LTE and Service Design

The GSA recently documented the extent of LTE commitments for 2010 so where’s it all headed for end-users and is there scope to boosts service design learning so that LTE and related concepts like the smart city and connected car work well for people?

• 51 operators have committed to LTE deployments in 24 countries
• The world’s first LTE networks were launched by TeliaSonera in Sweden and Norway on December 15, 2009
• Up to 19 LTE networks are expected to be commercially launched by the end of 2010

Verizon is trialing LTE  in Boston and Seattle (and plans rollout in 30 major US markets in 2010) and with Teliasonera’s initial LTE services already launched, the surprise is perhaps that networks like AT&T are more cautious.

From a consumer point of view this below could be both interesting and challenging given the 2008/9 experience of bill shock:

Once voice standards for LTE are finalized, they are much more likely to be based on VoIP technology than on traditional cellular networks, especially since LTE is built entirely around IP. This means that once LTE is widely deployed, it could mean the end of minute-based cellular phone bills. Speaking at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas earlier this year, AT&T Wireless chief Ralph de la Vega said that LTE’s high bandwidth meant that carriers would eventually move toward pricing models that charge only for data volume, not for minutes.

The EU’s preparatory legislation on bill shock might make charging by data more complex in Europe than elsewhere, though initially the impact is going to be low key:

LTE deployments will pick up over the next few years and lead to 87 million LTE subscribers by 2014, according to the trade group, the GSMA.  However, the GSMA also thinks that HSPA technology will have a long shelf life and will keep on growing even as more operators begin adopting LTE.

The real interest of course is in broadening device types and applications so some of the good news of 2009 was the Mercedes myCOMMAND in-car telematics service trialed over LTE back in October. Here’s Mercedes:

Every time the engine starts myCOMAND automatically updates itself via the Internet and thus continuously provides up to date software. All retrieved data and information are always up to date, too, and available to the occupants in a simple and easy manner. Compared with current mobile devices, and in-dash systems, with myCOMAND the features and contents are not only up to date through the Internet, but are also presented in a much more user-friendly manner. The system offers the driver individually appropriate Internet services depending on the situation, making the whole experience more reliable and safer to use.

All the major car makers have connected car plans so we’re going to need  to get used to another form of payment plan, not just with the phone but also one overlaying the car HP or lease plan. I wonder how consumers are going to react to what looks like a confusing time ahead. We have more plans for them still of course.

NG Connect now has six proof of concept LTE projects underway…. including the multiplayer game from Fishlabs, Powerboat Challenge. The concepts driving online gaming are always going to be compelling, whether simple or complex, but again it raises the question: how does the consumer reconcile all these possibilities with their budget and budgetary control?

Is there room in here for new types of services that come to the aid of the consumer – what people like Doc Searls have called Vendor Relations Management (VRM) and do they belong around the handset? Is there a brand or a brand building opoprtunity that is decisively on the side of the consumer and that is all the more profitable and valuable for that?

In the retail space, telco-driven companies like Ribbit (BT owned) looked like showing the way. Ribbit’s Consumers’ Price application uses the BestBuy product catalogue as a resource to allow consumers to place reserve prices on products they are interested in, giving BestBuy access to solid discount opportunities as well as an understanding of consumer reservation pricing – a data set that every SaaS and free-to-premium vendor could do with. Trouble is it’s difficult to track down what’s happening with Consumers Price.

Potentially it opens a new way of seeing the consumer relationship and opens a new perspective on what makes a good brand. Here’s another example from an IBM project in Salerno, Italy:

“The first project aims to overcome architectural barriers to create a special route for the blind from a dedicated parking area to the Verdi Theatre. Smart sensors will be placed in the planking and will interact with smart canes, providing information and prompts on mobile phones, enabling the visually impaired to navigate around potential obstacles.”

That quote is courtesy of Wenovski, a new website/community aimed at improving the skills and knowledge of service designers. Well worth a look.