Will Femtocells Change Behavior?

According to iLocus, Nokia has found in its most-recent smart phone survey that 35 percent of packet data was consumed on the move, at-home use was 44 percent and in-office use was 21 percent of total.

Overall usage also increased from 6 megabytes a month to 14 megabytes a month.

What will be interesting is to see what happens when appreciable numbers of mobile users have access to femtocells--local transmitters that allow them to use a standard handset with better signal coverage in an indoors setting.

Aside from greater usage because signal quality is better, one wonders if the exposure to high-quality data bandwidth indoors might somehow lead to sustained and permanent changes in use of packet data outside the femtocell or indoors setting.

The other issue is whether users start to rely on mobile handset access in a setting where PCs also have broadband access. What applications or use modes start to become more attractive, even when there is the possibility of using a PC to conduct the same operations?

Of course, the same sort of questions can be asked of dual-mode devices able to switch to Wi-Fi access indoors.

Sprint LG Rumor Bug Found

Sprint has halted shipping new LG LX260 Rumor units to stores because of a bug that can trigger a complete erasure of the phone's firmware, says Christopher Price at PhoneNews.com.

Sprint has isolated the issue to a specific debugging menu, intended for LG engineers to work on the device during development, says Price. Sprint has not disclosed the specific code, to prevent abuse.

The trigger is timed to function only at start up, so users can avoid the problem by not pressing any buttons on the phone for at least 30 seconds after it has fully powered on, Price notes.

The phone, once triggered, cannot be restored except at the factory. The debugging code even erases the portions of the firmware that would allow a Sprint Store to recover the device (requiring what is known in the industry as a JTAG restore, Price notes.

Thriving Even When a Market "Vanishes"

Every trusim must be qualified. Consider the gradual folding of the "long distance" calling business into a "triple play" or "mobile calling" bundle. One might correctly note that long distance increasingly is a feature of some other product that a customer buys.

Some of us have said over the years that long distance has ceased to be a stand-alone business, pointing to the physical disappearance of firms such as at&t and MCI, which were built around long distance calling. But that general statement must be qualified.

It might be true at a high level that long distance has changed, and cannot support a firm such as the old AT&T. But that doesn't mean every stand-alone long distance business disappears. Calling card revenue still seems to be growing, for example.

And one has to point to Skype, Gizmo, Jajah, Rebtel and others as examples of companies making a living on long distance calling.

In the same way, some observers have argued that VoIP increasingly is becoming something sold as part of a triple play bundle, or as the technology underpinning for analog voice. The salient example is Vonage's stand-alone VoIP service contrasted with cable operator digital voice.

Again though, one must say the general rule does not rule out the continued ability of some entities to grow their "stand alone" businesses, even in the face of the existence of the larger trend.

At the same time, voice calling and voice features and services are emerging as an attribute of experiences for which there is some alternative revenue or business model.

Stand alone VoIP will be difficult, in many cases. It will not be impossible or unprofitable. The cost structure of such businesses will have to be optimized. But even the pedestrian calling card has continued to offer some firms an opportunity even as ubiquitous mobile phone usage has become a dominant trend.

Newspapers Not Dead Yet

But the trend line is clear enough. Newspaper advertising has been declining for decades.

But changes of this sort, where some older ways of doing things are replaced by newer ways, can take quite some time to play out, and will inevitably create new opportunities.

"Long distance," for example, has been in a long rate-per-minute decline, but usage has continued to climb. That meant the strategic task for every AT&T executive for years was simply to moderate the decline to the extent possible and prepare for some new business model.

The difference between long distance calling and newspaper advertising revenue is that newspaper ad volume is not rising, as long distance calling continues to do.

But the newspaper ad market is sizable enough that it still offers opportunity for players such as Yahoo, which has a deal with seven newspaper chains representing 176 daily papers across the country.

Yahoo is sharing content, advertising and technology, initially by newspapers posting their classified jobs ads on Yahoo’s classified jobs site, HotJobs, while newspapers use HotJobs technology to run their own online career ads.

Over time, the intention is to optimize newspaper content for search and indexing on Yahoo.

DTV Campaign Starts

The digital TV transition campaign has begun. With a Feb. 18, 2009 deadline for complete transition to digital over-the-air broadcasting, Comcast has begun advertising around the subject, with a "we'll take care of" message.

Also,$40 government coupons will be available starting Jan. 2, 2008, to defray the cost of decoders that convert over-the-air digital signals back to analog television for display on analog-only TVs.

