Blog Post

Park Associates recently released an Internet of Things (IoT) industry report suggesting that by 2025, 66% of US households would be smart homes. This got us at Dubber thinking about the future, and wondering what 2025 would look like, and just for fun, we thought we’d write a snapshot of what life might be like in 2025.

Chart from Statista

I am woken by the shrill, high notes of my alarm as they penetrate into my ear and leave no opportunity for delaying or ignoring their wake up call. I miss the time when alarms were by my bed or on my phone, and could be snoozed until I decided I wanted to get up. Since they have been integrated into our pillows they’ve become pretty hard to ignore, and unless I lift my head off the pillow it won’t stop. On the plus side, I’m never late anymore.

I drag myself from my nice, heated bed and head to the bathroom. I decide I’m still feeling pretty drowsy, so I tell the screen in the bathroom to get the coffee machine to make my morning espresso ready for when I get out and to set my shower temperature to a little hotter than usual. I select my shower music and step into the cubicle, the water automatically starting once I close the door.

One very hot shower, massage (from my new shower installation) and an espresso later, I leave my bedroom and head into the kitchen, the lights following me as I move from room to room. After my bespoke liquid breakfast, I set the hoover, mop and lawnmowers to do the rounds once I leave, and pick up my coat and bag. The screen on my fridge tells me that it’s raining outside, so I grab my umbrella too. As I’m about to leave, I get a notification on my phone alerting me that the fridge door is open, so I return to the kitchen and force it shut before leaving the house.

As I get into my car I get a notification on my phone informing me that, because the sensors detect nobody is home, the heating and lights will all be switched off. I approve the notification and ask the car to play Justin Bieber. I’m in a Throwback Thursday mood today.

As my car drives me to work my phone plays the daily headlines and weather reports through the car’s speakers and talks me through my schedule for the day. I rearrange a meeting and dictate a couple of emails and decide to pick up breakfast from my favourite cafe on my way. The cafe is pretty busy but their Amazon Go system picks my face and details up as soon as I walk through the door, and a notification on my phone asks whether I would like to change or keep my last order. I choose to keep it, pay with my phone and wait for only a minute for my order to be ready.

Annoyingly my retina scan entry isn’t working today, so I have to go to security and get an ordinary touch ID entry to let me into the office. I can’t help thinking that sometimes all this technology slows me down, but then I look at my breakfast and think how I don’t have any cleaning waiting for me at home and instantly dismiss the thought. I heard someone say the other day that the world has changed more in the last 20 years than in the previous 250 years, and I can’t help but think that must be true. Life before the tech revolution seems like another lifetime altogether. I can barely even remember what it’s like to drive, clean or place an order with a waitress. I wonder how I ever got by before my phone became my personal assistant and virtual soul-mate. I try to remember the last time I wrote anything. It was probably my mum’s birthday card 5 years ago.

An alert from my Google Contact Lens reminding me that my first meeting of the day is in 5 minutes stops my thoughts in their tracks, and I hurry to my desk. My iScreen greets me, and within seconds my phone is connected to the workspace and I am ready for the video conference.

After a busy morning of 3 meetings, I read through the email transcripts of the calls and save all notifications of the important actions I must prioritise into my calendar. An alert reminds me that my appointment with my GP is during my lunch break, so I head to the canteen to grab some lunch and am seated once more at my desk just in time to chat to the doctor. He examines my vitals through the sensors on my phone, asks me questions and informs me that he will be prescribing me some Immune Boost, which will be delivered by drone to my office within the hour.

By the end of the day the Immune Boost has done its job and I feel much more lively, so I decide to walk to my car rather than taking the shuttle to the car park. From the car I check the inside of my fridge to see if I need any chicken for the casserole tonight and order my oven to preheat to 180℃. I can’t wait to get home and spend the night in front of my TV. I wonder what recommendations it will have for me tonight – they’re always so perfectly catered to my likes, current events and even to how my day has been. I have no idea how it works but I love it.

I arrive home at 6pm to find the front lights on and waiting for me, knowing that this is the time I usually get back. My house opens the garage door, deactivates the security system and turns on the lights on sensing my car in the driveway, and I park up and head inside. After dinner, I settle down on the sofa to read through the TV’s recommendations and select a feel-good film – perfect for when you’ve been feeling unwell. I’m guessing that recommendation was based on my Immune Boost prescription earlier in the day, although I must admit the technical side of life today does completely escape my understanding.

After the film, which was as always perfectly recommended, I head to bed and put on my Thync head pad to help me relax, enjoying the gentle stimulating pulses and knowing my alarm will be set as soon as my head is detected on the pillow. I make sure everything in the house is turned off from my phone, select a dream from my UtopiApp and settle down for a good night’s sleep, looking forward to a night of sunbathing in the Maldives in my dreams.

Since the first generation of iPhone was introduced almost a decade ago, numerous other tech giants have thrown their hats into the ring and attempted to compete with their own smartphones. There have been various levels of success, but none have given Apple a run for their money more than Google’s Android phones. From the day Android entered the market, a never-ending Apple vs Android debate began, with both teams gathering loyal followings. The sales and performance of the two are constantly compared, but this blog is interested in knowing which side will be strongest in the upcoming fourth industrial revolution. With the rise of the Internet of Things, 5G and smart technology, which side will adapt and win the debate once and for all?

A Decade of Competition

The true comparison between Apple and Google’s smartphones is between their operating systems iOS and Android, as this is where the competition for control of the IoT will actually take place. When it comes to sales, they vary most quarters. According to Tim Cook, 30% of iPhone buyers in the July-September 2015 quarter had switched from an Android device, and in the last quarter of 2016, iOS sales outperformed Android: winning a 6.4% rise in shares whilst Android experienced a 5.1% decline. Despite this, Android still holds the majority of the market.

