Free Gaming Explodes

New data released by Pando Networks, a leading game delivery network for free-to play mobile games, indicates a huge increase in the number of people downloading free-to-play game games, growing 450 percent from 2009 to 2011.

More than 38 million people will download an online game using Pando services in 2011, and more than 70 million people have done so since 2009.

The increase in people downloading games is being driven by several industry factors including the transition from a “paid” to a “free-to-play” business model. Free gaming explodes

LTE Prices Will Drop 60%

Mobile broadband services using Long Term Evolution will experience a substantial 60-percent decline in retail prices between now and 2016, according to Tariff Consultancy, on the way to gaining 250 million users worldwide by the end of 2016.

LTE Mobile Broadband Pricing 2012 evaluates pricing from around 30 fourth-generation LTE mobile broadband providers which are mainly located in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific regions of the world.



LTE is currently promoted as a premium product, with an average theoretical download access speed across all LTE providers is in excess of 80 Mbps, with the most common download speed cited being 100 Mbps.



Average monthly user data allowances for LTE Mobile Broadband services are currently 22 GBytes per month, but can be as high as 80 GBytes per month, with allowances for LTE operators in North America being typically far lower.

Alastair Brydon says the most expensive LTE tariffs are between EUR39 and EUR67 in numerous European markets. These services provide download speeds up to 50 Mbps to 80 Mbps, with a 30GB monthly data allowance. While these prices are higher than equivalent so-called ‘superfast’ fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) fixed broadband services, there is not a huge price premium. LTE pricing


These tariffs correspond to a minimum price per gigabyte that varies between EUR1.78 (in Denmark for a 30GB data allowance) and EUR2.67 (in Germany for a 15GB data allowance).



The price per GB is generally lower than most HSPA mobile broadband services, where operators provide significantly lower monthly allowances in general. For example, in the UK, where mobile network operators are facing significant capacity challenges, O2 now offers just a single HSPA mobile broadband service, with a 1GB monthly allowance for £10.21, which corresponds to a price per GB of EUR11.49. This is around five times greater than the price per GByte of these LTE services.



TCL research finds that the average price worldwide for a top of the range LTE Mobile Broadband service is currently 50 Euro per month, typically based on a post-paid, 24-month contract term.



The study shows that the average LTE Mobile Broadband price in Euro per gigabyte ranges from 0.5 Euro (Tele2 Sweden) up to 9.9 Euro (Omnitel Lithuania) per GB of data mobile user allowance.



But already there is evidence of price erosion from selected LTE Mobile Broadband providers. Telstra (Australia) currently offers its BigPond USB 4G Mobile Broadband product with an 8 GByte  monthly data user allowance for the equivalent of 30 Euro per month, against 38 Euro for a 4 GB monthly data user allowance reported at the time of launch.



And in Singapore M1 (Mobile One) is offering its Next Generation Mobile Network equivalent LTE service to existing M1 customers with a 40% discount off the monthly list price.



Tariff Consultancy anticipates that LTE mobile broadband pricing will decline as more operators worldwide adopt the technology worldwide. LTE prices will respond to competition


That might be consistent with pricing trends for broadband access generally, in virtually all markets. But the local patterns might vary, one could argue. In the U.S. market, buckets of usage and typical speeds are relatively limited, compared to what seems to be offered elsewhere. 


That creates at least some possibility that pricing could increase, for some packages, in the U.S. market, particularly as family mobile data plans are introduced, or as some providers upgrade from “pre-LTE” networks to more fully-compliant LTE networks.

Can Google Make Money selling Broadband Access?

Google says its objective in building a symmetrical 1-Gbps fiber to home network in Kansas City, Kan., and then Kansas City, Mo. is a serious business initiative, “not a charity," says Kevin Lo, Google Access general manager.

"It’s not a nonprofit. It’s not a dot.org initiative,” said Lo. “We expect to make money at it. It’s a business we expect to be in.” Google’s high-speed gamble in KC


Perhaps the U.S. company whose commercial activities are most similar to Google Access is Sonic.net, an ISP that over time has concentrated mostly on broadband access as its business, though it now also sells voice services. Sonic 1-Gbps network

6 Million Homes Now Use Wireless As Only Broadband Service

By the end of 2011, six million U.S. households will depend on a wireless or mobile platform (including 3G or 4G) as their only means of accessing the Internet, according to Strategy Analytics.

That means seven percent of U.S. homes are wireless-only for broadband, up about 430,000 homes over 2010 levels.

