F.C.C. Chairman Has Plan to Regulate Internet Broadband Providers

"Thwarted by the courts, by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and by some of his fellow commissioners, the Federal Communications Commission chairman will try again on Wednesday to devise a new strategy for regulating broadband Internet service providers," the New York Times reports.

But think about the statement: "Thwarted by the courts, the Congress and even fellow FCC commissioners." The FCC's authority is delegated to it by the Congress, which has not expressly done so. The courts supposedly only "interpret" the laws passed by Congress, and do not "make" law. Many would say the courts overstep their bounds, but for the moment just consider that the courts have ruled that the FCC has no authority to regulate broadband access.

Beyond those issues, which one might argue represent an unconstitutional overstepping of delegated authority, 37 Senators and 171 members of the House of Representatives already have sent the FCC a letter saying that the decision rests with Congress, not the agency.

Some would argue the key issue here is not disagreement over the specific proposals; it is that the FCC has no authority to act, administratively, to make law that is the province of the Congress.

F.C.C. Chairman Has Plan to Regulate Internet Broadband Providers - NYTimes.com

Vodafone and T-Mobile Germany Plans:Alot Like Clearwire

In some ways, Vodafone and T-Mobile are planning on attacking the 4G consumer in much the same way Clearwire did in the United States. Both firms will start in rural areas before tackling metro markets, and both are focusing on dongle sales for connecting PCs, rather than voice services.

Vodafone plans to offer a Samsung dongle with tiered monthly plans costing between 42.50 and 72.50 EUR. The top rate provides users with up to 30 GBytes of data and peak download speeds of up to 50 Mbps. That’s starting with the small city of Rammenau, east of Dresden, where Vodafone hopes to get subscribers who still can’t get fast broadband access at home.

Moreover, the plan is to initially cover several hundred towns in rural areas and then expand the network to 1,500 locations by next spring.

T-Mobile has a similar strategy. It is aiming at rural users first and then expand to cities. The T-Mobile offer will be called Call & Surf via Funk and will start selling from next April. For 39.95 EUR per month, users get a fixed-line access alongside the LTE connection.

In all three cases--Clearwire, Vodafone and T-Mobile--4G is seen as a product competing with fixed-line broadband for PCs, not a product competing for mobile or smartphone customers.

Germany: Vodafone and T-Mobile unveil LTE pricing

Shai Berger Pitches Fonolo to Investors

http://www.shaiberger.com/2010/11/video-pitching-fonolo-on-the-pitch/ You have less than 10 minutes to convince three potential investment groups your idea is among those they should fund. This is how Shai Berger, Fonolo founder, handles the task.

In-Game Micro-Payments To Fuel Mobile Gaming Revenues To $11B In 2015

Juniper Research estimates mobile gaming revenue will grow to $11 billion in 2015 on the strength of in-game micro-payments and Apple’s in-app billing mechanism.

Juniper also estimates in-game purchases will overtake the traditional pay-per-download model as the primary source of monetizing mobile games by 2013.

In-Game Micro-Payments To Fuel Mobile Gaming Revenues To $11B In 2015

Mobile Payments Will Move Inside Apps

Peering Dispute Between Comcast and Level 3 is Not Unusual

Despite the colorful nature of the Level 3 Communications dispute with Comcast over interconnection arrangements, the dispute is a rather typical commercial dispute between interconnection partners.

In the past, when traffic exchanged between the Comcast network and Level 3 was roughly equal, it made sense to peer the networks on a "settlement-free" basis. Now that traffic flows are about to become quite unbalanced, that won't work.

With the massive new Netflix CDN deal where Netflix is currently the largest source of traffic in North America, Level 3 will likely start sending five times more traffic to Comcast than it receives.

When that happens, a "settlement-free" peering arrangement often becomes a "for-fee" transit agreement, where the network imposing an unequal traffic load pays the other network.

That's the situation here, where a business relationship that worked well when traffic exchange was equal becomes untenable as traffic flows become highly unequal. Settlement-free peering works for the former, not the latter. So Comcast wants a transit style agreement where it gets paid for carrying the excess traffic.

Level 3 would prefer not to pay, and it is not alone in that desire. Unequal traffic flows do not lend themselves to settlement-free peering agreements.

Digital Society Level 3 outbid Akamai on Netflix

For-Fee Online Video Demand Still Nascent

A new study by Ipsos finds that some viewers are willing to pay for online video, though much depends on the payment model and the actual type of content.

In a survey of 18-to-34-year olds, Ipsos found that 51 percent of respondents were interested in fee-based models from Hulu, Netflix or iTunes.

Ipsos OTX MediaCT created a scenario where free alternatives were not available and TV was available from Netflix at $9 a month, iTunes at $1 a download with no ads, and Hulu at $1 with ads.

While 17 percent of the younger demo was interested in a pay-per-episode Hulu model, only 11 percent of those 35 and older wanted to buy that way. Overall 49 percent of youth had no interest in pay models while 70 percent of the 35+ group suggested they were not interested in such fee-based offerings.

Eagerness to use the Web to catch up on or re-experience TV content varies a bit from genre to genre and even more from show to show. People are more likely to want to re-watch comedies than other genres, but a subscription service like Netflix was more appealing for its run of dramas since viewers wanted access to whole season.

MediaPost Publications Young Video Viewers Will Pay for Their Online TV 11/30/2010

Google Wants Groupon Because Social Ads Are the Future: Tech News «

http://gigaom.com/2010/11/30/google-wants-groupon-because-social-ads-are-the-future/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OmMalik+%28GigaOM%3A+Tech%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Is email growing or shrinking?

Both, it seems.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/inboxcom-gmail-show-impressive-annual-growth-15170/?utm_campaign=rssfeed&utm_source=mc&utm_medium=textlink

And you thought net neutrality couldn't get more convoluted

Now interconnection agreements get tarred.

http://www.digitalsociety.org/2010/11/comcast-level-3-net-neutrality-the-new-fire-in-a-movie-theater/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=comcast-level-3-net-neutrality-the-new-fire-in-a-movie-theater

Interconnection now gets sucked up with "net neutrality"

Peering and transit agreements aren't net neutrality issues.

http://247wallst.com/2010/11/30/the-next-round-of-fighting-over-net-neutrality-nflx-lvlt-cmcsa-ge-vz-goog/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall+St.%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Clearwire races towards target of 120m POPs - Rethink Wireless

So much for the couple of years headstart over other 4G providers.

http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2010/11/30/clearwire-races-towards-target-120m-pops.htm

Who Wins in Tablet Business?

Apple, Google, Motorola, Samsung and HTC could be early winners as tablets start to cannibalize the PC market, some might argue.

Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer could be losers, some think.

Tablets Will Displace PCs: Picking Winners and Losers -- Seeking Alpha

Verizon FiOS Broadband Penetration?

Analysts at Trefis expect the penetration of FiOS broadband to reach 81 percent of Verizon broadband subscribers by 2016, up from about 49 percent in 2010. In other words, of Verizon customers who buy broadband access, 81 percent will buy FiOS, while the remaining 19 percent will be on digital subscriber line platforms.

Verizon FiOS Penetration Rising -- Seeking Alpha

Entertainment Video Accounts for 37% of Peak-Hour Bandwidth

As much as 37 percent of peak-hour Internet traffic might be entertainment video.

Mary Meeker Internet Trends presentation