Send a Text Message, Carriers Say

The earthquake that hit Southern California on Tuesday almost by definition was going to lead to a temporary spike in call volume and temporary blocking of many dial attempts. The perhaps interesting angle was advice by AT&T to "try text messaging on a mobile" as a way of getting messages such as "are you okay?" or "I'm okay" through the congestion. Good advice.

"Always Connected" Downside

Never-ending "to do" lists might be forcing people to manage their time rather than their attention, says consultant Linda Stone. She argues that managing time increasingly is counter-productive. The problem is that to-do lists have a way of expanding, leaving the list-makers feeling burned out.

Managing one's attention might be more important, Stone argues. The issue is what is meant by managing attention. "Each evening or morning before you start your day, make a short list of your intentions (the result and feeling of something you want) for the day and by each, write the related to do's for that day," she says. "Try to keep your list to five intentions."

"Consciously choose what you will do and what you will not do," she notes. "Keep a different list of what you will review for inclusion on other days."

"List only what you really expect to do that day," she says, not a list of all things you want to do for a longer period. "As other things come to mind, write them on a separate list," she says. That keeps you focused on only those things which must be done today, rather than creating anxieties about "all the things that must be done."

One of the more difficult--but perhaps most important pieces of advice is to "give yourself meaningful blocks of uninterrupted time to focus on each intention," she says. "Turn off technology each day during those blocks and focus on your intentions."

Lots of you immediately--and rightly--will note that much of your "to do" list is not under effective control. That especially will be true in staff and line organizations where departmental requests, inbound customer support volume and software or hardware failures are the drivers of immediate "to do" lists. In such cases the original items on a daily "to do" list simply will be pushed over to the "do later" list.

But all of that is reason for creating better methods for screening and filtering communications and messages that really can be avoided.

Verizon Earnings Show Material Shift

Commentators have been noting heavy telephone company loss of voice lines for some years. These days, the commentary has shifted to gains in broadband, video and wireless data services. For good reason. Though it takes a longish while to materially shift revenue and cost structures at entities as large as tier one service providers, that shift is happening.

It is not simply that carriers know they must change their business models. They are changing them. And Denny Strigl, Verizon COO, hints of coming convergence between the FiOS and wireles service, as one would expect. In the future, there will be little end user distinction between wireless and wired network fabrics, in terms of ability to invoke and use services.

Verizon Communications reported second quarter wireless revenues up nearly 12 percent, with mobile data revenues growing more than 45 percent. Broadband and video revenues earned from end user customers (excluding wholesale) grew 52.9 percent year-over-year, and penetration rates for both FiOS Internet and FiOS TV were up. Penetration rates for FiOS Internet averaged 23.5 percent across all markets, up from 18.7 percent from last year, while FiOS TV penetration averaged 19.7 percent, up from 13.3 percent.

In fact, growing revenue from its broadband and video services help boost consumer average revenue per unit in Verizon’s otherwise stagnant wireline markets. APRU climbed to $63.76, up 10.4 percent from the same period last year. FiOS figures were even better, with FiOS customer figures coming in at more than $130 a month.

Verizon Business had revenue of $5.3 billion in the second quarter, up .9 percent from a year ago. Global enterprise revenue was up 1.7 percent to $4 billion. Revenue from IP, managed services, Ethernet and optical ring services grew at an 18.7 percent clip.

If new services revenue are not yet a "flood," they are more than a "trickle." And though analysts sometimes focus on consumer revenues, Verizon operates in enterprise and smaller business segments as well. In that regard, relatively robust enterprise revenues seems to have been matched with somewhat "weak" small business revenue.

Time to Get a Life? Media Consumption Still Climbing?

The adage to "get a life" might apply to some users of media, who report they continue to increase their time spent with a variety of media ranging from Internet and TV to video gaming. According to a recent survey by E-Poll, 31 percent of respondents said they had increased their use of the Internet over the past six months.

About 17 percent reported they had watched more television over the past half year, while another 17 percent reported they had increased viewing of DVDs.

Some 13 percent reported more use of videogames and an equal percentage reported watching more video online while another 13 percent said they had increased viewing of primetime network TV. About 11 percent said they had watched more time-shifted or DVR programming over the last six months

Game play grew nearly equally for both genders according to a March 2008 survey by E-Poll; 14 percent of female respondents ages 18 to 34 said their gaming had increased in the previous six months, compared with 19 percent of 18-to-34-year-old males.

AT&T Wireless Data Revenues up 52%

AT&T wireless data revenues grew 52 percent compared to the same quarter last year, to $2.5 billion. If the U.S. market is anything like the European market, a large portion of that growth now comes from sales of wireless data cards for PCs, though no doubt the iPhone has kicked mobile Internet and mobile email revenues into a higher orbit as well.

Wireless Internet access revenues more than doubled in the latest quarter, compared to the same quarter of 2007. Mobile email and messaging delivered greater than 50 percent revenue growth, while text messaging volumes tripled, compared to the same quarter last year.

Multimedia message volumes increased more than 170 percent.

At the end of the second quarter, 18 percent of AT&T’s postpaid wireless subscribers had smart phones, up from eight percent one year earlier. These subscribers have average revenue per user metrics roughly double the typical level.

In the mobility segment, wireless data revenue growth now is the key, as IPTV and video are on the wired access side of the business.

Web TV for FiOS?

Verizon currently is currently beta testing Web video on their set-top boxes, using content provided by Veoh, Blip.tv, Break.com, and YouTube.

Sites are indexed on a regular basis and when a video is selected from the DVR, the PC software automatically transcodes and streams content on the fly. Media Manager software also makes possible transmission of any video podcast to a user DVR as well.

In principle, Verizon ought to be able to add Real Simple Syndication feeds to its DVR.

These features will be offered as part of Verizon’s top tier DVR package, perhaps later this year or early in 2009. That package also is likely to include PC photo sharing and multi-room DVR playback.

Consumers Don't Might Ads, If Content is Professional

Ipsos MediaCT says most consumers would find it “reasonable” for advertising to be included in the free digital distribution of full-length TV shows and movies, while around two-thirds say the inclusion of advertising would be reasonable with free access to music videos, short news or sports clips.

There are some major exceptions, however. “As might be expected, digital video consumers generally find it more acceptable to have advertising included within longer, professionally produced video offerings such as full-length movies or TV shows, should this content be available for free online," says Adam Wright, Director at Ipsos MediaCT.

"Fewer are ready to accept this ‘price of admission’ for shorter-form content or less-professional polished content," he adds.

Still, for most video content types, the majority of these consumers find the trade-off between free video content with advertising to be a fair value proposition.”

The one content type that may be the exception is amateur video content. Just over half (52 percent) of consumers age 12+ who have downloaded or streamed a video online say they would find it “not reasonable” to have advertising embedded within free amateur or homemade video offerings online.