AT&T Wireless-Broadband Bundles Show Strong Growth

Worth noting: AT&T CFO Rick Lindner says "our stand-alone DSL product which about 50 percent of the time is bundled with wireless has been very strong for us."

You might suspect there has been some recent promotional activity to encourage such behavior but that is not the case. "We haven’t been running any significant promotional activities I think in the last few quarters," Lindner says.

The implication: high-speed Internet access and wireless are the two foundation communications services.

E-Commerce Growth Falls off Cliff

The rate of growth for online products plummeted from 24 percent in early 2006 to nine percent in early 2008, while the rate of growth for products bought at retail locations dropped from nine to five percent over the same period.

One can think of lots of reasons why this might be the case. A more mature business grows more slowly.

There's less novelty effect. Perhaps it is just the impact of the recession, and more staples are bought at physical locations.

The issue is what happens after the recession ends. There's a line of thinking that with serious deleveraging happening throughout the economy, consumer spending will not return to its pre-recession level.

Off the top of my head, it's hard to see why this line of thinking is wrong, though it is worth noting that consumer behavior often surprises researchers.

Ad Priorities Radically Different Online

I estimate that direct response advertising accounts for about 80 percent of all ad dollars spent online, while in traditional media the situation is reversed," says Gian Fulgoni is chairman and co-founder of comScore. "There, branding dollars are estimated to make up about 75 percent of the market."

Why the disparity? "I believe that the very nature of the speed of the Internet and the young technical minds that first created online advertising both led to a focus on immediate response," he says. "The click metric is a good example of that."

“Time to purchase” is different for direct response ads, which aim at closing a sale or a transaction right here and now, and branding that builds brand equity that pays off over time.

Fulgoni thinks both are required. "For direct response ads to work well, it’s important that a brand’s equity have been communicated in advance of the consumer’s purchase decision," he says.

How do Internet media do brand building? "I believe it’s vital to take into account all of the marketing stimuli that affect consumer purchase behavior, not just that which occurred just prior to purchase."

"We should be wary of attributing 100 percent of the credit for a purchase to a click on a search ad," he says. Search might well have closed the deal, so to speak, but there is often a lot of other marketing activity that led the consumer down the path to purchase and, without which, closure might not have occurred.

The Atlas Institute, Microsoft Advertising’s research division, says “users exposed to both search and display ads convert at a higher rate: an average of 22 percent better than search alone."

http://www.comscore.com/blog/2009/04/branding_versus_direct_response.html

Apple Sells 3.79 million iPhones in 2Q

Apple sold 3.79 million iPhones in its second quarter and 11 million iPods. No problem blowing past analyst revenue forecasts. Other smart phone manufacturers might be under pressure. Not Apple.

T-Mobile Ultimately will Allow Skype over 3G

Despite understanable teeth gnashing over T-Mobile's blocking of Skype when using the 3G network, T-Mobile ultimately will allow it, either because customer pressure forces them to do so, or because European Union regulators do so.

http://oqlz.com/t-mobile-mobile-voip-integration-inevitable/

Cablevision Systems Corp. Introduces Mobile Portal

If you are looking for some idea of what a cable-centric wireless service might look like, consider what Cablevision Systems Corp. is doing. After putting into place an extensive metro Wi-Fi network, it is launching a  mobile version of its Optimum.net Web portal that's designed for all forms of cellular handsets but tailored for the company's 2.5 million cable modem subscribers.

The new mobile platform, accessible to handset browsers at m.optimum.net, is starting off with features including email, local traffic, weather, movie theater info, and access to Cablevision's digital TV lineup, but a remote DVR scheduler is on the roadmap.

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=175683&site=cdn

Starbucks Gets 60% Redemption Rate for SMS Coupons

Starbucks Coffee Co. is running a loyalty program based on bar-code coupons stored on mobile phones, in Guadalajara and San Luis Potosi, Mexico and has gotten a 60-percent redemption rate.

Starbucks created postcards being handed out in malls, universities and retail outlets. Consumers to text the keyword STARBUCKS to short code 80080 to download a "buy-one-get-one-free" coupon.

Separately, customers can text the keyword VENTI to short code 80080 to receive various discounts and offers that change each time the coupon is scanned.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/database-crm/3085.html

Glad the Term "Year of Mobile Marketing" Wasn't Used

Still, location is a powerful new capability for anybody with marketing or sales responsibilities. Who you are, what you like to do, and where you are, right now, are powerful attributes we ultimately will figure out how to use.

There's one clear historical footnote: everytime somebody declares any year "the year of...", it isn't.

http://www.adotas.com/2009/04/mobile-marketing-has-arrived-for-real-this-time-–-are-you-prepared/

More Personalized Services for Mobile

Personalized services for mobile customers will grow from $806 million to $2.9 billion in annual operator revenue by 2011, say researchers at ABI Research. Among top applications are real-time charging for multimedia content and mobile Internet services.

Up to this point it has been difficult for carriers to easily charge customers for non-voice, non-text  purchases such as music and video downloads. With an increasing introduction of real-time charging capabilities for these services, customers can do it by topping up their prepaid accounts or using a credit card.

Perhaps the greatest growth opportunity for personalized services comes from  “metered broadband”: the ability to access the Internet on an ad hoc basis, or to extend in real time the access bundled in a subscriber’s plan.

Other personalized services include customized Web browsing, parental controls, and enhanced control of text messaging which will enable users to block certain numbers, set some automated forwarding rules, and otherwise configure their SMS.