The debate of iOS versus Android remains unsolved when it comes to smartphones, as some users are firmly in Android’s corner and others back iOS. Whilst each camp constantly and fervently argues their side, those of us on the fence have decided that the debate is currently futile. At this point, both iOS and Android are mature and competent operating systems that realistically are more similar than different. In our eyes, it could be that the future, and their response to it, will finally end the debate.

The next big trend in consumer technology is set to be home automation, as smart technology is brought into the home. Possible new products include doorbells that connect to smartphones and show who is at the door, coffee machines that brew coffee based on traffic and self-ordering fridges. These devices will all be connected to smartphones, enabling homeowners to control their home from their phone.

To make the development of these smart homes a possibility, a strong platform that facilitates the connection of many devices to a unified service must first be built. The role of smartphones in smart technology and the Internet of Things appoints Apple and Android as the major players in the battle to develop the first successful IoT platform.

An example of an everyday use of a Smart Home. Watch full video here.

Apple’s IoT Platform

Apple’s current contribution to the IoT market is HomeKit, a framework for connecting smart devices in the home. The platform uses HomeKit Accessory Protocol (HAP), and already has the advantage of many HomeKit-enabled devices being available in the market. These devices may also be able to connect to Apple Watches and Apple TV, which will rejuvenate both products and give Apple Watch owners an exciting new use for their smartwatch. The downside of HomeKit is that it is a closed-source project. Every IoT device that hopes to connect to it will need to be Made For iOS (MFi), which will limit the connectivity of the IoT.

HomeKit will appeal to those already favouring Apple and iOS, and its attractiveness as the first IoT platform will depend on the number of devices which Apple successfully can bring to the smart market using MFi. Apple will need to identify the greatest consumer demand for smart devices, which at this early stage of the IoT and smart technology is still relatively unknown.

Google’s IoT Platform

Google are already on their second attempt at developing an IoT platform: following the failure of Brillo, they have rebranded and released Android Things. Google’s entry into the IoT race is a platform that enables Android developers to create new smart devices by using Google’s existing Android APIs, and many are excited by the platform’s compatibility to Android devices and its brand new OS.

Android Things enables cross-platform APIs, which will encourage innovation for the IoT and home automation across a broader range of developers – by offering up a platform for its development. Android Things is therefore less limiting that HomeKit, and offers greater connectivity. Additionally, Google’s platform has a wider range of suitable products under the Android family than Apple does. However, Android Things is also limited by its reliance on the loyalty of Android consumers to establish itself as the key IoT platform on the market.

So who will Come out on Top?

Google and Apple are not just battling each other – they also face competition from Amazon. With their recent release of Amazon Echo, an intelligent voice control assistant for the home, they have also entered the IoT race. Voice control is already popular (it is currently used by 1 in 5 Americans to perform Google searches) and is predicted to cause a larger revolution than touch screen technology. It is therefore certain to play a key role in the IoT and smart homes, validating Amazon as a key player in the IoT race. Having already conquered their industries, all three companies are in the IoT race to gain a new physical space (the home) for which to sell their products, and to broaden their demographics with smart home technology that will apply to a larger audience. For the winning company, the value will be immeasurable.

Apple, Google and Amazon’s platforms and the IoT itself are still very much in their infancy, and so it is hard to predict what will happen in the future. After all, when the iPhone was first released it received largely negative reviews. Steve Ballmer, then CEO of Microsoft, even said that the iPhone was too niche: “There is no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. None.” And yet at the end of 2016, the iPhone had a market share of 11.5%, whilst the Windows phone had 0.4%.

The bottom line is that brand loyalty does not choose the winner – just look at what happened to Blackberry and Nokia in the smartphone market. Customers will ultimately choose the company that gives them what they demand, and delivering this in a seamless fashion is what will distinguish the winner. It is predicted that the victor in the IoT race will be either Apple or Google, as both have the advantage of brand recognition and a pre-existing ecosystem of smart devices. Currently, Google’s Android Things stands out as the more promising platform, and seems to be solidly in the lead – but as Apple proved in 2007, tech wars are highly unpredictable.

With John Lewis, a large UK based retailer, recently launching a Smart Home department and Amazon, Google and Apple all developing their own Internet of Things (IoT) platforms and devices, the IoT is definitely on the rise – and looks set to become the new standard of living by 2020.

John Lewis decided to launch their Smart Home department following a yearly increase of 1,600% in searches for smart home products by their customers. The question now appears to be not if smart homes will become mainstream but how, and who will be the first to launch a successful platform. It is even predicted that smart homes will become as commonly adopted as smartphones. As the era of smart technology approaches, life in the near-future is set to become radically different to the lives we are used to leading now.

If you’ve ever wished you could check whether your fridge is out of milk on the journey home, instruct your coffee machine to make your morning coffee without getting out of bed, preheat the oven before you get home or automatically coordinate the lighting in your home with the time of day and activity levels, then those dreams may not be as far off as you think. The IoT is already making its way into everyday life, and soon these seemingly impossible tasks will become common practice.

