Thursday, June 9, 2011
Sprint Confirms 4G Upload Speed Boost
In an email to Phone Scoop, Sprint spokesperson Stephanie Vinge confirmed that the company plans to increase the upload speeds available on its 4G network. "Soon the uplink speed cap on all existing Sprint dual mode and single mode 4G mobile devices will be increased from 1.0 to 1.5 Mbps. Customers may notice uplink speeds as much as 50 percent faster after the speed cap is raised."
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Visa Makes Big Move into Developing Market Mobile Banking
Visa Inc. is acquiring Fundamo, a leading platform provider of mobile financial services for mobile network operators and financial institutions in developing economies. It also announced a new, long-term commercial agreement with Monitise plc, a leading provider of mobile money solutions for financial institutions in more developed geographies.
The investments illustrate Visa’s conviction that mobile financial services of many types, not just mobile retail payments, are part of its future.
Fundamo's platform enables the delivery of mobile financial services to un-banked and under-banked consumers around the world--including person-to-person payment, airtime top-up, bill payment and branch-less banking services, Visa says.
The combined Visa Fundamo platform will add enhanced functionality and new services to existing mobile financial services subscribers across Africa, Asia and Latin America for safe, reliable and globally accepted payments solutions.
Privately held, Cape Town, South Africa-based Fundamo has more than 50 active mobile financial services deployments across more than 40 countries, including 27 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Fundamo's deployments currently have a base of more than five million registered subscribers and the potential to reach more than 180 million consumers with mobile financial services. Mobile prepaid payments provide affordable, convenient and secure transaction capabilities that are transformational to the lives of merchants and consumers in those regions.
Visa will pay approximately $110 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close today, and is slightly dilutive to Visa's earnings per share in its fiscal year 2011 ending September 30, 2011.
Visa says the expanding relationship with Monitise will enable the company to deliver mobile financial services and payments capabilities to consumers across the full spectrum of uses, geographies and mobile environments from basic services on simple handsets to more advanced services for smart phone owners.
The Monitise deal is aimed at consumers in developed economies, and will include features such as mobile top-up, utility payments, and transit ticketing.
In addition, the two companies will launch a full suite of mobile banking services - including P2P payments, SMS alerts and loyalty offers for clients of Visa's debit and prepaid processing platform.
Visa acquired a 14.4 percent stake in Monitise in 2009 and the pair struck a strategic development deal in February.
http://corporate.visa.com/media-center/press-releases/press1128.jsp
The investments illustrate Visa’s conviction that mobile financial services of many types, not just mobile retail payments, are part of its future.
Fundamo's platform enables the delivery of mobile financial services to un-banked and under-banked consumers around the world--including person-to-person payment, airtime top-up, bill payment and branch-less banking services, Visa says.
The combined Visa Fundamo platform will add enhanced functionality and new services to existing mobile financial services subscribers across Africa, Asia and Latin America for safe, reliable and globally accepted payments solutions.
Privately held, Cape Town, South Africa-based Fundamo has more than 50 active mobile financial services deployments across more than 40 countries, including 27 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Fundamo's deployments currently have a base of more than five million registered subscribers and the potential to reach more than 180 million consumers with mobile financial services. Mobile prepaid payments provide affordable, convenient and secure transaction capabilities that are transformational to the lives of merchants and consumers in those regions.
Visa will pay approximately $110 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close today, and is slightly dilutive to Visa's earnings per share in its fiscal year 2011 ending September 30, 2011.
Visa says the expanding relationship with Monitise will enable the company to deliver mobile financial services and payments capabilities to consumers across the full spectrum of uses, geographies and mobile environments from basic services on simple handsets to more advanced services for smart phone owners.
The Monitise deal is aimed at consumers in developed economies, and will include features such as mobile top-up, utility payments, and transit ticketing.
In addition, the two companies will launch a full suite of mobile banking services - including P2P payments, SMS alerts and loyalty offers for clients of Visa's debit and prepaid processing platform.
Visa acquired a 14.4 percent stake in Monitise in 2009 and the pair struck a strategic development deal in February.
http://corporate.visa.com/media-center/press-releases/press1128.jsp
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
How Can Cloud Services Best be Sold?
If we are indeed moving towards an era of computing where "cloud" is the dominant architecture, you have to ask how such services will be sold to enterprises, small business and consumers. You might logically conclude that cloud-based services will be sold in much the same way current products are sold to each of those market segments.
"So far, no one that I am aware of has found a way of selling cloud services around the channel in any volume to SMBs without an army of out-bound telesales or field sales people of their own," argues Dale Vile, CEO of Freeform Dynamics. It’s hard to achieve serious scale that way, and without scale, the cloud model doesn’t work well economically."
