PayPal Bets Its Future on Mobile

These days, what company is not betting on mobile?

http://gigaom.com/2010/10/26/paypal-bets-its-future-on-mobile/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OmMalik+%28GigaOM%29

Comcast Xfinity Offers Marketing Options, Choices

Comcast's "Xfinity" offering, which allows Comcast video entertainment customers to watch some of that content online, offers some marketing opportunities and might require some choices as well. The packaging--you get online access if you are a Comcast video entertainment customer--is a logical way for Comcast and content owners to preserve the value of the existing distribution relationships while growing a new online business that all parties hope will lead to higher revenues at some point.

There might be decisions needed in the area of bandwidth, though. In allowing users to watch linear content online, using over the top broadband access rather than the traditional linear delivery, Comcast engineers face a bit of a dilemma.

When a single user switches viewing from the linear network to the broadband access network, zero bandwidth is saved on the linear network and new demand is created on the broadband access network. Even if most Comcast cable TV customer stopped watching linear TV, Comcast can save no bandwidth.

On the other hand, Comcast would substitute a one-to-one communication for a one-to-many, point to multipoint distribution mode. The difference is significant. If 200,000 users want to watch a linear program, Comcast essentially delivers a single copy, and all 200,000 can watch, with no bandwidth penalty.

If those same 200,000 customers want to view separately, on demand, Comcast has to deliver 200,000 copies. The problem gets worst with growing scale. So the decision that might have to be made is whether to exempt such offset video viewing from the normal 250 gigabyte per month cap, or include the video within the usage cap limits.

On one hand, if the Xfinity option proves popular, Comcast will face new pressure on its access network, and might like the additional revenue it might earn from selling more-expensive access plans that accommodate the additional usage.

On the other hand, Comcast might face customer push back to higher fees, or less usage of Xfinity by users who fear exceeding their limits.

One way of alleviating those concerns is by exempting Xfinity packets from inclusion in the monthly data allowance. None of that likely will be an issue immediately, as few consumers will watch so much, or already consume so much, that there is any danger of exceeding the monthly caps.

Down the road, if the offering proves popular, Comcast might have to ponder other options. Delivering linear programming in on-demand fashion has value. But it also is bandwidth inefficient. At some point, if the offering proves wildly popular, that additional demand will be quite significant.

Is the Comcast Lion Finally Set to Roar in Online Video? -- Seeking Alpha

What's the Difference Between 50% and 93%?

There's a big difference between 50 percent and 93 percent. The first figure is the percentage of advertised bandwidth the Federal Communications Commission says U.S. ISPs are delivering to their customers.

The second figure (97 percent) is the measured percentage of delivered bandwidth, compared to advertised bandwidth, that U.S. ISPs are delivering to their customers, according to Ookla, considerd by many observers to be the most-accurate monitor of real-world bandwidth experience.

The 97-percent figure includes signaling overhead of three percent, which no Internet access connection can avoid. The difference between the two figures has important ramifications. In the first case, one might make the argument that regulation or voluntary industry guidelines of some sort are required to police ISP marketing claims.

The second figure indicates that there is, in fact, no market failure at all, and that ISPs in the United States are delivering exactly what they claim, in which case there is no need for regulation or industry self policing to a greater extent than already exists.

Ookla data debunks FCC report

Ethernet Grows, Frame Relay and ATM Slipping

The U.S. business market for wireline data remained steady with year-over-year average gains of roughly two percent, says In-Stat.  The education vertical is seeing the highest spending gains, while construction is faring the worst growth.  The healthcare and social services vertical market spent $5.5 billion on wireline data services in 2009. Retail and trade will spend over $3 billion on Ethernet services in 2012.

The overall market reflects a spending shift to Ethernet at the expense of both the ATM and frame relay markets, as you might guess. The frame relay market will shrink 57 percent, while Ethernet spending will exceed $18 billion by 2014.

Small business spending will grow at a greater rate over the next five years than any other size of business segment, In-Stat says.

see more here

Google Instant Lifting Google Revenue?

Aside from the fact that many users seem to like it, Google Instant might be boosting Google's ad revenue, increasing search operations and clicks, while advertiser costs might have dipped.

A Marin Software study of Google Instant across a sample of clients that collectively manage over $1.3 billion dollars in annualized paid search spend suggests search users have responded positively to Google Instant. Marin found that overall impressions for paid search ads increased by more than nine percent, while clicks increased by more than five percent.

That suggests people are actually searching and clicking more as a result of Google Instant.

Overall advertiser costs rose by less than two percent for the time period studied as a result of increased click volumes. Despite these increased costs, advertisers have benefitted from Instant. With average cost-per-click rates falling by over three percent, advertisers are now getting more value for their money as a result of Google Instant, the study suggests.

Google's Gamble

New Life for Copper Access?

Adtran has developed an "Ultra Broadband Ethernet" access approach that could help telcos upgrade their copper access networks for 100-Mbps and similar service, without the need to completely replace current access networks with fiber-to-home systems, at least in higher-density areas.

So long as fiber is available within about 75 meters of the target locations, a remote optical network terminal supplies a 100BaseT Ethernet signal to each home over twisted-pair copper.

New subscribers would be mailed a gateway box they install themselves; it plugs into a phone jack on one side, and a home gateway or integrated access device on the other.

The ONT would be customer powered from the premises, consuming about 10 watts total, or less when divided by as many as eight locations sharing a single ONT.

Solutions such as UBE can help telcos upgrade their access networks more economically at a time when the business case for a full fiber-to-home solution is challenged by robust competition, uncertain new services payback and declining demand for key legacy services. All of those conditions make the case for a new fiber access network more challenging, as they reduce the potential revenue and take rate for fiber-based services.

Adtran Rethinks FTTX Economics

SK Telecom Jumps into Software

SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest mobile-phone operator, plans to spend 1 trillion won ($896 million) to develop software for mobile handsets, Bloomberg reports. Apparently, SK Telecom thinks it has to create its own mapping, instant messaging and social networking apps.

Some observers will argue this effort is likely to fail. Neither consumer apps nor software have tended to be areas of extreme competence for telcos or mobile service providers in the past. On the other hand, the Korean market, like many other international markets, does not have the same end user preference patterns as one might see today in the U.S. market.

One might tremble to compete with Facebook or Google in the U.S. market. But those services are not necessarily so entrenched everywhere. SK Telecom might see an opening to move its brand further up the value stack.

The investment, spread over three years starting 2011, will be made mostly in research and development, Chief Executive Officer Jung Man Won says.

SK to Make Software to Compete With Facebook, Apple - Bloomberg