Image from Net Things

But what you may not know is that the IoT is already integrated to a certain extent in our everyday lives. There is a large collection of smart IoT devices that are available to buy or that even are already integrated into our everyday lives. With this in mind, we have compiled a list of our top 5 IoT devices that you probably didn’t realise you are already using:

1. Sat navs: Now this depends on the model, but more recent ones have been integrated into the IoT, and can now download traffic data and automatically update their planned routes to avoid heavy traffic.
2. Wearable devices: Wearable health monitors, for example, Fitbits, are a growing craze. The devices record your activity levels, exercise, food, weight and sleep, and gather your overall health data to help improve a user’s health. They are considered an IoT device because they rely on connectivity and download the collected data to smartphones or computers.
3. Smart thermostats: Internet-enabled heating systems are perhaps the most common smart home device. They connect to smartphones and enable users to control their home’s heating from their phone. Nest is the most famous example and is available as a package with smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
4. Amazon Dash buttons: Amazon is releasing increasing numbers of IoT devices, such as Amazon Echo – which marks the first IoT personal assistant device, and Amazon Dash buttons – which provide an IoT consumer goods ordering service. They are available for all common household products, and enable users to order a top-up as soon as they run out, at the mere press of a button!
5. Oyster cards: Launched in 2003, Oyster cards were actually one of the first commercial devices to use the IoT. The cards collect usage data of where, when and how often the user travels, which is then analysed and used to optimise the underground for users. This is probably the most used IoT device in UK.

Map of daily London commuter journies – by Dr Ed Manley of UCL

Just for fun, we’ve also made a list of our top 5 crazy IoT devices that you’ll find it hard to believe exist:

Top 5 Examples of Crazy IoT Devices that you won’t Believe Exist:

1. Smart bedding: Heat-adjustable mattresses that can be programmed to reach different temperatures on different sides of the bed, settling the heating/window row once and for all. They can also be set to a timer and to track sleep phases, heart rates and breathing rates.
2. Smart garbage bin: Quite simply, they monitor your rubbish and automatically compile grocery lists.
3. Smart nappies: Who would’ve thought that nappies can be smart? Connectable nappies that send SMS reports when they detect moisture are now available.
4. Smart shoes: Google and WeSC have developed a shoe that connects to social media and provides exercise motivation by literally talking to the wearer if they have been still for too long.

And the winner of the most crazily unbelievable IoT device is…

1. Smart toilet seats: Yep, they’re an actual thing. Developed in Japan, smart toilet seats offer an automatic raising and lowering function, heating and automatic flushing, which can all be controlled through a dedicated smartphone app. Users can also keep a diary of toilet use and (for some reason) play music through built-in speakers.

The IoT is growing fast, and is predicted to have 20.8 billion connected devices by 2020. The rate at which the IoT is growing certainly provides an explanation to the wide range of smart technology that are already available or under development, and the at-times crazy sounding devices. The benefits of the IoT are almost limitless, and smart homes in particular have the potential to significantly reduce the costs of owning a house. There are downsides too though, such as privacy concerns, this man who spent 11 hours attempting to make a cup of tea with his WiFi kettle, and we can’t help but wonder how much demand there really is for smart toilet seats… The question is, will the substantial savings on time, energy and money be worth the privacy concern of sharing very detailed data of ourselves and our everyday life with IoT and telco companies? In other words – will the ends justify the means?

As we approach the Fourth Industrial Revolution, traditional communications solutions are on the decline whilst internet-driven communications solutions become increasingly popular. This period of drastic change threatens the survival of the Telecoms industry, as substantial declines in user spending on voice and text services have caused a decline in telco revenue – which can be monitored through Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). To stay afloat, telcos must adapt to the changing times and source other revenue streams to replace what is lost in the continuing revolution of communications. Our infographic demonstrates why telco revenue is decreasing and suggests how telcos can replace it to raise their ARPU once more:

With the rise in popularity of ‘cloud computing’, it is often assumed that internet connectivity is happening in the skies above us. It is commonly believed that internet data is largely transmitted by satellites, but this is not the case. Believe it or not, the majority of internet data transmission actually happens deep undersea. Deep at the bottom of the world’s oceans lies a hidden but vast system of fibre-optic submarine cables that connect the world’s internet.

The Secret World of Submarine Cables

The network is colossal, with almost 350 cables that collectively span nearly 550,000 miles and connect every continent other than Antarctica. Cables are buried along the seabed, traversing oceans and following coastlines. Some lay as deep underwater as Mount Everest rises above the ground. The system is also more effective than you’d imagine: 99% of international data is transmitted using the submarine cables. That means that every time you log on to Facebook, stream the latest TV show on Netflix or send an international email, it is likely that your connection started deep under the sea.

Today’s submarine internet network originated from the first international telegraph cables. Aiming to speed transatlantic communications, the first submarine communications cable was laid in 1858 between Ireland and Newfoundland. The first non-test message was sent by Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan – and it took 17 hours and 40 minutes (although that was still faster than using a ship to send a letter). Although the cable was built over 4 years and was initially successful, it lasted less than a month. However, it was proof that the concept could work, and so the British began building a web of cables that spread across the oceans and linked the British Empire.

An early map of the first submarine telegraph system

Within years the telegraph system had given way to a submarine telephone network, and eventually these cables were replaced by fibre optic cables to connect the internet. Today the submarine cables are laid by dozens of countries, connecting locations all over the world. The cables are laid by dedicated ships that have been specialised to lay cables across ocean floors, following very specific routes that have been mapped to choose the smoothest sections of seabed, avoiding coral reefs, trenches and shipwrecks. The complicated process is extremely expensive – often costing hundreds of millions of dollars for a single cable.

Up to Date Submarine Cable Map

Despite the care taken to build and lay the cables, they only have lifespans of approximately 25 years. The high pressure and high levels of hydrogen at the depths they are buried in degrade the optical fibres in the cables over time. As well as this, the cables are very vulnerable to damage by human error, for example anchors, and – for some as yet unknown reason – they are also frequently the victims of shark bites.

The reason why sharks are attracted to the submarine cables remains a mystery, but the phenomenon is certainly real. Google have even decided to intervene, by designing cables with an outer layer of kevlar to provide protection from shark bites.

