EU Will Study Targeted Advetising: Much Hangs in the Balance

Targeted online advertising, an important revenue driver for all sorts of media and mobile services, is going to get serious regulatory scrutiny from European Union regulators next year, according to Astrid Wendlandt, Reuters reporter. At stake is the viability and robustness of media revenue models based on targeted messages, obviously key for Web sites such as Facebook, search providers, online media companies and mobile service providers alike.

The European Union's Article 29 Working Party already has ordered Google to curtail the amount of time it stores past Web searches to 18 months.

The EU's moves are a salient reminder that Internet services, especially media and content services and applications, increasingly are falling under the purview of regulators. Some have argued that Internet communications should be free of such rules. More important are regulations affecting content and media services. Historically, regulators have decided whether communications were legal, and under what terms. Now regulators essentially will be deciding what content and media forms are legal, and under what terms. One can argue that all regulators are doing is protecting privacy. It is more than that. Regulators also will be deciding "what" the basis of a new business can be; "who" can be a part of it and "how big" new media might become.

Skirmishes over "VoIP" will pale in comparison.

Massive Mobile VoIP Use by 2012

Who will massively introduce mobile VoIP? Mobile carriers themselves, says Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis president. In fact, some 250 million VoIP over mobile accounts will be in service by 2012, he argues. Analysts at Analysys seem to agree, arguing that wireless VoIP end users will outnumber wired VoIP users in the near future, as shown in the graphic.

Conversely, dual-mode mobile devices that work both on wireless networks and Wi-Fi will have been eclipsed, he argues. As for independent providers of VoIP over third generation mobile networks, get ready for something of the same thing that has happened to Vonage, he essentially argues.

In other words, as the mobile carriers increasingly move to provider VoIP as an alternative to legacy Time Division Multiplex services, it will increasingly be tough for independents to make a go of it, much as competition from cable has squeezed Vonage and other independents in the U.S. market.

Independents do have a window of opportunity, though, since the majors haven't yet moved.

Though some will find the analysis disturbing, Bubley's predictions fit well with the past history of technology innovations in the global telecom industry. That is to say, innovations at first are brought to market by upstarts. At some point, it becomes crucial for the majors to adopt, and they do.

Bubley's analysis rests on a couple of simple assumptions. Since mobile carriers are migrating to all-IP networks, voice necessarily will be in the form of VoIP. Either that, or keep running a parallel TDM voice network. The coming IP networks also will operate in more bandwidth-efficient mode than a circuit-switched network, possibly in the range of 100 percent to 200 percent, he argues. Given demands for more data bandwidth, that will be compelling.

Then there's the attraction of IP-enabled features not possible with TDM. Also, mobile providers will want to collapse multiple networks and switching fabrics. Just as wireline networks are moving to IP Multimedia Subsystems, so wireless operators, who initially were the impetus for the creation of IMS, will do so. And that means IP-based voice.

Unlocked German iPhone: 999 Euros

Deutsche Telekom, after being sued by Vodafone over availability of unlocked iPhones, will offer the device for 999 euros ($1,483) without requiring a two-year exclusive contract with its T-Mobile unit.

T-Mobile changed the rules after Vodafone won a court injunction that bans T-Mobile from selling the iPhone with contracts or the "SIM lock" that prevents the phone from working on another network.

Apple and Orange have the same issues in France.

gPC from Wal-Mart, Everex

Wal-Mart will sell a $200 Linux-powered desktop built by Everex and running Google applications. The Everex gPC runs Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, Google Product Search, Google Blogger, Google YouTube, Google Maps, Google News, Meebo (instant messaging), GIMP (image editing), Firefox, Xing Movie Player, RhythmBox, Faqly, Facebook, Skype and OpenOffice.org 2.2.

The device is seen as an impulse buy. First-time users and grandparents, perhaps. Or, as will happen, as test platforms for people who already have full-featured PCs, but want to experiment with Linux apps and cloud computing. In some cases, people might just use it as a communications and Web apps platform.

Besides green, the “g” stands for the gOS, the Ubuntu 7.1 Linux desktop developed by an open source startup of the same name. “The gOS is an alternative operating system that makes it apparent that Google is your entire computing experience,” said gOS founder David Liu.

DT Channels BT: Will Others Follow?

Telcos have not in the past had much success as providers of enterprise system integration and management services. That may be changing as the business of system itnegration begins to look a lot more like advanced communications. BT has been forceful about transitioning in this way. Now Deutsche Telekom (DT) may make a bid to buy IT services giant EDS (EDS).

Telcos and mobile services providers are increasingly becoming IT providers, either directly or as integrators or aggregators of IT functions that they then deliver to their customers. Similarly, large software providers are moving towards "software as a service." And what is communications but "software as a service."

BT was ahead of the curve on this trend.

Vodafone Blocks T-Mobile iPhone Sales

Vodafone has obtained a restraining order in Germany against T-Mobile's exclusive deal to sell iPhones.

Europe has fair-competition laws that are designed to allow consumers choice. So Vodafone might be hoping its lawsuit will help it get its own rights to sell the iPhone. It wouldn't be the first time an iPhone deal has run into complications. In France, Apple has to supply unlocked iPhones, despite Apple's objections, because of a French law requiring carriers to offer unlocked as well as locked phones.

Jajah Direct Launches: no PC or Web Connection Needed

Jajah Direct, a new service from Jajah, now allows users to place global calls using any phone and local access numbers, without the use of a Web connection to set up the calls. The actual charges will vary based on carrier policies on "local" calls. If, for example, a caller can reach a "local" number charged as a "free" call, then the global calls are "free." In other cases the charge is the normal per-minute "domestic" call rate plus an international surcharge.


Users of Jajah Direct will dial a local Jajah access number in their city, and then dial the number they want to call. Jajah connects the user directly using VoIP. After the call, the caller will receive a unique local number for the contact, which can be stored for direct dialing.


Each user will get an unique local number for the particular contact. When the user dials the unique local number, the Jajah server compares this number with the data available in the server database to generate the number that the person wants to call, so long as the calls are placed within the Jajah local access market.


Jajah will initially offer the local number facility in ten U.S. cities. It also will offer the feature in London, Berlin, Rome and Tel Aviv. The company plans to add more local numbers in the next few weeks.