Zerista Aims at Small Community Mobile Social Networking

Zerista is a new platform for managing smaller mobile communities, allowing groups to create schedules, send messages, conduct chats, take payments, support checkin operations, send invites, show maps and browse member lists.

This new mobile platform is either an informal or formal mashup of Ning, Eventbrite, Twitter and Foursquare for small groups, in other words.

The business model currently provides free use of the application for groups of 250 or less, then a charge for using the platform to support larger groups, such as convention or trade show groups.

Zerista believes there is a gap in the marketplace between social software for large groups, such as Facebook and Twitter, which are well suited to large macro communities. But those tools might not especially meet the needs of local or "mirco"-sized groups such as soccer leagues, wine clubs or agents working for a single realtor, for example.

In the mobile context, the issue of community "size" is important if you consider the cost of creating a mobile app that could do this, or even several versions of the app to work on a couple major mobile operating systems. Zerista is set up as a "cloud" application that can be published for use by mobile devices without the need to create a special app.

Free Polycom Phones With Speakeasy Offer Through May 31, 2010

Speakeasy, owned by Best Buy, is offering free IP phones to new business customers.until May 31, 2010. Speakeasy is including, free of charge, Polycom SoundPoint IP 321 VoIP-enabled phones to new business customers who purchase unlimited or global Hosted Voice calling plans and have a minimum of five lines.

To the extent that the need to buy new IP phones has been a barrier to adoption, the promotion eliminates that concern.

In addition to offering a free Polycom SoundPoint IP 321 to new customers (MSRP $139), Speakeasy is also announcing their new hardware lineup including two new Polycom phones and three new Cisco phones. Speakeasy's phone lineup now includes the Polycom SoundPoint IP 335, 650, 670, and SoundStation IP 6000; as well as the Cisco SPA 504G, SPA 509G and SPA 525G. Special prices are available for a limited time only for customers wishing to upgrade from the free phone offer to one of these new models.

http://www.speakeasy.net/press/pr/Speakeasy_offers_free_phones.php

Conflicting Employment Numbers in March: What the Heck Does That Mean?

There are conflicting numbers on unemployment coming out. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell 6,000 in the week ended March 27, 2010 to a seasonally adjusted 439,000, the Labor Department reports.

On the other hand, A day after the monthly ADP survey showed a private sector job loss of 23,000 compared to a predicted 40,000 gain, employment consulting firm, Challenger Gray, said employers cut 67,611 jobs last month.

The ADP and Challenger numbers indicate that after an improvement in the unemployment picture in January and February, March employment numbers began to decline again, though the Labor Department figures suggest a continued recovery.

So far, the recession has caused the loss of 7.2 million jobs, and the Administration $787 billion stimulus package may have slowed the rate of attrition, but it has not begun to reverse it.

The importance of the unemployment numbers is obvious enough. Consumer spending drives at least 66 percent to 70 percent of all gross domestic product. Until consumer spending recovers, the economy cannot recover.

If the jobless numbers begin to deteriorate again, there will be serious concern about the viability of the recovery.

"The March jobs picture may be the beginning of a trend that America cannot afford to live through for a second time, if there is any hope of a recovery this year," says financial analyst Douglas McIntyre of 247wallst.com.

There is some possibility that the difference between the Labor Department figures and the ADP and Challenger Gray numbers is that the latter are biased to private sector employment, and there obviously has been an increase in temporary jobs caused by the hiring of workers taking the U.S. Census.

The worrisome implication is that private sector employment continues to struggle, and might even have worsened in March 2010, if that is possible.

All of this matters to every citizen, and obviously to any business that sells products to consumers, including communication and video service providers. Historically, voice, broadband, mobile and video services have held up quite well in recessions, and that seems to be the case for the most-recent recession as well.

That is not to say market share shifts halted, or that some legacy products struggled while rising new products gained. Voice market share continued to shift away from telcos and to cable operators and wireless; mobility overall did well while use of smartphones and mobile broadband grew as if there was no recession. Cable operators generally continued to lose video market share to telcos and satellite providers. But all those trends were in place before the recession, and are not caused by it.

