Will Click-to-Connect applications Replace IVR?

Yes, says Sorell Slaymaker, Unified IT Systems VP. The reason is that most consumers initiate their contact to a business using the web and then switch to some other channel only if the web does not solve whatever need, issue or problem needs to be solved.

Compared to using a phone for initial contact, "web with click to call" can store information, so it does not have to be rekeyed. The equivalent of cookies is not available when initiating a session using phone methods, he argues.

The other advantage is the ability to push content while talking, he says. Visual communication is richer and quicker than audio communication, and putting the two together optimizes the efficiency and effectiveness of communication.

Does "Open Access" Lead to More or Less Consumption of Broadband?

Samuel Clemens famously quipped that there are "dies, damned lies and statistics." Something like that seems to be at the heart of conflicting analyses of the impact of widespread open access requirements on consumer buying of broadband access services.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society suggests robust open access regulation increases consumer buying of broadband while analysts at the Phoenix Center says the opposite is true.

The interpretation matters. Good public policy requires decisions that are based on facts, as difficult as it may be to determine precisely what the "facts" are. The wrong "fact base" will lead to policies that could harm the intended public policy goal.

http://www.fcc.gov/stage/pdf/Berkman_Center_Broadband_Study_13Oct09.pdf

http://www.phoenix-center.org/perspectives/Perspective09-05Final.pdf

Hardware Sales Flat, Software up 4.8%, Telecom up 2.3% in 2010, Says Gartner

Providers of information technology solutions likely will have to emphasize customer retention more than customer acquisition in 2010 and 2011 because of a sales environment that will remain challenging, says Richard Gordon, Gartner Research VP. That said, sales of IT hardware and software will grow about 3.3 percent in 2010, about in line with telecom service provider revenue growth of 3.2 percent.

Enterprise hardware sales, for example, will show zero growth in 2010, compared to 2009, Gartner forecasts, in part because hardware lifecycles have lengthened.

Software sales, on the other hand, should grow 4.8 percent, says Gartner.

Motorola Seeks to Sell Set-Top Unit

Motorola is looking for buyers for the part of its business that makes cable television set-top boxes, and is seeking about $4.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports.

For anybody who has been in the cable TV industry any length of time, the potential sale brings back memories of a company headquarters in Hatboro, Penn. and known as "Jerrold." Few companies have roots in the U.S. cable industry as deep as Jerrold did, in its later incarnation as General Instrument representing one of the two big names in the old cable TV business, in addition to Scientific Atlanta, whose assets now are part of Cisco.

The big attraction for any buyer is the chance to become a major player in the cable TV infrastructure business overnight.

Logical potential buyers would include the ranks of any number of major electronics companies who want major exposure to the U.S. cable TV industry.

It makes you realize just how long it has been since you were in the cable business.

Metered Internet Access Plans Coming?

Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt says in a CNBC interview that the question of how consumers pay for their broadband is "an evolving thing." Britt still does not believe the existing flat rate for unlimited usage pricing plans are going to exist universally, indefinitely.

Verizon EVP Dick Lynch also has noted that Verizon would have to consider some form of tiered or metered bandwidth in the future.

One might argue that such plans will be available, with a premium price. But many, if not most other plans likely will move to some pricing format more nearly resembling the way people now buy buckets of wireless minutes or text messages. Consumers nearly universally dislike true metered usage plans, but have shown a level of comfort with "buckets." That suggests buckets will be the path forward for broadband services that must take some account of drastic bandwidth consumption patterns imposed by video content.

Some idea of the need for such plans, sure to be initially unpopular with some consumers, is the cost of continually providing more bandwidth, with modest increases in new revenue. At least some independent service providers have argued for years that fiber-to-home investments cannot be justified in tradtional "five year return on capital" criteria.

In that view, operators need to invest in FTTH "to keep their businesses," essentially. Yankee Group analyst Vince Vittore says that sort of refrain was current at the most recent Fiber to the Home conference.

Cable competition is a primary motivator in that regard. But experience so far continues to show that the financial return from an FTTH network is not assured nor easy. Nobody expects a return on invested capital in five years, as once was possible for many types of network investments.

Nor does anybody seem to believe it is possible to earn a return on FTTH networks based principally on incremental revenue from optical access, or even from providing video entertainment services. One need look no further than that to discern the industry emphasis on new applications, services and revenue.

Usage that is more closely tied to actual usage will happen. That doesn't mean it will be as strictly metered as electricity or water. But think about wireless buckets of use and one can conceive of metered service plans that consumers do not find inherently objectionable.