The Future of the Cables

Microsoft, Google and other internet giants are becoming increasingly involved in the planning and investment of the submarine cable network. Google have recently backed the world’s highest capacity undersea connection – a 5,600 mile link between the US and Japan. It is expected to be an important boost to transpacific internet speeds, transporting data at 60 terabits per second. Facebook and Microsoft have also recently announced plans for a transatlantic cable between Virginia Beach in the US and Bilbao in Spain. The new cables answer increasing demand for faster internet speeds and higher capacity for browsing, in a time where internet use and cloud based services are constantly rising. In doing so, they have found new sources of revenue to fuel their growth.

The constantly growing use of internet worldwide is placing strain on the submarine cables, and may even reduce their lifespan. To rise to the demands of today’s highly connected world, more advanced cables or more frequent upgrades are an absolute necessity. Investment and backing from internet giants such as Google may ultimately be the solution to preserve the world’s submarine internet network.

Let’s be honest; 2016 was a bit of a strange one wasn’t it? Who could have predicted that by the end of the year, Britain would have voted to leave the EU and America would be in the hands of the first ever president-elect with absolutely no political background and cameos in Sex and the City, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Pizza Hut commercials under his belt. Following in the wake of 2016, it is certainly set to be an interesting year, but what changes can we expect for the telecoms industry in 2017?

With movements such as the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G and Big Data picking up speed and rapidly working their way into everyday life, 2016 was a year of evolution for telecommunications and technology, bringing the much discussed ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ ever closer. The third revolution began in the late 1960’s with the rise of electronics and IT in manufacturing and now, as the IoT and Big Data are developing smart cities, the fourth revolution of ‘smart’ technology is imminent.

2016 saw the initiation of Big Data, IoT and 5G into everyday life, as well as a continued decline of traditional communication solutions (such as voice calls and text messaging) as end users migrate towards OTT and WiFi services. With such radical changes in end user communications, telcos are becoming increasingly threatened. Yet, the fourth revolution presents many new revenue opportunities. On that note, and without any further ado – here are our top 10 predictions for the telecoms industry in 2017:

1. Continued rise of OTT services
   OTT services will continue to rise in popularity, reducing telco profits from messaging, voice calls and even data use. This will continue until telcos have little choice but to find other sources of revenue or to merge with these content companies. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Such acquisitions began in 2016, including Verizon’s $4.8 billion deal with Yahoo. Data from l
2. 5G
   Development of 5G will continue. Promising speeds fast enough to download all 6 seasons of Game of Thrones in under 20 seconds, 5G has the potential to revolutionise communications and facilitate large-scale development of the IoT. 2016 saw service providers begin development and testing of the technology, so it is highly possible that the telecoms industry in 2017 will release the first waves of commercial 5G offerings.
3. The IoT
   Once 5G is up and running, development of the IoT will accelerate until IoT applications such as smart cars and smart home appliances are a part of everyday life. The increase in internet traffic will require constant connectivity, efficient management systems and an architecture that is able to handle the number of devices. Telcos will need to prepare for this in 2017, and be aware of any security concerns.
4. Network Function Virtualisation (NFV)
   NFV will become more than a concept. The movement to remove dedicated network appliances – such as routers and firewalls – and virtualise networks entirely will transform the way service providers build and deploy network services. 2016 has seen certain telcos take steps towards NFV, and we predict that the telecoms industry in 2017 (and other companies such as cloud computing services) will begin to plan for world virtualisation.
5. Saturation
   As virtualisation becomes a reality and the IoT moves into daily life, more and more communities and services will be forced to adopt cloud solutions and virtual technologies. For example, retirement homes may become digitised living facilities, and the populations of these will need to adopt digital methods of communication. Ultimately this may lead to digital saturation.
6. Mobility
   As networks all over the world become virtualised and cloud communication methods are adopted, there will be a global migration towards wireless technologies. Ultimately, this will increase the mobility of work life, social activities and many other areas of everyday life.
7. Security
   As previously mentioned, the explosion of connected devices with the IoT will make networks increasingly vulnerable to hacking. Additional security concerns will form as NFV forces the total abandonment of hardware. Customers will begin to demand higher levels of security, and telcos will need to be proactive in developing protective technology.
8. Smart cities
   OK, we’re not saying smart cities will be fully functioning by the next new year – but we are saying that the world will be a lot closer. Believe it or not, Disney World is among the first examples of a smart city, having developed a rubber band system that unlocks hotel rooms, serves as an entry ticket for the parks, assists the purchase of food and drinks and links photographs to individual phones. The seamless system is an example of the aims of smart cities worldwide – and more and more global cities are developing initiatives to make their operations more ‘smart’. 2017 will see further advances in the planning of smart cities – and finally give us answers for what they will actually involve, how they will affect everyday life and how they will be supported by technology.
9. Trump
   …Need we say more? The world is waiting to see what Trump’s presidency will bring, and telecommunications companies are among those nervously awaiting his new policies. Trump has yet to declare any intentions on telecom issues, other than to state that he is against net neutrality. Until his policies are declared, telcos can only wait.
10. Brexit
    What will be the effect of the other political shock of 2016? The telecoms industry in 2017 could begin to take steps towards protecting themselves once Article 50 is triggered, and we may also witness relocations and changes to roaming, international calling and spectrums.

The Wall Street Journa

With the turbulence of 2016 behind us, 2017 will be a period of change – and this is no more true anywhere than it is for telcos. As we move closer to the fourth industrial revolution, it may come down to survival of the fittest. With declining data revenue, telcos must source profit from new sources (such as the IoT and Big Data), but they must do so with caution and preparation. 2017 is the time to rethink, adapt to the coming changes – and join the revolution of communications.

The Telecoms Industry is currently experiencing a time of drastic change, as traditional communications solutions decrease and data revenues grow. As a consequence, many companies within the industry are witnessing a decline in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) – usually an accurate indicator of business growth and profits. To reverse this, telcos and other companies in the industry must begin to monitor customer spending, and consider altering their services to cater to the changes.

