RTT Technology Topics - 2008

We help companies and organisations maximise returns from existing technology and engineering investment.

RTT Technology Topics

Every month we produce a technology topic that reflects current RTT research. These are sent to an elective list of engineering, marketing and business team leaders.
There are over 120 Topics archived on this site starting from August 1998.
The archive provides a free resource for researchers in the industry wishing to use past experience to validate technology, engineering, market and business decisions.

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2008 Title Synopsis
December 100 years in Telecoms The militarization of radio, the relationship between military conflict, political and regulatory responsibility.
November 75 years in Telecoms The interaction of radio technology with politics, social change and the economy. The impact of these changes on the regulatory environment.
October 50 Years in Telecoms How the rate of change in enabling technologies can be established over time and extrapolated forward.
September 25 years in Telecoms The artificial stimulation of competition has the unintended consequence of introducing insupportable industrial cost. This 'tipping point' has been reached in a number of cellular markets and implies a need to change present regulatory policy.
August 10 Years in Telecoms Europe represents 24% of the world cellular market by handset volume. This will halve by 2012. The US represents 14% of the world market. This will halve by 2012. (Source The Mobile World). This shift will have a profound gravitational effect on the allocation of radio engineering and R and D resource. This in turn will determine which radio technologies will succeed and which will fail.
July The consequential cost of light touch regulation The unintended consequence of (heavy handed) light touch regulation is a steady increase in industry R and D inefficiency. This degrades spectral value and increases the real cost (liability) of 'owning' (leasing) spectrum.
June Telephone numbers
Five a Side Phone Economics		 'Market theory' suggests that five competitors are needed to provide an efficient market. More than five competitors dilute achievable scale economies, less than five creates insufficient market price contention.
A similar theory is applied to spectral auctions and forms the basis of auction structures and spectral allocations that encourage five bidding entities. The assumption is that this maximizes auction income. However the truth is not so simple and theory does not agree with factual observation.
May SMS SOS SMS as an example of how simple communication protocols deliver social, political and economic value
April A longer look at radar The future potential of integrated radio and radar system technologies.
March Radio and radar The role of radio and radar in the Second World War, translating this experience to the present day, the need for integrated radio and radar systems in emergency service provision.
February Satellites in emergency service provision The evolving role of satellites in emergency service provision, the role of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites in public protection and disaster relief.
January The Negative Value of Content Content comes with significant liabilities and may now have an overall negative value which will increase over time, a trend that must call into question the validity of most of the present content focused business plans.