IPTV: Why Verizon is in No Hurry

For many telcos, IPTV makes sense as a delivery platform or transmission mechanism as much as anything else. Sure, IPTV offers more "hooks" to advanced services integrated with content. But the revenue battle now is over linear TV services that compete with cable and satellite-delivered fare, and that means the choice of "switched" IPTV, instead of a broadband digital delivery method (all linear channels delivered digitally) isn't perhaps as critical.

For Verizon, which has been its video using a method that is closer to cable TV than anything else, linear offerings seem to be fine for the moment. That's where the money is.

Even operators that have chosen an IPTV solution for its bandwidth efficiency still are making their money on the linear video service, not the new features.

Clearwire "Time to Cash Flow" Issues

Some observers continue to worry about Clearwire's prospects from a financial, rather than operational standpoint. At the very least, there remains an underfunded business plan. Clearwire says it is $2 billion or so. Assume Clearwire is correct. That money still remains to be raised.

On the operational front, early 60 percent of domestic markets are EBITDA positive. Of course, any veteran of the competitive communications business will understand what that means and doesn't mean.

It doesn't mean Clearwire is making a profit in those markets. New national networks, even of the more-affordable wireless sort, are hugely expensive. Cash flow is important, though, and a reasonable measure of progress.

The issue is that nobody builds a new broadband network these days expecting to survive offering a single service, no matter how compelling. Multi-service bundles are the necessary requirement when penetration levels are expected to be modest, so VoIP is getting more attention these days over at Clearwire.

The issue will be whether Clearwire can garner enough revenue operating essentially as a "3G with voice" operation or "broadband with VoIP" business until the next wave of applications and devices start to get traction.

Some of that Clearwire can influence, but not all. If I had to guess, I'd bet that robust wholesale services ultimately will make the difference.

LTE for Alltel

Scott T. Ford, Alltel CEO, says the company, which currently runs a wireless network based on CDMA, will migrate to Long Term Evolution when it builds a fourth-generation network. Not that it is in any rush to do so. But
Alltel seems to be in step with its mobile service provider compatriots globally.

LTE seems to be shaping up as the first global wireless standard, a development that should help considerably in terms of scale, and what that means for the cost of devices.

WiMAX is growing as well, but does not currently seem to be poised for the scale that LTE is poised to garner.

Plaxo Questions After Comcast Buy?

Some 349 users have voted on ReadWriteWeb about whether they will keep using Plaxo, now that Comcast has acquired the company. About 32 percent seem to think this is a bad idea, and say they will delete their accounts "right now."

Some 21 percent say they don't see an issue, and will keep using Plaxo. Another 21 percent indicate they will wait and see. About a quarter don't use Plaxo, and have no plans to do so.

Apparently there is some feeling that the service will not be the same as Comcast starts to harness Plaxo's address book and content recommendation services for internal use. That's a possibility, to be sure.

Comcast has definite ideas about social elements and recommendation engines as primary tools to allow people to find new things to watch, and Comcast is heavily invested in getting its customers to watch on-demand content.

On the other hand, Comcast has a long history of investing in media properties that succeed only by appealing to buyers outside the Comcast orbit. To the extent that the independent Plaxo service has value, Comcast will not want to destroy that value.

The bigger question might be whether, given those intentions, Comcast can succeed in harnessing Plaxo's address book and social mechanisms without at the same time harming Plaxo's value for independent users.

Google "Most Visited" For First Time

Google now has overtaken Yahoo as the most-visited website property, according to comScore. In April Google Sites attained the number one spot in the Top 50 U.S. Properties ranking for the first time in history with a total audience of more than 141 million visitors.

Yahoo Sites ranked second with 140.6 million visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 121.2 million visitors.

Superpages.com Network and CareerBuilder both jumped eight spots in the ranking to positions 18 and 30, respectively.

According to comScore, Google’s unique U.S. audience in April was up 18 percent from the same month in 2007, while Yahoo’s audience grew 7 percent.

Sprint Says WiMAX Ready

Sprint and Samsung Electronics Corporation now say WiMAX has met Sprint's commercial acceptance criteria and is ready for service, with initial launches in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. areas later this year. As the song lyrics go: "A little less talk, a lot more action."

Revenge of the Dinosaurs

BT revenues for the period ended 31 March 2008 grew two percent year-over-year to GBP5.4 billion (USD10.5 billion), slightly better than expected, thanks to an increase in revenues from what BT refers to as "new wave" services.

New wave revenues, built on broadband and corporate IT services, were up nine percent at GBP2.3 billion and now account for over 40 percent of total revenues.

Not so many years ago the key story was access line attrition. These days, the story is about how fast new services are being created to replace dwindling revenue streams.

And while derided as "dinosaurs," tier one providers for the most part are showing that they can adapt to an environment many simply concluded would kill them.