Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Comcast Won't Compete for Over the Top Video Customers Outside its Franchise Areas

Comcast Corp. says it will not offer streaming video services that can be purchased by customers outside its own franchise areas.
The economic hurdle is too great for the operator to consider going over the top with subscription streaming video services that would compete not only with Netflix, but with other cable TV operators, according to As Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.

If you know the cable industry, you knew he would say that. Cable companies simply do not compete with each other.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

U.S. ISPs Deliver 82% to 114% of Advertised Speeds

In its new report on broadband access performance of 13 Internet service providers representing 86 percent of U.S. subscribers, the Federal Communicartions Commission found that actual download speeds are substantially closer to advertised speeds than was found in data from early 2009. 


On average, during peak periods, digital subscriber line services delivered download speeds that were 82 percent of advertised speeds, cable-based services delivered 93 percent of advertised speeds, and fiber-to-the-home services delivered 114 percent of advertised speeds. Verizon's FiOS average real-world speeds were actually higher than advertised speeds, both over a 24-hour period and during peak surfing hours. Other high-ranking ISPs include Comcast and Cox. 


During peak periods,  speeds decreased from 24-hour average speeds by 0.4 percent for fiber-to-the-home services, 5.5 percent for DSL-based services, and 7.3 percent for cable-based services.


Peak period download speeds varied from a high of 114 percent of advertised speed to a low of 54 percent of advertised speed.


Peak period performance results for upload speeds were similar to or better than those for download speeds. Upload speeds were not significantly affected during peak periods, showing an average decrease of only 0.7 percent from the 24-hour average speed.


On average, DSL-based services delivered 95 percent of advertised upload speeds, cable-based services delivered 108 percent, and fiber-to-the-home services delivered 112 percent.


Upload speeds among ISPs ranged from a low of 85 percent of advertised speed to a high of 125 percent of advertised speed.



The Free Press predictably chose to focus on the gaps.  "While the study indicates some providers are consistently delivering their customers the promised network speeds, it reveals that many providers are falling well short of their advertised claims." ISPs Fail to Deliver Advertised Broadband Speeds

On average, during peak periods, digital subscriber line services delivered download speeds that were 82 percent of advertised speeds, cable-based services delivered 93 percent of advertised speeds, and fiber-to-the-home services delivered 114 percent of advertised speeds.

During peak periods,  speeds decreased from 24-hour average speeds by 0.4 percent for fiber-to-the-home services, 5.5 percent for DSL-based services, and 7.3 percent for cable-based services. Read the report here.

Are Smart Phones, 4G Bad for Smaller Wireless Providers?

It is no secret that the costs of marketing smart phones are higher than was the case for feature phones, and that is true for carriers large and small.

MetroPCS has also seen its costs rise much more steeply than its profits, for example. Its cost per gross addition reached $177.88 in the second quarter, up about eight percent, and its average revenue per user rose to $40.49, up just over 1.6 percent. Read more.


The growing dominance of AT&T and Verizon Wireless in the U.S. market has been said to threaten Sprint, but does nothing to help either MetroPCS or Leap, argues 24/7wallstreet.

A merger of MetroPCS and Leap is likely only to delay their inevitable demise. Both AT&T and Verizon Wireless offer pre-paid phones, and though the pre-paid service is not their preferred business, the two giants could pretty easily eliminate MetroPCS and Leap.

One is reminded of what the advent of broadband did to independent Internet service providers in the dial-up era. Once the broadband shift began, dial-up ISPs found they no longer could compete, as the costs of providing broadband access were higher than dial-up, destroying profit margins.

It might be the case that smart phones and fourth-generation services might have similar impact on many smaller mobile providers, resellers and channel partners.

Trans-Pacific Circuit Prices Plunge

TP-10Ga_normal.pngTrans-Pacific capacity prices have plummeted over the past two years, says TeleGeography.

Between the second quarter of 2009 and second quarter of 2011, the median monthly lease price for a 10 Gbps wavelength from Los Angeles to Tokyo fell 63 percent, from $98,500 to $36,000.

Prices are tumbling on other trans-Pacific routes as well. Over the past 12 months, median 10 Gbps wavelength prices from Los Angeles to Singapore fell 33 percent, while Hong Kong-Los Angeles 10 Gbps prices declined 39 percent.

Three new cable systems are probably the reason for the sharp price declines. The Asia-America Gateway (2008), Trans-Pacific Express (2009), and Unity (2010) cable systems have increased supply, with the predictable effects on pricing.

