries. It is followed by China Telecom and Rostelecom, both of which focus solely on their home markets, and France Telecom-Orange which has pay-TV operations in Poland, Spain and Slovakia in addition to being one of the leaders in the French market.

While telcos’ pay-TV activities are commonly equated with IPTV, that is only a part of the story. Many telcos have clearly identified IPTV as being important both strategically and tactically, but it accounts for less than 60% of their pay-TV subscribers. Several telcos are investing heavily in cable TV and satellite DTH operations, while pay-DTT and some residual MMDS services are also part of the mix. As examples, America Movil has achieved its leadership position by developing or acquiring cable and DTH businesses, and it has hardly any IPTV interests; and number three ranked telco Rostelecom can thank cable TV for providing 85% of its pay-TV subscriber base.

However, IPTV remains a crucial factor in the telco sector’s pay-TV growth prospects, as TeleGeography’s John Dinsdale points out: ‘Looking to the future there is no doubt that telcos will further increase their share of the pay-TV market. While telcos will continue to invest in cable and DTH operations, over the next five years it will primarily be strong IPTV growth that enables them to gain market share. We forecast that the IPTV subscriber base will have doubled in size by the end of 2016, which will help telcos gain control of some 16% of the pay-TV market.’

TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Pay-TV Research Service provides data, analysis and forecasts of the rapidly changing pay-TV and IPTV markets. (http://www.telegeography.com/research-services/globalcomms-pay-tv/index.html)

Breakthrough Work Force Management Results

Telnet Networks — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:41:26 +0000

UPCOMING EVENT

Ottawa Regional Contact Centre Association

Bring your workforce management team and join us on January 26, 2012 for an informative series of sessions on leading edge strategies for modern call centres. Whether you manage a small call centre looking for a cost effective way to get into WFM or a very large call center network seeking to achieve breakthrough WFM ROI, these sessions will be of great interest.

Speakers will address the top concerns over classic obstacles to successful WFM.

Introduction by Steve Wilton, ORCCA Executive Member

How does one move from manual scheduling to Automated WFM in a market where automating the process is not generally considered to be cost effective for smaller centres? Kevin will discuss the benefits of automated WFM for their customers, agents, and managers as well as for the business in terms of improved revenue, profitability and productivity.

Case Study 1: Smaller Call Centres Can Realize the Benefits of WFM in Less than 2 weeks
Kevin Hartley, Call Centre Manager, Alterna Saving

Case Study 2: The Advantages of Network Level WFM for Large Call Centre Networks
Ray Howatt, Senior National Telecommunications Advisor, Veterans Affairs

Ray will present the experiences of transforming a large 400 Agent Multi-site national call centre network from localized forecasting and scheduling to centralized enterprise WFM. , Veterans Affairs is the first to implement a system that coordinates start times, breaks and lunches nationally. The results include meeting service levels and accessibility standards for the first time in 5 years.

The history of forecasting, Marietta Davis, VP L3 Prime Inc.

The audience will learn about the history of call centres and call center forecasting in an entertaining game-show format with points for correct answers and prizes for the winning table.

Leading edge WFM concepts, Paul Kasanda CEO of L3 Prime Inc.

The audience will discover the key differences between classic WFM and the leading edge art of High Definition WFM.

Date:	January 26, 2012
Time:	2:30-3:00 pm – Registration & Networking 3:00-4:30 pm – Presentation
Location:	Nepean Sailing Club 3259 Carling Ave. Ottawa, ON
Cost:	ORCCA Members – Free Non-members – $30 (Payable in advance by Visa or MasterCard) RSVP to info@callcentres.org. Register early, space is limited.

Shaw’s cable revenues up 4%

Telnet Networks — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:09:06 +0000

Canadian triple-play cableco Shaw Communications has announced consolidated financial and operating results for the three months ended 30 November 2011. Total cable and satellite revenue for the company’s first quarter of its fiscal year was CAD1.28 billion (USD1.26 billion), up 19% over the same period of 2010, while total operating income increased by 18% to CAD566 million. Net income from continuing operations of CAD202 million was compared to CAD17 million for the year-ago period. Revenue in the cable division was up 4% for the three months to CAD792 million, driven by customer growth and price changes, while cable operating income rose 7% year-on-year to CAD377 million. Basic cable TV customers fell by nearly 23,000 in the three months to the end of November 2011, to 2.267 million, but cable broadband internet users increased by 10,685 to 1,887,916 in the same three months, and cable digital phone lines in service reached 1,256,010, up by 22,969 in the quarter.

From TeleGeography

Are Agents Necessary for Accurate Network Monitoring

Telnet Networks — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:01:10 +0000

How does an IT team ensure accurate and complete visibility? Obtaining comprehensive visibility into network performance requires not only looking at the network and application, but digging into infrastructure health and performance. Solutions providing this view typically utilize two different approaches: agent or agentless.

Selecting the best method for your team requires understanding the options and selecting the solution that integrates well with your existing resources. In this article, we will:

Define agent and agentless approaches
Outline pros and cons for each approach
Establish a strategy for cost-effective, scalable performance visibility

Defining Agent and Agentless

Agents are typically proprietary software loaded on to relevant application components, devices, and servers. The question to ask application performance management (APM) vendors is whether their platform requires software to be installed on your critical infrastructure.

