Sprint Might Get LightSquared Spectrum in Case of LightSquared Default

LightSquared has won approval from its lenders to give Sprint Nextel Corp. a second lien on its spectrum, part of a deal under which the wireless start-up will rent space on Sprint's network, the Wall Street Journal reports. See LightSquared Gets OK on Sprint Spectrum Lien

The concession gives Sprint additional security if a deal with LightSquared is finalized, but might also provide a path for Sprint to acquire the LightSquared spectrum in the event LightSquared fails. The issue, some might say, is whether Sprint would want to do so.

It isn't yet clear whether the Federal Communications Commission will allow LightSquared to use the upper part of its L-band spectrum, to avoid GPS interference problems which seem to be caused by signals in the upper part of the band. In that case, Sprint might be paying for about 20 MHz of LTE-capable spectrum.

If you have followed various mobile satellite ventures over the last two decades, you will remember that there has been more failure than success in the field, which is one reason why the satellite spectrum is available in the first place. If it turns out that LightSquared can use only about 20 MHz of its 40 MHz worth of spectrum, you would think there will additional repercussions.

At a rough level, wouldn't you say the venture is "worth" only about half of whatever valuation you thought it had before it lost half its spectrum?

And as far as Sprint's plans for additional spectrum, there is some growing speculation that Clearwire is getting ready to sell itself in any case. Sprint owns about 54 percent of Clearwire already, and if it were sold, Sprint would have all the spectrum it needs to build a new Long Term Evolution network, which clearly is coming. http://blogs.forbes.com/joanlappin/2011/06/09/clearwire-clearing-the-decks-for-sale/.

Wouldn't it be odd if LightSquared, which wanted to build a network, ultimately finds itself a tenant on Sprint's LTE network instead, with Clearwire history? What that would do to LightSquared's wholesale business plan is unclear. LightSquared might find itself using its satellite links mostly for backhaul, and using Sprint's LTE network (formerly Clearwire) for the actual terrestrial connections.

Even then, some analysts would have trouble coming up with a plausible, self-sustaining business model for LightSquared. The wholesale-only model hasn't worked all that well in the U.S. market, in any segment of the business, on a long-term basis.

Netflix And Hulu On Cable Set Tops?

Cable operators already deliver Netflix and Hulu over broadband. Could both services, now perceived as competitors, wind up as part of the cable package? Time Warner Cable Chief Programming Officer Melinda Witmer thinks it is a possibility.

“Consumers are getting it on every device that’s coming on an IP basis today but not the set top. They look like a programmer to me and it makes me sense that we’d be doing business with them in the home on our equipment too.”

“We’ve reached out and I think probably virtually every operator has had some discussions," she said. "It’s unclear what their rights are to be able to come to a set-top box."

"But we’re interested in offering our customers what they want and if 23 million people or 25 million subscribe to Netflix, there might be something we can do with them that makes sense," said Witmer.

@ Cable Show: Netflix And Hulu On Cable Set Tops?

Google to Expand Wallet to Europe in 2012; Sees One Wallet Per Phone

Google plans to launch its Google Wallet in at least one major European city during the first half of 2012, said Osama Bedier, Google’s vice president of payments, who politely, if disingenuously, discounted talk of a coming wallet war in either the United States or Europe.

Bedier suggested that any given near field communications capable phone would have only one mobile wallet, and if that wallet is Google's, the company would need to either control the secure chip that holds the wallet applications or be able to manage those applications.

That means a Google Wallet is unlikely to share space on the same phone with, say, a wallet from the Isis mobile operator joint venture or one from card network Visa Inc. No wallet war? Really?

Google to Expand Wallet to Europe in 2012; Sees One Wallet Per Phone

3 Ways to Prepare Your Business for Social Search

It is quite easy to become overwhelmed with all the things "you should be doing" as part of your content marketing initiatives. There's your blog or blogs, your videos, your social media, your white papers, studies, search engine optimization, commenting on other blogs and industry forums. In most cases, no organization has the time or resources to do all of this, as well as experts say it should be done.

But there is one practical bit of advice that concerns only your blogging and your social media efforts, and it relates to Google, and the way Google is starting to alter its ranking algorithms to incorporate "social content."

"You may have already noticed that socially shared content is rising to the top of your Google search results," says Jeff Korhan. What that means, in part, is that Google is giving more weight to original content that social network users think is interesting enough to "retweet," "like" or otherwise share.

So, if you want to earn higher rankings with Google, you not only need to be creating high-quality content, but also actively encouraging its sharing on the social networks. To be sure, you can only "encourage," you cannot compel. So you need to write about things interesting enough, or provocative enough, or important enough, that other social network users will share it.

You will hear lots of people offer you lots of advice about how to create that sort of content. Personally, I don't think there is any "silver bullet." People share things that make them laugh, or think, that make them mad or happy, that are "news" items of interest or things that seem really "dumb." People share items of beauty or inspiration, and in almost all cases items that have some shared meaning.

Lots of people will share videos of cats doing funny, cat-like things. None of that is especially easy for brands selling consumer or business products to incorporate.

There is no one rule about how to create such copy. But the important bit of advice is that Google now believes items people share deserve a higher ranking than items people do not share. That means a bigger emphasis than ever not just on original content, but original content that is worth sharing.

3 Ways to Prepare Your Business for Social Search | Social Media Examiner

Mobile TV Advertising $1.4 Billion in 2015

Tablets are poised to help U.S. newspapers increase paid digital circulation to 4.6 million in 2015, for example, with most of the growth coming at general interest newspapers, from 1.5 million last year, primarily at the Wall Street Journal, according to annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mobile-TV ad spending in the U.S. will grow to $1.4 billion in 2015 from $370 million last year. Traditional TV ad revenue in the United States, meanwhile, will grow to $89.8 billion in 2015 from $70.7 billion last year, according to the report. And online TV, excluding mobile, will see U.S. advertising grow to $4.1 billion in 2015 from $1.6 billion last year.

The number of people viewing mobile TV in the U.S. will grow to 52.5 million in 2015 from 17.6 million in 2010.

AdAge

Airline to Speed Check-ins with Stickers; NFC App Likely to Follow

Scandinavian Airlines will issue contactless stickers to its top frequent fliers, enabling them to check in faster at the airlines self-service kiosks, lounges and gates.

SAS plans to issue the passive contactless stickers to 50,000 of its "EuroBonus Gold members" starting in September 2011. They could attach the stickers to the back of their phone and tap them on readers at the kiosks, lounges and boarding gates or other check-in points to automatically transmit their membership numbers. The system would be able to identify the customers and call up their flight details more quickly.

Airline to Speed Check-ins with Stickers; NFC App Likely to Follow

LightSquared may seek FCC deadline extension

LightSquared appears to be looking for a two-week extension to file its report with the Federal Communications Commission on interference issues. The company appears to think it needs until July 1, 2011 to file the report, because all the information required for the report had not yet been submitted.

'There's a lot of work to be done today," said LightSquared spokesman Chris Stern. "We don't have all the data." Apparently, eight different working groups are involved in putting the report together.

LightSquared may seek FCC deadline extension | Reuters