It is commonly stated that 90% of start-up businesses fail within the first 10 years – although Software as a Service (SaaS) business models are generally more likely to succeed. SaaS models offer subscription plans that are often more appealing to customers because they are more affordable, and so are also more available to users with smaller budgets. Other business models often have large upfront costs and struggle to offer the latest updates to customers because upgrading is more time consuming, expensive and difficult. Ultimately, the ability to offer the newest solutions at more affordable prices will attract more customers and give a head start on revenue for SaaS businesses.

Yet, the 90% failure rate does still apply to many SaaS businesses, and taking steps to protect the longevity of your business is therefore vital. Perhaps the most important step for businesses providing a service, is improving customer satisfaction. The importance of customer service is clear, and is something we have discussed at length in other blog posts. The ability to satisfy customers is a true business advantage, often separating the winners from the losers, and the first step to satisfied customers is getting to know their needs. There are many ways to go about this, but paying attention to your ARPU is perhaps the most important.

Some call ARPU a “vanity metric”, and whilst it is true that it is far from the be all and end all for businesses, it can indeed provide significant insight that helps to identify customer trends – if correctly managed and analysed. Vitally, this insight can then be used to design smart business solutions. The business advantages of tracking your ARPU include:

• Deducing the financial health of your business
• Validating any investment in products
• Validating any investment in marketing

The most important benefit is the insight it can provide into both the short-term and long-term projected health of a business. ARPU insights can be used to generate business solutions that accelerate Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) growth, but can also generate smart solutions to maximise business success in the long term.

The telecom industry is experiencing a period of drastic change, as technology advances and communications move away from traditional solutions. The challenge to the industry is causing a decline in ARPU for many telcos, meaning that it is more important than ever for telcos to find additional revenue sources. Building strong customer relationships is vital, but so is becoming more flexible and adapting to the advances in communications technology. Deploying innovative new services as add-on solutions, either for contracts or as part of a bundled price, is the best way to survive the changing industry.

Graphs from Service Providers and the Cloud OTT Surge Infographic

According to a new report from industry analyst Analysys, creating bundle options for customers is an effective way to encourage users to adopt new data services. Data services are a key source of profit for the telecom industry, as the numbers using voice based communication services decline. Including data services in catered bundles increases the chance of users spending on data.

With this in mind, Dubber’s new call and communication capture service is a perfect example of a data service for telcos. Playback is a service aimed at the individual that allows users to save, replay, search, tag and share their kept calls. Users can interact with their calls like never before. Ultimately, Playback can improve the daily personal and professional life of anyone who makes phone calls frequently. Playback is provided through service operators, and is available as an app on iOS, Web and Android. Deploying Playback as the data service to be part of a bundle will attract customers with its unique product offering, and encourage them to spend more on data services than they would with traditional pricing plans.

The rise of cloud computing has given birth to an entire industry of cloud-based services, as companies from all sectors move their products and services to the cloud to offer their customers an improved product. Cloud services offer a myriad of benefits, including reduced costs and unlimited scalability, all of which stem from their liberation from hardware. Cloud solutions soon evolved to include a wide range of services. New native cloud solutions were built on engineered platforms and deployed on cloud infrastructure, and from this Platforms as a Service (PaaS) – and eventually a variety of related dedicated services (such as CPaaS) – were born. PaaS provide fully managed platforms on which companies can build applications quickly and easily, without the complexity of building or maintaining the infrastructure beneath, and at a fraction of the cost. This may all sound like something out of Matrix, but it’s actually not that complicated – and the result is beneficial for all users.

The Cloud Computing Stack

Cloud services allow companies to outsource a part of their infrastructure or software service, ultimately opening up a plethora of applications for both business and personal users. The most common services form what is known as the ‘cloud computing stack’:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – a series of virtualized servers that complete a company’s network infrastructure

Platform as a Service (PaaS) – a provider manages a platform where companies can build their own software, deploy existing services or run off-the-shelf products

Software as a Service (SaaS) – a provider hosts cloud based software on behalf of a company, often eliminating the need for any upfront costs or investment in hardware and software license

Screen-Shot-2016-12-09-at-12.36.16

Diagram from Rackspace

The interaction between the 3 services is best described using the following analogy from Rackspace:

If the cloud stack was a road system: the roads are the infrastructure, vehicles are the platform that sits on top of the infrastructure and transport the people and goods, and the people and goods are the software and data.

The PaaS market in particular has seen significant growth in recent years; it was valued at $1.60 billion USD in 2013 and has been forecast to grow by 25.7% annually between 2014 and 2020. Forbes estimate that the PaaS market will reach $7.5 billion USD by 2020. This growth is partly due to investment from internet giants such as Google and Amazon, as well as pioneering firms like Rackspace and OVH.

Screen-Shot-2016-12-05-at-17.25.08

Graph from Transparency Market Research

PaaS solutions offer end user organisations and service providers an alternative to the complex infrastructure and high costs of legacy software building solutions, and appeal to various sized enterprises because they are flexible, fully scalable and have no capital expenditure.

CPaaS – The Communication Solution

As the popularity and revenue from the PaaS market rises, platform solutions that cater to smaller, more specific requirements, are created. A key example is the Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) market. The platform which CPaaS solutions provide, enables the integration of real-time communications, such as instant messaging and voice calls, into existing business applications. This is an innovative solution for enterprises of all sizes, as previously real-time communications have only been accessible from purpose-built applications, which require expensive hardware and software installations.

