And then Mobility.
In my previous blog, I wrote a bit on emerging Federation capabilities we will begin to see in the marketplace. Today, I'd like to talk a bit about what this is likely to mean from a client/device perspective. A Federation fabric will provide the ability of many clients to participate because the interfaces to the fabric are network to network. The implications of that style of interconnect will be the subject of a future blog; perhaps the next one. Lets break up the client implications three ways, implications to: mobile network providers, mobile accessible content, and client trends.
Mobile network providers benefit when functions can be offered ubiquitously. Not only across relevant devices on their own network but also when interworking with other mobile networks. The industry trend has been clear for some time: SMS and MMS delivery, "all you can eat" network access pricing, and the emergence of "all you can eat" access across any networks (like free mobile to mobile pricing regardless of the providers of the networks). Growing the reach of a subscriber whilst continually preserving the cost/value curve creates a tide that raises all boats. A federation fabric amplifies this by creating additional value - online directory services, end to end secured communications, and presence/location notifications exemplify just a few. These address challenges that for the most part have only been tackled in closed networks previously.
Providers of mobile accessible content also benefit. Again, it is interesting to note the natural market motions at play here. That motion is towards increasing supplementary exchanges. Apple provides an interesting illustration with the recently added capability of moving iPhone to iPhone messaging (SMS and MMS) off of the normal mobile transmit framework and into a proprietary data exchange. Other clients have obviously also moved in this direction, ifbyphone and Jawbone Thoughts being a couple of others. When the app moves to a proprietary integration method, then the addressable community shrinks precipitously. The integration of the mobile access content provider to federation exchanges then grows the addressable community again while preserving the value of the proprietary client. This will continue to be the case as programming is increasingly delivered in this way and the reach of two-way clients continues to extend.
The impact to the clients themselves will be easily noticed. In fact, the above mentioned Apple innovation is a leading example. It modifies the natural cellular phone client to use data connectivity to supplement the selected service. The subscriber uses the natural cellular phone client, but if the recipient is special (another iPhone user in this case) then the service is not the natural carrier based service. This can obviously be the case with any over the top client (Skype would be an example). Over the top clients will come with a number of other characteristic questions: should it work over 3G or 4G? Is it data roaming aware? Can it handover to/from WiFi? Can some links be secured (for media) while others are not (for web browsing) Can the phone "rest" until a needed a data message comes in? Can the client invoke (or be invoked by) the normal cellular client? The more complexity exposed to the end user, the less likely it will be widely adopted. So care will need to be taken when addressing client questions.
Nevertheless, the attractiveness of extending reach of services through traditional boundaries will continue to drive federation oriented initiatives. The nature of the connections to and from the federation cores will ultimately determine their breadth and success. I expect see the first broad federated networks emerge in the next year. I will watch this development with as much interest as I watched the formation of IPT solutions over a decade ago. I will continue to discuss the potentials and hope to hear from you why I might be wrong or right. Until next time ...