U.S. SMB Spending on UC up 16% Annually Through 2015

U.S. small and mid-sized business spending on unified communication will grow at a 16-percent compound annual growth rate through 2015, from its current total of about $1.8 billion, according to AMI-Partners. At those rates, U.S. small and medium businesses will be spending about $3 billion on UC in 2015. SMB UC spendiing up by 16% annually through 2015?

More than one-third of small businesses (firms with less than 100 employees) and nearly three quarters of medium-sized companies (firms with 100–999 employees) currently own at least one unified communications component technology, according to IDC.

More than 30 percent of small firms and 55 percent of mid-size firms cite plans to add at least one UC component in the next 12 months, IDC said. VoIP technology has established a solid foothold in the medium-sized business segment, and more than 30 percent of firms with 100 to 999 employees use it. Also, approximately 45 percent of medium-sized businesses currently use some type of conferencing technology.

But what does that mean? At one level, it might mean that there is some use of one UC tool, but not completely unified communications. It might mean Skype gets used. It might also mean that the entire communications platform is completely unified in terms of messaging functions, call delivery or device support. UC growth rates

How Steve Jobs Influenced Google

Steve Jobs apparently gave Larry Page, Google CEO, some advice recently:

"We talked a lot about focus. And choosing people. How to know who to trust, and how to build a team of lieutenants he can count on. I described the blocking and tackling he would have to do to keep the company from getting flabby and being larded with B players. The main thing I stressed was focus. Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up. It's now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they're dragging you down. They're turning you into Microsoft. They're causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great."

How Steve Jobs Influenced Google's Restructuring

Mobile Social Networking Grows 50% to 75%

In August 2011, the number of people who accessed Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter from mobile devices grew 50 percent, 69 percent and 75 percent, respectively, over the same period a year earlier, according to comScore.

Facebook was home to the largest mobile audience among the three social networking sites, attracting 57.3 million mobile users in August, followed by Twitter with 13.4 million users and LinkedIn with 5.5 million users.

Social Networking via Mobile Devices Surging

Mobile Broadband Faster than Fixed Line?

There is an interesting bit of data in the latest report from Akamai on global Internet usage. The global average fixed-line connection speed was 2.6 Mbps, and the global average peak connection speed was 11.4 Mbps.

Looking at mobile broadband connections, average connection speeds on known mobile providers ranged from 5.3 Mbps down to 209 kbps, while “average” peak connection speeds ranged from 23.4 Mbps down to 1.2 Mbps.



The interesting observation is that wireless broadband has the higher peak speeds, about double that of fixed line connections, with a variable “average” speed that in some cases also is twice as high as fixed-line connections, though such sessions are highly variable. When mobile broadband is slow, it is an order of magnitude slower than fixed line connections. Global broadband speeds

Google considers building fiber network in Europe

Google Senior Vice President David Drummond Friday said Google is considering building a fiber network in a European country. As was the case when Google earlier began experimenting first with municipal Wi-Fi and now the fiber to the home network in Kansas City, the effort is to sway policy debates. 1 Gbps test


Google believes rightly that its own business benefits from ubiquitous and capacious broadband. So anything it can do at reasonable cost to stimulate further investment is viewed as a reasonable marketing investment. Municipal Wi-Fi

During a meeting at the French Industry Ministry, Drummond said that Google was "looking very closely" at a potential project in Europe, without specifying where this project would be launched or when. Google considers building fiber network in Europe

This wouldn't be its first foray into networks. The U.S company has already announced a plan to build an experimental ultra-fast broadband network in Kansas City.


Google's interest comes as European telecoms operators are under pressure to up investment in high speed broadband networks across the continent. 


What isn't so clear is whether the demonstration projects will have much impact. Fixed-line broadband access plant is not primarily a "software" matter that is amenable to clever coding. The input costs are well known, and Google will not have access to any tools the rest of the global industry is unaware of or unable to use or buy. 


That suggests Google will not be able to produce some new investment cost breakthrough that has wider commercial implications. Google might suggest that this is not the issue, rather the point is to provide lots of bandwidth and then see what users and developers can do. 


