Tweet Shows IP Impact

"The terrible phone connection I was blaming on our VoIP line turns out to be the cordless phone clashing with WiFi," says Matthew Weinberg. "May need to go corded."

That's as good an example of any about the changes IP technology has wrought for service providers, who no longer can simply sell a connection, terminate at a network interface and hand off the premises network and devices to an end user. That generally worked when interface specifications were stringent and the total number of devices and applications were limited.

These days the application and device environment is much more complex. But users will call their service provider when applications or devices don't work properly. One way or the other, greater involvement in premises networks and configuration are required.

Skype Proves Stand-Alone Long Distance is a Business

Now that it appears Skype will become a stand-alone company, we have to note the irony. Telcos and cable companies have concluded that long distance no longer is a viable stand-alone business. That's essentially why AT&T and MCI Worldcom do not exist as independent companies.

But it is worth keeping in mind that when an executive says something cannot be done, what that really means is that "I cannot, with my cost structure, personnel or technology holdings, do that." Skype will be able to compete as a stand-alone long distance provider. To greater or lesser degrees, much the same can be said for calling card providers.

As true as it may be that a service provider cannot make a viable business selling long distance alone, that isn't true for all market contestants. One simply needs a different cost structure and channel.

The issue now is what Skype actually is worth. Merill Lynch analyst Justin Post says Skype is worth $2.2 billion, and that could grow to $3 billion by the time it either goes public in 2010 or is sold.

Jeffries & Company analyst Youssef Squali values Skype at $1 billion.

Thomas Wiesel analyst Christa Quarles thinks Skype is worth $1.7 billion. Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang, meanwhile, values Skype at $1.85 billlion.

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/user%2F05579064408535224496%2Fstate%2Fcom.google%2Freading-list

Skype and eBay: Cautionary Tale for Communications-Enabled Business Processes

As useful as communications-enabled business apps might be, eBay's inability to wring any significant advantages out of voice-enabling eBay. Perhaps messaging of other sorts is valuable, but voice integration does not seem to have added much of anything to the eBay shopping experience.

All of which raises the question of where and when voice communications, perhaps as opposed to text-based communications, adds value to another application, or adds enough value that people even care very much.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aCWYwCYVyHx4&refer=home

Social Media Campaign Generates 28% Sales Lift

Packaged-goods firms are cautious about social media, as the return on investment is tough to measure. But MySpace recently hosted a $1 million campaign for a personal care product that achieved exposure to 76.9 million people, about 40 percent of the U.S. Internet user base, creating 1.1 billion impressions and generating $1.28 million in incremental sales, Advertising Age says.

Of 76.9 million people exposed to the campaign in four months, 765,000, or fewer than one percent, visited an advertiser page on MySpace.

But the campaign produced $1.28 million in offline sales, as measured by loyalty program provider Dunnhumby, which compared purchases among shoppers not exposed to the campaign with purchases among those who were.

That amounted to a 28 percent return on investment, not counting returns from repeat sales among consumers the brand won via the campaign. About 17 percent of the sales were of products advertised in the campaign; the rest of the sales lift went to the parent brand, in a "halo effect."

One question: whether that level of return will hold up for larger campaigns.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135940

Kraft Foods Tweets

Kraft Foods is using Twitter to spread word about where its Oscar Mayer Wienermobile drivers will be next. Kraft also launched the "DiGiorno Crispy Flatbread Pizza" by delivering pizza to "tweet-ups," or in-person, social-media gatherings.

AT&T Seeks to Extend iPhone Exclusive

AT&T is now in discussions with Apple Inc. to get an extension of AT&T's exclusive on the iPhone until 2011, the Wall Street Journal reports. AT&T also is seeking to overhaul AT&T's marketing to make wireless the priority. Ultimately, that likely will mean that customers can qualify for AT&T discounts on IPTV or broadband access if they are a wireless customer, where tradtionally AT&T has tied discounts to being a wireline voice customer.

AT&T has 77 million wireless customers and 30 million consumer voice lines.

The intensified focus on wireless shows just how much is changing in the world of former wired telephone companies. Where once most telcos were very similar in terms of services offered, customer base and strategy, firms are becoming quite differentiated. Verizon and AT&T have options, footprints and business segments quite distinct from those of virtually all other U.S. carriers.

The big challenge is what wired network providers without the scale and wireless assets of those two firms will fashion their business strategies.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123973238611017715.html

Mobile Broadband: 2nd or 3rd Mass Market Mobile Data App

By the end of 2014 more than two billion users globally will be accessing the Internet using a mobile broadband connection, analysts at Ovum now project. By that point, mobile broadband will have proven to be the first mass market data application since text messaging (short message service). Some of us might argue that mobile email was the second mass market data application, but a success on this level would be quite noteworthy, in any event. 

Total mobile broadband users will grow by 1024 percent by 2014, while total mobile broadband revenues grow at a 33-percent cumulative average growth rate over the forecast period.

Total mobile broadband revenues will not only stem the decline in text messaging revenue Ovum expects will happen, but also will grow operator overall revenues. Though handset access to mobile broadband services will exceed laptop access in terms of number of users, laptop ARPU is six times greater than handset ARPU.