If the housing market remains stalled, and unemployment remains high, it seems unlikely there will be too much change in consumer markets. Business markets could be another matter. Most businesses can put off making needed investments for a year or two. But no business can afford to postpone required investments indefinitely.

That suggests business investments could be a brighter spot for service providers in the business segments.

source

View on 2020, Sponsored by Ericsson

If you enjoy "futurists," take a look at new series of videos sponsored by Ericsson and taking a look at various perspectives on "the future," some with direct relevance for communications, others less so.

http://www.ericsson.com/campaign/20about2020/index.html

Covad and MegaPath Merge, More Activity Expected

Covad Communications Companyand MegaPath say they have agreed to a merger combining their businesses to create a larger managed services company serving business customers, though Covad's wholesale operations will continue as well.

D. Craig Young, MegaPath CEO, will take the post of Executive Chairman of the combined businesses, while Pat Bennett, CEO of Covad, who will continue as Chief Executive Officer.

Covad offers IP broadband services in more than 4,400 central offices nationwide through its commercial and wholesale distribution channels, though the bulk of revenue still comes from the wholesale side of the business, where Covad sells service to wholesale partners including AT&T, Verizon Business, and Sprint.

MegaPath sells hosted VoIP, managed security, MPLS VPNs for connecting multiple sites, and SSL VPNs to19,000 direct SMB and enterprise customers.

Consolidation in the telecommunications industry is not new, nor is consolidation in the competitive telecom industry, so the deal is not a surprise in that regard. The "roll up" is a time-tested growth strategy in the competitive communications, cable and wireless industries. . Nor is it surprising that company executives say more deals are coming.

Telecom is a scale business, and scale is doubly important when margins are under pressure, as is the case for virtually all legacy telecom products. When profit margins get squeezed, financial performance can be maintained by selling more units. And that means more scale.

The combined businesses will be owned by Platinum and MegaPath investors.

Interest in Content Marketing Grows, Especially in Mobile Context

There are two huge takeaways from Junta42's new survey of 250 marketing professionals in North America: the dramatic growth of content marketing and the upsurge of interest in mobile content (blogs, social networks, video, newsletters, white papers, webinars, podcasts, custom events, magazines and so forth).

(click images for larger view)

Approximately 10 percent of marketers already are leveraging content through mobile applications and 38 percent say mobile content is something they need to know more about. Of all content marketing areas, only mobile marketing rose year over year re: educational needs, says Junta42.

56 percent of companies plan to increase budgets for mobile marketing in 2010 and a hike of 17 percent in 2010 marketing budgets will be funded by drawing money away from traditional channels such as print.

For the third straight year, marketers are planning to spend significantly more on their content marketing efforts in 2010 and 59 percent of marketing professionals surveyed plan to increase their spending on content initiatives, compared to 56 percent in 2009 and 42 percent in 2008.

Content marketing comprises 33 percent of the total marketing budget, in fact. Smaller companies are spending more on their content marketing as a percentage of budget than larger companies. Small
companies (less than 99 employees) spend approximately 40 percent of their total budget on content initiatives.

Larger companies (100 employees or more) spend an average of 18 percent of their budget for content marketing.

source

Three Things Verizon and Google Agree On

Despite differences on some other important issues, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, agree on some matters related to the Federal Communications Commission's "National Broadband Plan."

In an opinion piece authored for the Wall Street Journal, the two executives say three plan elements are praiseworthy.

Not surprisingly, both agree on the plan's nod to health-care information technology, education and job training, and a smart electricity grid. All of those initiatives will tend to create opportunities for both companies.

Both agree on spurring the highest-quality broadband possible, dependent on private investment.

Both say they agree on the importance of making high-speed Internet connections available to all Americans.

