Voice Is Not a Commodity

One of the enduring pieces of conventional wisdom in the communications business is that "voice is a commodity." That perception typically is the result of even a casual analysis of "per minute" fees for long distance or even mobile usage over the last decade or two. 

Service providers in the wholesale space often sell their product based on per-minute fees as well, so it is easy to see why the working hypothesis is that voice actually is a commodity.

Despite all that, the way people use voice communications is anything but "commoditized," in the sense that one application is a fully functional substitute for another. 

People who use landlines also use mobile and IP-based communications as well. People who use IP communications also use mobile and fixed calling. Likewise, mobile users avail themselves of IP communications and fixed services as well. 

Beyond that, people tend to use each of the applications at different times, at different places, with different applications and different devices, to talk to different people, for different reasons. 

Not enough attention typically is paid to the ways all those use cases can be differentiated in marketing. Usage already is differentiated in fact.

Users Would Pay for Twitter

According to this poll taken by Guy Kawasaki, technology marketing consultant, people would pay to use Twitter.

As it true for other communication services, people do not seem to mind paying a fair price for services and applications they value. 

That also suggests a possible business model for Twitter, as well. 

Broadband Now Demand Constrained

Most of the time, we seem to be more concerned with the supply side of broadband: what penetration rates are, what speeds are, what prices are.

But consumer broadband arguably is demand constrained, not supply constrained. In Kentucky, for example, 65 percent of adults have broadband access.

Household broadband penetration tops 44 percent and another 21 percent of Kentuckians have dial-up service (keep in mind that most U.S. households have more than one adult in them).

Logically, the 21 percent of dial-up users are the primary customer segment to be targeted for an upgrade to broadband. About 70 percent of Kentucky households have at least one PC.

But that leaves 30 percent or so of homes that do not report having a PC. That is a demand problem, not an access supply problem.

$69 billion in 2007 Unlicensed Music

The value of unlicensed or pirated music trafficked on P2P networks in 2007 was $69 billion, according to new MultiMedia Intelligence research.
 
"Content owners of TV episodes and full length movies are seeing a growing impact as well," says Rick Sizemore of MultiMedia Intelligence .
 
MultiMedia Intelligence's new research also found the number of unlicensed full length movies "shared" will grow almost four times from 2007 to 2012.

Not all P2P content is unlicensed, though. P2P Internet traffic, despite having grown at a torrid pace for years, will grow almost 400 petrcent over the next five years, growing from a level of 1.6 petabytes of Internet traffic per month in 2007 to almost 8 petabytes per month by 2012. 

Covad Launches Channel Offer

Covad Communications has launched a new integrated access service for its channel partners. The new service features a new online quote and order system that Covad says can cut days to weeks off provisioning time.
 
The service is aimed at firms with up to 35 employees per location. Covad delivers the service over a voice-optimized T1 line, and the service works with customers' existing phone systems.
 
Customers can start with as few as four phone lines, and new lines can be added one by one, rather than in the more typical "blocks".

Covad completely overhauled its ordering process for this service. The new online ordering system handles quotes, pre-qualification and contracts all in one place and all in real time. Partners can store and manage quotes and orders through the website, and can check potential deal-killers—such as number portability—at the beginning of the process, rather than at the end.
 
"This is the voice and data service we've been asking for. The new online ordering system is easy to use and lets us know right up front that we can make a deal work," said Dan Keane, Director of Partner Sales with Keane Telecom Consulting, LLC, in Atco, New Jersey.
 
Covad Integrated Access now also utilizes SIP trunking and supports a wide range of IP, digital and analog PBXs.
Pricing starts at $435 per month with no installation fees.

The service uses Covad's voice-optimized technology to dynamically allocate bandwidth between voice and data.

Consumer Electronics Dip Predates "Economy"s

As evidence mounts of business slowdowns, it will be tempting to point to "economic weakness" as the reason for consumer and business spending weakness.  There will, to be sure, be such effects.

But not all spending changes are the result of the near-term economy issues, as some trends predate the such pressures.

Consider consumer buying of digital cameras, camcorders, audio players and hand-held game platforms. Sales of all four categories of devices have been declining for three years.

That could suggest product saturation, with the corollary that upgrades need to move beyond incremental changes.  There will continue to be replacement buying, to be sure. But incremental upgrades to memory or megapixels of resolution, for example, might not provide as much sales lift as one might have seen in prior years.

Category saturation is a normal part of the consumer electronics business, which is why consumer electronics retailers always are on the look for the next big "gotta have it" product.

DT Results: Still Tough to Sort Out "Economy" Impact

As further evidence of just how complicated it now is to figure out what actually is happening operationally in the communications business, Deutsche Telekom's overall year-to-date revenue has fallen about 2.5 percent. 

But international revenue has grown 1.1 percent, despite an unfavorable currency impact from U.S.dollar and U.K. pounds sterling denominated revenues. 

Deutsche Telekom generated revenue of EUR 45.6 billion in the first nine months of 2008, a decrease of EUR 1.2 billion or 2.5 percent year-on-year. To put the currency effect in perspective, revenue was negatively affected by exchange rate effects totaling EUR 1.5 billion. 

DT's T-Mobile USA revenue grew by 13.7 percent, but partly because of the acquisition of SunCom.

T-Mobile reported a 1.2 percent drop in its U.K mobile customer count, year over year. Mobile subscriber counts grew 8.3 percent, year over year. 

But mobile revenue was up 1.1 percent, year over year, overall, though there was weakness in the German, U.K., Austrian and "other" markets. 

So far, it might be reasonable to conclude that competitive conditions explain much of the weaker performance, though economic conditions could be contributing. 

We don't have the data yet, but what will be instructive is whether the overall mobile revenue in each of the countries is available, as that will provide a better sense of whether there actually is some slowing of consumer spending. 

Right now, all we can tell is that DT operates in competitive markets, has a secular wired voice lines problem as do other telephone companies, and that broadband access remains fiercely competitive.