Podcast Transcript
Mobile Commerce:
Episode 3: How to Make mCommerce Work
Gabriel Brown, chief analyst, Unstrung
Insider — London: Many of the criti-
cal pieces—high-speed data networks,
sophisticated devices and billions of
mobile phone users—are in place, set-
ting the stage for some lucrative mobile
commerce applications. But customers
will only want to use these applications
if operators can support the speed, reli-
ability and security necessary to deliver
high-quality services consumers will
want to use over and over again. Opera-
tors cannot afford to underestimate the
network transformation required to make
mobile commerce a reality.
Stu Benington, Tellabs, director, portfo-
lio marketing: So ultimately the take-up
of mobile commerce will be defined by
what the end user experiences, and that
can really be divided into three catego-
ries. Number 1 is, does the bandwidth in
the mobile environment match what they
see on the wired side? Number 2 is, does
the reliability of the network satisfy what
the end users require? And then Number
3 is, does the latency of the network—is
it small enough that the end users don’t
get frustrated by trying to engage these
transactions over the mobile network?
Jonathan MacDonald, UK Sales, Blyk
— London: For me personally, speed is
a massive concern in connection speed
just due to the fact that you pay for the
data. So the quicker that you can get
something, usually the less you pay.
And seeing as one of the barriers to
market I find is price, then speed is a
huge concern.
Gabriel Brown: In addition, emerging
applications like mobile commerce will
only become more bandwidth-intensive
as consumers come to expect the same
graphical user interfaces and video fea-
tures they’re currently used to with their
computers.
Stu Benington: One of the things that
mobile commerce drives is the need for
high bandwidth in the network, because
the end users are becoming more and
more data oriented with their usage of
the mobile environment, but also the
network itself needs to accommodate
high bandwidth, and not just bandwidth
in general; it’s fine-grained bandwidth
that involves several thousand individual
transactions simultaneously.
Christopher Billich, Head of Develop-
ment for Infinita — Tokyo: If it gets
faster, if the display gets bigger, that
would be great, and actually I think we’re
getting close to the point in Japan where
that kind of shopping experience on the
phone is, you know, fast enough—3.6
M-bit is pretty fast. You know, that’s
like a slow DSL line in most parts of the
world, which is perfectly fine for mobile
commerce.
Helen Keegan, founder of Beep
Marketing — London: I think they should
make data rates cheap for pay-as-you-go
customers and they should make data
speeds more reliable across the coun-
try as you’re moving. It’s all right when
you’re in a fixed spot and you’ve found
that you’ve got the connection, but in
busy cities like London, sometimes the
connection can be flaky because so many
people are logging on at the same time.
Stu Benington: Security is one of the
things that’s top of mind when end users
engage in mobile commerce. And one
of the things that’s not always obvious
is the linkage between security and the
reliability of the network. So, for example,
if you’re engaging in secure transactions
over a network, you don’t want to have to
keep retransmitting because the network
isn’t reliable, because every time you
retransmit, that’s a chance for someone
else to get your secure information. So
the more reliable the network is, the
more it’ll stimulate mobile commerce as
people move forward and become com-
fortable with these transactions.
Jonathan MacDonald: My biggest issue
has been in connection. So when I’ve
bought something from a site like Game
Loft, for instance, or a mobile games
Mobile
Commerce
Driving Change in Mobile Backhaul
provider, sometimes the Internet con-
nection, the WAP connection is robust
enough for the game to come along and
sometimes it’s not. And if it’s not, trying
to reconnect with the same session in
place—i.e., my money’s already changed
hands—whereas my product or service is
incredibly problematic. And a lot of those
companies don’t necessarily have the
customer support back end.
Phillip Maurer, technical architect,
Metro International — London: I find in
general the mobile networks here to be
less reliable. I mean, just in a sense that
when I try to make a call from my office,
which is not that far away from Buck-
ingham Palace, I have terrible reception.
Where I used to live, in Finland, it was
absolutely reliable all the time. And so I
think the impression I had of the network
was different.
Gabriel Brown: On top of these con-
siderations, there is a host of technol-
ogy changes being implemented in the
network infrastructure. Network back-
haul, which tends to be based on TDM
technology, is moving towards ATM or
IP Ethernet and MPLS. The widespread
and growing usage of data services is the
primary driver behind this evolution, and
operators have to find ways to embrace
these more efficient technologies with-
out risking their existing services based
on older technologies such as ATM.
Chris Evarts, Tellabs Wireless Technol-
ogy Specialist: Another evolution that’s
going on is the backhaul network. It has
to evolve as well, because it’s fundamen-
tally the link between that radio network
and the core applications that are taking
place. So that migration is one where the
backhaul has to increase its capacity. It
has to be able to now understand the
level of priority of the transactions that
are occurring.
Stu Benington: One of the key success
factors for mobile commerce is the abil-
ity for the network to minimize latency of
these transactions. As users attempt to
 Mobile
Commerce
Driving Change in Mobile Backhaul

get beyond any emotional concerns they Chris Evarts: I believe the backhaul gets them over this emotional comfort
have about engaging in secure transac- network has to become more intelligent, factor and can really start to stimulate
tions, latency goes a long way, because it and I think the technology is there that the growth in mobile commerce applica-
gives them a comfort that their transac- that intelligence can be applied to the tions as these operators move forward.
tion is getting through appropriately. It’s backhaul network in an effective way
John Gauntt, senior analyst, eMarketer:
similar to a webpage user. There’s about using off-the-shelf technologies like
End users have the ultimate vote. They
an eight-second threshold for webpage MPLS, standard QoS mechanisms. But
can decide whether to use m-commerce
users that they’ll either refresh or go to those QoS mechanisms need to be done
or not. So you can’t escape the fact
a different webpage if it’s beyond eight in such a way that you do guarantee the
there’s going to be a lot of heavy lifting
seconds. That requirement’s going to service, that you can guarantee that this
and significant investment, not simply
be even tighter in a mobile commerce m-commerce traffic will get through, this
in money, but in time and energy and
environment because of this emotional voice traffic will get through. And you
organization of will, to market the value
concern that users have. need to have the mechanisms in place for
proposition and listen back to what end
redundancy so that if a primary path fails
Professor Adam Greenfield, New York users are saying that they really want for
and you have a secondary path, you can
University — New York: If you’re inter- m-commerce to take off.
go to that secondary path and use it, and
rupted constantly by these clumsy, you
that it has value to you. Gabriel Brown: There’s no doubt growth
know, interfaces that say things like, ‘Pre-
in mobile commerce is coming like an av-
paring to stand by,’ whatever that means, Stu Benington: The backhaul compo-
alanche. Billions in revenues are there for
you know, I think the cause is sunk. nent of mobile networks is really where
the taking, but only if operators carefully
the biggest challenges to mobile com-
Andrew Shuttleworth, editor of Liv- plan their strategies today. Consumers
merce lie, and in that regard Ethernet
ing in Japan Guide, co-organizer at will be soured if they suffer a poor expe-
pseudowires are the ideal technology
tokyo2point0 — Tokyo: Sometimes the rience due to slow, delayed or unreliable
to use. Ethernet is a great technology
mobile browser, you can’t finish up your transactions. Operators must continue
for increasing bandwidth, for increasing
transaction — the Submit button doesn’t to add bandwidth and ensure quality of
network scalability, but it needs to be
work or something. So more than any- service as m-commerce grows and has a
coupled with pseudowire technology to
thing I think it’s dealing with the frustra- significant impact on the network.
address the latency issue, to address the
tions and just getting to a stage where
security and the reliability necessary to
there really is no difference between
give end users the right experience that
mobile web and desktop web.

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