Will Consumers Use More Than One Mobile Wallet?

It might not make as much sense for consumers to use multiple "mobile wallet services" compared to a single repository for credentials, but on the other hand there might be some compelling reasons to do so, as when a particular retailer does not support multiple wallet services. Also, despite the initial set-up of credentials in any wallet system, how much on-going hassle is it for a consumer to use multiple platforms?

In some cases, the offers available on leading wallet services might be different, meaning consumers can take advantage of multiple offers. From a retailer's point of view, fewer is better, for logistical reasons. But in all cases, it is arguably true that mobile wallets have an immediate advantage for retailers that "mobile payments" do not.

Mobile payments will require greater investment in terminal equipment and systems. Mobile wallets will also require some investment, but where a new "mobile payment" scheme offers questionable or subtle benefits for a retailer.

Mobile wallets are a vehicle for customer loyalty, customer acquisition and probably average sale size as well. That's quite a bit more substantial and immediate than simply adding one new form of payment.

"If the wallet doesn't have the merchant in mind, the relationship fails," says Phil Kumnick, senior business leader for global processing at Visa. "This should be about making the merchants' business better." Will Consumers Use More Than One Mobile Wallet?

Smartphones and Tablets Drive Nearly 7 Percent of Total U.S. Digital Traffic - comScore, Inc

Wi-Fi Offload podcast

Mobile phones and tablets now represent 6.8 percent of U.S. traffic in August 2011, with approximately two thirds of that traffic coming from mobile phones.

And users are shifting 37 percent of their mobile device access to fixed connections, using Wi-Fi. The percentage of usage grew nearly three percentage points in just three months.

In August 2011, nearly 10 percent of traffic from tablets used a mobile network connection, a fact of some importance for mobile service providers, since that means additional revenue.

Today, half of the total U.S. mobile population uses mobile media. The mobile media user population (those who browse the mobile web, access applications, or download content) grew 19 percent in the past year to more than 116 million people at the end of August 2011.

Smartphones, Tablets Drive 7% of U.S. Traffic

France Telecom Revenue, Profit Fall as Evolution Continues

France Telecom’s third-quarter 2011 profit fell by 5.2 percent to €3.99 billion. All regions in which it operates, except Spain, had negative results. In France, revenue dipped 4.6 percent.

But France Telecom grew customers by 8.6 percent, pointing to a profit margin erosion issue. France Telecom attributes 1.7 percent of the revenue pressure to regulatory change.

Some of the revenue weakness was caused by a delay in iPhone 4 availability, while slower SMS, voice and roaming income also played a role, as did declining home phone line connections. On the other hand, France Telecom is doing better on the market share front, and loss of landline accounts is slowing.

Everything Everywhere, the joint venture with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile UK, also saw revenue dip by 4.3 percent, with data and text messaging revenue growing 14 percent to comprise 42 percent of average per-customer revenue.

To be sure, the key revenue trends France Telecom is facing have been in place since the mid-2000s. As data from 2007 shows, mobile operators were almost certain to see a shift of revenue from voice to other services in the future, if only because mobile voice essentially was saturated, calling prices were high and VoIP alternatives were coming.

Also, a 2007 estimate of landline and mobile provider revenue contributors in five additional years showed about what one would expect. Analysts at the Yankee Group expected revenue from mobile data and TV, as well as broadband to be high-growth areas, and one would have to agree that has been the case. Beyond that, it has been much less clear what additional lines of business could fuel equivalent growth.

Up to this point, France Telecom primarily has used out-of-region strategies to maintain its growth, a strategy that is not exhausted.

France Telecom Profit Falls 5.2 percent

CTIA Backs Net Neutrality Rules

CTIA-the Wireless Association, a trade group that represents wireless carriers, filed a motion in federal court supporting the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality regulations. CTIA backs net neutrality rules: 


Four public interest groups, including Free Press, have sued the FCC, arguing that the agency's net neutrality rules do not go far enough. 

The CTIA filing might strike some as odd, to the extent that the industry group is supporting mandatory "best effort only" broadband access. Sometimes, half a loaf is better than no loaf. The rules allow mobile service providers greater freedom to manage their networks, in principle also preserving the ability to create quality of service mechanisms. 


Even for service providers that operate both fixed and mobile networks, freedom for the strategic mobile business means it is an acceptable compromise to give up the ability to create quality of service mechanisms for fixed line broadband access. 


