Netflix Dives Deeper into Streaming

Netflix has signed deals with Disney/ABC and CBS (CBS) to stream television shows online a day after they air on television. Netflix also has done deals with Microsoft to distribute video on Xbox 360 and created a player by Roku to stream movies to customers who subscribe to monthly DVD rental plans.

The latest deal means Netflix will be able to stream current shows from CBS and Disney. As Hulu has shown, a recognized brand name or troves of branded content are big assets in the streaming business. 

In fact, though the "long tail" has gotten a lot of attention, there is some evidence that content viewing in the online world mirrors content viewing in the offline world to a great extent. That is to say, people mostly watch the "branded, professional" content they typically watch on television. Early experience with long tail content might have suggested otherwise, but as more people start to use online video, online viewing patterns might start to look more like offline viewing patterns. 

One study of music listening by Rhapsody customers shows that the top 10 percent of titles accounted for 78 percent of all plays, and the top one percent of titles for 32 percent of all plays. Of course, that is precisely what the "long tail" theory would predict. Popularly known as the "80/20" rule, the Pareto distribution predicts that roughly 80 percent of results are generated by 20 percent of the actions, or that 80 percent of sales volume, profit or margin are generated by 20 percent of products. 

Rhapsody's listeners follow that pattern. Just 10 percent of titles in the million-title catalog account for nearly 80 percent of the plays. 

New Comcast Bandwidth Management Plan Targets Heavy Use, Not Apps

Comcast says it plans to avoid throttling specific applications by throttling all high-volume subscribers instead. The new system would focus on users rather than content by temporarily giving bandwidth hogs lower priority status than that enjoyed by average users when local networks become congested. 

Comcast estimates the slowdowns would affect just one percent of its subscribers. The slowdown kicks in when subscribers run at 70 percent or more of their bandwidth allowance for at least 15 minutes.

“The system does not manage congestion based on the applications being used by customers," Comcast says. "It is content neutral, so it does not depend on the type of content that is generating traffic congestion."

Though Comcast also has instituted a 250 GByte monthly cap on total usage, a generous bucket compared to the 5 Gbyte caps some other wireless and wired Internet access providers have in place. 

Lehman Brothers Banruptcy Will Stick Vendors with Losses

Bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers owes a fair amount of money to a number of telecommunications and information technology firms. Among the tech companies with defaulted contracts are AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. 

IBM, EMC, HP, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems also are on the list of suppliers whose contracts now are in some state of default. Microsoft, for example, is owed $22,580,526. IBM is owed $8,995,892. Barclays Capital, which is buying Lehman, will have to pay up on those contracts, but not necessarily the full amounts. 

The proposed amount Verizon would have to be paid is listed as $325,000 but Verizon says it is owed $2,24 million.

AT&T, representing AT&T Wireless, SW Bell, Bell South, Cingular Wireless, says it is owed

more than $3 million, but would be paid $669,000 as part of the Barclays purchase of Lehman.

Cisco Systems, Global Crossing, KDDI, NTT, PeopleSoft, Real Networks, Red Hat, Sybase and Vodafone also might be in similar positions. 

Google G1 Is No BlackBerry Killer

Whatever else it may be, the new Google G1 smart phone, to be sold by T-Mobile, is not a "BlackBerry killer." The reason is simple enough: the device does not synchronize automatically with Microsoft Outlook.  Unlike the iPhone, the G1 doesn’t work with Microsoft Exchange, and it can’t physically be synced with a PC-based calendar or contacts program, like Microsoft Outlook. 

Coverage will be an issue as well, as T-Mobile's 3G network is available in far fewer cities than those of its larger rivals, AT&T and Verizon.

Though the Apple iPhone might be positioned as something of a competitor to the Research in Motion BlackBerry, that really can't be said for the G1, as it does not sync with Microsoft Outlook, a virtual requirement for most BlackBerry users.

T-Mobile Launches Android Phone Today

T-Mobile USA launches today launches the first handset that uses Android's software stack: a smartphone built by HTC, which is known for manufacturing Windows Mobile portable devices.

T-Mobile G1 includes a touchscreen, slide-out keypad, accelerated 3D graphics, Wi-Fi and 3G support, GPS and accelerometer. Observers say the device won't be as easy to use as an iPhone, though. 

Android's marketplace will accept any applications without a preliminary review, so that users decide whether they're useful. That means third party applications will be accepted even when they compete directly with apps built in to the device.

Developers will be able to make their content available on an open service with a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube. 

T-Mobile will hold a news conference today to announce further details.

Big Shift Away from Frame Relay

Some 75 percent of respondents at Global 2000 companies recently surveyed by Research and Markets said that they were looking to get their international sites off frame relay technology, with much of the shift happening over the next three to five years.

Also, about 75 percent of respondents at Global 2000 companies have deployed IPsec VPNs to connect their international offices.

Euro VoIP Up 400 Percent Since 2005

Consumer VoIP subscribership in Europe was up more than 10 million lines in 2007, compared to 2006, say researchers at Telegeography. At year-end 2007, 25.3 million consumer VoIP lines were in service in Western Europe, up from 15 million in 2006, and nearly four times the 6.5 million VoIP subscribers in 2005.

The key driver of growth has been aggressively priced bundles of voice, broadband, and video service. While prices vary widely across Europe, many operators charge as little as €30 (U.S. $43) for all three services, including unlimited calling.

This strategy has been spectacularly successful: TeleGeography projects that western European VoIP subscribers will top 37 million and will account for 29 percent of western European fixed lines by year-end 2008.

The success of upstart service providers has forced legacy telcos to respond. Most European incumbent phone companies have introduced dual-play or triple-play bundles, which frequently include flat-rate IP telephone service. While their success has varied widely, France Telecom has emerged as the largest VoIP service provider in Europe, and incumbents now account for five of the 10 largest European VoIP service providers.