CPaaS solutions are a natural progression in the previously stagnant telecommunications industry, because they uniquely offer high availability and accessibility, affordable Pay-as-you-go pricing models, high security, multi-tenancy and no CapEx. Ultimately, CPaaS platforms enable the creation of application bundles, opening up exciting opportunities for the telecoms industry. The past year has been a dynamic growth year for CPaaS; Dr. Natasha Tamaskar from GENBAND estimates that the value of the CPaaS market will reach $40 billion US by 2019.

Dubber’s core offering is a CPaaS solution. From the bottom up, Dubber has been built as a communication platform where new and innovative products can be designed and deployed as product offerings.

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For service providers, CPaaS facilitates the embedding of communication solutions, ultimately bringing innovative new offerings to customers. Using Dubber’s RESTful API, service providers can build communication bundles that offer call recording and communication capture services on top of their own products, in a way that matches the needs of their customers and fits the company branding. In this way, CPaaS and APIs collaborate well, with the former even making the latter more valuable.

Using CPaaS to build applications opens up a myriad of benefits for end users. Ultimately, CPaaS helps both business and personal users to increase their organisation, productivity and efficiency, streamlining their communications and gaining deep insight into the content.

Dubber is a CPaaS that brings the benefits of communication capture and voice intelligence to everyday communications. Ultimately, this organises communication forms onto a single platform and increases their accessibility, whilst maximising their value by bringing the insight of intelligent voice diagnostics to all recorded conversations.

The CPaaS market brings the benefits of cloud computing to communications, allowing service providers to innovate and deploy new solutions faster – making them more affordable, accessible and relevant to end users than ever before. The rise of cloud services as an industry, together with the Internet of Things and Big Data, mark the continuing power of the internet in everyday life, and soon 92% of everything we do will be in the cloud.

Experts say we are now in the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ – a new age of technology that has the potential to entirely reshape the way we live our lives. Cloud computing is on the rise – tech experts agree that the question is now not if cloud computing is the best option but how best to implement it – and with it, a complete revolution of communications technology. Also pushing the Fourth Revolution forwards is 5G. The release will facilitate the Internet of Things to gather momentum and exist on a greater scale that unites limitless items through one network.

Technology has always played a central role in reshaping industries; developments have pushed boundaries and redefined business strategies, ultimately forcing new business models. This is no different within the communications industry, where the smartphone redefined mobile communications, and social media redefined online communications. The latest innovative developments, including big data and unified communications, have once more revolutionised the communications industry. Sectors within the industry must again adapt and fight to keep up, whilst businesses outside of the industry should look to utilising and benefiting from these advances. Telcos must adapt to the developments of cloud call recording, UC and big voice analytics, if they are to remain on top of the communications industry.

A recent survey conducted by Dubber found some interesting data that provides insight. The data corresponds with the suggested need for companies to adopt new solutions in the communications industry. The survey questioned over 100 small to medium businesses in the USA, and found that even though 93% use the telephone to conduct business frequently, 81% do not use a call recording solution. In the increasingly modernised and mobile workplace, voice analytics and call recording have proved themselves to be a very useful tool. More and more companies are using the solutions to gain insight into customer interactions, and to improve their customer service. In this sense, the survey respondents are missing out on beneficial solutions for business communications.

The respondents in the survey were from the legal, sales, finance, health or leisure, food or retail and freelance sectors, and all could benefit their business by deploying call recording and voice analytics. Firstly, the legal and financial sectors are actually required by law to deploy call recording, in order to comply with regulations. The sales sector must maintain high standards in sales performance to be successful, and those working in food or retail, health or leisure and sales must ensure they provide incredibly high standards of customer service. Call recording, therefore, plays vital roles in optimising business processes, increasing productivity and ultimately increasing the success of a business. Traditionally, call recording requires varying amounts of hardware, which is accompanied by substantial costs and hardware’s associated flaws. However, recent developments in cloud computing have seen call recording transformed to native cloud platforms, and freed of all hardware requirements and restraints. Call recording as a service is now available, and a cloud-based platform ensures that it is both accessible and affordable to companies of all sizes, with all size budgets.

Research by the Aberdeen Group investigated the benefits of using multi-channel call recording and analytics, and the statistics simply speak for themselves:

Average retention of customers is 89%, 70% for those without the solutions

First-contact resolution at 87%, 59% for those without the solutions

Annual reduced costs at 12%, 2% for those without the solutions

Businesses in every industry sector are increasingly adopting cloud computing and unified communications for their business telephony processes to experience the benefits highlighted by the Aberdeen Group’s research. Firstly, there are obvious financial benefits of subscribing to a communications solution “as a service” as opposed to purchasing and installing on-site hardware solutions. The business benefits are not limited to cost; there are also many strategic advantages in terms of scale, consistency across a network and the ease of adding future solutions and innovations when technology next advances.

The respondents to Dubber’s survey also indicated that they would also be interested in call analytics and intelligent data from their calls. The most popular feature, which approximately half of the respondents from the finance, health or leisure and freelance sectors choose, is an intelligent search feature that allows keywords to be located within a call. Deducing the mood of the customer and automating actions based on a specific spoken phrase were also popular options. The Aberdeen Group’s research provides a clear evidence base for the business benefits of investing in UC, analytics and call recording. There is, therefore, a strong case for the survey respondents, and all small businesses, to make the move to cloud computing and benefit from the associated business communication solutions, such as UC, call recording, big data and voice analytics. With this in mind, there is an equally strong case for telcos to deploy these cloud communications solutions to small businesses, similar to those surveyed.

Time for Telcos to seize the day

As the move towards cloud computing gains momentum, 5G and the IoT draw closer and the demand for big data and analytics grows, telcos are in a unique position to benefit from the current revolution of the communications industry. Cloud call recording, unified communications and big voice analytics have all increased the relevance and usefulness of business communications solutions for companies of all sizes, bringing new revenue streams to any telco that deploys these revolutionary solutions to SMEs globally. With their unrivalled knowledge of the industry, telcos are in a position of power to profit from the revolution of communications, as long as they are able to reshape their business models and adapt to keep up with the changes.

