Spellchecking in 3 Languages Simultaneously, on Chrome Canary

The developer version of Google's Chrome operating system (Chrome Canary) includes a feature allowing spellchecking of three different languages, simultaneously.

It's now enabled in the experimental Chromium Canary Chrome Canary browser on Windows, ChromeOS or Linux. 

Can 5G Fix Profit Per Bit Per Hertz Problem?

Mobile operators have faced a rather persistent problem where it comes to profit margins on Internet access services. Simply, revenue generation has lagged consumption.

Is that the sort of problem fifth generation networks can solve? In some ways, yes. Each generation of mobile networks tends to be more efficient, in terms of bits per Hertz, than the earlier generation, and that likely will be true for fifth generation networks as well.

Still, as we already have seen, perhaps it is ability to shift access to Wi-Fi that most accounts for greater efficiency. In other words, the radio networks become more efficient, and generate more revenue per bit, when significant traffic demand is offloaded to the fixed network.

Not surprisingly, that is expected to be a big feature of 5G networks. Still, the issue is whether data access actually can be priced so that revenue exceeds the cost of supplying demanded bandwidth.

That will remain a big challenge. For starters, people seem to use more data with each passing year, and video consumption is a huge driver of that trend. That is an issue.

Video consumes so much bandwidth, and yet video content is priced so low, relative to the consumption, that there are limits to what mobile operators can charge.

Consider the example of a Netflix subscription costing $8 a month and offering the ability to stream movies that consumer up to a gigabyte per movie. If you assume a mobile gigabyte of usage costs between $7 a gig and $15 a gig, you see the problem.

Any significant amount of usage will drive data charges beyond the consumer’s willingness to pay, unless offload to Wi-Fi is readily available.

Fixed Internet access networks with effective usage limits in the hundreds of gigabytes are one thing. Mobile allowances typically in single digits are another matter.

The point is that it might never actually be possible to price consumed Internet capacity in a way that closely associates price and consumed bits, in a linear manner, and with consistently satisfactory profit margins.

Ironically, the more success mobile operators are with low-bandwidth Internet of Things applications and sales, the better the odds profit margins can be sustained. Narrowband applications (voice, messaging) traditionally have had the highest profit margins in the mobile business, in a bits per Hertz sense.

And that likely is key to 5G and future profit margins, on a profit per bit per Hertz basis. Sell the apps, not the access.

Ericsson, SK Holdings to Collaborate on IoT Apps

Ericsson and SK Holdings have signed an agreement to collaborate on creating global Internet of Things platforms for industry sectors including healthcare and transportation.

In addition, the partners said they will work on solutions for disaster recovery related to IoT as well as IoT authentication and security in the Asia Pacific area.

There is a reason for the interest. Fixed networks connected places. Mobile connected people. IoT will connect objects. Each new segment represents a market an order of magnitude larger than the former.

So connected places might represent a universe of about a half billion places. Connecting people represents a potential market of five billion. Internet of Things might represent 50 billion objects.

How Much of $152 Billion in Connected Car Revenues Will Mobile Ops Get?

Services related to the connected car market will generate as much as $152 billion by 2020, including the value of hardware and software, according to Business Insider Intelligence.

Relatively little of the total revenue is likely to be generated by the “access” function (the equivalent of a mobile or fixed network Internet access subscription). Most of the revenue will be reaped by providers of services or apps, which suggests the direction mobile service providers are likely to continue taking in the connected car markets.

One reasonable hypothesis is that auto industry related firms are in position to win most of the revenue, as the biggest categories are vehicle management and safety. In those market segments, mobile service providers are likely to be supplies of access, more than the actual application or service providers.

Mobile providers logically should do best in the mobility management area, and could be significant providers in the driver assistance, entertainment or well being apps categories, to mention a few possible segments.

Investors Seem to Expect Reliance Jio to Damage Incumbents

When any well-heeled and experienced new competitor enters a market, especially with a business plan that includes offering big discounts and a different platform,  other contestants are likely to face some disruption.

That appears to be the case in India, where Reliance Jio is launching its mobile service. Equity values for Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular, a couple of the incumbent service providers, have been dipping since July 2015.

Investors might signaling an expectation that Reliance Jio will cause revenue and profit damage at the incumbent firms.

source: livemint

China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom Revenue Growth Slows, Profits Dip

Maturing markets now are a growing problem for China’s mobile operators. Mobile revenue growth has slowed and profits are negative, even as subscribers are added, at China Mobile and China Telecom, in the first half of 2015.

In part, that is because China Mobile is investing heavily in the Long Term Evolution network. In part,  “severe challenges from intensified competition” also are key.

For China Mobile, first half operating revenue grew 4.9 percent, year over year, for the whole company. Revenue from telecommunications services grew 0.5 percent, mostly from the fourth generation networks and mobile data operations.

