Mandatory Government Control of Broadband Pricing is Aim of HR 2902

Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) recently announced HR 2902,  the "Broadband Internet Fairness Act,” which would mandate government control of pricing for broadband. Consumer protection is a noble and worthwhile goal. Whether HR 2902 would have the opposite effect is the issue.

It is reasonable to assume that investment capital, and appetite to continue building broadband facilities, would dry up were the bill to become law.

What is Holding Up Blu-Ray Adoption?

It's hard to know precisely what message consumers are sending about HD DVD players these days. There no longer is a

format war, as Blu-ray has won its fight with HD DVD. But sales haven't exploded.

In fact, a recent Harris Interactive poll suggests that 93 percent of Americans are not likely to buy a Blu-ray player within the next year, up from the 91 percent who said last year that they were not likely to buy one.

But what that means isn't clear, yet, for several reasons. Popular consumer electronics adoption never seems to hit an inflection point until about 10 percent penetration of households.

About seven percent of U.S. households may already own a Blu-ray device, so we would be, by historical standards, about three percentage points away from any serious test of Blu-ray demand. Price points for both players and physical media seem high, by historical standards, as well.

In the past, no consumer innovation seems to take off until retail prices for devices get to about $300. So far, Blu-ray has failed to hit those levels, and some of us would therefore not expect much change in the adoption curve until that price point is reached.

Many speculate that a shift to digital media also is playing a part in depressing initial demand. It could be that consumers are using more pay-per-view methods or downloading to satisfy some needs Blu-ray was intended to address.

But it also is possible that consumers are wary of buying into yet one more playback technology when they've already been through VHS and DVD physical media. Some may simply be unwilling to shift to yet another format, despite the advantages.

Some 83 percent of U.S. homes own DVD players, and consumers might simply be signaling that image and sound quality is "good enough" on those DVD players, for the intended purposes. Consumers might also be waiting to buy Blu-ray as a replacement device, when their current DVD players stop working.

Whatever the reasons, Blu-ray is in a slowish adoption mode at the moment. Precisely why is hard to determine, as there are any number of reasons why an adoption tipping point has not been reached.

Singapore Will Offer 4 QoS Levels for Broadband: Key Implications for Net Neutrality Debate

It now appears subscribers to Singapore's new fiber to customer network will be able to buy different grades of service, ranging from "best-effort" to "mission-critical." Grades of service on the new wholesale network will be sold directly to providers of retail services, who will have the ability to buy four distinct grades of service.

Nucleus Connect, which will operate from two central offices in Singapore, from which retailers can buy wholesale broadband, now says it will offer the differentiated services as part of the "Opennet" framework, which allows retail providers to buy passive optical connections or "lit" service.

The network will support GPON, Ethernet, VoIP, VPN, videoconferencing, leased lines, security, mobile

backhaul and multicast functionality.

Under the new structural separation policy, the Opennet consortium, headed by Axia Netmedia with Singtel, will deploy a passive optical network, while Nucleus Connect, a StarHub unit, will operate the switches and electronics on the network as a wholesale, providing open access to retail service providers.

Though Nucleus Connect initially will be the only “operating company” allowed to operate electronics on the network, other “qualifying companies" will able to do so in the future. Most observers believe such firms will be other international carriers serving business customers in Singapore. Consumer providers are likely to buy active opto-electronics capability from Nucleus Connect.

The broader implications are clear enough. Irrespective of regulatory framework, the notion that end users can buy broadband with four distinct quality-of-service levels is important.

The ability to buy different broadband QoS levels offers a nice way to match end user applications, network demand and service provider revenue more directly. The concept needs to be considered elsewhere, including the United States, as the shape of "network neutrality" rules are weighed.

One wouldn't want to prevent end users from having such choice.

Why do People "Unsubscribe" from Email Lists?

Though email marketing is one of the more effective and less expensive ways to retain and engage customers, content irrelevance is an almost sure-fire predictor of user "unsubscribe" behavior.

Though comScore found earlier this year that e-mail had a 4.4 percent sales conversion rate in the U.S. market, the key is relevance.

In a survey by MarketingSherpa and ad:tech, 44 percent of marketers said that emails to house lists had “great return on investment.”

The issue is to keep them from "unsubscribing." According to an Epsilon and ROI Research study, 55 percent of email subscribers in the US and Canada unsubscribe from opt-in emails occasionally—and 14 percent do so frequently.

Only five percent of survey respondents say they "never" unsubscribe.

“North Americans are receiving a lot of content, and at the same time they're getting more and more selective about the kinds of e-mails they want to receive,” says Kevin Mabley of Epsilon.

Most Internet users unsubscribed due to irrelevant content.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007139

Dell Earns $3 Million Using Twitter

The New York Times reports that since 2007, Dell has earned $3 million in revenues directly from Twitter postings, mainly through coupons and word-of-mouth. That might be among the most quantifiable benefits yet demonstrated for marketers using Twitter as a marketing channel.

“Twitter can be used as a form of permission-based marketing to encourage two-way conversation, and brands can use it to create relevant, authentic and transparent communications,” says Stephanie Busak of Bob Evans Farms.

“It can be used to build brand recency, loyalty and is a traffic generation tool in which links within profiles and tweets can direct people to specific areas of a site, microsites and blogs,” she adds.

“We have over 6,000 followers now on Twitter,” said David Tryder of Dunkin’ Donuts. “It’s another place where customers who really care about the brand can have a conversation with us.”

Cablevision, Verizon Offer $150 to $200 Inducements for New Bundle Customers

Here's one reason overall profits face potential pressure as a result of the recession: Cablevision and Verizon are offering new dual-play or triple-play customers between $150 and $200 in gift cards. At the very least, such tactics raise the marketing cost for each new subscriber or revenue unit. 

Verizon has been offering new triple play customers $150 gift cards since April and Cablevision now is offering $200 gift cards until June 30. 

To receive the $200 American Express card, Cablevision customers have to maintain Optimum Online and Optimum Voice service for four months.

The potential impact on average revenue per user is a bit more complex, as the new Cablevision promotion does not necessary represent a discount on monthly pricing. 

Nortel Sells Wireless Assets to Nokia Siemens Networks

In a move that will reassure Sprint Nextel and Verizon Communications and give Nokia Siemens Networks greater presence in the North American wireless market, Nortel is selling its wireless business units to NSN for $650 million. The move also is among steps Nortel is taking to essentially liquidate itself. 

Under the proposed deal, more than 2,500 Nortel staff will become employees of NSN. Though NSN also is acquiring Nortel's Long Term Evolution portfolio, perhaps the more-important near-term asset is the Code Division Multiple Access portfolio, used by Verizon and Sprint Nextel as well as Bell Mobility. 

The sale effectively makes NSN a key supplier to all three networks.