These “mobile-only” customers typically connect to broadband using 3G or 4G-enabled smartphones or PC dongles, and are unable or unwilling to use a wired broadband service such as cable, DSL or fiber, Strategy Analytics says.

The firm says there are two primary markets for such consumers. First, there are users in remote or underserved areas where dependable fixed broadband is unavailable. Secondly, there are cost-conscious casual users who use relatively small amounts of data, and for whom mobile data rates are ‘good enough.

Strategy Analytics forecasts that cable operators will claim a bit more than 50 percent of U.S. household broadband connections over the next five years, while telco-provided Digital Subscriber Line subscriptions will gradually decline in favor of fiber to home and mobile-only connections. 6 Million Homes Now Using Wireless As Only Broadband Service

LightSquared Proposes to Operate at Lower Power

In an effort to mollify concerns about signal interference with GPS systems and users, LightSquared now has proposed operating at lower power for a period of time. To the extent that transmitter power is what causes the interference, the lower mobile tower transmission power levels should help. Just how much help that move will have, has to be tested.


Also, LightSquared only proposes to operate at lower power for a period of time, then would ramp power levels back up. Some might consider that an odd proposal. Perhaps the thinking is that GPS receiver manufacturers and end users would then have a transition period to wean themselves off devices that currently experience interference.  LightSquared proposes lower-power solution

Some might doubt this will help LightSquared. In principle, the new user has to demonstrate it does not interfere with other existing users. If interference again becomes a problem in the future, LightSquared could be barred from operating. Permanently lower power levels would seem to be a  different matter. 

Yelp More Important than Facebook?

Busy local and small businesses often have to make hard choices about which content marketing sites they have time to support with content efforts. Facebook might be "best" for most, but Yelp arguably is best for local businesses and restaurants, especially restaurants.

First of all, Yelp is all about local businesses, things to do, places to eat and be entertained. You can assume that when a user goes to Yelp, that user is trying to find someplace to go, or something to do, and wants information before making a choice.

In other words, the odds of converting a prospect into a customer arguably are higher than for a typical search.

Yelp combines social networking with community-generated reviews. Online since 2004, Yelp helps people find and share the best (and worst) of businesses. Yelp can help build exposure, allow businesses to monitor public opinion and research what potential buyers are looking for.

Yelp can support posting of discount offers, announcements and news about events.

Yelp might be more important than Facebook

Clearwire Raises $715.5 Million

Clearwire Corporation has raised $715.5 million in new capital, including a public offering of 201,250,000 shares of Class A common stock at $2.00 per share, raising net proceeds of $384.1 million, after underwriters' discounts and commissions.



In addition, Sprint has purchased 173,635,000 shares of Class B Common Stock and a corresponding number of Class B units in Clearwire Communications LLC, which will provide Clearwire with an additional $331.4 million in net proceeds. The total net new capital available to Clearwire following today's closings is $715.5 million.



"This equity raise is a critical step for Clearwire to achieve its long-term business plan of creating the first wide-channel TDD-LTE 4G network in the U.S.," said Erik Prusch, president and CEO of Clearwire.  Clearwire raises fresh capital


Some might have been skeptical Clearwire could raise that much, so quickly, or that Sprint would again up its investment in Clearwire. But all that has happened. 

Is Distribution King?

At various times, it has been argued that content, distribution, context or some attribute actually is the crucial bottleneck, choke point or nexus of value in the media business. 


Sometimes it has seemed that distribution was king; at other times content appeared to the gating partner in the ecosystem; while during the wildness of the Internet bubble it was argued that "context" was king. 


All absolute observations are likely wrong to some degree, no matter what the prevailing view. Some might argue that in some ways, especially where it comes to online video, that "ubiquity" is king. 


There is an argument to be made. Consider Netflix, which seems to have an for virtually every popular Internet-connected digital device you can think of.  Is distribution still king?


It is true that consumers now are more in charge of when and how they watch video content than ever before. That increasingly means that getting convenient gateways to content on the widest possible number of devices is an important strategy for distributors. In many cases, that means an app. 


As a result, the distribution companies that will win are those that recognize the need to be everywhere. 


When it comes to capturing consumers’ attention now, a piece of content is only as good as its distribution, some will argue. That is true. 


It also is true that even extensive distribution is of modest help unless the distributor has the "good content" most people want. So, as usual, you can make an argument that distribution is king, or that content is king. 

Facebook Represents 52% of Online Sharing

Facebook now controls a thin majority of online sharing, according to data released today by AddThis. Facebook makes up 52.1 percent of all sharing on the web for the year 2011 to date, up from 44 percent last year and 33 percent the year before.