That is to say, enterprise sales often are sold by direct sales forces; small businesses are served by channel partners and consumers mostly are reached using online and mass media channels. The new wrinkles are that cloud services have a logical relationship to mobile devices, mobile apps and online provisioning, compared to older services and business applications.
"So far, no one that I am aware of has found a way of selling cloud services around the channel in any volume to SMBs without an army of out-bound telesales or field sales people of their own," argues Dale Vile, CEO of Freeform Dynamics. It’s hard to achieve serious scale that way, and without scale, the cloud model doesn’t work well economically."
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Sprint Reduces Clearwire Voting Stake
On June 1, 2011, Sprint Nextel Corporation notified Clearwire Corporation of its decision to voluntarily surrender Class B voting shares in Clearwire, to reduce its voting interest in Clearwire from approximately 54 percent to approximately 49.8 percent.
Sprint retains its 54 percent ownership of Clearwire, but the voluntarily reduction of voting shares protects Sprint in case Clearwire declares bankruptcy.
The latest move by Sprint illustrates the odd nature of the relationship an strategy, the ultimate wisdom of which is something it will take some years to assess with any certainty. One can argue in retrospect that pooling Sprint's spectrum with Clearwire's assets to create the expanded company was a rational effort to achieve a several year lead in fourth generation services. One also can argue that the move, which ceded managerial control even as Sprint gained 54 percent of the ownership rights, was a mistake.
One can argue it was a reasonable effort to steal a lead in the 4G market, which now looks to be less significant only because the strategy provided only about a two-year lead, and less than that in strategic terms, given the early choice of WiMAX as the air interface, given the rest of the industry's selection of Long Term Evolution as the 4G air interface.
Hindsight is perfect, of course.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
"'Pretty Good" Year forBroadband Plan
Blair Levin, former executive director of the FCC's National Broadband Plan, says that it has been a "pretty good year" for the plan. Spectrum allocations, Universal Service Fund reform and rights-of-way reform are the key areas where work remains to be done.
Levin said he thought the debate had gone "off track" on the spectrum reform issue. He said the issue to resolve is not whether to reallocate spectrum, but how to reallocate it on an ongoing basis to serve evolving needs.
Levin said he thought the debate had gone "off track" on the spectrum reform issue. He said the issue to resolve is not whether to reallocate spectrum, but how to reallocate it on an ongoing basis to serve evolving needs.
Asked whether broadcasters are sitting on underutilized capital, he said some are and some aren't, but that the market should determine whether, post cable and Internet, there was still a need for 25 or 30 TV stations in New York. For the 25th broadcaster in New York, it may be more valuable to sell the spectrum, he suggested.
The thing about big policy proposals and plans is that any changes are going to help some industry segments and firms, and hurt some segments and firms. The National Broadband Plan isn't different in that regard. Firms and industries that reckon they will be harmed will fight, vociferously against the changes.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Cloud Computing Creeps into Enterprise
As has been the trend recently, end users are bringing new technology to their workplaces, and cloud services seem to be the most-recent new developments. About 20 percent of 573 C-level executives in 18 countries say they have personally purchased a cloud service without the IT department’s knowledge.
While 60 percent of companies report they have policies in place that prohibit such actions,
respondents say there are no real deterrents for purchasing cloud services by stealth. In fact, 29 percent report there are no ramifications whatsoever while another 48 percent say it is little more than a warning.
The survey also shows private cloud deployments are growing, especially where critical, differentiating internal operations and customer services are at stake. Today, 43 percent of companies report they use private cloud services, while an additional 34 percent say they will begin to do so in the next six to 12 months.
The survey, conducted by Kelton Research on behalf of Avenade, also shows that 74 percent of companies are using some form of cloud services today, a 25 percent growth in adoption since Avanade’s September 2009 survey.
While 60 percent of companies report they have policies in place that prohibit such actions,
respondents say there are no real deterrents for purchasing cloud services by stealth. In fact, 29 percent report there are no ramifications whatsoever while another 48 percent say it is little more than a warning.
The survey also shows private cloud deployments are growing, especially where critical, differentiating internal operations and customer services are at stake. Today, 43 percent of companies report they use private cloud services, while an additional 34 percent say they will begin to do so in the next six to 12 months.
The survey, conducted by Kelton Research on behalf of Avenade, also shows that 74 percent of companies are using some form of cloud services today, a 25 percent growth in adoption since Avanade’s September 2009 survey.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Facebook is Big, Statistically
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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