Friday, September 16, 2011
Seven States Join Suit Against AT&T - T-Mobile Deal
The Justice Department says seven states have joined its antitrust lawsuit seeking to block AT&T Inc.'s proposed $39 billion acquisition of rival T-Mobile USA. Joining are state attorneys general from New York, Washington, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
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.
U.S. Household Worth Declines by $149 Billion
Household wealth in the United States dropped in the second quarter of 2011 for the first time in a year, hurt by falling share prices and declining home values.
Net worth for households and non-profit groups decreased by $149 billion, a 1 percent drop at an annual pace, to $58.5 trillion, the Federal Reserve said today in its flow of funds report from Washington.
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.
The Top 20 U.S. Android Apps
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, Mastercard to dominate mobile money?
In developed markets, their moves into the mobile payments space have been defensive, in an effort to prevent newcomers from eroding their market share.
In the emerging markets matters might be different. Even in these early days of industry fragmentation, it isn’t difficult to foresee a time when the card payments companies such as Visa and MasterCard will dominate.
In the emerging markets matters might be different. Even in these early days of industry fragmentation, it isn’t difficult to foresee a time when the card payments companies such as Visa and MasterCard will dominate.
In developing markets, Visa and MasterCard are taking different approaches. Visa and MasterCard have taken slightly different approaches thus far.
MasterCard has been busy setting up bilateral partnerships and joint ventures in different markets, such as The Philippines (Smart Hub) and Latin America (Telefónica/ Movistar). Its JV with Smart Hub will power the technical payments platform for its partnerships.
It has also launched a virtual debit card linked to a mobile wallet in Kenya (Airtel). The JV with Telefónica is particularly interesting given that no one has yet made serious inroads into the Latin American market.
Visa has gone a different route in purchasing Fundamo outright. Fundamo is the market leader in mobile payment platforms by deployments.
Visa, Mastercard to dominate mobile money?
MasterCard has been busy setting up bilateral partnerships and joint ventures in different markets, such as The Philippines (Smart Hub) and Latin America (Telefónica/ Movistar). Its JV with Smart Hub will power the technical payments platform for its partnerships.
It has also launched a virtual debit card linked to a mobile wallet in Kenya (Airtel). The JV with Telefónica is particularly interesting given that no one has yet made serious inroads into the Latin American market.
Visa has gone a different route in purchasing Fundamo outright. Fundamo is the market leader in mobile payment platforms by deployments.
Visa, Mastercard to dominate mobile money?
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.
FCC Testing White Spaces Databases
The Federal Communications Commission is testing the ability of white spaces databases to accurately correlate locations where unused TV spectrum can be used by unlicensed devices, while protecting TV broadcasts from interference.
White spaces are unused spectrum between TV stations and are considered prime real estate because signals in this band travel well, making the band ideally suited for mobile wireless devices, says Julie Knapp of the FCC.
Among the applications envisioned for such white spaces are "Super Wi-Fi", wireless broadband networks, support for video devices and services and machine-to-machine communications.
Among the applications envisioned for such white spaces are "Super Wi-Fi", wireless broadband networks, support for video devices and services and machine-to-machine communications.
Generally speaking, there will be much more spectrum available in rural areas than in urban areas. That should spark interest by service and application providers who want to build their businesses in rural areas. There will be spectrum available in urban areas as well, but there also are many more bandwidth options in dense, urban areas.
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.
France's mobile firms bid on 4G spectrum
France's four main operators submitted bids for frequencies to build fourth-generation mobile telephone networks.
Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Free all submitted bids for spectrum in the 2.6 gigahertz range, France's Arcep telecommunciations regulator said.
Bids for the 800 megahertz frequencies, more adapted for use in rural regions but carrying a higher price tag of 1.8 billion euros, close on December 15, 2011 with licenses to be awarded in early 2012.
Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Free all submitted bids for spectrum in the 2.6 gigahertz range, France's Arcep telecommunciations regulator said.
The frequencies, primarily for use in urban areas, were up for bidding at 700 million euros ($972 million), with the results expected in mid-October 2011.
Bids for the 800 megahertz frequencies, more adapted for use in rural regions but carrying a higher price tag of 1.8 billion euros, close on December 15, 2011 with licenses to be awarded in early 2012.
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.
SK Telecom launches SIM cards that add NFC to existing phones
Korean mobile network operator SK Telecom has announced it will make available near field communications-enabled subscriber information modules that enable existing mobile phones to be turned into NFC devices by simply replacing the existing SIM with one of the new NFC USIMs. The new NFC USIM will be available in October 2011 and SK Telecom will release a developer API at the same time. The new SIM is expected to cost $30 to $40.
The company plans to launch the product out in October 2011 for enterprise customers in Korea. This will be followed by roll out in overseas markets including China to accelerate the spread of mobile payment infrastructure.
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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