Carphone Warehouse – Graham Stapleton, CEO.
“Today’s news is the first step towards an overall improved mobile experience, which is great news for customers, for business and for the UK economy. The networks have invested significant sums of money in their infrastructures to ensure mobile broadband speeds are optimised and that customers can get the most from their devices.
“Our own research tells us that many customers are unaware of just how much superfast broadband can enhance their mobile experience and what the full benefits of 4G are. As the only mobile retailer in the UK that offers all the major networks, we are better positioned than anyone to educate customers to help them understand the complexities of 4G and the full scope of opportunities available to them.”
Countrywide Alliance – Barney White-Spunner, Executive Chairman.
“The countryside has been lagging behind urban areas for far too long when it comes to mobile signal, not only disadvantaging them socially, but economically. Today’s announcement by Ofcom will hopefully allow the future mobile market to be competitive, which can only be good for consumers and will ensure greater choice for those living in rural areas. However, the true success will be delivery of a 4G network in the countryside sooner rather than later. We now look to the mobile operators to deliver a service that ensures rural communities will no longer be left behind in this digital age.”
CCS Insight – Kester Mann, Senior Analyst – Operators.
“At £2.3 billion, the total amount raised from the auction fell some way below government expectations of £3.5 billion. While this is bad news for the Treasury, it is good news for operators, shareholders and consumers. It should free up the carriers to more rapidly deploy networks and develop new services. Initially however, the shortfall in proceeds will be the big story from the auction and the benefits of 4G may get lost at first.
“At £791 million Vodafone spent the most which is a statement of intent to re-gain standing in its home market where it is now third-ranked player. The likelihood that operators will be allowed to re-farm existing frequencies for 4G may have lowered the value of the spectrum. During the process, Ofcom announced a consultation around plans to make all mobile licences technology neutral.”
Tektronix Communications – Lyn Cantor, CEO
“Europe was a trailblazer of 3G mobile services more than a decade ago, but it has fallen behind other regions with the take-up of 4G. However, being late to the party doesn’t necessarily put Europe on the back foot, in fact the European operators are in a position to take advantage of the knowledge and experience that operators in the U.S. and other global markets have acquired since launching their commercial LTE networks. Although LTE is capable of delivering video calling, multi-player gaming and other applications, the increasing complexity of services have led to unprecedented usage patterns, which have created service management and customer experience issues for operators.”
Gigamon – Trevor Dearing, EMEA marketing director
“As mobile networks grow in capacity, operators need greater visibility into how they are operating in order to pinpoint where the pressure points are, and to improve management and monitoring. Increased visibility enables the proactive identification of poor performance that impacts high value customers. Not only can network performance be increased, but greater subscriber intelligence can also be gained in order to understand how the network is being used and were improvements could be made, which can facilitate more effective business decision-making.”
