Sky to Build Own U.K. Broadband Access Network?

Sky, the U.K. ISP, has become the first major U.K. ISP to sign up for a duct-and-pole-sharing trial with BT. Typically, agreements of that sort are necessary when a service provider is getting ready to build a new network, so one must assume Sky is getting ready to build a facilities-based fixed network.

ISPs in the United Kingdom also have the ability to buy wholesale services from Openreach, rather than investing in their own access facilities. So the strategic choices for U.K. ISPs are the typical "build versus buy" alternatives. If it builds its own access network, Sky will have more control over its own pricing and packaging, as it will not be limited, cost-wise, by the built-in wholesale cost of its inputs.

If Sky wants to under-price BT retail products, for example, it can more easily do so if it fully controls price inputs on its owned infrastructure. Likewise, if Sky wants to create new packages that are differentiated from BT's, or those of wholesale customers using the BT wholesale access products, Sky can more easily do so on its owned infrastructure.

BT also signed up business internet service provider Call Flow for a three-month trial to test out the system and assess "real costs" connected with ISPs deploying their own broadband network using BT's wholesale "Openreach" infrastructure.

Sky in surprise duct-and-pole-sharing trial with BT

"Average" U.S. Broadband Speed 5.1 Mbps

The overall average (presumably the arithmetic "mean,") broadband access speed for the United States as a whole in the fourth quarter of 2010 was 5.1 Mbps, according to Akamai.  Consistent with the prior three quarters, the "average" connection speed was exceeded by 21 states and the District of Columbia.

Across the whole country, 43 states and the District of Columbia saw average connection speeds increase year-over-year, with growth rates ranging from a significant 44 percent increase in Montana to a scant 0.7 percent increase in New York. For the seven states that saw average connection speeds decline year-over-year, the losses were fairly modest, ranging from a drop of 0.2 percent in Pennsylvania to a drop of 8.5 percent in Mississippi, Akamai says.

The overall average peak connection speed calculated by Akamai for the United States as a whole for the fourth
quarter was just over 20 Mbps. This was once again met or exceeded by 21 states and the District of Columbia.

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Nearly 100 Million HH Online By 2016

An estimated 99.4 million U.S. households will be online by the end of 2016, of which 97.9 million will have broadband services, according to a new forecast from Interpublic Group's Magna Global.

As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2010, about 84.7 million homes, or 71.5% of the total, were online, while 90 percent of these homes accessed the Web using broadband services.

Magna now predicts that 61.9 million U.S. homes, or 50 percent of the total, will subscribe to DVR services by the end of 2016, which would be up from 39.2 million (33.5 percent) at the end of last year.

By 2016, Magna expects that video On demand, including all over-the-top services, will reach 70.1 million households, or about 57 percent of all TV-viewing households.

MediaPost Publications Nearly 100 Million HH Online By '16, Mobile Ads To Grow 60%

Google Releases Smartphone Data

How Do Users Find Content?

While search still represents 41 percent of the sources leading users to content, social apps are gaining, and now represent about 11 percent of sources, according to a new study by Outbrain.

Of six content verticals examined, stories in the news, entertainment and lifestyle categories are the most likely to receive traffic from social sources.

Traffic coming from social media sources has the highest tendency to bounce, or result in very-brief stays on a site.

Readers who go from one content site to another, moving from one content site to another, are most likely to be engaged in what they’re reading, presumably because they are already in content consumption mode.

Facebook delivers a more diverse audience than Twitter, Outbrain suggests.

Outbrain Study Gives Insight Into Content Discovery Trends

Android 2.3.4 could have video calling

Android 2.3.4 might get video calling as a standard feature, a rumor suggests. Honeycomb (3.0) does support video chat using Google Talk.

That feature is one example of the way that applications once thought of as being services provided for a fee are becoming applications used on devices that support the feature natively. It is a fairly broad trend and isn't likely to halt.

Whatever the adjustments that are being made to existing industries and business models, over time more features and apps that once were viewed as services bought from providers have become "just one more app" a communications device using the Internet can support.

Android 2.3.4 could have video calling

AT&T Cracking Down on Tethering Using MyWi

It is in many ways understandable that some consumers think they ought to be able to use applications that allow a standard mobile device with a data plan to be used as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot. It perhaps also is understandable that any mobile service provider wants to protect a new line of business providing that feature as a separate revenue driver.

AT&T most recently appears to be notifying users that they cannot use MyWi, an application that can allow the iPhone to be used as a mobile hotspot when the device is jailbroken.

The same sort of conflict arose years ago when many users argued they should be allowed to use the broadband connections that already had paid for to use VoIP apps. Over time, these things tend to get resolved in ways that are not fully the "best" for either users or providers, but they do tend to get settled.

AT&T Still Cracking Down on Tethering via MyWi