Broadband Speeds Around the World

The latest data from Pando Networks suggests the "average" U.S. broadband speed, as experienced by  consumers, is only about 616 kbps. That's the actual "average" of user-experienced throughput, not headline speeds, and does vary significantly from location to location. Separate test by Ookla cited by the Federal Communications Commission show widely varying speeds in different cities, but running generally from 8 Mbps to 12 Mbps in 2010. Ookla tests

Recall the Technology Futures forecast that 40 percent of U.S. households would be buying services of about 6 Mbps, with 20 percent buying 24 Mbps and 20 percent buying services of about 1.5 Mbps. Average them all together and you wind up somewhere between 6 Mbps and 12 Mbps.

Pando Networks broadband speed survey

 

T-Mobile USA says 75 percent of 2011 were Smart Phones, 90% were Androids

T-Mobile's CMO Cole Brodman says over 75 percent of his company's phones sold in 2011 were smart phones, with 90 percent of those powered by Google's Android.

90 percent of T-Mobile USA 2011 smart phone sales were Android

Alcatel Lucent Talks About Mobile and its Business

Not every supplier of network infrastructure has to have a "mobile" orientation or solutions. To the extent that all traffic, no matter how the access is handled, has to flow quickly back into the network backbone, core infrastructure is relatively unaffected by the growing importance of mobile services.

But many firms have to start having such answers, especially when they plan in the access network. Here's some of what Alcatel-Lucent says.

Telstra LTE goes national in Australia, Articles | Mobile Business Briefing

Australian operator Telstra has launched the country’s first 4G Long Term Evolution networks in more than 30 regional and metropolitan areas.

The carrier said users in areas covered by the network can expect download speeds ranging between 2 Mbps and 40 Mbps, depending on distance from base stations and local conditions. This is 10 times faster than speeds claimed by Australian operators for 3G, according to Telstra.

Upload speeds should range between 1 Mbps and 10 Mbps, a three-fold speed increase compared to existing mobile broadband.

Some are going to argue that the LTE network will displace the need for optical fixed line connections. Undoubtedly, for some users this will be the case. There will be locations where a high-speed optical connection is not available. There will be some users so mobile that LTE will work. As video and other bandwidth-intensive applications become more popular, though, mobile networks will show their weaknesses, compared to fixed networks.

But there is one point we also should note. Telstra was quite intent on holding out for the right to light up its 4G network in return for agreeing to divest its fixed network. Simply, Telstra has bet its future on wireless, not fixed line services.

Telstra LTE goes national in Australia

Dish Network in Line to Get Hulu?

Hulu has not announced any decision on whether it will sell, or to whom it might sell. There are reports Dish Network was the highest bidder, coming in around $1.9 billion, topping both Amazon and Yahoo. Google bid much more, something in the range of $4 billion, but Google wanted special conditions. Google wanted more content for a longer period of time, and perhaps other concessions as well. Highest Bid For Hulu

But the bidders all figured out pretty quickly that the TV companies who own Hulu now want to phase out free ad-supported content completely. So as soon as the current set of Hulu contracts expire in a couple of years, it would be back to the negotiating table. In other words, aside from buying the brand, and some back office technology, the new owners would not be acquiring the existing set of content offerings, which is the whole point.

In April 2011 Jason Kilar, Hulu CEO noted that the company was on pace to approach half a billion dollars in revenue in 2011. In the first quarter, Hulu revenue grew approximately 90 percent over the first quarter of 2010. (Hulu did $263 million in revenue for all of 2010).

The content community will earn approximately $300 million through Hulu over the course of 2011. Hulu served approximately 50 percent more advertisers in the first quarter of 2011 than in the first quarter of 2010. Hulu revenue growth

Any new buyer would have to commit additional funds to get continued access to the content underlying that growth, though. 

Is Reed Hastings a Highly Unusual Business Leader?

Former Netflix co-founder says Reed Hastings is an extraordinarily bold leader, willing to risk the ire of millions of his customers to position the company for its future business, not its current business, says Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix. Essentially, the argument is that Hastings will once again sacrifice most of the company's current business to set the foundation for the next business.

What is unusual is the willingness to risk damage to the great bulk of its current revenue.

Randolph says the company had to make a similar decision earlier in the company's history, shutting down the DVD sale business at a time when it provided 95 percent of total revenue, to focus on the longer-term opportunity, which was rental, not sale.

"I would guess that 95 percent of our revenues were coming from the sales of DVDs," Randolph says. "Although this did pay some bills, it was obvious to us that this was not a sustainable business."

"It was inevitable that at some point in the near future we would have Amazon entering the DVD business," he said. "And then Walmart, all of which would have crushed our margins and slowly but surely driven us out of business."

Did Netflix screw up? I don’t think so.

Is Consumer Sentiment Now a Leading Indicator?

Consumer sentiment classically lags trends in the real economy. But a new survey by Ipsos of consumer sentiment around the world might suggest our rules are wrong at the moment. There is a reasonable argument that consumer sentiment at the moment is signaling another recession, in advance of the event. http://www.ipsos-na.com/download/pr.aspx?id=10992


According to a new report by Ipsos, consumer assessment of the current state of their country's economy for a total global perspective, looks "as if the world took a step backwards by five months." 


The global aggregate national economic sentiment dropped two points this month to 38 percent. The downward movement comes directly after a period of relative consistency for the global average. This measure takes us back to March 2011 and is on par with January 2010, says the report. 


All three metrics measured monthly: assessments of their current national economy (-2 points to 38 percent), current local economy (-2 pts to 29 percent) and future outlook (-1 pt to 24 percent), reflect this drop. And, the future outlook is in a continuous downward trend: from 31% positive outlook in March 2010 to 24% now.


While Europe continues to weigh down the global average, though its downward movement in this wave is only one point across the board. It's the Middle East and Africa as a region that shows the greatest downward shifts.


Some economists and observers have been warning that U.S. pundits and consumers could literally "talk us back into a recession," as a self-fulfilling prophecy would occur. All the talk of another recession would lead to consumers further restricting their spending, which then would cause the next recession.


If the Ipsos data is matched by consumer behavior, that might already have begun to happen. The novel aspect would be if consumer sentiment this time actually was a leading indicator, not a lagging indicator, as traditional economics suggests is the case. It's just one more sign that our normal rules of thumb appear not to be working.