Carrier Ethernet Displaces Nearly All Mobile Backhaul Orders

Wireless network operators are requesting fewer T1s and more carrier Ethernet connections for mobile backhaul, and could stop ordering T1s entirely as soon as next year, Tower Cloud Inc. CEO Ron Mudry says.

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U.S. Consumers Show High Interest in Femtocell Services, Survey Finds

More than half of U.S. broadband households with mobile phones are interested in femtocell benefits, and are willing to pay for the devices and associated new services, a survey by Parks Associates, conducted for the Femto Forum has found.

The survey found that fewer than 10 percent of consumers were previously familiar with femtocells. However after hearing a description of the femtocell and its benefits, 56 percent of respondents found femtocells appealing, and two thirds found the technology either “very” or “extremely” appealing. Additionally, 89 percent of those respondents who were already familiar with femtocells  found them appealing.

The primary driver for femtocell interest was improved in-home coverage. Important secondary drivers included increased mobile handset battery life, faster mobile broadband, advanced femtocell services and home-zone calling tariffs.

The survey found that 72 percent of consumers who found femtocells appealing were very interested in at least one advanced femtocell service. Examples of such services include "Virtual Home Number," which rings every cell phone in the home, or "Family Alerts," which warn when a subscriber has left or returned home.

Half of these respondents indicated a willingness to pay $4.99 a month for their single favorite service or $9.99 a month for a bundle of their favorite three services.

Although Wi-Fi is sometimes viewed as a femtocell alternative, the survey showed that 84 percent of people who heavily use Wi-Fi on their 3G devices found femtocells appealing, apparently because of the improved voice coverage and battery life.

Among consumers who consider themselves likely to change operator in the next 12 months, 44 percent said that they would very likely reconsider if their current operator offered a femtocell. Similarly, 35 percent of consumers in multi-operator households said they would likely consolidate their services around a single provider who offered a femtocell.

Demand is highest when upfront device costs are in the $20 to $50 range. This demand is cut in half when device prices are in the $50 to $100 range and halves again when the cost exceeds $100.

“The clear message from this research is that femtocells have widespread appeal and consumers are willing to pay for them," said Harry Wang, director of mobile product research, Parks Associates.

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Verizon Tests 10 Gbps to Home

Verizon says it has managed to push 10 gigabits per second through its FiOS trunking network, including 2 gigabit per second service to a customer’s house with two simultaneously-used PCs.


The XG-PON field trial connected a FiOS customer location with 10 gigabits per second downstream to the home and 2.5 Gbps upstream.

The test demonstrates the capability of the Verizon's FiOS network to accommodate a wide array of new and emerging video services and the growing demand for streaming video content and other bandwidth-intensive applications.

The latest field trial was conducted in May in Taunton, Mass., with a XG-PON system developed by Motorola, a supplier of BPON and GPON optical networking equipment to Verizon.

At the customer's home, the optical network terminal (ONT) received the 10/2.5 Gbps feed and used two data communication ports to simultaneously provide transmission speeds of close to 1 Gbps to each of two PCs inside the home. Combined, the two ports delivered approximately 1.85 Gbps in aggregate bandwidth in each direction.

Tests were designed to simulate what two different customers might experience while using their PCs to download, upload or share files to the Internet when served by a 10G PON system.  In addition, speed tests were performed to Verizon's speed test server located more than 400 miles away in Reston, Va., realized speeds of up to 915 Mbps between the PC and the speed test server.

"XG-PON can provide the capacity needed to support the explosive growth in bandwidth envisioned for new and emerging services such as 3DTV and Ultra HD TV, and the growing demand for streaming video content to the PC and TV, as well as the increased use of concurrent applications," said Vincent O'Byrne, director of technology for Verizon's FTTP architecture and design effort.


Verizon trumpeted the test as proof that its gamble on building out a large fiber-optic network will pay off in the future, as user needs for bandwidth outstrip the capabilities of cable and DSL.

The test appears aimed to reassure investors that Verizon made the right decision to deploy the fiber-to-home network, and to assure observers that Verizon can keep up with any new bandwidth initiatives cable competitors may deploy.

Verizon Pushes 10 Gbps Through Fiber Network | Epicenter�| Wired.com

FaceTime Would Crash Mobile Cell Sites

At 667 Kbps, just 20 FaceTime users would saturate a 14 Mbps HSPA based 3G cell even if one assumes no scarcity at the base station backhaul, and that every user was in perfect range operating at the peak transmission/receive rates, and that there was no other traffic on the network.

That's why FaceTime is limited to Wi-Fi operation.

Digital Society � Blog Archive � Estimate of network bandwidth for iPhone 4 FaceTime

Where are the Broadband Apps?

Some people probably just can’t understand why more than 70 percent of Americans are happy with their existing broadband service. The usual explanation for this state of affairs (besides blaming people for being "dumb") is that there are no applications driving consumer demand because broadband is too slow to allow for higher bandwidth applications.