T-Mobile USA Moves to 7.2 Mbps, Plans 21 Mbps

There are times when being late to market is actually a benefit. The latest entrants in any technology-based market have access to the latest technology, and can build their business plans around that fact. There are other times when it's a bit difficult to characterize a particular competitor's position.

That is where T-Mobile USA now sits, for example. T-Mobile USA was the last of the top-four U.S. mobile providers to build a 3G network, and it has uncertain plans for 4G. But the company is on track to have faster versions of 3G up and running before some of its major competitors.

The company had no 3G customers in the second quarter 2008, though it had acquired 3G spectrum. But the 3G network now covers 240 cities and passes 170 million people, with plans to extend coverage to 200 million people by the end of 2009, at which point nearly all major urban areas will be covered.

So here's where the "last shall be first" principle applies.T-Mobile is using the faster 7.2 HSPA air interface, running at 7.2 Mbps downstream, on all its 3G nodes by the end of 2009.

At least one of T-Mobile's primary competitors is upgrading less-capacious 3.6 HSPA networks to 7.2 HSPA, but will not have that conversion completed until the end of 2011.

Likewise, T-Mobile plans to upgrade even the 7.2 HSPA network to HSPA+, a 21 Mbps network. The company says it will start rolling out HSPA+ in 2010. T-Mobile says the upgrade will be a relatively low-cost and relatively easy upgrade.

Of course, the reason T-Mobile's position is complex is that it has not yet announced a specific method for deploying a 4G network, which will require additional spectrum.

Both AT&T and Verizon are building their 4G networks for substantial coverage by 2010, while AT&T will have substantial coverage in 2011. Sprint is banking on the Clearwire network for 4G.

Still, competition in the mobile broadband market might not primarily be about "feeds and speeds." Coverage, pricing, application stores and device exclusivity arguably are more important.

Nor is it yet entirely clear that 4G will offer an entirely new consumer marketing proposition, beyond "faster." European 3G networks languished for years with sluggish uptake because the compelling new services requiring a 3G network were not in place.

In the U.S. market, it has been the mobile Web that has driven an upsurge of 3G uptake. But that adoption was based in part on applications and capabilitiesm, in part on use of particular devices, which require use of the 3G network.

The question for 4G networks is what new value or application will drive uptake.

Perhaps no new discrete driver will be required. Maybe "more" will be sufficient. But as Verizon has so far discovered with its FiOS fiber to the home feature, consumers still need a reason to buy fiber access as compared to hybrid fiber-copper access.

Providers can be last or first. Either way, the applications and device capabilities will remain the drivers of adoption.

Only 1 More Broadband Stimulus Round

As expected, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration say they are streamlining the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s broadband grant and loan programs by awarding the remaining funding in just one more round, instead of two rounds.

The agencies expect to begin announcing funding awards for the first round in December 2009. The original plan had been for three rounds of funding, and observers noted that this would be valuable for applicants as they would have a chance to see what got funded, what did not, and then tweak their subsequent proposals accordingly.

Now they will get one chance to do so, not two chances. But “stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide us with well-informed feedback on how the first round worked for applicants, the agencies will be able to make improvements to the process, and potential applicants will gain more time to form partnerships and create stronger project proposals, the two agencies say.

In a Request for Information released today, the agencies are seeking feedback on procedural and policy aspects of BIP and BTOP. While inviting general input on the programs, the agencies identified specific areas for comment.

In terms of procedural matters, for example, the RFI seeks input on ways to streamline the application process. The RFI also asks whether the agencies can better balance the public’s interest in transparency and openness with stakeholders’ legitimate interest in maintaining the confidentiality of proprietary data.

The RFI also seeks comment on how to best target the remaining funds. Commenters proposing a more targeted approach are asked to quantify the impact of their proposal based on metrics such as the number of end users or community anchor institutions connecting to service, the number of new jobs created, and the projected increase in broadband adoption rates.

The RFI asks whether to focus second round funding on projects that create “comprehensive communities” by installing high capacity middle mile facilities between anchor institutions that bring essential health, medical, and educational services to citizens.

The RFI also invites input on various other issues, including whether the definition of “remote area,” which is used to determine grant eligibility under BIP, is too restrictive, how the agencies can best ensure that investments are cost effective, and ways the programs might impact regional economic development and stability.

RUS and NTIA will utilize the feedback received in response to the RFI to set the rules for the second funding round, which the agencies expect to announce through a Notice of Funds Availability early next year.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided a total of $7.2 billion to NTIA and RUS to fund projects that will expand access to and adoption of broadband services. Of that funding, NTIA will utilize $4.7 billion for grants to deploy broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas in the United States, expand public computer center capacity, and encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service. RUS will use $2.5 billion in budget authority to support grants and loans to facilitate broadband deployment in primarily rural communities.