No Killer App for Verizon LTE?

One year after its launch, Verizon Wireless's 4G LTE network has failed to capture the imagination of the cell phone-buying masses, who still prefer the slower-connecting Apple iPhone by large margins, argues Paul Kapustka of Sidecut Reports.

With data-download speeds up to 10 times faster than previous technologies, it might seem that Verizon's "fourth generation," or 4G wireless network, would be a hot commodity in a mobile device-crazed world, says Kapustka.

But lack of a compelling new "4G-only" application is one possible reason why Verizon had sold fewer than 2 million 4G LTE-capable smart phones during the first nine months of 2011. he argues. Some of us also would argue that 3G is quite good enough for most smart phone users, at the moment.

By way of comparison, more than four million people bought the new Apple iPhone 4S the first weekend it went on sale, from Verizon as well as from AT&T and Sprint, Kapustka argues.

But we should not underestimate sales, either. Verizon sold more than a quarter-million units of its first 4G LTE phone, the HTC ThunderBolt, in just two weeks after its mid-March 2011debut. Those sales arguably were made to “early adopters” who had a reason to buy.

No Killer App for Verizon LTE? - Carrier Evolution

No Significant Cord Cutting Yet, But Maybe Serious Cord Avoidance

You can typically get a good argument about the imminent danger of video cord cutting (people giving up their entertainment video subscriptions) just about any day. Lots of observers warn about people substituting online and other sources for their TV and movie viewing, but a substantial number also would argue that there is a relatively insignificant amount of that sort of activity at the moment.


So far, the numbers seem to be on the side of doubters. Keeping matters in perspective, Comcast Corp., lost 442,000 video subscribers in the first nine months of 2011, fewer than in the same period last year. But Comcast also has about 22.4 million video customers and 49.4 million accounts if you include buyers of Comcast voice and high-speed broadband products.


Time Warner Cable Inc. lost 319,000 over the same period, according to the Wall Street Journal. Losing cable customers

But at the end of the third quarter of 2011, Time Warner Cable had 11.7 million video customers and 26.2 milliion buyers of its video, voice or broadband products.


Also, losses at cable companies are mostly defections of customers to rival satellite or telco providers, rather than outright defections from the ranks of video service providers. So the actual amount of abandonment arguably remains fairly low. No Significant Cord Cutting Yet, But Maybe Serious Cord Avoidance - Carrier Evolution

Verizon says LTE outages are IMS related

Recent multiple outages on the new Verizon Long Term Evolution network were caused by software bugs in the IMS core, according to Verizon Wireless VP of network engineering Mike Haberman. Verizon says IMS is culprit behind LTE outages

All three outages were caused by problems in Verizon’s service delivery core, the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) which is used for signaling on the LTE network.

While IMS has been around for some time, Verizon’s is the first implementation in an LTE network and it has continued to be a problem spot ever since April 2011, when a software bug originating deep within the IMS core led to a complete failure, kicking LTE customers off both Verizon’s 3G and 4G networks nationwide.

Verizon to Charge Customers $2 Fee, NOT

Verizon Wireless, in an apparently ill considered move, announced and then rescinded a plan that would have added a $2 surcharge whenever customers made one-time credit care payments using either online or voice customer service channels. Verizon to Charge Customers $2 Fee When Paying Bills Online


Virtually immediate consumer opposition, plus the apparent dislike of the move at the Federal Communications Commission, lead Verizon to withdraw the plan soon after it was announced.

The plan, which would have begun January 15, 2012, would have applied to customers who make single bill payments online or by telephone.

Mobile Payment Value Elusive, So Far

One common assumption about using mobile devices in a "wave and pay" application is that such alternate ways of paying for retail and other transactions necessarily will "cost retailers less" than existing methods such as paying by credit card or debit card, providing a business model for retailer adoption.

Specifically, there is some hope or expectation that retailers might be charged less money for each transaction than they now pay for supporting credit card payments. The transaction fee of about 3.5 percent is the typical target.

So far, these hopes have proven difficult. In fact, though many observers would note problems, debit card fees recently have been slashed by the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial services reform law, and not by any change in technological method. Debit card issuers have lost revenue, retailers have gotten lower transaction fees, but issuers still will have to make up the lost revenue some way, by raising other fees, cutting costs, or both.

Beyond that, in many cases, alternative methods, including putting charges on cell phone monthly statements, or alternative methods such as Square, actually do not save money, or even cost more than using credit card payments. Mobile money and transaction fees

Common expectations about value for end users likewise have proven elusive, to date. One advantage of "wave and pay" is the time savings. At some point, with volume deployment and consumer experience, that will be true. Right now, it is arguably the case that consumer inexperience means more friction at the point of sale. So even the hoped-for transaction time savings might not be seen, in practice. That will change over time, with greater experience.

Still, the point is that mobile payments, which largely are in early deployment or testing stages, have not yet created an obvious and significant value proposition either for retailers or end users, with the notable exception of the Starbucks mobile payment system. So 2011 was not the "year of mobile payments," nor will 2012 be that year. There will be significant progress, though.

Facebook was Made for Mobile

Sometime in the last couple of days, the monthly active users of Facebook’s mobile apps passed 300 million, says analyst Benedict Evans.


That is 37.5 percent of the 800 million total monthly active users Facebook disclosed in September 2011, when Facebook said there were 350 million monthly active mobile users, making Facebook one of the most mobile-centric online services out there.


Facebook's 300 million app users

"Latency" Issues Not Under Full Service Provider Control

Network service providers can do many things to optimize bandwidth and latency on their networks. But it also is true that networks cannot optimize most end points on their networks, nor can they control peak load.


That means that latency as a problem can be remedied only partially by steps network service providers can take. 

First person shooter games such as Call of Duty rely on low network latency in order to keep pace with players’ reaction times, and can offer a competitive advantage in multiplayer games.

"Hardcore gamers" often recognize latency as a key criterion when selecting their network provider. That, in turn, poses questions for service providers. How gaming is changing the data center

There are some known ways to reduce latency, such as reducing distance packets travel, for example. Beyond that, one might argue that most latency results from the devices and servers used in sessions, which are, by definition, not under the control of a network operator.

Still, minimizing distance packets must travel, or unnecessary protocol conversions, will help improve latency performance. Peak bandwidth demand, on the other hand, has to be approached differently. Adding new capacity, convincing users to regulate their usage or traffic shaping are potential tools in that regard. But adding capacity does not always automatically improve latency performance.

That implies that the techniques used to improve performance of a network under congestion are different from the tools used to manage latency performance. Caching and other techniques that put server resources "closer" to users are one way networks can be designed to minimize latency issues.


But those decisions have to be made by application providers.