Of course, there already is a challenge to all of the rules, filed by Verizon Wireless, so fixed-line interests are not completely sacrificed as a result of CTIA support for the net neutrality rules. 


For some, net neutrality is about denying ISPs the legal right to create new revenue-generating products that create quality of service mechanisms, as this is said to create a "two tier" Internet. Sometimes people mistakenly believe it is about "content blocking." 


In the former case, if there are restraint of trade issues, they can be dealt with by the Federal Trade Commission. There is a legitimate concern that ISPs might favor their own services over rival services by applying QoS only to "owned" services, not to all services willing to pay for such QoS. But many would note that other remedies already exist for such situations. 


In the latter case, the FCC and all ISPs already have agreed that consumers have the right to access all lawful content. 


For others it is about both consumer choice and network management, in the former case the right of a consumer to buy services that optimize voice, video or gaming experiences, in the latter case the simple necessity of managing a shared resource. In either case, anti-competitive conduct can be restrained by either effective market competition or the FTC. 

Time Warner Cable Loses Residential Voice Subs

Time Warner Cable grew its residential voice services revenue, but lost subscribers in its third quarter of 2011. The loss was slight, about 8,000 customer accounts on a base of about 4.5 million, but shows that voice is no longer a leading contributor to Time Warner Cable residential customer revenue growth. Neither is video, where Time Warner Cable lost 128,000 accounts.

High-speed data continued to grow revenues and subscribers, but is was business services that are showing the fastest growth rates.

Though smaller revenue contributors than any of the residential services, business high-speed data grew at a 16.7 percent annual rate, while business voice revenues grew 57 percent and wholesale transport grew 80 percent year over year. Time Warner Cable loses residential voice customers

Wholesale revenue was paced by mobile tower backhaul revenues.

Apple iPhone 50% More Bandwidth Efficient than Android?

Sprint thinks iPhone is 50% More Bandwidth Efficient

"There is a misperception that our launch of the iPhone will increase the load on Sprint 3G network and require us to spend more 3G capital," says Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. "The reverse is true."

"IPhone users are expected to use significantly less data than the typical user of a dual-mode, 3G-4G device," he says. Apple iPhone might help Sprint on bandwidth


"Even adjusting for more total new customers being added to the network, we believe it will put less load on our 3G network than they would have if we did not carry the iPhone."

Some of that difference might be due to user behavior, but some is undoubtedly related to signaling overhead, something AT&T worked on with Apple, and which is being addressed in the latest update to the Android operating system as well. Signaling overhead a big issue


As it turns out, mobile applications and handsets can be tweaked to reduce signaling load on mobile radios, something that alleviates network congestion. Signaling can cause congestion

YouTube’s top channels rival cable audiences

The top five channels on YouTube get the same number of average daily viewers as the top five U.S. cable channels, YouTube says. That's a fairly remarkable statistic, as it suggests the potential YouTube has to outgrow its somewhat chaotic past and become a venue for "the next generation of cable channels." YouTube’s top channels rival cable

As a way of creating a viable and interesting revenue stream for YouTube, that has huge promise.

Separately, comScore says 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in August 2011 for an average of 18 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in a record 6.9 billion viewing sessions. comScore reports YouTube traffic

Video music channels VEVO (60.6 million viewers) and Warner Music (30.9 million viewers) assumed the top two positions. Gaming channel Machinima ranked third with 17.7 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios with 10 million, Demand Media with 8.4 million and Revision3 with 6.6 million. Within the top 10 partners, TheGameStation demonstrated the highest engagement with 76.5 minutes per viewer on average. Machinima was a close second on average engagement at 72.6 minutes per viewer.

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YouTube Channel	Uniques (000)	Videos/ Viewer	Minutes/ Video
YOUTUBE.COM*	158064.57	114.3	3.1
VEVO	59708.68	14.1	4.7
Warner Music	31251.43	6.3	4.5
Machinima	16925.82	15.7	4.6
Demand Media	15222.32	3.0	4.0
Maker Studios	11445.24	8.9	4.3
Revision3	7593.84	3.4	4.6
Clevvertv	7301.64	2.4	4.3
Associated_Press__AP_	6580.30	2.2	3.8
IGN	5863.12	3.7	4.4
Next New Networks	4771.56	4.4	4.0
Discovery Communications	3831.53	2.8	4.1
Break Media	3727.32	2.9	4.1
Hearst Television Inc.	3102.47	2.1	4.0
Smosh	3051.76	8.8	4.3