London Olympics Bans Personal Hotspots

Big, temporary events always pose a problem for access service providers. Because the large expected increases in access network use are temporary, it is difficult to add enough temporary capacity to cope with all expected demand. One way to manage expected congestion is simply to allow connections to slow, degrade and essentially create blockages.


So it is that, in addition to banning such obvious things as explosives and weapons from Olympic venues, attendees are advised by the London Olympics that personal wireless access points and and 3G hubs (smart devices such as personal hotspot devices or the personal hotspot functions of smart phones are banned from Olympic venues.


Android phones, iPhone and tablets are permitted inside venues, but must not be used as
wireless access points to connect multiple devices, the London Olympics says. 


The ban will be hard to enforce, but organizers say that, in principle, offending devices will be confiscated. 

Satellite Still Makes Sense in Rural Areas, Frontier Bets

The Frontier Communications Corporation wholesale agreement with Hughes Network Systems to create a branded, satellite-based broadband access service shows that debates over "which access network is best" miss the point. A range of networks "make sense" for different population 


Frontier will sell satellite-based broadband services, branded "Frontier Broadband, to what Frontier estimates are several hundred thousand households and small businesses within markets previously unserved or underserved by all broadband providers, including cable.


Notice that Frontier did not brand the service "Frontier Satellite Broadband." It is broadband, provided to some potential customers that Frontier cannot reach using its fixed network. 


As the mobile network provides huge value, even though raw speed is not as high as is possible on a fixed network, so a variety of technologies and networks make economic sense for urban, suburban, rural and isolated potential customers. No single network is "best" for every scenario. 


Still, each type of technology tends to be regulated using different rules. 


And it still raises regulatory hackles when contestants using different networks, and regulated under different rules, decide it makes sense to "cross the lines." That seems to be the case with the agency deals allowing Verizon to sell cable operator services, while cable operators can sell Verizon services.


Historically, the industry has seen strife over issues of which types of networks can receive funds from agencies that support rural communications, as well. Incumbent telcos have argued that it is unfair for competitive local exchange carriers or mobile carriers to receive support funds traditionally awarded only to fixed network telcos, even when the functional capability supplied by all of the contestants is precisely what the programs are supposed to support. 


Those debates are likely to become sharper in the future. 

Virgin Media Says 41% of New Customers Buy Broadband Access at 60 Mbps or Higher

Broadband customers on tiers of service offering speeds of at least 30 Mbps now represent 31 percent of its total broadband user base, according to Virgin Media. About 14 percent of all customers buy services at 60 Mbps or above. 


At least in part, that is because Virgin Media in April 2012 made 30 Mbps the entry level tier of service. 


Around 41 percent of Virgin Media new customers chose took speeds of more than 60 Mbps, while plans to double the speeds of four million users are well underway.


Virgin's experience confirms what most of you would suspect, namely that lower prices drive adoption of faster broadband access services. 


Virgin Media now sells service operating at 30 Mbps to 40 Mbps for £14.50 a momth. Also, says Virgin Media, the 30 Mbps service it sells is less costly than the 40 Mbps service marketed by BT.



Virgin Media services operating at 60 Mbps to 80 Mbps cost £18.50. Service at 100 Mbps costs £25.50 a month. 




Of course, Virgin Media's prices are lower than BT's prices, at each of the tiers. 

Amazon.com Launches a new Training Initiative

Amazon is launching a new, and as yet experimental, "Career Choice Program" for people who work at Amazon's fulfillment centers. 


The program is unusual. Unlike traditional tuition reimbursement programs, Amazon exclusively funds education only in areas that are well-paying and in high demand according to sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and funds those areas regardless of whether those skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.


Many of our fulfillment center employees will choose to build their careers at Amazon. For others, a job at Amazon might be a step towards a career in another field. We want to make it easier for employees to make that choice and pursue their aspirations. 


For people who've been with Amazon as little as three years, Amazon is offering to pre-pay 95 percent of the cost of courses such as aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technologies, medical lab technologies, nursing, and many other fields.

Square Near a Deal to Value It at $3.25 Billion

Square, the mobile payments supplier, is close to raising roughly $200 million in new funding, with an implied valuation of $3.25 billion, the NYTimes reports.


The funding represents the company’s third significant capital raising round in less than two years. In 2011, Square raised $100 million, valuing the company at $1.6 billion. Several months before that, Square had an investment at a $240 million valuation. All told, the company’s valuation has grown by 13.5 times in less than two years.


You can make your own determination about the appropriateness of the valuation. 

Apple: the Company that Used to Make Computers

These days, phones and other portable devices are what Apple makes and sells. The really surprising number, for some of us, is the dominance of "phones" in the revenue picture. 

Can 4G be Successful in India Even While 3G Isn't Established?

If India's Reliance Industries (Reliance Communications) does move ahead and build a national Long Term Evolution fourth generation mobile network, it will have to leapfrog third generation mobile networks just getting established in the Indian market.


By some estimates the total number of 3G subscribers in India is just about two percent of the total number of mobile phone users. India has 893.8 million cellphone users according to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).


So the big gamble is whether Reliance can leapfrog a whole generation of technology. Reliance's 4G network would be the largest of any outside the U.S. and Japan. 


India is expected to have more 4G wireless subscribers in four years—37 million—than Brazil, Russia or Indonesia, according to consulting firm Ovum. 

Looking at the broadband access market broadly, about nine percent of India's 1.2 billion people now have Internet access. Virtually everyone expects mobile to be the way most people in India get Internet access.


But what is unknown is whether 4G can leapfrog over 3G, at a time when even 3G is a very new service in the market, and such a small number of users (three percent, by some estimates) have smart phones. 


In May 2012, 3G adoption in India had reached perhaps 10 million to 12 million users. 





But some might argue the proper framework is not "3G" users but "Internet users." 

India has added 69 million Internet users between 2008 and 2011 and now has 121 million Internet users with a population penetration rate of 10 percent.

According to Mary Meeker, Kleiner Perkins  Caufield & Byers partner, India has 39 million 3G subscriptions as of the fourth quarter of  2011, with four percent penetration rate and 841 percent year over year growth. 

Reliance Communications has 3.2 million 3G subscribers(Q4 FY12), Idea has 2.6 million and Airtel has about 9 million 3G subscribers. Vodafone has 35 million data subscriptions including both 2G and 3G subscribers, including perhaps eight million or nine million 3G subscribers, Meeker estimates. 

She doubts that BSNL, MTNL, Aircel and Tata Tele have 15 million 3G subscribers between them.

But mobile Internet usage surpassed desktop Internet usage in India during the April 2012 May 2012 period. So it might not be unthinkable to argue that 4G could indeed leapfrog 3G, especially if the market is Internet access, not "mobile" Internet access.