Experience from markets where 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps service is available suggest it is applications that lag, even when bandwidth is not a particular problem. After 10 years, what truly important applications have developed in markets such as South Korea, for example? You might point to gaming or video on demand.

But some of us would argue those are relatively trivial innovations. They don't seem to change a nation's productivity, and neither of those apps are "new" things we hadn't thought of before.

With over 40 million broadband homes since 2008 with more than 6 Mbps of connectivity, one would expect that there would be more applications that require and thrive at 6 Mbps, some would argue. There arguably are new things people do that involve piracy (content), and there might be some premium subscription services that have at least some penetration.

Don't get me wrong; it is entertaining to watch YouTube or Hulu. I'm just not sure that was what we generally had in mind when we have argued that huge pipes would lead to all sorts of interesting and socially or economically useful new developments. New ways to watch television are interesting to lots of people and companies, to be sure.

But was that what you had in mind?

Digital Society � Blog Archive � Reality check – Americans like their broadband service

Google Wins Copyright Suit Over YouTube Video

Google has successfully defended itself from a 2007 lawsuit filed by Viacom, alleging that Google's ouTube operation was guilty of copyright infringment by allowing users to post 160,000 unauthorized clips on YouTube, and that those clips had been viewed 1.5 billion times.

Viacom, the parent company of MTV, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures, filed the $1 billion lawsuit in March 2007. Google argued it was protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, the law that protects Internet service providers from the illegal sharing of copyrighted material among their users, if the service providers agree to take down offending material when notified by copyright holders.

The court granted Google's motion for summary judgment,  meaning that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act against claims of copyright infringement. The decision follows established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online.

Not surprisingly, Google General Counsel Kent Walker says the ruling is a victory for consumers.

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160,000 Androids A Day

Google's Andy Rubin says 160,000 Android devices are being activated every day, up from 100,000 a day in May. Apps in the Android Market also are up to 68,000 or so.

160,000 Android devices being activated every day; 68,000 apps in Market | Android Central

Droid X Released by Verizon and Motorola

Verizon Wireless and Motorola have launched the Droid X, featuring a 1GHz processor; 4.3-inch screen, 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities, dual-flash, 8-megapixel camera, HD camcorder and access to Android Market, which now has more than 65,000 applications.

DROID X by Motorola will be available at www.verizonwireless.com and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores beginning July 15 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.

Motorola Media Center - Press Releases - July 2010: DROID X By Motorola Lands On The Nation's Largest & Most Reliable 3G Network

GOAL!!!! USA Advances to Final 16 Round at World Cup

iPhone, Evo, Droid Incredible, Nexus One: Which Has Best Total Cost of Ownership

The iPhone makes the most economic sense of leading smartphones if you opt for a minimum voice/data/text plan, says BillShrink.

The catch is, BillShrink’s research has found that that average data usage per person has risen a dramatic 3.5 times over the last 15 months. If higher usage means a user cannot buy the iPhone minimum data plan, then a Nexus One on a T-Mobile USA unlimited plan offers the lower total cost of ownership.

Google and Music Industry: Distributor or Competitor?

BPI, Britain’s biggest recording-industry association, has sent a cease-and-desist notice to Google regarding links to copyright-infringed music files. Meanwhile, there are strong indications Google is getting ready to launch its own music service aimed at Android handsets.

Google is going to have to decide whether it really wants to be a music distribution partner or a competitor, essentially.

Google Needs To Decide Which Side Of The Music Industry Fence It Is On | paidContent

Unbundling, Wholesale Might Not be a Good Thing for Broadband

Almost without exception, owners of broadband access infrastructure are opposed to unbundling requirements (wholesale). Almost without exception, competitors who do not own facilities are in favor of such requirements.

Blair Levin,  former executive director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the Federal Communications Commission and now Aspen Institute fellow, appears to have said that "due to the uncertainty of unbundling; providers will not be able to produce enough capital to support a business."

Levin was a top advisor to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was created and passed, and is quite familiar with the market impact of wholesale access policies.

It might go too far to say Levin prefers wholesale to other mechanisms. Under different circumstances, he might approve. But given the reliance on the competitors one has got, rather than the competitors one might wish for, he seems to have realistically concluded that, in the United States, at this time, the approach has to rely on continued investment by the competitors actually in the market and able to make facilities investments.

In other words, given the capital intesity of ubiquitous broadband deployments, the uncertainty around the business case and the prevailing constellation of commercial and governmental forces, it likely is unreasonable to expect more than a couple, perhaps a few, facilities-based contestants in the fixed-line space or the wireless space, though there may be more room for competitors in the wireless space.

Given those economic realities, policies that discourage continual investment by the few players able to compete on a facilities-based basis almost dictates a policy that does not impose wholesale or unbundling requirements that choke off investment.

It might not be the best of all possible worlds, but that is not the world we have been given.