The Internet has thrived in an environment of minimal regulation, they say. "While our two companies don't agree on every issue, we do agree generally as a matter of policy that the framework of minimal government involvement should continue," Schmidt and Seidenberg say.

The FCC underscores the importance of creating the right climate for private investment and market-driven innovation to advance broadband. That's the right approach and why we are encouraged to see the FCC's plan, they say.

You might argue all of these are "motherhood and apple pie" sorts of issues, which is true. But it might be significant that both can agree to support, in principle, "minimal government involvement." That doesn't mean the two firms agree on key network neutrality principles or rules. But it does seem to signal a willingness to consider approaches which allow markets to sort out issues.

As typically is the case in communications regulation, regulators will weigh what is possible and prudent, given the different interests, and take those interests into account, crafting solutions that balance the various interests, giving each side something important, while neither side gets all its wants.

That is likely to be case for network neutrality as well.

Is FiOS Slowdown Related to Possible Verizon Restructuring?

Verizon's apparent slowdown of further FiOS construction could be driven by any number of good reasons, including new skepticism about the financial return, alternate approaches to achieving the same goal, or perhaps other required uses for cash flow.

The need to start shifting free cash flow to dividend payments to minority partner Vodafone, or even a more-drastic reshuffling, such as a merger between Verizon and Vodafone, are possible drivers as well. Vodafone is a significant 45-percent minority investor in Verizon, and just about everyone has been expecting some adjustment of the relationship at some point, with the options including each company buying out the other, although a change in the majority ownership status is not inconceivable.

But a full-fledged merger also might be on the table.

"People familiar with the matter say there are three options being considered by the two sides," the Telegraph reports. The first is a full merger of Vodafone with Verizon Communications; the second would be for Verizon Communications to begin paying a dividend to Vodafone; and the third would be for both companies to sell their respective stakes in Verizon Wireless either to each other or to a third party.

It is that second possible outcome that suggests Verizon might have other needs for its free cash.

In fact, some observers have suggested Verizon Communications would prefer to buy out Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless. But analysts say selling the Verizon Wireless stake is not an option for Vodafone because it would result in a giant tax charge as well as deprive Vodafone of about 30 percent of its total annual revenue.

While they are “not aware of any increases in market concentration from such a merger that would raise serious antitrust issues at the U.S. Department of Justice,” a deal that is structured to give Vodafone control over all of Verizon's assets, including landline, would raise national-security questions, though.

source

eBay Expects $1.5 Billion in 2010 Merchandise Sales Using Mobile Apps

Online retailer eBay is launching two iPhone apps, one for the eBay.com global marketplace and one for eBay’s new classifieds site, eBayClassifieds.com, part of its plan to sell $1.5 billion worth of merchandise directly from mobile sites.

With the new eBay Selling and eBay Classifieds mobile apps, consumers can easily photograph and list an item in 60 seconds or less, eBay says. Consumers can now list for free in eBay’s auction format, reaching 90 million active eBay users around the world, or in eBay Classifieds, to reach buyers in their local communities.

Plus, in addition to selling, buying has never been easier with eBay’s leading mobile shopping app and mobile platform and the new eBay Classifieds mobile app.

On April 3, eBay will take mobile commerce a step further, with a new version of the eBay app for iPad. The company earlier had released a mobile app for Android devices as well.

source

Suddenlink Launches 107 Mbps Broadband Access Service

Suddenlink, an operator of rural and suburban cable TV systems, says it has started offering residential customers in several, suburban-Austin communities (Georgetown, Pflugerville, and Leander) its new “High Speed Internet MAX 107.0” service, featuring a download speed up to 107 megabits per second (Mbps) and an upload speed up to 5 Mbps.

The MAX 107.0 service is the result of “Project Imagine,” a new Suddenlink program that calls for approximately $350 million of capital investments nationwide through 2012, above and beyond the company’s traditional capital spending levels.

Through “Project Imagine,” the company aims to expand to substantially all Suddenlink communities: video-on-demand service; the capability for up to 200 high-definition (HD) TV channels; and industry-leading DOCSIS 3.0 technology, which enables Internet download speeds of 20, 50, and more than 100 Mbps.

