Prioritized Gaming an Example of Why Net Neutraltiy Might Not be a Good Thing

Demon, a U.K. ISP, has created a new broadband package that prioritizes gaming traffic, a prime example of why network neutrality can reduce end user value.

The ISP's new "Game Pro" broadband will prioritize gamer traffic, providing a better experience for users who want that capability.

Demon will essentially give an assured rate to anyone willing to shell out the extra £3 a month for the gaming broadband. The Game Pro package starts at £23 a month.

"What we're doing is putting gamers into a business grade network," Carl Warner, Demon manager says.

Off peak, there will be no usage restrictions, but those who sign up to the package will be limited to 100GB a month between 8am and 11pm - which Demon said was double the top usage needed according to gaming companies it asked.

Demon to prioritise gaming broadband traffic

Android and Mobile OS Trends

Google: When You See a Product Hockey Stick Growth Curve, Pour it On

Google's philosophy when it comes to allocating money and resources: If the graph of a product's growth looks like a hockey stick, pour fuel on the fire.

And it looks like Google Instant will be available on mobiles this year.

Multiple Android App Stores a "Net Win" for Android

Google apparently believes Android app stores operated by other companies, such as Verizon, possibly Amazon or Best Buy, are a "net win," since the goal of the app stores is to create revenue for developers, not Google.

To the extent that multiple Android stores support that goal, it is a win for everybody in the ecosystem.

Where Consumers Spend Their Communications-Related Money

Whatever else we might say about where U.S consumers spend their money on communications and entertainment, it seems clear enough they prefer to spend on broadband and Internet than voice, on video entertainment more than wireless.

see more here

Will Communications or Entertainment Spending Take a Dip?

There generally is a very-stable relationship between household income and household spending on communications and entertainment.

Over quite long periods of time, the percentage of household income spent on communications or entertainment is unusually stable as a percentage of total household disposable income.

What could be important, for that reason, is any change in the amount of household income. One wouldn't be surprised to see an unexpected bit of a dip in the percentages as the "recovery" continues to struggle along.

If household income falls, people will wind up paying a higher percentage of total disposable income, or will have to adjust communications or entertainment spending downward.

Google making $1 billion a year from mobile

The thing about big companies is that any new proposed revenue stream has to be pretty big to get any interest.

So it is probably worth noting that Google’s non-text display advertising has an “annualized run rate” of $2.5 billion, while mobile business is on track to make $1 billion in revenue this year.

Google making $1 billion a year from mobile

Google Instant is about User Experience, Not Revenue, At This Point

Jonathan Rosenberg , SVP Product Management at Google, says that “from a revenue standpoint impact, Google Instant has been minimal.”

From a resource standpoint, it's more expensive. So why do it? People like it. That doesn't mean there is no revenue-related reason to do it. To the extent that it glues users to Google for search, it is worth it. If other revenue opportunities arise later, that's good. But right now, it might be more a cool feature than an immediate driver of revenue.

Impact of ‘Google Instant’ on Revenue Is Minimal, But People Love It

Verizon to Sell iPads, Packaged with a Mi-Fi

Verizon Wireless is going to start selling the Apple iPad. You might wonder what the angle is, and it is that the iPad will be bundled with a MiFi, giving Verizon Wireless a recurring revenue stream.

Google Sales Blow Past Expectations

Google posted double-digit jumps in sales and net income, as the company continued to benefit from a strong market for search ads.

Sales increased 20 percent to $5.48 billion, from $4.38 billion a year ago, while earnings per share increased to $7.64 from $5.89 during the same quarter in 2009.

On average, analysts had expected net revenue of $5.25 billion and earnings per share of $6.67, so Google easily beat expectations.

Indeed, Google’s earnings per share and sales figures were greater than even the most bullish analysts had expected.

Google Sales Up 20 Percent

Sprint Nextel Offers New Boost Mobile Loyalty Program

Sprint Nextel Corp. says it will reward customers loyal to its Boost Mobile prepaid brand by lowering their bills every six months.