In fact, China Mobile says, revenue from wireless data traffic grew by 40.1 percent, year over year “and was the primary driver of the growth of revenue.”

China Telecom service revenues for the first half of 2015 were flat, while operating revenue was down, though mobile service revenues were slightly higher. Cash flow was slightly positive, but profts dipped four percent.

China Unicom does not seem to have fared better, either. In the first half of 2015 China Unicom revenue dipped mroe than three percent, while mobile service revenue dropped nearly 10 percent. Despite that, China Unicom grew its profits, however.

Financial Performance in H1 2015 (RMB Billions)
	Total revenue	YoY change	Mobile service revenue	YoY change	Net profit	YoY change
China Mobile	340.7	4.90%	299.5	0.50%	57.3	-0.80%
China Telecom	165.0	-0.60%	62.3	0.60%	11.0	-4.00%
China Unicom	144.7	-3.30%	73.5	-9.70%	7.0	4.50%
Source: companies.

Customer Growth in H1 2015 (Millions)
	Mobile customer adds	Total mobile customers	4G adds	Total 4G customers
China Mobile	10.57	817.20	99.60	189.66
China Telecom	5.82	191.44	22.00	29.00
China Unicom	-9.8	289.30	N/A	N/A
Source: companies.

The point is that every product sold in the telecommunications industry now has a product life cycle. That was not so obvious in the former monopoly environment.

So even in former high-growth regions, mobile services, which have been the global growth driver, have reached the mature phase. In many markets, voice and messaging services are starting to decline, while growth is coming from mobile Internet access.

That explains why there is such intense interest in the telecommunications industry, especially the mobile segment, about the Internet of Things and machine-to-machine services.

Markets built on sales of services and things to humans are reaching a limit. At some point, nearly every human who wants to use mobile services, mobile devices and connections will have become a customer.

To sustain growth, brand new markets have to be created or discovered. That is why services sold to enterprises operating sensor and command and control networks are seen as the next big wave of development.

Internet of Things might not turn out to be as big as executives hope. If so, some other equally important new revenue contributors will have to be found.

China Mobile, China Telecom Profits Dip
Firm	Profitin RMB	YoY change	Mobile Revenue (RMB)	YoY change	2015 Capex (RMB)	4G sub add	4G Subs	Subscribers
China Mobile	57.3 bln	-0.80%	299.5 bln	0.50%	199.7 b	99.6 mln	189.66mln	817.2 mln
China Telecom	11 bln	-4%	62.3 bln	0.60%	107.8 bln	22 mln	29 mln	191.44 mln

Cable TV Entry into Telecom is the Most Significant Fruit of the Telecom Act of 1996

It might soon be possible to conclude that the most-significant fruit of the Telecom Act of 1996, which legalized competition in the U.S. local telephone business, was the emergence of cable TV as a facilities-based supplier of competition for incumbent local exchange carriers (“telcos”).

While the Telecom Act also underpins the ability of efforts such as Google Fiber and other independent Internet service providers, it is the cable TV industry (especially Comcast and Charter Communications, which now has emerged as the Verizon and AT&T of the cable TV segment) that represents the main challenge to telco providers.

The last remaining support for that thesis is cable TV’s entry into the top ranks of the mobile business. But that will come, and likely in the form of a Comcast acquisition of T-Mobile US, argues Tim Horan, Oppenheimer analyst.

Sprint and Dish Network would be the wild cards, in that event. Many have speculated that Dish Network ultimately would sell its spectrum, with Verizon being the most logical buyer.

That would still leave Dish Network with a basically untenable future, leading to a sale. If Dish Network really decides to make a go of the mobile business, and if T-Mobile US were a part of Comcast, it might decide to source wholesale capacity from either Sprint or Verizon, in an effort to build a branded mobile business.

Some of us cannot see a long term independent future for Sprint, either, so one way or the other, another provider could enter the top ranks of the U.S. mobile business.

Telco entry into entertainment video, one might argue, has had, and will have, far less impact on the overall communications business, even if, by mid-1998, the old Ameritech had gotten video franchises in some 75 communities and the old BellSouth had gotten video franchises in 18 or so markets. GTE, meanwhile, also had entered the video business.

The telco move into video had begun, on a national scale, as early as 1993, the year that Bell Atlantic and TCI almost merged.

Most have forgotten that AT&T once owned Tele-Communications Inc., then the largest U.S. cable TV company. TCI executives at the time (1998) argued that the new firm would “redefine the telecommunications industry.”

So perhaps you can say cable executives were right about the redefinition, just not the role of AT&T as an owner of TCI assets.

Once Comcast enters the mobile business, the transformation will be complete. The leading cable TV and telco entities will compete, on a facilities basis, across the full range of services sold to consumers and businesses, though the relative revenue and market shares in various product lines will remain unequal.