Events centered on sports enthusiasm present ripe opportunities for agile CSPs with advanced charging, billing and policy management systems in place. Pardon the pun, but the play looks like this: mobile subscribers want to watch streaming video of their favorite teams, but many CSPs are now restricting broadband usage by enforcing hard limits. The possibility of data-bill shock is very real. The solution? Premium service packages, whether video specific, time specific, team specific or otherwise. Mobile operators could also partner with content networks like ESPN to offer subsidized, branded top-ups.

Akil Chomoko, head of product marketing at Volubill, spoke with Pipeline about solutions for CSPs that could “keep basic access live all the time but deliver March Madness as a separate package, maybe [as]‘priority’ at specific times of the day.” Advanced policy and charging can make such personalized packages and real-time upsell opportunities possible. 

Open seats at the FCC

Change is in the air at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Late last month commissioner Robert McDowell stepped down from his post after seven years of service, and rumors began to circulate that chairman Julius Genachowski would follow him out the door. It turned out the rumors were correct, as he announced his resignation just two days after McDowell.

“In March 2009 President Obama nominated me to lead this great agency. It’s been a profound honor and great privilege to serve in this post for the last four years,” said Genachowski during a speech in Washington, D.C. “Today I’m announcing that I’ll be stepping down as FCC chairman in the coming weeks. I didn’t ask you here today to say goodbye — we’ll be working together a little while longer, and there’ll be other opportunities for farewells.”

After ticking off a list of successes at the FCC during his tenure, Genachowski outlined its continuing challenges. “We need to free up even more spectrum for mobile broadband. We need to continue driving increased broadband speed and capacity to every town, every school, every business, every consumer. We need to maintain the fight for internet freedom at home and abroad. We need to ensure vibrant and healthy competition. And we need to continue to increase broadband accessibility and adoption and promote diversity and the health of our democracy.”

T-Mobile: “America’s ‘uncarrier,’” plus LTE and merger news

Competition in the US wireless market may soon experience a jolt, as T-Mobile and MetroPCS are nearing their proposed merger. Approval from the Department of Justice and the FCC has been granted, so the only thing standing in the two operators’ way is a collective nod from MetroPCS’s shareholders. The so-called “T-Metro” will have the LTE footprint, unlimited pricing and next-gen services (voice over LTE, or VoLTE, and enhanced rich communication services, or RCS-e) it needs to give market leaders AT&T and Verizon a real run for their money.