Industry executives have been relatively optimistic in public about "rational" pricing behavior in the capacity markets. Some will argue faster price declines are to be expected when new capacity comes online. Generally speaking, price-per-megabit prices drop 20 percent or so each year, so a decline, on a per-megabit basis, is not unusual. The sharper declines on trans-Pacific routes, though, suggest pricing pressure will be more significant than usual, for a while.

Data Center Electricity Consumption Grows More Slowly Than Expected

Data center power consumption has grown significantly less than predicted over the past few years, largely due to the 2008 economic crisis, according to a new study.
The study, carried out by Jonathan Koomey, a consulting professor in the civil and environmental engineering department at Stanford University, found that electricity used by data centers worldwide increased by about 56 percent from 2005 to 2010.

Data center electricity use doubled from 2000 to 2005 and a study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicted power consumption would double again from 2005 to 2010.

Visa launches mobile payments in Indonesia

"Visa has launched "m-saku," a mobile payment application for Visa card users who also have Blackberry and Nexian phones in Indonesia.

M-saku allows users to top up their cellular credit, pay bills, buy tickets and shop online using their smart phones.

The application also provides offers such as discounts for m-saku users from certain merchants, as well as a mobile payment function available at participating merchant locations.

QFPay Readies Chinese "Square"

QFPay, a Beijing-based company providing a payments solution similar to Square, is coming out of stealth mode. QFPay enables users to pay with bank cards swiped on mobile devices.

Verizon Partners with American Express for "Serve" Mobile Payments

Verizon Wireless will be supporting the American Express "Serve" system for mobile phone payments, in addition to its support of Isis, the wallet joint venture with AT&T and T-Mobile USA.

The partnership means Verizon mobile uers will be able to use the "Serve" payment system on mobile phones and tablet computers. Sprint also is working with American Express to support Serve for its users.

Serve enables users to send and receive money from mobile devices, using accounts provided by Amex, and is different from other systems designed for use at retail locations only.

Mobile Payments Won't Save Consumers Money, Says Consumer Reports

In many cases, consumers using their mobile devices to pay for purchases will not find they are saving money, Consumer Reports argues. In most cases, retailers won't be saving money, either.

Most of the new electronic payment options are tied to credit and debit cards, so whatever costs consumers or retailers normally incur when using their plastic will find the same charges are incurred in a "pay by mobile phone" context as well.

Google Wallet merchant transaction fees are the same as those charged on plastic payments, and the same is expected to be true for Visa's digital wallet. Square and PayPal Mobile charge merchants even more than the average big bank fee, 2.75 and 2.9 percent of the transaction amount, respectively.

Among payment processors Consumer Reports looked at, only Obopay charges consumers (not merchants) an explicit flat 50-cent fee for payments over $10. You can transfer funds to your Obopay account from a bank account at no cost, but if you link a transaction to a debit or credit card, you'll pay a 1.5 percent fee. So on a $100 payment, fees can run from 50 cents to $2.

That should raise an immediate question: what's the value to end users of paying by mobile phone instead of credit or debit card? The answer will be obvious in a few cases, but more obscure in most cases. Paying for public transportation is one of the scenarios where the ability to simply waive a phone near a terminal will provide value by saving consumers the time spent waiting in line to buy tickets or recharge current fare cards.

In other cases one might argue consumers can save a bit of time checking out by "swiping a phone" instead of a card. But many will find that a minor value, if a value at all. That's one reason interest in "wallet" approaches that use the mobile to store credentials and target offers of value to users seems to be growing. Getting a discount or other incentive provides the "value."

Amazon Getting into Social Shopping

Social shopping sites (mobile coupons, group offers or deal of the day services) have proliferated since Groupon started getting traction. Now Amazon.com has launched its own deal-of-the-day service in Chicago, the Wall Street Journal reports. Amazon Getting into Social Shopping (subscription required).

Google has started slowly rolling out its own Groupon-like offerings see Google Offers.

Social couponing, or social shopping, sometimes called "deal of the day," is becoming a serious business, but it also is easy to dismiss. It's just coupons, right? Maybe not. The coupon is the tactic used to aggregate buyers. It is a rival channel to alternative coupon channels and other forms of local advertising and promotion.

The group-buying industry is expected to grow 138 percent to $2.66 billion in 2011. The business is highly fragmented at the moment, with some estimating there are about 439 daily deal email programs serving the U.S. market in the first quarter of 2011.

