Vodafone U.K. Lowers Data Barriers

Vodafone UK has created a new plan that aims to remove the barrier to use of mobile email and mobile Web access, allowing 500 megabytes of data use each month on plans costing GBP 25 or more.

Postpaid customers who take a GBP 40 or higher package also will be offered a choice of unlimited text messages, unlimited landline calls or unlimited Vodafone to Vodafone calls, as well.
This move essentially sweeps away the last remaining cost barriers to entry for both mobile email and the mobile Internet, helping Vodafone UK to make mobile data more applicable to the mass market, says Emma Mohr-McClune, Current Analysis principal analyst.

The new plan will encourage more users to experiment with the mobile Internet. For customers who do not want the mobile data feature, Vodafone allows a monthly discount of GBP 5.

Standalone mobile data pricing currently runs about GBP 7.50 a month, Mohr-McClune says. "This is the first time" that a U.K. operator has offered bundled mobile Web access and email across its entire pay monthly portfolio, starting at GBP 25 per month.

French Broadband at 94% of Internet Users

One of the enduring claims observers make about the state of U.S. broadband is how woeful it is compared to other nations around the world. Consider France, which deregulated its telecommunications market in 2004, leading to heavy competition. In fact, broadband now is nearly synonymous with Internet use.

In March 2008, 93.5 percent of at-home Internet users in France enjoyed a broadband connection to the Internet, down slightly from the 94.2 percent who did so in the previous year. That's significant. The primary reason consumers buy broadband access is to use the Internet. Someday that will change, but right now broadband really is a way PCs can connect to the Internet.

So 94 percent of all home users of the Internet use broadband to do so. That's serious penetration. So note that about 52.4 percent of French homes had a broadband connection in 2007. That's a bit higher than U.S. broadband penetration, which is just about at 50 percent.

The point is that France has been highly successful at getting broadband adopted by Internet users. Fully 94 percent of all Internet users have broadband.

But note that household penetration is about 52 percent. There seem to be more dial-up users in the U.S. market than in France. But the point is worth noting: household penetration might not be the best way to measure penetration.

A household that doesn't use the Internet is hardly a candidate for broadband aimed at Internet users. The more relevant measure is how far broadband has penetrated homes where the Internet actually is used.

Apple iPhone Sales to Blow Through Roof?

As reported by Silicon Alley Insider, RBC analyst Mark Abramsky thinks Apple will sell 14 million phones this year, up 40 percent from his previous prediction of 10 million and more than eight times the 1.7 million phones the company sold in the first three months of the year. He also thinks Apple will sell 24 million iPhones in 2009.

The 3G model will help. So will new carrier deals in Europe and Asia, broader consumer interest thanks to Apple's forthcoming apps platform, and broader corporate interest.

He also thinks Apple might drop or reduce exclusivity requirements in some markets. This would let people buy iPhones without being forced to use Apple's hand-picked carrier partner.

He also thinks Apple will allow carriers to subsidize pricing, and also will allow sales of unlocked phones.

T-Mobile FINALLY Launches 3G

T-Mobile USA has taken the first commercial step in the roll-out of its third-generation (3G) wireless network, launching its UMTS/HSDPA network in New York City. Also, contrary to some early reports suggesting only voice service might be available immediately, the network will be data-enabled from the start.

T-Mobile plans to continue the rollout of its 3G network across major metropolitan markets through the year. By year's end, T-Mobile expects its high-speed data network will be available in those cities where a majority of its subscribers currently use data services.

Yay!

Femtocells: Technology or Business?

ABI Research projects that 100,000 femtocell units wll ship in 2008. Volume deployments won't begin until 2010, when $100 price points will be possible, in volume. The other issue is whether femtocells are embedded in other widely-used consumer gear, such as Wi-Fi routers.

The really critical issue will be whether initial carrier deployments are supported by robust business models and service plans that extend beyond pure fixed-mobile substitution goals,” says ABI Research vice president and research director Stuart Carlaw.

The issue there is that some innovations are very useful and widely deployed, but don't necessarily create a business model. Wi-Fi is the best example of that. So one has to wonder whether femtocells will wind up being a very-useful technology--reducing service provider investment in macrocells, for example--or whether a new revenue stream of some sort can be created.

The most obvious example would be enhanced ability fo wireless providers to compete effectively in the wireline substitution business, where the new revenue stream is cannibalization of fixed line subscriptions. The other obvious issue is ability to sell voice-optimized fixed line broadband subscriptions.

Enterprise Mashups Coming

Mashup tools have so far been used mostly for simple enterprise applications like adding geographical information--typically Google Maps--to corporate data. But that's changing. IBM, for example, has introduced two offerings for building mashups that pull together data from multiple data bases and applications.

One of the tools is aimed at non-technical users while the other development is a mashup environment. WebSphere sMash supports dynamic scripting languages and widget-development tools. IBM Mashup Center allows business users to drag and drop components from local, enterprise and Web sources to create new applications.

JackBe Corp. and Kapow Technologies also have added support for Excel to existing mashup tools.

JackBe uses a plug-in is connected to a spreadsheet so that whenever data is changed, the Presto server updates the data, allowing the most-current version to be consumed by other applications.

Kapow sells an on-demand enterprise mashup service that allows companies to incorporate data from various Web sites and services directly into Excel spreadsheets.

Same DRM for Windows, Adobe, Silverlight: Widevine

Widevine Technologies has announced immediate availability of Widevine Cypher to protect content delivered to Microsoft Windows Media Player versions 9, 10, 11 and Silverlight versions 1 and 2.

The new capability means content now can be securely delivered in Windows Media, Silverlight and Adobe Flash environments using a single content protection solution. The innovation is an example of lots of the important "wrap around" features that will be necessary if digital content businesses are to be built with any scale.