The decoder boxes are expected to cost between $50 and $70 and will be available at most major electronics retail stores. Starting Jan. 2, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will begin accepting requests for two $40 coupons per household to be used toward the purchase of the boxes.

To request a coupon, consumers can apply online at http://www.dtv2009.gov. The government also has set up a 24-hour phone line to take requests, 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009).

Outshouts Launches Voice Mashup Service

Outshouts has launched the beta version of its Web service allowing users to create introductions of their favorite audio tracks with their own voice before sending the files to anyone with an email address or mobile phone.

Outshouts can be sent to one person, or a group; marked public or private; or posted as a widget on blogs or social sites like Facebook or Myspace. Recipients do not need to be registered to receive Outshouts and the service is free.

Outshouts supports targeted, personalized micro-casting by making it easy to mash together your own commentary (recorded by phone or computer) on top of your favorite MP3s, and send or posted.

Tracks uploaded from a computer are accessible for sending directly from a mobile phone using an Ineractive Voice Response system.

Knol Could Push Google into Content Creation

Up to this point Google has built its business on helping people find information. In the future, Google also will help people create information. It inexorably will move, in other words, from being a search utility into an information utility. The reason is pretty simple.

What Google does is amass user interactions and attention by giving people powerful search tools. But its monetization scheme is classic media: ad revenues. In some sense, Google "packages" and "distributes" information and content, as does a cable TV operator, magazine or radio or TV broadcaster.

Google also creates its own content, as when it supports Blogger users, for example, or when it pays people for creating compelling content for YouTube. In that role Google is akin to a movie studio, newspaper or record label, in paying for the creation of content.

As some might note, Google has had a mixed record of success in launching new services. It owns YouTube because its homegrown video site wasn't getting traction. GTalk hasn't moved the needle in the instant messaging space. So there is nothing inevitable about the commercial success of Google's Knol effort.

Knol is a new Web service being developed by Google meant to serve as a storehouse of knowledge on the Internet. It apparently will be based on content contributed by various experts on different topics.

Knol will allow people to create Web pages on virtually any topic, and where Wikipedia attempts to create unified entries representing the best information the entire base of users can create, Knol might aim to aggregate various expert opinions on subjects, even if conflicting, rather than a unified view of any subject.

Think of the approach as a library of great books rather than a dictionary.

Google says the Knol project is meant to focus attention on authors who have sufficient expertise on particular topics. Something more akin to a research tool than Google's engine might be, in that sense.

Also, keep in mind that Knol has been described as a project. As sometimes happens, Google might simply decide to go another direction or cancel the project.

The overall impression, though, is that Google is slowly adding content creation to its content-finding mission. Another change is that Google also is a large ad placement entity. In that sense it redefines media in other ways.

It acts as an advertising agency for placement of ads and publishes content as well. So Google is not simply providing search or ad placement. It is contributing to a reshaping of the traditional way media and other parts of the value chain have operated.

300 Million Text Messages New Year's Eve: Verizon

This New Year’s Eve, Verizon Wireless expects its customers to send and receive more than 300 million messages in the 16 hours between 12 p.m. today and 4 a.m. ET New Year’s Day. This forecast of SMS use by Frost & Sullivan shows how expectations have grown over the past couple of years as Frost & Sullivan analysts raised their forecasts.

Australian ISPs will Have to Filter Web Content

Australian Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy says Australisan Internet Service Providers will be required to provide filtering of pornography and violent Web sites as the default option for schools and consumers. Senator Conroy says anyone wanting uncensored access to the internet will have to opt out of the service.

Firm Acquires 10 Percent of EarthLink

Steel Partners, a New York-based investment firm, has acquired nearly 10 percent of the shares of EarthLink Inc., or 11.9 million shares. Steel Partners said the total purchase price of the shares is $97.3 million.

Steel Partners is controlled by Warren G. Lichtenstein, a young corporate raider and associate of investor Carl Icahn. Steel Partners may now be EarthLink's largest shareholder.

Vonage, Nortel Settle Patent Dispute

Vonage Holdings Corp. and Nortel Networks Corp. have settled their intellectual property dispute by cross licensing their VoIP patents.

The settlement involves a limited cross-license to three Nortel and three Vonage patents, and dismisses claims relating to past damages and the remaining patents. The settlement is subject to final documentation.

The licensing concerns technology used to make emergency calls or dial 411. Neither company will pay the other anything for any alleged unauthorized use of its technology.

The settlement points up the increasing importance patent portfolios seem to be assuming in the service provider space, mirroring the enhanced importance such portfolios have assumed in the hardware and software space, where cross-licensing deals are a standard way suppliers settle such disputes.