This post is part of a series on Big Data and Big Voice:

1. Big Data – What is it?
2. How Big Data will Change Contact Centres Forever
3. Big Voice – a Case Study on Tackling Autism

The power of Big Data, specifically in contact centres, has been examined in the previous posts in this series. This post focuses on the potential of Big Voice – the result of managing Big Data through voice analytics and Unified Communications solutions. Big Voice can use intelligent diagnostic solutions to effectively manage Big Data and increase the value of business communications for all companies.

Big Voice is a new and largely unexplored territory of data which, if utilised by businesses, can enable them to provide a new range of services and increase their appeal to customers. Amazon Echo and other rival products are among the first glimpses into the potential of Big Voice that has been integrated into everyday life. Amazon Echo is a voice assistant and speaker system that was highly successful in the US and has only recently become successful in the UK, after a 2 year process of analysing and integrating the British accent into the solution. The business value of Big Voice is extensive, and yet it currently remains largely untapped. One of the many capabilities of Big Voice is an ability to analyse the sentiment of a speaker, which can be used by companies to provide assistance in employing adults with certain disabilities, specifically autism.

According to the National Autistic Society, there are around 700,000 people with autism in the UK alone and shockingly, around 85% of these are unemployed. Employing people with autism is obviously important for their well being, but is actually also beneficial to a company; adults with autism commonly make excellent employees, and a national survey of consumer attitudes found that 87% of Americans would prefer to give their business to a company that hires adults with disabilities. Additional surveys have found that employees with disabilities have excellent attendance records, and are just as productive as their peers.

“The idea that people who formally have a disability can produce and sometimes even outperform non-disabled people in the workspace is quite a disruptive thought for employers,”

– Thorkil Sonne, founder of Specialisterne

Infographic from graphs.net

However, autistic men and women often struggle to find employment and when they do find a role they often struggle with the social aspect of working in an office. The key difficulties that employers often find with autistic employees are social communication and interaction, lack of understanding from peers, and sensory issues. Employers must bare these in mind, but advances in Big Data are providing an increasing number of innovative solutions to tackle these difficulties.

Thomas Madar is an example. When employed in a role, he struggled with the social aspects of a working environment, and was often dismissed as having poor communication. When searching for employment, he struggled in interviews and found it difficult to convey himself as a likeable person who could fit perfectly into a team. Eventually he found Specialisterne, a company who specialise in helping those with autism to find a job by matching them to a role where skills such as attention to detail, that are characteristic of the autism spectrum, are valued. Through them, Thomas Madar found a role that suited him.

Specialisterne’s solution helps individuals to secure a suitable job, however it does not take any steps to make the actual employment easier for either the employee or the employer. This is where Big Data, voice analytics and UC solutions come in: Big Voice. Utilising Big Voice, voice analytics solutions can monitor the stress levels and emotions of an autistic employee by deducing their mood. This is done by analysing the speed of speech, tone of voice, vocabulary and more, in phone communications.

With the advances in voice analytics and intelligence solutions, the content of calls are becoming an increasingly valuable business asset. Now solutions can analyse not just what was said but how it was said. When combined with UC solutions, the emotions of autistic employees can be potentially monitored by an AI and the analysis can be saved and shared with employers, all through a single business communication solution. Autistic employees would be able to work from home, or in any environment they are comfortable in, and still take part in conferences and meetings via VoIP calls. Analysis of their emotions could be conducted during the conferences, and if at any point analysis indicates that the employee is becoming stressed, the employer can be notified and deal with the situation accordingly.

Dubber’s Sentiment is an innovative voice intelligence solution that is able to analyse mood through a long list of metrics. Sentiment operates like a Shazam for human emotions, and could therefore be used to aid employers with managing autism, by monitoring emotional responses it will hypothetically be able to ensure that the employees are happy and comfortable in their business communications at all times. This intelligent analysis would be offered as part of a UC and call recording package, streamlining business communications, Big Voice and call recording into one single solution, ultimately opening up a myriad of applications and benefits for employers. Dubber’s Sentiment could potentially assist individuals with autism in finding and striving in their employment, which increases their quality of life and ensures they are given similar opportunities to everyone else.

This post is part of a series on Big Data:

1. Big Data – What Does Big Data Mean for Telcos?
2. How Big Data will Change Contact Centres Forever
3. Big Voice – a Case Study on Tackling Autism

As internet use increases each year, the volume of data created every year also significantly increases. The rate of data creation has actually increased so much that 90% of data in the world today was created in the last two years alone.

Contact centres are among the companies at the front line of the big data phenomenon, and so they must develop methods to manage the data volumes they are inundated with every day, whilst maintaining high standards of customer service. To be truly successful, call centres in the modern age must figure out how to not only manage big data, but to analyse it and gain useful business insights. Using call recording and voice analytics solutions, call centres can extract useful data from every customer call, thus maximising the value of all customer – agent communication.

The importance of customer service to a call centre speaks for itself, but is highlighted by these statistics:

• 60% of customers prefer to pay extra for a better customer experience
• 86% of customers have left a company’s service because of a bad experience
• Resolving disputes is more important than guaranteeing no mistakes in the first place, as 56-70% of customers will remain with a service if their complaint is adequately resolved

For call centres, as companies whose customer service is entirely presented over the telephone, the need to monitor, manage and enhance their customer service is indisputable. This is where Big Voice comes in.

