Dealing with Mobile Data

U.S. Broadband Speeds Grew 34% in 2010

The speed of residential broadband connections in the United States increased by 34 percent during 2010, according to In-Stat.

The average download speed for the broadband subscribers in the survey was 9.54 Mbps, up from 7.12 Mbps just twelve months earlier. In comparison to the rapidly rising amounts of bandwidth available to broadband subscribers, between end of year 2009 and end of year 2010, the average price for broadband service increased by just four percent.

Some 38 percent of the survey respondents also had a mobile wireless broadband connection.

The average downstream speed across all access technologies increased by 71 percent over the course of the past two years.

In-Stat - Multimedia Broadband Services Catalog

GetJar Gets Investment Round

Apple Launches Subscriptions at App Store

Apple now supports content subscriptions for all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store, including magazines, newspapers, video and music.

Publishers set the price and length of subscription (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly). Then with one-click, customers pick the length of subscription and are automatically charged based on their chosen length of commitment (weekly, monthly, etc.). Customers can review and manage all of their subscriptions from their personal account page, including canceling the automatic renewal of a subscription. Apple processes all payments, keeping the same 30 percent share that it does today for other In-App Purchases.

“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

Apple Launches Subscriptions on the App Store

Deutsche Telekom Might Buy a Bank or Payment Prcoessor?

Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest phone company, may “have financial relationships and perhaps own a financial entity” to support its mobile payments and banking efforts, Chief Technology Officer Ed Kozel said. Kozol did not elaborate, but becoming an "issuing bank" or a "payments processor" are the logical possibilities.

Deutsche Telekom May Purchase, Partner in Payments Business To Expand - Bloomberg

Mobile Payments "Arguably the Next Major Change"

Mobile payments could account for $1.13 trillion worth of purchases globally by about 2014, according to IE Market Research.

"There is a game-changing opportunity here for the operators to effectively displace credit cards and banks," said Dan Hays, partner at global management consulting firm PRTM.

"Mobile payments are arguably the next major change in the mobile industry," said Hays.

Telcos battle tech, bank titans for mobile payments - The Economic Times

EMEA Leads Mobile Banking Activity

Europe Middle East and Africa represents 42 percent of active mobile banking users followed by Asia Pacific at 38 percent.

Yankee Group projects that Asia Pacific will have 54 percent of the active mobile banking base by 2014. North America lags at 16 percent and will continue to lag.

Mobile Transactions Ready to Ramp - Seeking Alpha