Children Do Not Like Being on the Same Social Networks as Their Parents

Apparently, children do not especially like belonging to the same social networks as their parents. Or so it would seem, based on 2009 Facebook demographics.

Though Facebook users grew 513 percent in the 55 and older demographic, usage by college and high school age users dropped 20 percent, says iStrategyLabs.

If you have, or have had, teenagers, you are not surprised by this finding.

Click the image for a larger view.

Execs Don't See Network Driving Value

If a recent survey of European telecom ecosystem executives proves accurate, business model changes in the mobile broadband space increasingly will find content providers paying money to access providers for a variety of services, while infrastructure itself becomes a less-crucial driver of network value.

About 81 percent of respondents indicated that traffic shaping and deep packet inspection can help network operators boost their revenues.

Also, some 91 percent said network infrastructure sharing will become the norm as mobile data costs climb.

Both of those findings confirm a belief that at least in the mobile space, revenue and cost sharing mechanisms are likely to change, and relatively soon.

What is a telecom operator’s unique selling point? Overwhelmingly, European telecom executives identified a telco’s service management platform as its core USP with 37 percent of the vote, the Yankee Group says.

Poll respondents also were evenly split on which ecosystem participants would have most profit potential over the next three to five years. Some 32.1 percent thought service providers would, while an identical 32.1 percent thought content owners would have the brightest prospects.

Brand came second with a quarter of the vote. Ownership of network assets—both access and core network—came in lower with 13.2 percent and 11.3 percent of the vote, respectively.

The survey was conducted in April 2009. Some 60 percent of survey respondents work for telecom operators, and the remainder for software and IT services, application providers and media-related firms working with telecom operators.

Prepaid Wireless Site Visits: Who is Up? Who is Down?

If changes in traffic to mobile prepaid sites are a reflection of the amount of consumer interest, MetroPCS, Boost Mobile and Leap Wireless are getting more interest, while Virgin Mobile and Tracfone, historically the leaders, are getting slightly less interest, according to a traffic analysis by Compete.com.

How Much Data Do People Really Use?

At least some people do worry about usage caps, whether for fixed broadband or mobile. Some data from iPass concerning Wi-Fi usage might help shed some light on the matter (click on the image for a bigger view of the chart).

The data show that a typical user consumes less than 211 megabytes a month. Experienced users use less: about 201 Mbytes a month.

Those stats are from the second quarter of 2008, and the iPass data shows moderate per-user growth since early 2007, but nothing exponential.

Mobile broadband as it pertains to smart phones will show a different pattern, in all likelihood. But the point is that the typical user does not consume as much data as one might think.

Broadband Definitions for ARRA Proposals Set at 768 kbps Downstream and 200 kbps Upstream

"Broadband," for purposes of applying for grants or loans under NTIA or RUS broadband stimulus programs, in 768 kbps in the downstream, and 200 kbps in the upstream. As with every other specific rule, this is a minimum, not a maximum.

The provision seems designed to allow different platforms, with different capabilities, to be used. Also, the definitions will allow satellite and wireless broadband networks to qualify.

It probably will not hurt if a particular network has the ability to scale to higher speeds gracefully, either.

First Broadband Stimulus Applications Can be Submitted July 14

The first "broadband stimulus" proposals to either the NTIA or RUS will be accepted starting July 14 and applications will be accepted until August 14.

The Notice of Funds Availability runs about 120 pages so I have to read it first before I can say anything else!

Lower European Mobile Prices Start Today

New price curbs on the cost of using a mobile phone while outside a home state in the European Union took effect today.

The price for a roaming text has fallen to EUR0.11, from around EUR0.29.

Downloading data while roaming now costs a maximum of EUR1 per megabyte at the wholesale level compared with previous costs of about EUR1.68.

An earlier price cap of EUR0.46 per minute for an outgoing voice call has also fallen to EUR0.43, while the cap on voice calls received abroad has fallen from EUR0.22 to EUR0.19.

In addition, mobile operators have been forced to charge for calls by the second after the first half minute, instead of rounding up to the nearest minute, whilst operators must introduce per-second billing from the first second for calls received abroad.

The caps will further fall to EUR0.39 for calls made and EUR0.15 for calls received while roaming from 1 July 2010, and to EUR0.35 and EUR0.11 from 1 July 2011.