If the answer is “yes,” the program you’re loading is most likely an agent, which gathers data and sends it to the console or platform for analysis. Agents can also perform tasks that impact or modify the operation of the device.

If the answer is “no,” the APM platform is likely relying upon polling technologies to acquire device performance and related application information. These solutions are typically referred to as agentless.

Agentless solutions often tap into pre-existing or native agents and reporting capabilities placed on the system or device by the infrastructure manufacturer. Utilizing intelligence from these native agents allows agentless solutions to track performance variables including power, CPU, and memory usage without affecting device performance. Additionally, using polling technologies like SNMP or querying Windows systems through WMI provides nearly limitless information about devices and hosted applications.

Assessing the Pros and Cons

The following chart outlines the benefits and costs of each option

	PROS	CONS
Agent	Designed to provide critical management specific metrics Uses SSL or other encrypted methods to provide data Typically will auto-update to avoid maintenance overhead	Can impact critical infrastructure, consuming device’s CPU, memory, and storage Cannot monitor beyond system on which its installed Time-consuming deployment requires agents for every critical device monitored Every new server requires additional agents be purchased Only tracks conditions and metrics it has been designed to target Cloud vendor may prohibit agents; coverage of multiple VMs can be cost prohibitive
Agentless	Tracks performance without impacting devices Immediate device discovery and monitoring, once IP address and credentials provided Scales as fast as new devices can be added Any devices can be monitored with minimal deployment effort, not just critical devices Taps into cloud vendor APIs and mimics user experience via synthetic transactions	Data sources may not provide full or relevant data Typically requires pre-existing services and agents to be turned on; may also require changes to firewall On larger networks, polling needs to be spaced out enough to avoid overlapping executions

Establishing Effective Performance Visibility

Ultimately, each team must assess the merits of leveraging proprietary agents versus going agentless. As our discussion has shown, each has strengths and weaknesses. Many vendors now offer significant insight into the underlying health and status of the devices and network by exploiting the wealth of information infrastructure and application developers now incorporate directly into their solutions with native agents. Cloud providers as well are introducing APIs that can be readily supported by agentless solutions. This is an important point as cloud vendors generally forbid the placement of any agents within their environments.

Alternatively, if you have ready access to source code and/or require unique visibility into devices not available from agentless monitoring, then proprietary agents could be a consideration. For select applications, they can offer deep insight into application health at the expense of broad service support.

Finally, whether utilizing proprietary agents or an agentless approach, it is important to note that many solutions also provide packet-based analysis to monitor the flow of applications traversing the network. This integrated monitoring approach yields highly granular detail on the overall health of applications and infrastructure, enabling optimal operational efficiency and reduced MTTR when problems are detected

Bell Canada and Bell Aliant to stop throttling in March

Telnet Networks — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:44:39 +0000

Bell Canada and Bell Aliant will cease the practice of slowing download and upload speeds of customers using peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications (so-called ‘bandwidth throttling’) with effect from 1 March 2012. The sister telcos confirmed the move in a letter to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The change applies to Bell retail internet package users and end-users of Bell’s wholesale ISP clients. Throttling has been used on both networks since 2008 at peak times (4.30pm-2.00am). The decision was prompted by the relative proportion of traffic accounted for by P2P declining due to the increasing popularity of streamed video and other traffic. Bell Canada has already begun phasing in the change, and from November is no longer using equipment to slow down P2P traffic on ‘newer’ sections of its network.

As reported by CommsUpdate, in November this year the CRTC published its new wholesale internet access billing framework – the ‘approved capacity model’ – applicable where a network provider proposes to charge ISPs separately for data usage in the residential segment. In its latest statement Bell Canada said the framework reduces requirements for technology-based traffic-shaping measures, as the model acts instead as an economic incentive for managing internet traffic. Bell Canada and MTS Allstream are now expected to alter their wholesale billing models to the new framework, whereas other major fixed network operators including Bell Aliant, Telus Communications, Shaw Communications and SaskTel will be permitted by the CRTC to continue to charge their wholesale residential ISP customers using their existing flat rate models, which provide for unlimited internet bandwidth usage.

From TeleGeography

Rogers beta launch of Live TV on tablets

Telnet Networks — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:41:29 +0000

Rogers Communications has announced the beta launch of its ‘Rogers Live TV’ application which streams live TV channels on iPad tablet computers, allowing its pay-TV channel subscribers to view real-time broadcast programmes from anywhere in the home via Wi-Fi. The beta launch in Ontario initially offers 20 streamed iPad channels to customers of Rogers’ Hi-Speed Internet cable broadband with a ‘MyRogers’ account. The Live TV app will officially launch in early 2012, and a version for Android tablets will be available soon.

