FTC Chief: Consumers Should Control Their Data on Social Sites

"We think generally people ought to have control over their data," says David Vladeck, head of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "If you wanted to leave a social-networking site at some point, you ought to be able to." That would mean the ability of a social network user to port his or her own data to another site. But Vladeck does not think that is required by law.

In fact, under U.S. law, it is a hard thing to determine who actually owns social network data. The FTC is one of the agencies that could ultimately be called upon to settle issues of data portability between social networking sites, an important issue for Facebook, Google and all other social networks as well.

Consumers Should Control Their Data on Social Sites

A New Kind of "Network" for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint

If you ask Trevor Healey, new CEO of Amobee, what role mobile operators or telcos can play in the mobile advertising business, you have to understand that there are segments within the market. Local and small businesses will use different tools, and run different types of campaigns, from the largest brands that traditionally have used "Madison Avenue" agencies. Telcos might not have natural advantages in the "small account" portion of the mobile ad market.

But large telcos are Fortune 500 companies. That means telco CEOs have opportunities to "hang out" with other Fortune 500 CEOs, the ones whose firms spend the most money advertising and running very-large campaigns. So re-imagine the CEOs of large, global service providers as the linchpins of the relationship selling needed to generate business from the largest and most-sophisticated accounts.

Of course, the platform has to be in place. The skills and capabilities have to be there. But that done, mobile operators, especially, could have an important and substantial role to play in mobile advertising campaigns used by the largest brands and firms. Someday, people might think of Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint as "networks" in a new way. Networks of the NBC, Fox Network, Discovery Channel sort, with scores of millions of people engaging with their screens every day, everywhere they are, all day long.

Verizon to dominate Q2 wireless growth

Verizon Wireless is expected to far outstrip its biggest rivals AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel in subscriber growth for its first full quarter selling the Apple Inc iPhone. That's the other contributing element related to Apple's record third quarter results.

Verizon Wireless is expected to add about 930,000 net subscribers in its second-quarter results to be issued July 22, according to the average of estimates from seven analysts contacted by Reuters.

Verizon to dominate Q2 wireless growth

Apple Posts Record Results

Apple posted record quarterly revenue of $28.57 billion in its fiscal 2011 third quarter ended June 25, 2011. These results compare to revenue of $15.70 billion in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent compared to 39.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue. Apple Reports Third Quarter Results 

The company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.95 million Macs during the quarter, a 14 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

Apple sold 7.54 million iPods, a 20 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Just a couple of quick observations: iPad now is the second biggest revenue contributor for Apple, and Apple continues to show it is a "mobile device" company. Read more here.

With Cable Seemingly Winning the Consumer Market, How Much More Investment Should Telcos Make in Fixed Infrastructure?

The current discussion within the European Community about the investment impact of “net neutrality” rules is not a new debate. In the wake of the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, dominant U.S. fixed-line providers argued, successfully, that mandatory wholesale rules, providing deeply-discounted rates for wholesale customers, would severely discourage investment in optical facilities. And, in fact, Verizon's FiOS effort did not get into high gear until after the Federal Communications Commission approved such rules.

These days, the EC argument revolves to a great extent around the impact “network neutrality” rules could have on incentives for broadband investment. Specifically, operators argue that restriction of services to “best effort only,” without the ability to create differentiated service plans involving quality of service measures, will be a significant disincentive to the high rates of investment EC officials would prefer to see.

Some will say the carriers are bluffing about requiring some path to revenue when investing in 100-Mbps or 1-Gbps access facilities. Some of us would disagree. The alternative is to invest in mobile facilities and applications instead. In fact, some recent global estimates of market share suggest telcos globally are losing the consumer market share battle to cable companies. In fact, looking just at triple-play accounts, it appears cable operators have roughly 66 percent market share. In other words, telcos arguably are losing the market share battle in the consumer market. http://www.digitaltvresearch.com/ugc/press/14.pdf

EC 'Broadband Investment Implications' Discussion is Not New

Are You Embracing the 5C's? | ClickZ

Google's "Zero Moment of Truth" campaign illustrates its thinking about real-time marketing, which includes the ability to engage with consumers wherever, whenever, and on whatever device they are using.

Are You Embracing the 5C's?

Cable Will Lead Triple-Play Market Globally

More than a quarter of the world’s TV households will subscribe to triple-play services (TV, broadband and telephony) by 2016, according to Digital TV Research. The firm estimates triple-play penetration was only about seven percent of households at the end of 2010.

What will stand out is the dominance cable operators hold in triple-play subscriptions.

Read more here.

Nothing Beats Experience

Nothing replaces experience, when considering how much money, time and effort to spend on search engine optimization techniques. And nothing is easier than following expert advice, unless the advice is wrong. Watch the video.

The God Complex in SEO

Google's Eric Schmidt Slams Apple Patent Infringement Lawsuits

"The big news in the past year has been the explosion of Google Android handsets and this means our competitors are responding," says Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt. 'Because they (Apple) are not responding with innovation, they're responding with lawsuits."

"We have not done anything wrong and these lawsuits are just inspired by our success," says Schmidt.

The comments follow the initial finding by the U.S. International Trade Commission that HTC infringed two of Apple's phone patents. The full ITC has not made a ruling on the matter, though, and HTC certainly will appeal.