Suddenlink is preparing to launch either MAX 107.0 or MAX 50.0 Internet service in a number of other communities this year, with details to be announced later. MAX 50.0 service will feature a download speed of up to 50 Mbps.

That will give Suddenlink bragging rights in the speed wars. What remains unclear, as has been the case for other providers offering 50 Mbps service, is how many customers actually will buy the fastest speeds, rather than lower-speed and medium-speed services.

So far, no U.S. provider of access at speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps has been willing to say, in public, what percentage of customers buy such plans, or even the actual number of customers who buy. One suspects that is because relatively few consumers actually think they need such speeds, or that the value-price relationship is better than that of the medium-speed services.

source

Tiered Mobile Broadband Pricing "Inevitable"

Tiered pricing--where higher amounts of use will result in higher prices--is inevitable, say analysts at Coda Research Consultancy, driven by U.S. mobile data consumption toward 327TB per month in 2015.

With compound annual growth rates of 117 percent, tiered pricing for mobile internet access will become unavoidable, the company predicts. Most of that increase will come from video, which is growing at a
138 percent CAGR to reach 224TB per month in 2015. At that point, mobile video will represent two thirds of mobile handset data traffic.

The key problem, though, is peak demand, at only some cell sites, as already is the case.

“As carrier networks now stand, network utilization will reach 100 percent in 2012 during peak times," says Steve Smith, Coda Research Consultancy co-founder. That is going to mean actual blocking of access during peak hours, much as users on older fixed networks once experienced occasional "fast busy" signals that indicated no circuits were available for use.

Use of pricing mechanisms will help, as it always does, by allowing consumers to make choices about their consumption. Many object that tiered pricing will face huge opposition from consumers conditioned to "unlimited" usage.

I suspect that will prove wrong. Buckets of usage already have been accepted by consumers who understand they can pay less for lower buckets of use, or more money for higher or unlimited use.

What users manifestly do not like is unpredictability; uncertainty about how high their bills will be at the end of the month. So long as consumers have accurate ways to measure their own usage, and an ability to adjust their plans as needed, without penalty, users will adapt easily to buckets of broadband usage.

In fact, consumers may well appreciate being able to decide for themselves whether they want to pay more to get more, or can simply adjust their usage at certain times of day, or at some places, or delay using some applications, in exchange for lower prices.

Mobile video users will grow at about a 34 percent CAGR, to reach 95 million users in the U.S. market in 2015. Use of mobile social networking will grow at a 21 percent CAGR to 2015.

Non-text-messaging-derived data revenues will climb at a 17 percent CAGR, and will comprise 87 percent of all data revenues in 2015, says Coda.

IBM Likes M2M or "Internet of Things" Potential

Why IBM, among others, is bullish on the potential for using mobile broadband networks for all sorts of useful things other than Web surfing or voice calls from mobile phones.

Operator App Stores Get More Traction Than You Might Think

Though many observers, including many service provider executives, might be skeptical about the long-term viability of operator-sponsored mobile application stores, a new study by Nielsen suggests consumers are favorably impressed with operator app stores, as compared to handset stores such as the Apple App Store.

(click image for larger view)

Many observers believe device app stores will ultimately gain favor, but a new Nielsen survey finds ongoing loyalty to carrier stores.  As of the end of 2009, half of all applications users were accessing carrier app stores according to Nielsen’s new App Playbook service.

That is not to say the Apple App Store has lost any luster in the United States. The relatively new BlackBerry App World Store also was the second most popular app store, in part because of BlackBerry’s industry-leading installed base.

But carrier application stores were not as far behind as some might think. About 84 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the Apple App Store, while 81 percent said they were happy with the Android Market.

Some 59 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the BlackBerry App World. About 56 percent reported satisfaction with the Windows Marketplace.

