Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on May 10, 2016
We recently measured the quality and usage of the Wi-Fi shared by leading U.S. retail and service brands, from a sample base of 350,000 Popwifi-enabled smartphones. We discovered that — in the month of November 2015 alone — the top 40 brands by number of unique devices connected delivered a cumulative total of 68 years of Wi-Fi connectivity to our sample base.
Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on April 18, 2016
Cellular and WiFi have been side by side in the smartphone for years, vastly improving device utility and user experience. But the service that lags the device, with many operators apparently unwilling or unable to provide managed connectivity tailored to the capabilities of the smartphone, or to the patterns of user behavior those capabilities have spawned. This is beginning to change, and change fast. But the change is not coming from mobile incumbents, despite their historical role as guardians of the mobile experience. Instead it is being driven by a range of non-cellular challengers, including established fixed and cable service providers with quad-play offers and newcomers to the sector with ideas and resources on an altogether grander scale, such as Google.
Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on December 23, 2015
Public engagement with all things Wi-Fi might have been impossible to predict in the beginning, but when you consider how many of the presents currently nestling under trees will be connecting to Wi-Fi on Christmas Day it is no longer surprising. So what could all this mean for the companies involved in the provision of Wi-Fi. As the year draws to a close, here are a few thoughts on what to look out for in 2016:
Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on September 24, 2015
As video offerings become increasingly important to their proposition, mobile operators need to be sure they have the connectivity resources in place to enable their customers to access video content at all times, wherever they go. Their networks are going to need some complementary support.
Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on July 22, 2015
Three UK’s Director of Network and Strategy wants business and venue owners to help plug holes in indoor connectivity. But availability of Wi-Fi is not the problem for mobile operators; what they need is a means of interacting with a hugely fragmented resource and the ability to manage the user’s experience as they do on the mobile network.
Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on July 16, 2015
Today, millions of smartphone users on post-paid tariffs pay for a bundle of mobile data every month, some of which they don’t consume. At the end of the billing cycle the unused allowance, like mustard on a plate, is simply wiped away.
Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on July 10, 2015
Wi-Fi radios come in for a lot of stick in terms of smartphone battery life — not without good reason. If a Wi-Fi radio is on all day it will act as its nature dictates; constantly seeking opportunities to connect, and sucking up the battery as it does so. Sometimes nature needs a little help — and, as always, adaptability is the key.
Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on June 8, 2015
SK Telecom has identified five areas in which 5G must deliver marked improvements over the current smartphone connectivity experience. But operators need to act now to improve that experience, and Connectivity First represents the opportunity to introduce some of the ideas behind 5G today.
Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on May 1, 2015
The notion of “being mobile” now has more to do with connectivity than cars, and there are signs that this digital freedom is having an impact on the traditional longing to drive the open road.
Dave Fraser
Chief Executive Officer
Posted on April 16, 2015
Control language and you can maintain order. This observation was made by George Orwell in his cautionary novel 1984 — a year in which, as it happened in reality, the first sale of a handheld mobile phone to a US consumer was made. The corollary to this theory (and Big Brother’s great fear) is that, if you free language, you will create an environment in which change becomes inevitable. More than 30 years since that first Motorola DynaTAC was snapped up for almost $4,000 (closer to $10,000 in today’s money) Orwell’s insight is being neatly illustrated in the US mobile market. The language being used to speak to the end user is evolving thanks to a challenge being mounted against incumbent operators by a wave of newcomers keen to change the conversation. Historically, incumbent mobile operators have relied heavily on the network in their messaging, in particular like-for-like network comparisons. By keeping the discussion centred on their networks they ensured users could only decide on their service provider by comparing the things that the operators wanted them to compare. It made sense in a world where the service and the network were one and the same. It remains a favoured…