If upheld, the decision could force other Android phone makers to pay significant royalties to their main competitor, or, worst case, prevent sales of Android devices in the U.S. market.

Whatever else one might think, Google's culture, which emphasizes providing the "best" solution in any category, would naturally lead to such thinking. Google's leaders tend to think they shouldn't win a market unless they do indeed have the best solution. So such lawsuits would tend to be seen as an attempt by a "not as good solution" to use other methods to slow down the superior solution's acceptance.

One doesn't have to agree that Android is, in fact, the best solution to understand the sentiment.

Google's Eric Schmidt slams Apple

U.S. Mobile Backhaul Networks at Capacity, More Investment Needed

Wireless networks in the United States are operating at 80 percent of total capacity, the highest of any region in the world, according to a report prepared by investment bank Credit Suisse.

The firm argued that wireless carriers likely will need to increase their spending on infrastructure, as a result. Globally, average peak network utilization rates are at 65 percent, and that peak network utilization levels will reach 70 percent within the next year, the report says.

Investors may be underestimating the level of equipment spending that is required on an ongoing basis to support rapid growth in wireless data, Chaplin adds.

Some 23 percent of base stations globally have capacity constraints, or utilization rates of more than 80 to 85 percent in busy hours, up from 20 percent last year. In the United States, the percentage of base stations with capacity constraints is 38 percent, up from 26 percent in 2010.

Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Chaplin says "wireless capex expectations may need to increase longer-term." Chaplin thinks investors seem to expect capital intensity to start to decline in 2012, once LTE spending is largely complete, but that might not be correct.

Read more here.

More 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz Spectrum to be Auctioned?

NextWave, which owns spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands, might be headed for bankruptcy again, which also means its spectrum might be up for sale. NextWave bought $4.7bn worth of spectrum in 1996, sold most of its spectrum assets to Verizon, but retained frequencies in 2.5GHz and 2.3GHz bands.

Clearwire has tried recently to sell spectrum in the 2.5 GHz block and failed to do so, so some will question current demand for assets in those frequencies. But we might get another chance to see whether there is interest in those bands.

NextWave warns of possible return to bankruptcy

Orange, T-Mobile Rethinking Everything Everywhere?

Everything Everywhere, the joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile, might have the biggest share in the U.K. market, but reported a two percent decline in earnings, as well as a slowing of new customer additions in the first quarter of 2011. And the parents might now be unwilling to subsidize the joint venture much longer. http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/everything-everywhere-execs-go-elsewhere-34475

So the departures of former CEO Tom Alexander and Duncan Hay, director of indirect sales, likely are telling. Everything Everywhere loses CEO

Monitise Nigerian Mobile Money Pilot Gets 6,700 Users

Mobile money services provider Monitise has signed up 6,700 users for a test of mobile money services in Nigeria. Some 160 agents working in four cities

Monitise has built a network of 160 agents in four cities across Nigeria since March 2011. The initial launch uses authorized agents in in corner shops, news-stands and market place kiosks, allowing Nigerians deposit cash and checks, send money to each other and withdraw funds without the need for a bank account by using a mobile phone.

The Paypers

Wireless Industry Sheds Jobs

In May 2011, on the heels of a record year for industry revenue, employment at U.S. wireless carriers hit a 12-year low of 166,600, according to U.S. Labor Department figures released earlier this month. That's about 20,000 fewer jobs than when the recession ended in June 2009 and 2,000 fewer than a year ago. Some will wonder what that means.

While the industry's revenue has grown 28 percent since 2006, when wireless employment peaked at 207,000 workers, the work force has shrunk about 20 percent. Some will point to productivity gains as the possible reason for job loss, and it is hard to deny some impact in that regard.

"The disconnect between employment and industry growth reflects the broader head winds lashing the U.S. job market, as consolidation, outsourcing and productivity gains from new technology and business methods combine to undermine job growth," the Wall Street Journal says.

The number of customer-service workers at wireless carriers, for example, dropped to 33,580 last year from 55,930 in 2007, according to the Labor Department. "It used to be you had to scale your customer-care resources linearly with the number of customers you had," said Dan Hays, a telecom consultant. "We don't do that anymore."

Beyond all that, one might argue that the hugely capital intensive infrastructure business must dramatically reduce its operating costs if revenue is expected to be difficult on the top line. In other words, in a business with huge sunk costs, facing headwinds in the revenue area, with value and revenue shifting to third party parts of the ecosystem, lower operating costs are almost essential.

That isn't to argue that access providers are "only or primarily" providers of low-margin, moderate-revenue" access services. It is to note that much of the new value and revenue will flow largely to application providers in the ecosystem. Prudent executives will work to create as much of a role in the new revenue areas as possible, but also will plan for tougher going in all the existing lines of business.

Generally speaking, that means simplifying operations and taking out cost, allowing more generated cash to be invested in growth initiatives, and providing some protection from slowing growth in core revenue segments.

Wireless Jobs Evaporate Even As Industry Expands (subscription required)

Social Media Increasingly is All Media

There's a reason social media has become so important for marketers. People are using social media to research products and compare prices, sharing information about products with their friends and apparently using social media to make decisions about what to buy, and where to buy.