This year Vonage has faced--and lost--several suits from other service providers over use of VoIP-related patents. At some level, one has to wonder whether any independent service providers using anything other than standard hardware and software sold by the largest providers is protected from similar threats. Vonage appears to have placed itself at greater risk precisely because it developed at least some of its own technology, instead of buying it.

In December Vonage agreed to pay AT&T Corp. $39 million as part of its settlement. Vonage has also agreed to pay Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. a total of $200 million to settle their respective lawsuits.

Vonage sued Nortel in August, claiming three patents Nortel held were mistakenly granted to the company. Nortel counter-sued, claiming Vonage is violating a total of 13 of Nortel's patents, and asked that Vonage be kept from using the technology.

Internet Access Big Library Attraction

Generation Y "Millenials" (age 18-30) are most likely to turn to libraries for problem-solving information of all generational groups, say researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Faced with a problem in the past two years that they needed to address, about one in eight adults (13 percent) say they turned to their local public library for help and information. And it appears computer availability is a reason.

Some 65 percent of adults who went to a library for problem-solving help said that access to computers, particularly the Internet, was key reason they go to the library for help.

Also, 62 percent of adults who went to the library for help actually used the computers at the library. At the same time, 58 percent of those with problems to solve said they used library reference books.

About 42 percent of those with problems to solve said they read library newspapers and magazines.

The problem most likely to be cited by those who went to libraries seeking information was an educational issue such as making a decision about a school, getting more training, or finding financial resources to do so. That reason was cited by 20 percent of the adults who went to libraries for help.

Asked whether they would go to a library in the future to help them solve problems, 40 percent of Gen Y respondents said it was likely they would go, compared with 20 percent of those over age 30.

About 53 percent of American adults report going to a local public library in the past 12 months. The profile of library users shows an economically upscale, information-hungry clientele who use the library to enhance their already-rich information world, Pew researchers say.

Public library patrons are generally younger adults, those with higher income and
education levels, and those who are Internet users. Parents with minor children living at home also are very likely to be patrons. There are no significant differences in library usage by race or ethnicity, Pew researchers say.

RIAA Suit: Not as Bad As First Thought

Engadget has done some digging and reports that the Recording Industry Associaton of America's lawsuit against Jeffery Howell is not for ripping CDs to an MP3 player, but to pedestrian illegal downloading. While we might disagree about the practice, RIAA is within its rights to pursue that sort of action.

So it appears the difference is the public assertion, as part of the suit, that MP3s ripped from legally owned CDs are "unauthorized copies." That remains the more critical issue. Is that sort of thing, done for personal use by the legal owner of a music CD, fair use or not?

New Rules for Li-Ion Batteries on Planes

Effective January 1, 2008 there are new rules on lithium-ion batteries used with PCs, iPods and mobile phones, particularly spare batteries.

The Transportation and Security Administration says the new rules apply only to spare batteries, not the installed batteries.

Spare lithium batteries cannot be packed in your checked baggage, but can be carried on board in carry-on luggage.

Battery size limitations also apply, expressed in grams of “equivalent lithium content.” (8 grams of equivalent lithium content is approximately 100 watt-hours; 25 grams is approximately 300 watt-hours).

Under the new rules, fliers can bring batteries with up to 8-gram equivalent lithium content. All lithium ion batteries in cell phones are below 8 gram equivalent lithium content. Nearly all laptop computers also are below this quantity threshold.

Users also can bring up to two spare batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams.

For a lithium metal battery, whether installed in a device or carried as a spare, the limit on lithium content is 2 grams of lithium metal per battery.

Almost all consumer-type lithium metal batteries are below 2 grams of lithium metal.

Level 3 Sues Limelight Networks

Level 3 Communications has filed a patent infringement suit against Limelight Networks, alleging that Limelight's content delivery network infringes four Level 3 patents.

The filing cits patents 6,185,598; 6,473,405; 6,654,807 and 7,054,935, according to Dan Rayburn, streamingmedia.com EVP. Level 3 says it notified Limelight of the potential violations in February 2007, but that Limelight did not redesign its network to avoid infringing.

Given the notification by Level 3 and lack of response by Limelight, one has to assume Limelight thinks it is not infringing.

These days, it does not seem to be enough to have the right assets, people, channels, partners and technology. One often has to own intellectual property as well, if only to use as bargaining chips for cross licensing.

Hardware and software suppliers have known this for years. What is new is that service providers have to do the same.