The carrier will knock $5 off the $50 monthly price of its unlimited talk, text and Web plan after every six months of on- time payments, to drop the bill to as low as $35, says Bob Stohrer, Sprint’s prepaid marketing chief.

Sprint Nextel Boosts Prepaid Brand to Cut Bills for Loyal Users - Bloomberg

10% Reduction in U.S. Communications Investment Would Cost 300,000 Jobs, $100 Billion in Wages, Over 5 Years

The economic impact of Federal Communications Commission policies that depress capital investment in the U.S. telecom indusry by 10 percent would lead to job losses exceeding 300,000 over a five year period, a new economic analysis by the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Policy Studies estimates.

A 10-percent reduction in investment costs 130,000 information-sector jobs per year in the following five years, plus indirect jobs of about 198,000 over the same five-year period.

For each million dollars of investment, the Phoenix Center finds that 10 jobs are affected in the information sector and perhaps 24 jobs across the entire economy, about a 40-percent larger effect than found in most earlier studies.

Lost earnings over a five-year period for a 10-percent decline in investment could be $36 billion in the information sector and $100 billion for all affected jobs.

The study was conducted by T. Randolph Beard, Ph.D. Phoenix Center Senior Fellow and Auburn University Economics Professor, Phoenix Center Chief Economist Dr. George S. Ford and Phoenix Center Adjunct Fellow Professor Hyeongwoo Kim, of Auburn University.

read the study here

Some at FCC Apparently Have a Thin Skin

I don't recall the last time an FCC staffer attacked a policy paper from the FCC's own official blog site.

Perhaps oddly, the post castigates the Phoenix Center for living in a "theoretical" world rather than the "real" world of communications policy.

If you are familiar with the work done at the Phoenix Center, you might be puzzled by that remark. The Phoenix Center's work always is grounded firmly in economic analysis.

"Our friends at the Phoenix Center might be well advised to descend from theory-world to look at the actual, concrete actions taken by this Commission over the last few months," says FCC staffer Paul deSa.

I suspect that is precisely the problem the Phoenix Center analysis of Title II regulation was meant to address.

You can read the full Phoenix Center analysis here http://www.phoenix-center.org/PolicyBulletin/PCPB25Final.pdf

You can see the FCC rant here

Blog - Reboot.FCC.gov

Users Younger than 35 are "Talking" Less than in 2009

Generally speaking, younger mobile users are spending less time talking on their mobiles in 2010 than they did in 2009.

Users 35 to 54 talk about as much as they did in 2009. Users 55 and older seem to be talking more in 2010 than they did in 2009.

As a rule, we can probably account for the trends by assuming younger users find texting more efficient than voice communications for many tasks, and that they therefore are substituting text for voice.

Older users might be finding they are more comfortable with mobile voice, or that the cost of doing so has fallen, and therefore are using it more. Also, some portion of the increase likely is driven by an increased volume of inbound calls to their mobiles.

UCalling Yesterday, Texting Today, Using Apps Tomorrow

If it seems like American teens are texting all the time, it’s probably because on average they’re sending or receiving 3,339 texts a month. That’s more than six per every hour they’re awake, and an eight percent jump from last year.

Using recent data from monthly cell phone bills of more than 60,000 mobile subscribers as well as survey data from over 3,000 teens, The Nielsen Company analyzed mobile usage data among teens in the United States for the second quarter of 2010 (April 2010 – June 2010).

No one texts more than teens (age 13-17), especially teen females, who send and receive an average of 4,050 texts per month. Teen males also outpace other male age groups, sending and receiving an average of 2,539 texts. Young adults (age 18-24) come in a distant second, exchanging 1,630 texts per month (a comparatively meager three texts per hour).

The undeniable area of growth is in data usage: 94 percent of teen subscribers self-identify as advanced data users, turning to their cellphones for messaging, Internet, multimedia, gaming, and other activities like downloads.

While teen usage does not reach levels of activity seen by young adults, it has increased substantially compared to the second quarter of 2009, from 14 MBytes to 62 MBytes.

U.S. Teen Mobile Report: Calling Yesterday, Texting Today, Using Apps Tomorrow