Comcast Xfinity Offers Marketing Options, Choices

Comcast's "Xfinity" offering, which allows Comcast video entertainment customers to watch some of that content online, offers some marketing opportunities and might require some choices as well. The packaging--you get online access if you are a Comcast video entertainment customer--is a logical way for Comcast and content owners to preserve the value of the existing distribution relationships while growing a new online business that all parties hope will lead to higher revenues at some point.

There might be decisions needed in the area of bandwidth, though. In allowing users to watch linear content online, using over the top broadband access rather than the traditional linear delivery, Comcast engineers face a bit of a dilemma.

When a single user switches viewing from the linear network to the broadband access network, zero bandwidth is saved on the linear network and new demand is created on the broadband access network. Even if most Comcast cable TV customer stopped watching linear TV, Comcast can save no bandwidth.

On the other hand, Comcast would substitute a one-to-one communication for a one-to-many, point to multipoint distribution mode. The difference is significant. If 200,000 users want to watch a linear program, Comcast essentially delivers a single copy, and all 200,000 can watch, with no bandwidth penalty.

If those same 200,000 customers want to view separately, on demand, Comcast has to deliver 200,000 copies. The problem gets worst with growing scale. So the decision that might have to be made is whether to exempt such offset video viewing from the normal 250 gigabyte per month cap, or include the video within the usage cap limits.

On one hand, if the Xfinity option proves popular, Comcast will face new pressure on its access network, and might like the additional revenue it might earn from selling more-expensive access plans that accommodate the additional usage.

On the other hand, Comcast might face customer push back to higher fees, or less usage of Xfinity by users who fear exceeding their limits.

One way of alleviating those concerns is by exempting Xfinity packets from inclusion in the monthly data allowance. None of that likely will be an issue immediately, as few consumers will watch so much, or already consume so much, that there is any danger of exceeding the monthly caps.

Down the road, if the offering proves popular, Comcast might have to ponder other options. Delivering linear programming in on-demand fashion has value. But it also is bandwidth inefficient. At some point, if the offering proves wildly popular, that additional demand will be quite significant.

Is the Comcast Lion Finally Set to Roar in Online Video? -- Seeking Alpha

What's the Difference Between 50% and 93%?

There's a big difference between 50 percent and 93 percent. The first figure is the percentage of advertised bandwidth the Federal Communications Commission says U.S. ISPs are delivering to their customers.

The second figure (97 percent) is the measured percentage of delivered bandwidth, compared to advertised bandwidth, that U.S. ISPs are delivering to their customers, according to Ookla, considerd by many observers to be the most-accurate monitor of real-world bandwidth experience.

The 97-percent figure includes signaling overhead of three percent, which no Internet access connection can avoid. The difference between the two figures has important ramifications. In the first case, one might make the argument that regulation or voluntary industry guidelines of some sort are required to police ISP marketing claims.

The second figure indicates that there is, in fact, no market failure at all, and that ISPs in the United States are delivering exactly what they claim, in which case there is no need for regulation or industry self policing to a greater extent than already exists.

Ookla data debunks FCC report

Ethernet Grows, Frame Relay and ATM Slipping

The U.S. business market for wireline data remained steady with year-over-year average gains of roughly two percent, says In-Stat.  The education vertical is seeing the highest spending gains, while construction is faring the worst growth.  The healthcare and social services vertical market spent $5.5 billion on wireline data services in 2009. Retail and trade will spend over $3 billion on Ethernet services in 2012.

The overall market reflects a spending shift to Ethernet at the expense of both the ATM and frame relay markets, as you might guess. The frame relay market will shrink 57 percent, while Ethernet spending will exceed $18 billion by 2014.

Small business spending will grow at a greater rate over the next five years than any other size of business segment, In-Stat says.

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Google Instant Lifting Google Revenue?

Aside from the fact that many users seem to like it, Google Instant might be boosting Google's ad revenue, increasing search operations and clicks, while advertiser costs might have dipped.

A Marin Software study of Google Instant across a sample of clients that collectively manage over $1.3 billion dollars in annualized paid search spend suggests search users have responded positively to Google Instant. Marin found that overall impressions for paid search ads increased by more than nine percent, while clicks increased by more than five percent.

That suggests people are actually searching and clicking more as a result of Google Instant.

Overall advertiser costs rose by less than two percent for the time period studied as a result of increased click volumes. Despite these increased costs, advertisers have benefitted from Instant. With average cost-per-click rates falling by over three percent, advertisers are now getting more value for their money as a result of Google Instant, the study suggests.

Google's Gamble

New Life for Copper Access?

