Beauty Speed Tests Regulated

The US FCC regulator decided to conduct an official mobile broadband performance test program, following the success of the wireline program. This step comes not a minute too soon since mobile broadband speeds were not regulated and one could set up and perform their own testing criteria.

Being the fastest is one of the main interests of any mobile network marketing executive, and recently it has become even more important. Revenue share from voice and text is dropping, content revenues are diminishing, and since everyone sells iPhones - devices are no longer a factor for competition. The only competitive factor left is: Who has the fastest network? 

Since there is no regulation on download speed and there is a BIG difference between advertised and effective throughput for mobile networks, we need to ask: How are network speed tests defined?  Are the tests run with the help of applications like Speedtest or BenchBee,  which simply test uplink and downlink download speed,  or are the tests more comprehensive, and the network tested for fast web page download, fast application response time, and smooth video? 

Unfortunately, the simple speed tests are the ones mostly conducted. The most common mobile device used for speed testing is the iPhone, since it can’t be customized by the operator unlike other smartphones or even PC dongles, and the comparison is purely on the network service performance.

Who performs speed tests? In many cases this is the domain of technology magazines. They invest a great deal of resources creating methodologies that provide full nationwide coverage, and test the network with various devices in different locations. A good example is PC Magazine in the US that occasionally publishes speed tests (latest review of LTE networks in the US). Another example is Connect Magazine in Germany.

Recently governments and independent organizations have also started conducting network tests. The British Ofcom organization provides UK market speed tests, and the ARCEP in France. It is only natural that the FCC joins this area as well. 

How can operators succeed in the speed test? In order to do well in the test many operators deploy optimization systems, and since most of the tests are repeated, mobile optimization systems provide a better chance for operators to succeed.

Download speed is back as the top factor of competition for mobile operators, whether if it’s important to customers or because it’s the only issue of competition left – the race is on.

--Amir Lapid, Director of Product Marketing

Mobile apps taking over your phone?

I know the feeling. Most of us find ourselves weeding out old and unused applications from our smartphones; apps we don’t even remember when and why we installed in the first place. 

At the beginning, the whole app experience was new and exciting. I personally downloaded more and more applications just to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything. When the amount of apps on my phone became overwhelming, I started to use the old-style directory system to make them easier to find. But now, after a few years and hundreds of apps, I am lost.

The whole experience of consuming data through mobile apps has gotten out of control. Is it really intuitive (or convenient) to install a specific app to read news from several publishers, buy goods from several retailers, or even check a train timetable? Let’s think about how it’s done on our laptops. We open the browser, search for the train timetable in Google, and that’s it – we have what we need. The information is immediately available, we just browse in and out without the need to install anything.

The whole mobile app mania started with iPhone. They wanted to provide the best user experience on mobile devices (which, back in 2007, the browser couldn’t support) and control the content and its potential revenue. But now businesses are no longer eager to share 30% of their revenues with Apple (The Financial Times is a text book example).  They prefer to build their own mobile web apps which are accessible to a wider audience and better maintained for multiple platforms. From a technical perspective, both browsers and development tools provide an easier user experience, which better suit a wide range of app development segments.

Between the preferred experience of searching and consuming without installing (… and removing) apps and the shift away from proprietary apps, my wish is that we will see more publishers, content developers, and users moving back to the browser.

-- On Kalich, Director of Product Marketing