Claro will Zero Rate Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp

America Movil’s Brazilian mobile unit, Claro, will zero rate access to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, allowing its customers to use those apps without buying a data plan, or charging usage against data plans.

Separately, European legislators likely will not support a European Union (EU)-wide ban on positive price discrimination, which allows operators to provide unlimited free access to certain services such as Facebook, Wikipedia and music streaming services, Reuters reports.

Networks Will Drive Computing Advances

Networking and networks will drive computing in the future, said Amin Vahdat, Google fellow and technical lead for networking. "Networking is at an inflection point in driving next-generation computer architecture," Vahdat said.

"What computing means will largely be dependent on our ability to build great networks over the years," Vahdat noted.

To give you some idea of how long major changes in computing architecture can take, consider that it was in 1984 that Sun Microsystems first began talking about the concept that “the network is the computer.”

As so often happens, the direction was right but the timing was early. The network, in the 1980s, could not effectively support what we now call cloud computing.

Fundamentally, the architecture was a cloud-based computing fabric, where most “computing” took place remotely, not at an end user terminal.

Yet only recently has that become a reality, with the popularity of cloud-based applications that make the network, if not THE computer, then the functional equivalent of the computer bus.

Comcast in Talks to Buy T-Mobile US?

Deutsche Telekom reportedly is in talks with Comcast about a possible purchase of T-Mobile US , a move that could vault Comcast immediately into the top ranks of U.S. mobile service providers, while imperiling Dish Network’s valuation, and its ability to monetize its significant mobile spectrum assets.

As with all such reports, there are many reasons for such information to leak. DT might actually hope it can sell for a higher price to Comcast. At the very least, having other serious bidders provides negotiating leverage.

But part of the attraction also could be Comcast’s willingness to assume full control, buying all outstanding shares of T-Mobile US. That would allow DT a full and immediate exit from the U.S. market.

There always could be regulatory issues. Dish Network might have an easier time gaining antitrust approval.

And, as always, the parties might not be able to agree on fundamental terms. Still, Comcast is a strategic buyer; T-Mobile US a strategic seller. And some have suggested a Dish Network purchase of T-Mobile US would eliminate some other eventual buyers of that whole asset, namely Comcast.

One must assume it is impossible for any of the four largest U.S. mobile firms to acquire or merge with each other, based on past regulatory decisions and views. That leaves only other third parties.

Should Dish Network decide not to bid for T-Mobile US, or should any such bid be rejected by Deutsche Telekom, Dish Network likely would have to consider a major network sourcing deal with Sprint, something the Sprint network now is specifically crafted to support.

That would still leave Dish Network requiring additional assistance on the marketing and operating fronts, however, Having a network is one thing. Creataing an effective national sales and fulfillment presence is quite another challenge.

Dish already has tried, unsuccessfully, to buy Sprint and Clearwire, nor is SoftBank likely to want to sell, so a Dish acquisition of Sprint is unlikely.

Consumers Say They Want to Pay $2 Per Channel, and No More than $38 a Month for Entertainment Video

Surveys of consumer preferences for some products are notoriously out of step with actual consumer behavior. So it is with consumer sentiments about video entertainment.

According to a survey of more than 3,100 consumers in the United States and Canada, respondents preferred buying channels on an à la carte basis. That should come as no surprise: choice is a powerful consumer impulse.

On the other hand, consumers also indicated they would pay no more than $38 for 17 channels, in other words, about $2 a channel, according to the Digitalsmiths Corp. Q1 2015 Video Trends Report.

In the Digitalsmiths survey, the top three networks consumers said they wanted were ABC, the Discovery Channel and CBS. Really? That reminds some of us of the surveys taken over decades that showed surprisingly high interest in public broadcasting stations that never seemed to match actual behavior.

That noted, the success enjoyed by Netflix could offer any number of suggested implications. Consumers clearly are willing to pay about $8 a month for streaming access to a wide variety of TV shows and movies. But how much more they are willing to pay for is the question.

More than 46 percent of respondents said they use Netflix, while Amazon Prime usage hovered around 19 percent. Hulu and Hulu Plus were viewed b about 11 percent of respondents.

Most of the respondents who reported they buy over the top streaming services spend between $6 and $11 per month. Many of us would consider that a likely floor, rather than a ceiling.

Spending in the $9-to-$11 category grew from just over 19 percent in 2014 to 22 percent in the first quarter of 2015. In other words, there seems to be demand for higher spending, if providers can create the right packages.

At question, though, is appetite for large packages of “channels.” Consumers might, or might not, continue to value “big bundles” of channels, compared to less-expensive smaller bundles, in the future.  

Cablevision Systems Corp., for example, appears to believe it could well lose 20 percent to 25 percent of its basic cable subscribers--those buying its standard “big bundles”--in about five years. Those customers might choose rival over the top streaming services or downgrade to smaller bundles.

Global Mobile Service Revenue Drops for 3rs Straight Year

Global mobile service revenue fell two percent in 2014 year over year, to $781 billion, according to the IHS Infonetics. That marks the third straight year of global revenue decline.

“Hobbled by mobile saturation and continuous weak consumer spending across the board, the mobile services market in EMEA dropped 14 percent in 2014 from the prior year,” said  Stéphane Téral, IHS research director for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics.

As always, aggregate statistics hide regional divergences. Mobile services revenue grew seven percent between 2013 and 2014 in the Caribbean and Latin America region.

Revenue was flat in North America and Asia Pacific (China slowed).

Overall, mobile broadband revenue rose nearly 33 percent year over year in 2014, but voice and messaging declined at double digit rates.

For the second year in a row, voice revenue and usage decreased in 2014

IHS forecasts global mobile broadband revenue to grow at an 11.7 percent compound annual growth rate from 2014 to 2019.

High Speed Access More Profitable Than Video by 7:1 Margin, Cablevision Says

Make no mistake, high speed access is far and away the most-profitable service sold by the firm to its consumer customers.

Speaking at the Guggenheim TMT Symposium in New York, James Dolan,  Cablevision Systems Corp. CEO said that the company's high speed access services outperform its linear TV services “hugely” in terms of profitability.

"The video product itself has lost a tremendous amount of margin," he said. "Dollar for dollar, the data product outperforms the video product seven to one at our company in terms of profit.”

Dolan believes the number of customers paying for the traditional big bundle of TV channels is going to shrink by about 20 percent to 25 percent over the next five years, as programmers themselves go direct to end users, over the top alternatives gain popularity and distributors create and market smaller video bundles.

"Connectivity has really become our number one product," Dolan said.

KT Launches Giga LTE for Gigabit Download Speeds

KT Corp. plans to  commercialize the world’s fastest mobile network, called “Giga LTE,” that apparently provides that speed by bonding both Wi-Fi and LTE capacity, the Korea Herald reports.  

Giga LTE supports a maximum download speed of 1.17 Gbps, about 15 times faster than the LTE and four times faster than the LTE-Advanced. Presumably the system uses some form of carrier aggregation.  

Giga LTE also provides upload speeds 10 times faster than LTE-A, and relies on use of Samsung smartphones including the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.

“Another five to six more high-end and mid-end Samsung handsets, compatible with the Giga LTE, will be released in the latter half of 2015 along with some LG Electronics handsets, Korea Telecom says.