Yankee Group’s annual predictions have a different twist this year. As the industry prepares for network upgrades, we’ve focused exclusively on the impacts from 4G. The incremental pace of deployments of this next-gen technology is reminiscent of 3G. But once 4G takes hold, the effects will be swift and profound – and we believe 2011 is the year to…

Crooks and compliance are really putting the squeeze on retailers and anyone else that processes credit card transactions. This is so because not only does credit card theft continue to grow, but with it so is pressure from regulators to protect personal information. Tokenization is an approach to cardholder data protection that helps alleviate bot…

The pay TV market is on the precipice of a fundamental change. Internet and mobile video are challenging traditional cable TV for the attention of viewers worldwide. Consumers are demanding more personalized, unfettered content and video service providers must deliver. Earlier today, Yankee Group Analyst Dmitriy Molchanov and I hosted a webinar in …

Will wireless kill wireline vendors? Will Google kill telcos? What is next-gen? The idea of strategic growth conjures up dozens of questions—and no specific answers. Mobile traffic is rising, and consumers and enterprises are constantly demanding more bandwidth, content and speed. The communications industry must work to keep up by both evolving tr…

Video services delivered over mobile broadband data networks are both a dream and a nightmare for network builders. Mobile video is in high demand, and consumers are willing to pay for it. However, poor design and high usage can lead to network congestion, negative user experiences and, ultimately, customer churn. While video is often viewed as a k…

The irrational exuberance of the Enron era led many communications service providers (CSPs) to financial ruin, and paying penance for past excesses consumed the first decade of the 21st century. But Yankee Group argues that it’s time to shed the hair shirt. Despite a crowded competitive environment, new business models are emerging to lead CSPs int…

With worldwide mobile backhaul connections increasing from 5 to 10 Mbps in 2009 to 50 Mbps by 2012, mobile operators, network equipment vendors and others must implement new strategies to cope with the influx. Fiber, copper, microwave, millimeter wave—each backhaul medium has its own advantages and limitations in terms of availability, cost to depl…

Assumptions about Anywhere Network® deployment opportunities and constraints often break down when looking at emerging markets. Developed market constraints might not exist and costs might be much lower, but market conditions and prices are also very different. Is fiber to the home (FTTH) a marginal phenomenon for emerging markets, or could it be a…

More than 25 percent of Yankee Group survey respondents say they expect at least a third of their infrastructure to move to cloud computing in the next 12 months, but company-wide adoption remains low. To uncover what lies ahead for cloud computing in 2010, Yankee Group interviewed executives from 25 cloud computing pioneers—including early cloud s…