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"Minimally Viable Product" and "Maximally Buyable Product"

Developers of new products will benefit from applying a "minimum and maximum" approach to crafting new products, says Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot CEO. "One of the key parts of the lean startup is the concept of a “minimally viable product," he says.

The MVP is a product that has the minimum set of features needed to learn what the market wants. The idea behind the MVP is to spend as little energy is possible figuring out whether what you’re building is something people want.

The other element is reduction of barriers to adoption. He calls that the “maximally buyable product.”

To be "maximally buyable, there are some elements everybody would intuitively grasp. Products or applications should be easy to understand, easy to try and easy to buy. For many products, the business model and design should also make it "easy to remain a customer." In other words, design for longevity of customer relationship.

In many parts of the communications service provider market, consumer customer relationships last three years or less. Application relationships can last months to a year. Changing the length of customer relationship can have dramatic impact on profit margins.

Customers with longer tenure tend to have fewer support requirements, since they know how to use the product. Since there is a marketing cost to gain a new customer, the longer the relationship, the lower the average cost to acquire customers. Customers with longer tenure tend to buy additional products a company offers, and therefore tend to have higher average revenue per user, as well.

The non-intuitive advice is to make a product "easy to leave." This runs counter to any marketer's thinking, which will more naturally lean towards customer lock in. But the easier you make it for customers to leave, the more likely that are to buy in the first place.

On Startups by Dharmesh Shah

World Cup Affects U.K. Latency, Packet Loss

As you would expect, the World Cup has driven up video consumption. Timico, a U.K. Internet access provider, set a new record for video usage online, with usage up 309 percent over average. So what's happened on the technical side that affects end user experience?


Higher latency and packet loss seem to be the main effects."Some users may only see a slight increase in latency or a small amount of packet loss whilst for others latency has quadrupled and packet loss is in the region of five percent," says ThinkBroadband.

In one test, the average latency has quadrupled from around 28 milliseconds to approximately 120 milliseconds at peak World Cup time and packet loss increased as well.

The hit to user experience is video occasionally breaking up or freezing from packet loss, while websites would load more slowly.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4282-can-the-uk-broadband-network-cope.html

iPhone 4 a "Major Leap" Says Walt Mossberg

Wall Street Journal technology reviewer Walt Mossberg says the Apple iPhone 4 is "a major leap over its already-excellent predecessor, the iPhone 3GS," on both hardware and software fronts.

The iPhone 4 redesign features a radically-sharper screen; a second, front-facing camera; a larger battery; a better rear camera with flash; and a faster processor into a body that is 24 percent thinner, a bit narrower, and retains the same length and weight as its predecessor's, says Mossberg.

With the front-facing camera, and clever new software called FaceTime, Apple has brought simple, high-quality video calling to mobile phones, albeit, for now, only over Wi-Fi and only among iPhone 4 owners.

In addition, the iPhone now includes an updated operating system that adds catch-up software features such as limited multitasking; folders for grouping related apps and a unified email inbox for multiple accounts and the ability to present messages as threaded conversations.

"While its 3.5-inch screen, once considered huge, is now smaller than those on some other smartphones, the high resolution packs in a lot of material and makes text appear almost like ink on fine paper," says Mossberg.

"Voice quality was quite good, even on long speaker-phone calls, and data performance over Wi-Fi was excellent," he adds. "Video and audio streamed from the Web played smoothly."

Apple claims longer battery life for most functions—seven hours of talk time, for instance, versus five hours on the earlier model.

Some will question the degree of multitasking support, though. To prevent a drain on battery life, Apple has allowed only certain apps to fully multitask, such as Pandora or voice-prompted navigation apps, which keep working while you're on a call. Others that fully work in the background include Internet calling apps, and those that perform long downloads, he says.

"But some logical candidates, such as Twitter and Facebook, merely pause in place when you switch away from them," says Mossberg.

Apple says constant fetching of hundreds of social-networking updates in the background would kill the battery too quickly.

"In fact, for many scenarios, such as games, Apple's version of multitasking is really just fast switching among open apps that save their place," he notes.

Because iPhone users can easily accumulate hundreds of apps, it can become difficult to organize them. So the new iPhone OS now allows you to group them into folders.

"The most important downside of the iPhone 4 is that, in the U.S., it's shackled to AT&T, which not only still operates a network that has trouble connecting and maintaining calls in many cities, but now has abandoned unlimited, flat-rate data plans," he says.

In an effort to improve performance, Apple added a wrap-around antenna, and the device automatically tries to connect using the least-congested frequencies as well as frequencies with higher quality (less signal interference).

"Just as with its predecessors, I can't recommend this new iPhone for voice calling for people who experience poor AT&T reception, unless they are willing to carry a second phone on a network that works better for them," says Mossberg.

"For everyone else, however, I'd say that Apple has built a beautiful smartphone that works well, adds impressive new features and is still, overall, the best device in its class," he says.