Free WiFi Becomes a Victim of its Own Success

There will be a shift in operator sentiment away from public WiFi as it becomes evident that the growing availability of free-to-end-user WiFi devalues the mobile-broadband business model.

Mobile ad revenue alone won’t be enough to keep Facebook prosperous, so company officials will have to consider their options when trying to move to a mobile-centric business strategy.

The hype bubble around WhatsApp and other messaging services will continue to expand in 2013, especially driven by frequent acquisition rumors, Informa predicts.

Investors will demand a clear path to revenue from investments into digital services before operators begin to feel any share-price benefit from initiatives.

Content providers like Google and Netflix will continue to invest heavily in extending their infrastructure closer to users in 2013 in an effort to gain more from reduced costs and increased network efficiency.

Physical and online retailers, such as Amazon, as well as device-platform owners, such as Apple or Google, will accelerate their own initiatives to disrupt traditional device distribution models.

The logic of network sharing will increasingly be questioned by the industry, given the core strategic importance of a differentiated network platform, Informa predicts.

Boosted by a lack of any negative customer feedback about interim voice for LTE solutions, more operators will join Verizon Wireless in pushing out their timelines for the commercial deployment of VoLTE.

APIs will become the leading currency of the digital economy—speeding service activation, configuration, customer experience management and time to revenue.

The firm predicts online entertainment streaming and mail order powerhouse Netflix will produce a hit television show.