Setting the scene - explaining the objectives, format and style of this unique event

The world of communications is undergoing a paradigm shift, with convergence of fixed, mobile and content. There are new challenges and market opportunities, both geographically and in terms of advanced, yet low-cost, services. The next decade will see the emergence of networks, services, devices that go well beyond today’s concepts – whether we call them B3G, 4G or something else. What shape will this future take? Asia, America and Europe are not agreed – neither are different industries. This talk will outline the future telecoms landscape and the role that Ubiquitous Services can play in this.

IP is changing the game. The lines between industries are blurring and everyone is after the same consumers. This is causing disruption in the telco industry, for operators and their partners.
Telco 2.0™ is a unique collection of products and services devised by STL for defining roadmaps for success for all players in the Telco value chain.

The introduction of a new service paradigm through IP-based systems is followed by a new competitive landscape and the opportunity to create new business models closely linked to the subscribers' motivation, situation, and cost of service delivery. Pollock will explore the new service paradigm and cost drivers for the subscriber, service developer, and the operator.

Ubiquitous Services are seen as a simplification step in the ever increasing complexity of devices, access technologies and service platforms, however, does the introduction of yet another "solution" just make the problem worse ? Do Open Platforms offer an alternative way forward to truly ubiquitous services ?

That business models will change and that new revenue streams are needed are universally agreed - identifying the route to secure these changes and revenues is the challenge. The goal of this open debate session is to allow workshop participants to explore the wide variety of ways in which personalised lifestyle support services can generate new revenues and/or facilitate significant new business models.

Arrangements for upcoming Mobile VCE events:
- WWRF Cross-Layer Plenary led by Mobile VCE (April)
- LTE Research Workshop, sponsored by Vodafone (July)
- PIMRC Workshop on Ubiquitous Services (Sept)
- PIMRC Workshop on Wireless Efficiency (Sept)
See www.mobilevce.com/calendar.php for details

The vision of Ubiquitous Services requires seamless connectivity which, by its nature, becomes almost invisible in the psyche of the customer. Therefore Telecoms Operators, both Wired and Wirefree, are already recognising the fact that, in order to continue to play effectively within the eco-system, they need to move up the value chain from simply providing connectivity, which is becoming increasingly commoditised, to be the focus of service provision to the customer, particularly given the fact that traditional Operators are increasing under threat from new players in the service space, such as Google and Microsoft. These third party service providers rely upon being able to drive down wholesale prices of existing networks. Regulation will exacerbate this trend and help the new entrants.

For these networks to survive and ultimately deliver the Ubiquitous Services concept will require sufficient investment in the supporting infrastructure – but from whom ? This presentation discusses these issues to try to distill who will be the future winners and losers.

Currently, the majority of terminal manufacturers are pushing ‘Smart Phones’ as a method of providing enhanced services over existing platforms, however, does Ubiquitous Services: always on, context aware, individually personalised negate the need for such devices? What’s the evolution of the business models for future terminal for Ubiquitous Services?

People always talk about the Telco Model colliding with the open Internet Model. That doesn't have to be the case. The case for telcos to move away from an "either/or" thinking to that of an open model is compelling. But what does it really mean to be open ? And what value blocks do we have to create leverage ?
This talk aims at sharing Sprint's journey and to spark dialogue on this important topic.

With its flurry into artificial life, IBM is using the virtual world of Second Life as the next best thing to being there for corporate meetings. The venerable computer maker has established at least one virtual island in Second Life where it has hosted employee meetings. Where does this stop becoming a business tool and an revenue opportunity?

As well as enabling a consumer mass market in personalised lifestyle support, Ubiquitous Services also have potential to transform other, apparently unconnected, business sectors and industries. The advent of autonomous, customised, delivery of contextualized and potentially unique information will enable enterprises to do old things in new ways, and new things altogether, with value to be won by the innovation leaders. Will enterprise transformation happen as a consequence of personalised lifestyle support services, or will the potential added value in the enterprise sector be such that economically viability runs ahead of mass market deployment ? Which business sectors will be the pioneers and which the laggards ? Can telcos leverage existing relationships to gain advantage and drive opportunities to develop new value chains ?

Key take-aways from the Workshop - implications for future directions