Conferencing Apps Lead UC Deployments?

Conferencing applications seem to be lead unified communications applications, according to a survey of IT professionals surveyed on behalf of CDW Corp. 

CDW's poll found rich media conferencing strategies are emerging as a dominant approach to UC. Some 39 percent of respondents report their organizations are choosing that approach over telephony-centric approaches (32 percent), email-centric (18 percent) and instant messaging and presence approaches (11 percent). 

While the survey found that only six percent of organizations report their UC deployments are complete, it also uncovered gathering momentum for UC adoption, with 20 percent of organizations actively implementing UC and 33 percent actively planning for implementation. 

Seventy percent of organizations currently in the UC planning and implementation phases expect to complete their adoption within two years. 

Sixty-one percent of respondents identified increased productivity and 56 percent identified operating cost reductions as the most important benefits. Other benefits cited included more reliable communication (48 percent), improved cross-functional communication (44 percent) and more effective use of remote or mobile workers (41 percent).

Wireless Substitution, Cable Digital Voice Cost U.S. Telcos $23 Billion a Year

In-Stat researchers estimate North American cable operator digital voice service revenues will hit just under $10 billion during 2009, from an installed base of 23 million cable telephony households.

Cable telephony subscriber growth continues to be strong, with almost eight million new subscribers added around the world in 2008, says In-Stat. Growth in North America has been particularly strong.

Globally, cable telephony service revenues represented about $12.6 billion in 2008, up from $10.7 billion in 2007.

Total worldwide cable telephony subscribers reached 37 million by the end of 2008, and will rise to over 64 million by 2012, In-Stat projects.

So something on the order of $9 billion in annual revenue seems to be earned by U.S. cable operators in voice revenues that used to be provided by U.S. telcos. In fact, the revenue loss for telcos is greater, since most customers switch to cable for the lower prices.

If one assumes a 20-percent average discount, that's a loss of nearly $11 billion in lost U.S. telco voice revenue.

Assume there are 20 million U.S. households that have gone wireless-only, with a former average monthly bill of $30. That is about $7.2 billion in "lost" or "shifted" revenues. If one assumes a more-likely monthly bill of $50 a month, the lost revenue amounts to $12 billion.

In that case, wireless substitution and losses to cable operators are about equal contributors to telco voice line losses.

Rethinking Communications, in 7 Parts

Stealth and Partners Not Seeing Downturn

House Broadband Stimulus Bill Fails to Define "Open Access"

As sometimes happens, some lawmakers have proposed legislation possibly specifying policies they cannot define. In approving $2.9 billion for network build-outs in rural and underserved areas, the House Energy and Commerce Committee insisted that the funding comply with the Federal Communications Commission's statement of "Internet Freedoms" contained in FCC 05-151.

The House bill also calls for grant awards to be made for broadband networks using "an open access" framework that complies with the FCC 05-151 principles. The term ‘‘open access’’ is to be defined by the Federal Communications Commission not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of the law.

Those principles include the right of consumers to access the lawful Internet content of their choice and run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.

Consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network and

are further entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.  

Those "Internet freedoms" are not exactly the same thing as "network neutrality," though many observers seem to think they are identical.

Still, the Senate also has to approve the bill, so it remains unclear whether the language will be retained, in any case.

Some observers interpret this as calling for some form of network neutrality, though the term itself is a muddle whose meaning nobody can seem to agree on.

The House version of the bill panel calls for funneling new funds to the existing grant programs operated by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The House version calls for 25 percent of the $2.9 billion to be spent on areas of the country with no broadband access with the remaining 75 percent poured into "underserved" areas.

The other half of the $6 billion dedicated to broadband build out in the House stimulus package calls for $2.9 billion in grants and loans to administered by the Rural Utilities Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

If the language survives in the Senate or any reconciled bill, presumably, any service provider that accepts the funding will have to comply with whatever the FCC defines as "open access" for all customers and services on that network.

One wonders whether content delivery services ultimately will be allowed, in that case, as CDNs must, by definition, employ packet discrimination to make their features work.

More Surprising News on Small Business IT Spending in 2009

Though it is possible decision-makers have changed their minds since late November, as of that period, nearly a third of 2,000 U.S. IT decision-makers in businesses of all sizes said they expected their 2009 budgets would increase over 2008 levels, according to research from Compass Intelligence. 

If respondents follow through with their stated intentions, U.S. IT spending will grow more than four percent by the end of 2009, with growth rising through 2013, Compass Intelligence says.

Growth will tend to stem from small and mid-sized companies and less from enterprise businesses. While the total U.S. IT market will grow 4.1 percent in 2009, enterprise spending will account for just 2.8 percent of spending growth.

About a third of respondents expect to spend more, about a third expect to spend the same amounts as in 2008 while a third expect budgets to shrink. We might add that this is not an atypical finding. 

However, 2009 ICT revenues will not come easy and are likely to be earned after the first quarter of this year because IT decision-makers also indicated they will cautiously plan their investments in the first couple of months.

"This isn't the first time that we've seen a recession in the last decade, and most ICT decision-makers have been in troubled times like this before - so have the line-of-business managers influencing them," says Kneko Burney, Compass Intelligence president. "Most IT & Business decision-makers are planning to spend through this slow-down."

Key areas of spending priority for 2009 are computer systems, wireless applications and services, business Web sites or Web infrastructure and business networks according to the IT decision-makers surveyed.  The order of key priorities varies among size of business, but the top four priorities are, for the most part the same, regardless of business size, Burney notes.

63% of Mobile Subs Are On Family Plans

Family Plans, offering a shared bucket of usage that multiples devices can share, have to  be judged one of the more important marketing innovations yet devised by the mobile industry.

About 63 percent of respondents to a recent survey conducted on behalf of Sprint Nextel said they were on such plans. Another 15 percent said they would consider joining such a plan. About 22 percent said they were not interested. 

Among the 22 percent of users are single people, who, by defintion, do not have family members to share buckets of usage with. 

Aside from that innovation, only the abolition of the difference between "local" and "long distance" calling rates had comparable impact on subscribership.