Most mobile carrier stores compare favorably with BlackBerry. About 64 percent of respondents were satisified witht he AT&T Application Store, while 65 percent said they were satisfied with the Sprint Application Store.

Some 66 percent said they were happy with the T-Mobile Application Store and 62 percent reported they were satisfied with the Verizon Application Store.

Nielsen’s App Playbook  surveys more than 4,000 application downloaders in the United States every six months about their mobile application usage.

more detail

Ofcom Wants Better Consumer Information About Broadband Access Speeds

Ofcom, the U.K. communications regulator, is not happy with the accuracy of information provided consumers about their real-world broadband access services, and wants to revise the reporting process so better information is provided.

Mystery shoppers commissioned by Ofcom have found that 15 percent of the time, "potential customers" were not given an estimate of their access line speed, and 42 percent were only given one after prompting the sales agent near the end of the sales process.

The accuracy of the information proved to vary. In some cases, users were given double the line speed of another provider for the same line and technology, and sometimes received different answers over the phone when compared with the website of the same service provider. The majority of line speeds also did not match (within 1Mbps) the speeds given by the BT Wholesale line checker.

There is no question but that "best effort" broadband services are difficult to accurately predict or describe. It is true that users will sometimes experience bursts that correspond with the advertised "up to" speed. Most of the time, actual experienced sustained rates are lower, because of contention ratios and actual end user volume.

So Ofcom proposes that ISP's provide speed estimates based on line length, line capacitance and line attenuation, all measures that will provide a better approximation of typical download speeds.

Ofcom also wants to ensure that shoppers are given this information early in the sale process, particularly before payment information or a request for service is made.

Ofcom also seek to ensure that factors that affect broadband speed are explained. Specifically, Ofcom wants to ensure that shoppers are told how network capacity, congestion on the Internet and traffic management policies could affect performance. Consumers also should be told that actual throughput speeds will be lower than advertised or theoretical line speeds.

U.K. consumers already have the right to be moved to a cheaper, lower speed option when the plan they bought does not measure up. In cases where their is but one tier of service, Ofcom wants to allow consumers to leave their contracts without penalty.

Ofcom apparently will try to get such changes made voluntary. If changes aren't agreed to, or implemented, a regulatory review may occur, which could lead to formal regulation.

Such policies are not unreasonable consumer protection efforts. The problem is that formal guarantees are next to impossible so long as connections operate on a "best effort" basis.

Even on a quality-assured connection, which would have to be based on packet prioritization policies, throughput will vary throughout the day, based on overall contention for network resources, though far less than is the case on a "best effort" connection.

To closely match expected routine performance with an advertised top speed will require packet prioritization.

source

Mobile Presence-Based Services $6 Billion by 2012

The value of presence-based mobile services will increase to more than $6 billion by 2012, according to Juniper Research.  Increasing smartphone penetration in developed markets, coupled with rising global usage of mobile instant messaging will help to drive the trend, says John Levett, Juniper Research analyst.

Juniper thinks the key drivers will include presence-based text message alerts and services, geolocation applications that allow people to collaorate, share location details and take advantage of local knowledge, as well as social Web applications including social networking, user-generated content, blogs and dating apps.

Up to this point, revenues from presence-based services are almost exclusively derived from operator-billed mobile IM accounts. The amount of that activity faces two contradictory trends, one might argue.

On one hand, mobile IM will tend to fare better as end user adoption of 3G or 4G services increases. Broader adoption of 3G and 4G should therefore lead to heavier use of mobile IM, which should drive higher revenues. Mobile Web applications such as IM work best, and therefore encourage use, on faster data networks.

On the other hand, operator-billed IM revenues often are based on user inability to easily use over-the-top VoIP and IM applications that do not drive operator revenues. Over time, access to such open applications will deprive operators of the ability to profit from captive IM application access.

Juniper believes there is a way to thread the needle, as mobile broadband becomes a standard service for most developed-market customers and as operators move to embrace mobile VoIP in ways that include them in the revenue streams created by some over-the-top providers.

source