Adtran has developed an "Ultra Broadband Ethernet" access approach that could help telcos upgrade their copper access networks for 100-Mbps and similar service, without the need to completely replace current access networks with fiber-to-home systems, at least in higher-density areas.

So long as fiber is available within about 75 meters of the target locations, a remote optical network terminal supplies a 100BaseT Ethernet signal to each home over twisted-pair copper.

New subscribers would be mailed a gateway box they install themselves; it plugs into a phone jack on one side, and a home gateway or integrated access device on the other.

The ONT would be customer powered from the premises, consuming about 10 watts total, or less when divided by as many as eight locations sharing a single ONT.

Solutions such as UBE can help telcos upgrade their access networks more economically at a time when the business case for a full fiber-to-home solution is challenged by robust competition, uncertain new services payback and declining demand for key legacy services. All of those conditions make the case for a new fiber access network more challenging, as they reduce the potential revenue and take rate for fiber-based services.

Adtran Rethinks FTTX Economics

SK Telecom Jumps into Software

SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest mobile-phone operator, plans to spend 1 trillion won ($896 million) to develop software for mobile handsets, Bloomberg reports. Apparently, SK Telecom thinks it has to create its own mapping, instant messaging and social networking apps.

Some observers will argue this effort is likely to fail. Neither consumer apps nor software have tended to be areas of extreme competence for telcos or mobile service providers in the past. On the other hand, the Korean market, like many other international markets, does not have the same end user preference patterns as one might see today in the U.S. market.

One might tremble to compete with Facebook or Google in the U.S. market. But those services are not necessarily so entrenched everywhere. SK Telecom might see an opening to move its brand further up the value stack.

The investment, spread over three years starting 2011, will be made mostly in research and development, Chief Executive Officer Jung Man Won says.

SK to Make Software to Compete With Facebook, Apple - Bloomberg

Predicting future behavior using analytics: we haven't had the tools until now

Social networks provide rich mines of data that can be used to anticipate the future. We will all have less privacy than we now think we have.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/26/taykey/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

Where privacy issues, social network analytics, marketing and user responsibility meet

Analytics can uncover more than you think.

http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=864&doc_id=199028

Xfinity TV now available as a "tv everywhere" offering for Comcast subscribers

About 150,000 pieces of content are available as part of the service.

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/10/now-online-at-xfinity-tv---top-rated-tv-shows-hit-movies-rdvr-personalized-watchlists-and-150000-vid.html

Cius, PlayBook, Flare: tablets aimed at enterprises wanting mobile collaboration

Enterprise gadgets aim to build off existing apps and products in enterprise environment

http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/exploring-tablet-telepresence/2010-10-18?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4cc621f566358f4a,0

Best Buy offering pre orders for Samsung Galaxy

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Best-Buy-offering-pre-orders-for-two-tablets_id14167?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+phonearena%2FySoL+%28Phone+Arena+-+Latest+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

800 Mbps DSL?

More than a decade ago, a highly-placed technologist at Nortel told me, off the record, that "DSL wouldn't work." Of course, that proved to be incorrect.

But several decades ago, some smart technologists at what was then AT&T Bell Labs also told me it was "impossible" to load 40 discrete linear video channels on a single optical transmitter, as cable operators said they needed.

The point is that technological innovation often is possible where the smart guys who know the most are convinced a limit has been reached.

The important thing about 800 Mbps DSL demonstrated in the lab means 100 Mbps using DSL in the real world should be feasible, without a complete telco network upgrade to fiber-to-the-home.

And that, in turn, is crucial in part because it suggests there is a path forward for telco DSL and national broadband plans that call for 100 Mbps speeds, without capital investment that carriers would find difficult to justify.

100 Mbps DSL is Here & 800 Mbps is Around the Corner

AdMob Adds Video Interstitial Ads

Android is launching interactive video and interactive interstitial ad units on the Android platform. By identifying the screen resolution, size, and network connection speed, Google says it is able to serve users the optimal viewing experience.

Advertisers can now extend Interactive Video and Interactive Interstitial campaigns to Android with our new Android SDK for publishers - Google Mobile Ads Blog

Android Drives Use of Add-on Apps

Android users spend on average 42 minutes every day with add-on applications, like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and Skype, about 60 percent more than Blackberry, Windows Mobile or Symbian users, a study published by mobile analytics company Zokem indicates.

GSMA and Zokem: Android Drives the Use of Add-on Applications

WiMAX and LTE Aren't "4G," Says ITU

Neither current versions of WiMax nor Long-Term Evolution currently are "4G (fourth-generation)" technologies. according to the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R).

