In Bled, I reviewed the declaration of an EU R&D workshop on the future internet. Slovenia has the presidency of EU and hosted a group of EU FP7 projects there. EU budgeted €9.1 billion for ICT research for the FP7 and the projects attending the Bled workshop represented €400 million of that. Not surprisingly they declared themselves in favor of internet collaborative R&D actions. The past internet grew out of public research (DARPA, CERN) and it appropriate to assist policy makers encourage innovation. The debates covered : network , internet, media, security, enterprise (internet of things).I looked at presentations from the [public] telecom sector.
Connected home is a 50 years-old idea
Future scenarios such as the connected home are quite old ideas, argued David Kennedy,Eurescom director, showing a 1956 illustration from Fred McNabb.To make this a reality, Internet evolution should enable these communicating objects : Multifunction handsets (keys, navigation, wallet, communications hub)
Sensors (ambience, context adaptive)
Intelligent content : (select the best display, digital rights attached to viewer for all devices)
Telecom operators will morph into on-line services
Antonio Manzalini from Telecom Italia Telecom Italia (TILAB) does not surprise anybody by stating that IP reduces the required network transport and access elements (that’s defacto fixed mobile convergence) and simplify application development (service development). This suggest to me that network service providers transform themselves into on-line value added services providers with new business models. He calls this model Telco 3.0.
Future users are far from Bled
For both Internet an the mobile communication industry, the new internet users are from the rest of the world as illustrated in these statsitics.
