Next year will see LTE reach 50 per cent subscriber penetration in multiple European markets, according to latest research by Northstream. Operators' revenue from media consumption will enjoy its peak year. However, Northstream warned that in the long term they will lose out as consumers choose platform-independent online media providers over being tied to a fixed set of pre-defined content packages for their content demands.
Northstream also said it expects NFC to become a relevant mobile technology for consumers in 2014. However, this will be driven forward by retailers offering mobile loyalty cards, as opposed to much lauded financial services.
Northstream expects mobile operators to move to much leaner partnership-based operating models, ditching the group operator scaling based concept that it said has failed to generate adequate competitive advantages. The consultancy also predicts that connected device growth, especially M2M applications, will continue at a greater pace. Report