In the future, carriers will have to use "LTE-Advanced" and "WirelessMAN-Advanced" ITU standards. The latter, moreover well known as IEEE 802.16m, will form the basement of WiMax Release 2.

It is doubtful any consumers actually care, or that service providers will stop deploying networks now, using platforms that can upgrade to the full standard, without waiting for full compliance. Markets are moving way too fast for that.

4G Defined: WiMax And LTE Don’t Qualify | eLifeMagz.Com

Social Media and Branding

Social media increasingly is seen as an imperative channel for larger brands and companies. Social media also relies heavily on mobile access and devices, so there may well be opportunities for mobile network service providers, not just app providers. 

Mortgaging the Future

Whatever one thinks about the trend, there is a reason the Tea Party movement has grown, even why so much of its leadership and constituency consists of "moms."

Contrary to conventional wisdom that stipulates politics is about self interest, moms and parents tend to be quite sensitive to any threats to their children. And to an under-appreciated extent, the Tea Party is concerned about the future their children will face, not the present circumstances adults now face, as difficult as those circumstances are.

And there are threats for the upcoming generations. Most of us do not question the value of higher education. But there are clear signs the financial returns now are more suspect than has been the case, and that our national commitment to supporting such access is likewise in danger. That has direct implications for social mobility.

"It will take decades to calculate the damage caused by the Great Recession, but there is little doubt that even those lucky enough to have jobs are struggling. For young people starting their careers, that is especially the case."

Two-thirds (65.6%) of undergraduate students in four-year programs graduating in the 2007-2008 school year had some debt, according to FinAid.org. The average student loan debt among graduating seniors was $23,186. One quarter borrowed $30,526 or more and one-tenth borrowed $44,668 or more. Graduates of graduate and professional schools often face six figures in debt.

Should the link between higher education and earnings become significantly non-linear, or should costs continue to increase at current rates, children will not have as much potential to change their circumstances as Americans historically have felt was part of the "American Dream."

Some issues are more political than others. But some issues are foundational. The level of pension debt for local and state government, or the value and accessibility of higher education, are among them. Both issues threaten a parents' sense of opportunities for their children. That's a much more powerful motivator of behavior than has been present in American politics for some time, perhaps for the first time in such a palpable way.

How Do People Make Ends Meet? - 24/7 Wall St

Internet TV and The Death of Cable TV

Lots of people believe video distribution is going to change, and the only question is how long it will take. Some think the important thing is the number of alternative venues now available, or which will likely be made available, to view professionally-produced content users now associate with "cable TV."

All you need to know is what the content owners want to do, and when.

The networks aren’t blocking Google TV access to content because Google is uniquely disruptive. They are blocking Google TV access to network content because "web TV" economics likely would be incredibly disruptive to the current business.

Content owners want preservation of existing revenue streams--at least the magnitude of those streams--as "over the top" delivery modes develop. One might question whether that is possible, but there is no question the networks will attempt to maintain the existing business practices to the greatest extent possible.

Cable, for its part, claims the lowest-possible distribution cost, from an end-use standpoint. The objection many users will have is that the cost to deliver programming that is not wanted is not the important metric. What matters is the cost to view only the content any single viewer wants to watch.

The key is what content owners are willing to accept.

Internet TV and The Death of Cable TV

Will Car Rentals Be In The Future Of Automaker - 24/7 Wall St.

Business model and industry disruption does not always come from upstarts. Sometimes it can come from established players in the legacy system.

Consider how the world of car driving would change a great deal if vehicle manufacturers began to compete against rental companies, which are the auto companies’ largest customers.

BMW will begin to rent cars in Germany. The luxury manufacturer knows that not everyone can afford an expensive car and that other people do not need to own a car because they drive too infrequently.

Detroit will be tempted to follow BMW’s lead. Car sales in the US have barely recovered from last year, which means that they are at terribly depressed levels compared to 2005 and 2006. American manufactures have slashed their employees and factory operations, but the US market is crowded and new competitors such as Hyundai occasionally are successful at their expense.

Will Car Rentals Be In The Future Of Automaker - 24/7 Wall St

U.S. Mobile Ad Forecasts: Take Your Pick

Analysts at Borrell Associates admit they are "shocked" by their own analysis of mobile ad growth in the U.S. market, but stand by their forecasts.

Most other researchers take a more "linear" view.

Most new markets grow in a linear fashion until an inflection point, and then growth goes parabolic.

The issue is how soon an inflection point is reached. Borrell Associates obviously believes we are closer to an inflection point than nearly all other observers.

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