The statistics were gathered through the ClearSpring-owned company's sharing plugin, which is used by more than 11 million sites.


Social sharing

SkyDrive For iPhone Launches

Microsoft has launched SkyDrive for iPhone, the company's cloud storage and document collaboration service that lets users upload, store, and share things like videos, pictures, and documents.

At sign up, Microsoft gives users 25 GBytes of free storage.

SkyDrive For iPhone

Large U.S. Banks Split on Retail Mobile Payments

Large U.S. financial institutions will be introducing more sophisticated mobile banking apps in 2012, with an emphasis on transactional services such as remote deposit capture and mobile person-to-person payments, which will account for the bulk of mobile investment in 2012.

The banks surveyed remain split on plans to support mobile point-of-sale payments. While the surveyed financial institutions demonstrated a clear understanding of what it will take to make mobile point-of-sale payments a reality, many articulated a chicken-and-egg scenario in which concerns about consumer demand and merchant acceptance are hindering greater investment from their own institutions.

Plans to provide support for mobile point of sale payments vary greatly, with two of the surveyed financial institutions currently piloting such offerings, three saying they planned to support them at some point and the remaining five saying they had no plans to support mobile point-of-sale payments in the foreseeable future.

The survey, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Fiserv in September 2011, evaluated the plans of 10 banks and credit unions that in total hold more than a third of all U.S. deposit accounts. Fiserv banking survey

While financial institutions view the progress of non-traditional competitors such as technology and telecommunications providers as a validation of mobile payments, and as a promotional tool to build consumer and merchant interest, the majority of the financial institutions surveyed stated that such announcements have had no or minimal impact on their own mobile payments strategy. “This may put them at risk of delivering new capabilities too late,” says Fiserv.

In the near term, banks likely have little to fear from new competitors in the core banking services part of the ecosystem. But banking executives cannot be unaware that in Canada, Rogers, the provider of cable TV and mobile services, already has applied for a charter to become a bank.

The initial thrust there seems to be the issuance of branded credit cards. But nobody thinks it will end there. Porting those capabilities to mobile devices will likely come next. The white paper is here.

Free Gmail Calling within the US and Canada through 2012

Google has extended its "free domestic calls within the United States and Canada for 2012, says Vincent Paquet, Google Voice Group Product Manager. 


Users can use Gmail to call the rest of the world at low rates. Free calling within the US and Canada through 2012

You can  get the app here. 

NTSB Recommends Full Mobile Ban When Driving

The National Transportation and Safety Board will recommend that all 50 states and the District of Columbia "ban the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed to support the driving task) for all drivers." In other words, no more driving and using a mobile phones.

The agency also recommends the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration engage in "high visibility enforcement to support these bans." 


The NTSB also recommends targeted communication campaigns to inform motorists of the new law and enforcement, and to warn them of the dangers associated with the non-emergency use of portable electronic devices while driving. NTSB recommends driving ban

12 Mbps Satellite Broadband at the Cost of Cable?

I've been covering access technologies and businesses for a long time, and the new ViaSat (WildBlue) satellite broadband service, promising up to 12 Mbps, and priced in line with cable modem service, in a huge advance for satellite delivery.


HughesNet plans a launch of a new satellite in 2012 that should perform along the same lines.


The big issue, some of us would think, is whether HughesNet will match WildBlue pricing. The big issue, or course, is that satellite transponder capacity, even on such advanced satellites, will come with limitations, in terms of how many customers each firm can serve.


By some estimates, if the typical bandwidth served up is "up to 12 Mbps," WildBlue might top out at about 1.5 million customers in total. For satellite customers, and potential users in isolated rural areas, this is a very big deal.


WildBlue, a wholly owned subsidiary of Carlsbad, Calif.-based ViaSat, now is offering 12-megabit-per-second broadband for $50 a month in Colorado.


Keep in mind, WildBlue's existing 400,000 nationwide subscribers are paying $80 a month for 1.5 Mbps service.


WildBlue's new service will soft launch in a few other states, including Wyoming and Nebraska, in the coming weeks and should be available nationwide by the end of February. "Historically, satellite has been for the unserved," said WildBlue chief executive Tom Moore. "We think this will transform that marketplace." This is a disruption.

What Portion of Retail Payments Can Mobile Displace?

Mobile payments suppliers might hope to shift some significant portion, up to 74 percent, of retail transactions, one might argue, as debit card payments now represent that percentage of retail transactions.