Nor is social shopping just a nice or interesting stand-alone business. Many believe it will increasingly be integrated with mobile payments, mobile loyalty mechanisms and other targeted forms of advertising and promotion. Read more here.

Monday, August 1, 2011

AT&T Purchase of T-Mobile USA "Highly Likely" to be Approved

In the end, the U.S. Government is highly-likely to approve the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, despite the significant opposition, because of three over-riding realities: 1) market/financial realities, 2)DOJ legal/precedent realities, and 3) FCC public-interest realities, argues Scott Cleland of the Precursor Group. 

http://goo.gl/Op9GH

iPhone 5 to Come With Mobile Payment? With PayPal?

Apple's iPhone 5 not only will include mobile payments and near field communications capabilities, but also will feature a service offered in conjunction with PayPal, argues. Rod Farmer, co-founder of Mobile Experience.

PayPal has already extended its NFC support to Google’s Android while Google has already entered into an alliance with MasterCard and Citi for its Google Wallet service. PayPal has been talking more, of late, about the importance of retail mobile payments as a driver of its future growth.

Steve Perlman’s white paper explains “impossible” wireless tech | VentureBeat

With the caveat that when a talented engineer says something is "impossible," it means the speaker honestly believes something cannot be done, because "we cannot, with our known technology, do so." That might not be the same thing as saying "nobody else can do this." That might be the case for a new mobile bandwidth grooming approach championed by
Steve Perlman, who believes a different approach to bandwidth management could exceed "Shannon's Law" by about an order of magnitude.

Shannon’s Law is a rule of thumb about the theoretical capacity of any communications channel. But some might quip that "Shannon was wrong."

Perlman’s “distributed input distributed output” technology allows each wireless user on a network to use the full data capacity of shared spectrum, simultaneously with a bunch of other users. It claims to do so by eliminating interference between users sharing the same spectrum.

Critics will say it violates the laws of physics. But some of us have heard the best engineers in a field say such things in the past, only to be proven wrong. I was once at a meeting of top engineers from the broadcast and cable TV industry hear a proposal from Telecommunications Inc. (TCI) that would allow delivery of high-definition television in 6 megahertz of bandwidth. The room essentially exploded into disbelief, as the current proposals then in circulation suggested it would take 20 MHz to deliver HDTV.

As it turned out, TCI was right, and HDTV now is delivered in 6 MHz.

On another occasion, I was quietly informed by some very senior Bell Laboratories engineers that an analog fiber optic access network "could not" deliver 40 cable TV signals, as cable industry engineers were saying was a minimum requirement for cable network fiber optic access systems. The reason for the belief was that lasers capable of doing so could not be produced.

As it turns out, it was entirely possible to produce lasers with characteristics that would allow delivery of 40 channels of analog TV on a single laser, at reasonable distances. When those engineers said "it could not be done," what they meant was that "we cannot do so."

That doesn't mean that all such "impossible feats" actually result in commercially-significant deployments. But one has to translate. When somebody says "something cannot be done," that sometimes only means "we cannot do that." There's a big difference. Sometimes, the smart guys just aren't aware that somebody else might be able to do something formerly regarded as "impossible" or a violation of the laws of physics.

PayPal: 12M monthly users are paying for Facebook games

More than 12 million unique users pay for games each month on Facebook, according to data released for the first time today by digital payments vendor PayPal. That’s about 1.6 percent of the 750 million users on Facebook, but it’s enough to create a big social game industry with giants such as Zynga, which generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue per quarter.

Apple Lawsuit Delays Samsung Galaxy Tab Launch in Australia

Apple and Samsung are battling it out in court in several jurisdictions, including the United States, South Korea and now, Australia, over claims that certain Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy Tab 10.1, violate a number of Apple patents. 

Samsung has agreed to hold off bringing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to Australia until it resolves its patent lawsuit with Apple. Given the time it typically takes to resolve such disputes, and the limited time any particular device or software load can be sold in any market, it is conceivable that the unresolved lawsuit could mean only subsequent generations of the device will be available in Australia or other markets.


No matter what the ultimate outcome, the lawsuit already is delaying Samsung product launches. Patent infringement lawsuits are a weapon of business warfare in several ways. Long term, such lawsuits can create revenue streams for one set of contestants, while raising manufacturing costs for rivals. In the short term, the lawsuits can upset product launch plans, and impede or destroy revenue prospects for a device, or generation of software.

Yes, Follow the Data. Even if it Does Not Fit Your Agenda

When people argue we need to “follow the science” that should be true in all cases, not only in cases where the data fits one’s political pr...