From TeleGeography

Rogers shutting down WiMAX service in March to Focus on 3G and 4G

Telnet Networks — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:55:51 +0000

Canada’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, Rogers Communications, has decided to discontinue its ‘Portable Internet’ WiMAX wireless broadband service on 1 March 2012, to focus on its 3G and 4G cellular mobile broadband networks. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Portable Internet was launched in April 2006 over the Inukshuk Wireless network, a 50/50 joint venture with Bell Canada based on 2500MHz pre-WiMAX technology, which by June 2011 had coverage of 204 towns and cities and approximately 65% of the population. Rogers offers a nomadic (not mobile) broadband service over the network, especially targeting travelling users and those without access to a fixed broadband connection, although it has not revealed how many Portable Internet subscribers there are. Under a scheme sanctioned by the Canadian telecoms regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecoms Commission (CRTC), both Rogers and Bell are converting the usage of their 2500MHz wireless spectrum resources from fixed (including nomadic) to full mobility.

From TeleGeography

Shaw Trials New Wi-Fi Network

Telnet Networks — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:30:44 +0000

Canadian cableco Shaw Communications has launched trial services over its new Wi-Fi internet hotspot network, initially at selected locations in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, ahead of a commercial launch in spring 2012. The company says it will activate ‘hundreds’ of wireless broadband access points in the lead-up to the official launch, and ‘thousands’ of Wi-Fi zones will be enabled over the next three years, concentrating on regional markets already served by its triple-play cable network. Shaw recently abandoned plans to roll out a cellular mobile network after years of deliberation.

Thanks to TeleGeography for this information

5% of Your Customer Interactions are Failing

Telnet Networks — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:23:13 +0000

Usually we talk about how the technology is performing in the contact center using StressTest to verify the technology and HeartBeat to ensure that the technology continues to work.

But How Does the Technology Affect the Agent.

If the technology required to handle & deliver the calls to agents falls down on the job, when your customers finally do get through they’ve already been preconditioned with a lousy experience, and who will they take it out on?

With HeartBeat, we generates a test call, one at time around the clock to access your system to ensure they are available and more importantly working as they were intended to do, if not then we send an automated notification to alert everyone involved.

During a typical month we generate between 500,000 to 600,000 HeartBeat calls, and of these anywhere from 4% to 6% of these calls we encounter some kind of availability or performance issue. So we looked at these issues to see where they were coming from

40% – Issue with answer – busy, ring-no-answer, silence or click
40% – Caller-requested information unavailable – host issue
20% – Caller disconnected prematurely

So out of 600,000 test calls in a typical month, 12,000 are answered incorrectly, or not at all. Another 12,000 are customers being led on a wild goose chase all the way to the point of finally being able to retrieve the info they need only to find out it wasn’t actually available. And another 6,000 callers are just getting cut off – they get to start from scratch AGAIN!

So here you are a call center manager working hard to keep your people and your customers and your business units all happy. You’re up-selling and cross-selling while cutting costs & keeping attendance high & training agents to deliver the best possible customer experience, and all the while you don’t know if the technology you’re counting on to take care of your customers & offload your agents is doing its job or not. A batting average of 350 gets you noticed in the majors and 94% is probably an A when grading on a curve, but how does that rate in the contact center?!

Can you really afford 5% of your customer interactions not going as planned?

MTS Allstream developing 100Gbps services

Telnet Networks — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:09:13 +0000

Canadian telco MTS Allstream has announced that it has chosen equipment from Ciena to upgrade its national optical fibre transmission network to support 100Gbps data transport. The Manitoba-based company said that the move was in response to customer demand for higher speed services, in particular to connect data centres and facilitate data storage replication, cloud services and other bandwidth-intensive applications.

Read the Artilcle feom TeleGeography Here

Telnet Networks News

Telco Pay-TV Subscribers Approaching 100 Million

Breakthrough Work Force Management Results

UPCOMING EVENT

Ottawa Regional Contact Centre Association

Case Study 1: Smaller Call Centres Can Realize the Benefits of WFM in Less than 2 weeks Kevin Hartley, Call Centre Manager, Alterna Saving

Case Study 2: The Advantages of Network Level WFM for Large Call Centre Networks Ray Howatt, Senior National Telecommunications Advisor, Veterans Affairs

The history of forecasting, Marietta Davis, VP L3 Prime Inc.

Leading edge WFM concepts, Paul Kasanda CEO of L3 Prime Inc.

Shaw’s cable revenues up 4%

Are Agents Necessary for Accurate Network Monitoring

Defining Agent and Agentless

Assessing the Pros and Cons

Bell Canada and Bell Aliant to stop throttling in March

Rogers beta launch of Live TV on tablets

Rogers shutting down WiMAX service in March to Focus on 3G and 4G

Shaw Trials New Wi-Fi Network

5% of Your Customer Interactions are Failing

But How Does the Technology Affect the Agent.

MTS Allstream developing 100Gbps services

Case Study 1: Smaller Call Centres Can Realize the Benefits of WFM in Less than 2 weeks
Kevin Hartley, Call Centre Manager, Alterna Saving

Case Study 2: The Advantages of Network Level WFM for Large Call Centre Networks
Ray Howatt, Senior National Telecommunications Advisor, Veterans Affairs