Tata Communications will host delivery of Irish TV in North America. The Tata Communications Media Ecosystem platform provides end-to-end management of OTT video entertainment services to iOS devices, Android, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Apple TV and smart TVs, for example.
Though voice, messaging and video entertainment all can be services where partnerships between OTT and access providers can work, one might argue that video is where the greatest possibilities exist.
The reason is that there arguably is less reason for OTT voice or messaging providers to work with access providers, and often little advantage for access providers, either.
One analysis conducted for the International Telecommunications suggested that no OTT strategy would be able to arrest a major decline of voice roaming prices, and therefore revenue.
In that analysis, resistance to OTT voice (scenario one), collaboration (scenarios two, three and four) all lead to vastly-lower voice roaming prices.
Video, on the other hand, has significant latency, jitter and bandwidth requirements, all affecting perceived video quality. For that reason, an OTT video entertainment provider derives more potential advantage from working with an access provider that can manage jitter, latency and bandwidth.
So even if they operate in different parts of the value chain, mobile service providers and app providers increasingly will partner, many now argue.
Beyond 2020 to 2025, the degree of collaboration might hinge on content services, SCF Associates has argued. “That may involve MNOs becoming much closer to the major web services players,” argued Simon Forge, SCF Associates analyst.
Ericsson’s February 2015 Mobility Report estimated that mobile video usage would increase by 45 percent annually through to 2020, when it will account for close to 55 percent of all data traffic on mobile networks.