Infographic from Business2Community

A significant advance for call centres is the progression of Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies, which have increased the ability of technology to understand unstructured data, such as voice recordings. Call centres can now gain important data every time a customer call is recorded. Combined with call analytics tools, these big data sets can gain valuable insights into customer interactions. These are the ways big data can revolutionise call centres:

• Speech analysis – NLP is not exactly new – it has long been used by contact centres to prompt callers for information to direct their call, although these are not known for being particularly accurate! Now however, with the progression of NLP accuracy has improved and systems can interpret and correctly direct calls from whole sentences, such as “I have a strange charge on my bill that I would like to discuss.”

• In depth speech analysis – NLP systems can now interpret not only what you say, but the way it was said. Speech analysis can examine tone of voice, vocabulary, mood and more to deduce the emotions, age, gender and requirements of a caller.

• Training – Speech analysis can be used to identify gaps in an agent’s knowledge, the types of calls they are best at handling, and can then provide prompts.

• Predictive analysis – mood analytics can detect a caller’s emotions and deduce when they are on the verge of frustration, and advise the agent accordingly. Mood analytics is also capable of lie detecting.

• Social media – Combining big data with social media can provide companies with an insight into current trends or problems that may affect their call volumes, and prepare accordingly.

• HR – companies can put applicants through an automated application process and use data analytics to find the best person for the job.

With the advances in NLP and analytics solutions, call centres are finally able to convert their recorded data into useful information, from which they can gain valuable business insights. The true potential of big data lies in its correct management. For call centres, combining big data with recent developments in analytical technology will begin to turn big data from just a large volume of data into valuable understanding of customer interactions. Ultimately, correct management and analysis of big data is the key to achieving excellent customer service, and improving the success of a call centre.

This post is part of a three-part series on Big Data:

1. What does Big Data mean for Telcos?
2. How Big Data will Change Contact Centres Forever
3. Big Voice – a Case Study on Tackling Autism

Big Data is a subject currently receiving substantial attention within the communications and technology sectors. With its potential role in the development of the Internet of Things and smart cities, two of the most talked about topics in the industry, the buzz is not surprising. But what actually is Big Data, and what does it mean for technology? Most importantly, what role will it play as technology drives us towards the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’? Here, we strip Big Data down to the basics and explore its potential.

As is always the case with industry trends and buzzwords, ‘Big Data’ is a very vague term, often utilised to aid sales without honouring the true meaning. Put simply, it is exactly what it says on the tin – large volumes of data, or more specifically, the large volumes of data that flood businesses on a daily basis.

But what does this actually mean? Big Data cannot be simplified by defining it as large volumes of data; the true value lies in what is done with the data, and what value businesses can draw from it. Properly used, Big Data can be a gold mine of business insights. However, the volume of data that is collected every day is enormous, and to be able to discern any insight from it, appropriate management strategies are a necessity.

Infographic from Business2Community

The concept of Big Data first gained attention in the early 2000’s, when industry analyst Doug Laney defined Big Data in terms of the three V’s – a definition that is still in use today:

1. Volume – large amounts of data are collected daily from a variety of sources, all of which must be processed
2. Velocity – data streams flow into businesses at incredibly high speeds that must be matched in their processing.
3. Variety – data is collected in a wide range of formats, including structured – numeric data in databases, and unstructured – email, video, financial transactions and more.

In today’s increasingly digital world, at the beginnings of the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, the volume of data that is created and stored worldwide on a daily basis is inconceivable. Business data has increased in volume, velocity and variety, and it is this increase that is the true meaning and relevance of Big Data.

Image from Soft Computing and Intelligent Information Systems

Big Data is capable of providing indispensable business insights as long as it is efficiently managed. Smart analysis of the data can assist enterprises in making businesses decisions that could ultimately result in cost reductions, time reductions, new and optimised product development and streamlined business processes. Furthering its potential are companies who are combining Big Data with high-tech analytical solutions, to discover information that is even more powerful and insightful. The use cases are limitless, including:

1. Diagnosing the cause of system failures quickly and efficiently
2. Generating recommendations at the point of sale, based on the customer’s buying habits
3. Detecting fraudulent behaviour fast and resolving the issue before your business is affected
4. Many more

An example of a company that is a Big Data success story is Uber. Monitoring use of its application by both drivers and users, Uber has mapped a real-time logistics flow of human transportation. This use of Big Data has enabled Uber to enter new markets and continually regenerate the company and their revenue streams. Uber are the perfect example of how the potential lies not in the volume of data, but in its management, and they used it for a very simple purpose – to dispatch cars to the right users. With this simple yet powerful use of Big Data, Uber have grown into a company that is currently dominating the consumer transportation sector.

The final question is how to build solutions that enable enterprise users to utilise Big Data and maximise business productivity. Maximising its potential could open telcos up to new revenue streams, and provide them a gateway to smart cities and the Internet of Things, which will further their growth trajectory infinitely.

Only 0.5% of business data is currently being analysed; providing significant opportunity for telcos to deploy Big Data solutions that assist enterprises in business decisions. Telcos need only tap into the potential to gain access to unlimited numbers of new clients and profit opportunities. Even more significant for telcos is Big Voice, a solution that provides deep insights into customer communications, going beyond simple statistics. Big Voice enables telcos to deduce a customer’s communication pattern by analysing their call times, locations and more. This information helps telcos to gain an understanding of individual customer activity, and to then cater solutions to fit these requirements. Organisations can also use recorded data to analyse the sentiment of their customers and internal communications and keep a catalogue of smart, searchable call recordings. Ultimately, Big Voice turns audio and call recordings into rich business assets, enabling companies to streamline and improve business processes, ultimately increasing the likelihood of retaining customers.

The role that telcos must play in Big Data management, what it will mean for call centres and similar businesses, and the future of communications once Big Data and analytics solutions are partnered, will be addressed in the second post in the series.