AT&T Results: No Negative Recession Impact

AT&T's first quarter 2009 results suggest it is not suffering from economy-induced customer budgetary caution. Its earnings per share were in line with its full-year outlook, the company gained 1.2 million net wireless subscribers to reach 78.2 million, ading 875,000 retail postpaid net adds, up 24.1 percent compared to the first quarter of 2008.

The company also posted its fifth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year increase in wireless postpaid subscriber average revenue per user, up 2.1 percent versus the year-earlier quarter to $59.21.

AT&T firther saw strong growth in its U-verse IPTV segment, adding 284,000 net customers, nearly double the company’s gain in the first quarter of 2008, to reach 1.3 million in service.

The company also posted a 471,000 net increase in total broadband connections, including wireline and wireless LaptopConnect cards, to reach 16.7 million in service.

Deutsche Telekom Issues Profit Warning

Deutsche Telekom AG has issued a profit warning which it blames on the economic slump, says Dow Jones newswire. Citing weak mobile operations in the United States., the United Kingdom and Poland, Deutsche Telekom says it now expects 2009 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to be two percent to four percent below 2008's level of EUR19.5 billion, while free cash flow is set to reach around EUR6.4 billion, down from EUR7 billion a year ago.

But Deutsche Telekom first-quarter revenue rose by around six percent to about EUR15.9 billion. Free cash flow was between EUR200 million and EUR300 million in the first quarter of 2009, compared with EUR1.6 billion in the same period last year, it said.

Deutsche Telekom said it had "felt the impact of the economic slowdown and the more intense competitive environment," particularly in the United States and United Kingdom., while roaming revenue fell as consumers cut back on travel.

The weak zloty in Poland and weak sterling in the U.K. also hurt revenue and adjusted EBITDA, the company says.

Some observers think "blaming the economy" is less relevant than operational shortcomings, currency effects, market share shifts and other issues, though.

In Poland, revenues are expected to take hit following a 26 percent decline in the value of the Polish zloty to the euro, says Emeka Obiodu, Ovum senior analyst. The U.K. pound also is down 21 percent compared to the euro.

Competition rather than the recession remains the major problem, says Obiodu. "Generally, the market dynamics have not changed much and competition remains fierce."

"In fact, we have yet to see any disastrous performance from a mobile operator that can be blamed solely on the economic crisis," Obiodu says." Indeed, for each of the recessionary factors cited by Deutsche Telekom for its profit warning (apart from currency risk), it is possible to show a corresponding non-recessionary force at play."

Roaming revenue is down. But the EU has mandated cuts in mobile roaming. In the UK, off the four main mobile operators in the market, T-Mobile’s organic revenue growth for each of the four quarters of 2008 was the lowest, says Obiodu.

In the United States, intense competition and the increased push for unlimited bundles is having a major impact on T-Mobile USA. There are other explanations for the quarterly results, in other words.

Blu-Ray Sales Double, Packaged Media Not Dead?

A new study from Adams Media Research shows that sales of Blu-ray discs in the first quarter of 2009 nearly doubled compared to the same period a year ago, rising to nearly 9 million from 4.8 million in the first quarter of 2008.

Netflix also seems to be growing, and is expected to have 11.2 million subscribers by the end of 2009, after hitting the 10-million subscriber mark for the first time in February 2009.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/163294/if_bluray_is_dying_why_are_disc_sales_soaring.html?tk=rss_main

Will Some Broadband Stimulus Funding Follow Irish Example?

At least some homes in rural Ireland will be supplied with broadband using satellite connections, after a deal was announced between Avanti Communications, the U..K satellite company, and Hutchison 3G Ireland, according to the Financial Times.

Last year the Irish government awarded a contract to Hutchison 3G Ireland to supply broadband to the 10 percent of the population whose locations are remote enough that extending fixed line connections are not feasible. Most of the 220,000 homes are in rural areas, and the majority will connect to the Internet using mobile connections, starting late in April.

Hutchison 3G Ireland could supply Internet access to up to 6,000 Irish homes through satellite connections.

Satellite connections tend to be viewed as too expensive and too slow, compared to wired connections. But sometimes wired connections are financially unworkable. Avanti is using Ka-band spectrum, which allows powerful spot beams to be focused on small areas.

Hughes Network Systems and Wildblue Communications in the United States also use Ka-band technology, offering higher-power signals and bandwidth.

The new broadband satellite services should cost around £20 per month, bringing them into line with prices for fixed-line and mobile connections.

One wonders whether anybody is going to figure out that for the most-isolated locations, satellite might be the most-efficient way to rapidly extend broadband access. Perhaps it won't offer maximum bandwidth equivalent to a fiber to the home connection or VDSL.

But that isn't the point. If you want to get broadband to isolated locations fast and affordably, satellite sometimes is the only option.

http://www.telecomseurope.net/article.php?type=article&id_article=8470&utm_source=lyris&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=telecomseurope

More Full-Time Bloggers than Lawyers?

If I had to pick just one, I'd say the Wall Street Journal is the single best newspaper in the United States. But this story is just wrong in claiming there are more people making a living blogging than lawyers in the United States!

It simply doesn't fit anybody's common sense experience.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124026415808636575.html

Advice for NTIA Broadband Stimulus Applicants

Some would argue "partnerships" are going to be key for winners of broadband stimulus grants under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's program.

You might think this a simple matter of taste or fashion. It isn't. The statutory language favors non-profit groups. But non-profit groups typically do not have the ability to create sustainable communication networks.

There are some possible exceptions. Municipalities might dust off older business plans for municipal Wi-Fi networks. Even there, partnerships would likely be helpful.

http://www.successful.com/msp/snapshot-4-09.pdf