It is hard to see how a small test will offer the scale to entice any serious new applications, either. Since many studies suggest that people spend more time online and consume more bandwidth when they have access to faster connections, nobody would be surprised if there was some stimulative impact. 


But the likely impact in the consumer space is likely to be that people watch more streaming video, play more games and spend more time on social networks. 

Cable Deal for T-Mobile USA?

With the Justice Department having filed suit to block the proposed AT&T purchase of T-Mobile USA, what is T-Mobile's plan if the deal falls through? It doesn't appear that T-Mobile USA actually has had a "plan B." But many speculate that if the AT&T acquisition is blocked, it will also signal that Sprint will not be allowed to buy T-Mobile USA, either.

That will leave T-Mobile USA in a tough position, as it needs spectrum to launch Long Term Evolution, and will emerge from the merger process weakened in the retail market.

Bernstein Research senior analysts Robin Bienenstock and Craig Moffett say the most likely scenario is not a Sprint merger but a spectrum deal with cable operators Comcast and Time Warner, both of which own spectrum T-Mobile USA could use to launch LTE services. The cable operators could monetize their spectrum and provide backhaul services.

To the extent that cable operators sell a wholesale service, they might then use T-Mobile USA rather than Clearwire. That would be more bad news for Clearwire.

Cable Deal Could Be T-Mobile 'Plan B

Is "4G Plus DirecTV" a Viable Alternative to FiOS?

Verizon Wireless seems to be cooking up an out of market “video plus broadband” plan, working with DirecTV. During its recent quarterly earnings report, Fran Shammo, Verizon Communications EVP said that the company was working on such an effort.

“You're going to see that come in the fourth quarter with the what we now call the Cantenna, which is not a commercial name obviously, but it's the antenna that we actually trialed with DIRECTV, which was extremely successful,” said Shammo.

Some will legitimately wonder whether that approach might even wind up being used in some Verizon markets where FiOS has not already started to be deployed. LTE plus DirecTV

There are some significant Verizon markets including cities like Boston, Buffalo, N.Y, Baltimore and Alexandria, Va. where FiOS construction has not started.

The obvious new question is the rational approach Verizon should take to upgrading its fixed-line network. There isn’t much doubt about optical access media being more resistant to some weather-related impairments than copper networks, nor is there much doubt that new optical facilities cost less to maintain than older copper networks.

But the business question is how much incremental investment ought to be made in the fixed network,  if video and broadband services can be provided using the wireless network. One might rationally argue that the cost of maintaining the fourth generation wireless network is lower than the cost of maintaining the FiOS network.

Obviously, if that is true then the avoided capital investment in new optical facilities is significant as well. That isn’t to argue that fixed and wireless networks are in any way equivalent in terms of absolute bandwidth. But there is a financial question.

If the expected revenue and operating cost advantage of FiOS, compared to 4G, does not provide the optimal financial return, then a wireless solution might be the most-rational way to invest new capital.

The problem is that voice is a negligible contributor to incremental revenue on a FiOS network, while video, though an important contributor of revenue, is not such a great contributor to profits. That leaves broadband, and revenue upside is tough.

That is not to say fiber to home facilities are unimportant, merely to say that they might not be the best use of capital for a provider that also is investing heavily in mobile broadband.

In fact, there is an interesting bit of data in the latest report from Akamai on global Internet usage. The global average fixed-line connection speed was 2.6 Mbps, and the global average peak connection speed was 11.4 Mbps.

Looking at mobile broadband connections, average connection speeds on known mobile providers ranged from 5.3 Mbps down to 209 kbps, while “average” peak connection speeds ranged from 23.4 Mbps down to 1.2 Mbps.

The interesting observation is that wireless broadband has the higher peak speeds, about double that of fixed line connections, with a variable “average” speed that in some cases also is twice as high as fixed-line connections, though such sessions are highly variable. When mobile broadband is slow, it is an order of magnitude slower than fixed line connections. Global broadband speeds