Comcast Revs Up SME Effort

Comcast is kicking its business services initiative into higher gear. "Our total commercial revenue passed $100 million for the first time in the third quarter," says Steve Burke, Comcast COO. "We have hired and trained 750 business salespeople and trained 1,200 technicians to install and service business customers."

"Each of our 29 operating regions have now introduced Comcast business class as our commercial brand, supporting data, voice and television," he says. It will take some time for Comcast to iron out all the wrinkles, just as it took some time to fine tune the digital voice effort.

Some of you will remember a few stumbles Cisco took when it got into the IP communications business. The point is that as capable as they are, it will take some time before cable shows its ultimate skill. But it will.

AOL Mobile Site Created

AOL has developed a new mobile version of its online services, in line with the trend to optimize Web experiences for mobile access. Though the trend has been underway in any case, it might be fair to say that the sudden success of the Apple iPod has alerted the whole industry to the existence of a new mobile segment: high-end Web-centric users for whom Web applications and entertainment as as important as voice and text messaging.

And since over time, all phones are expected to become smart phones or feature phones, mobile-optimized Web sites are a must.

The upgrades include more mobile-friendly versions of AOL Search, Mail, MapQuest, and AOL Instant Messenger, among other features. The new mobile search, for instance, will offer results that are more tailored to users on the go, such as driving directions and click-to-call options linked to services like MapQuest and Moviefone.

A mobilized myAOL service will enable users to personalize the AOL mobile site by selecting news headlines, pictures, and RSS feeds. Separately, AOL plans to launch AOL MyMobile, a new application similar to Yahoo's Go service, by year's end.

It will allow Mobile Windows users to download a range of AOL services such as Mail, Cityguide and Search, and will remember recent requests to help speed searches on the fly.

A new mobile widget for GPS-enabled phones will also allow AIM users to locate each other, marking a step by AOL into the mobile social networking area.

As part of the new mobile push, AOL is also formally launching Winamp Remote, letting people access and listen to music stored on their computers from on their cell phones.

iPhone has changed some things and accelerated some things. Much faster movement towards mobile-optimized Web experiences is among those impacts.

Vonage Settles Verizon Lawsuit

Vonage has settled a patent lawsuit brought by Verizon Communications Inc. for an amount yet to be determined but not in excess of $120 million. Vonage already has put $88 million in escrow and the settlement caps any payouts Vonage will make on top of that amount at $32 million. Having settled a suit filed by Sprint, and nearing closure on the Verizon patent infringement lawsuit, Vonage still faces a patent lawsuit filed by at&t. The Verizon settlement is the third Vonage has had to make so far.

FiOS Goes 20 Mbps Symmetrical

Some residents of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey now are able to buy Verizon's new symmetrical 20 Mbps FiOS service. The 20/20 service costs $64.99 per month and includes Verizon's Internet Security Suite and 1 GByte of online backup (up to 50GB can be purchased.

A small business version is certain to be offered. Can you guess what this will do to T1 demand and pricing where the offer is available?

Boingo Tariff Optimized for Mobile Use Case

Boingo Wireless has created a new tariff aimed squarely at Nokia smart phone and tablet users. The new Boingo Mobile tariff means users of a half dozen Nokia devices automatically can connect to Boingo’s network for $7.95 a month (€5.95 or £3.95). Compatible devices include the N800, N810, N95, N91, E611 and E51.

The significance, it seems to me, is that Boingo is among the first broadband access providers to provide an actual consumer offer that matches many instances of the mobile device Web use case. Where a lap top user might reasonably expect to park at a hot spot for 30 minutes, a mobile user walking on the street might expect to use a Web application for three minutes. And a user might only require the access a few times a month.

So the issue really is matching the perceived value of the connection time, compared to the tariff. At some point, similar thinking will need to be applied to Wi-Fi-enabled devices of other sorts, such as cameras. It sometimes is useful or pleasing to be able to take a picture and send a picture right away. But the typical user is going to evaluate the cost of being able to do so in a different way than he or she would evaluate a monthly bucket of voice and data.

The other interesting angle is just how far one can push the ad hoc, partly available network idea. In the extreme, can one create a use case for devices that only operate on Wi-Fi? Though generally unappetizing for a voice device, are there scenarios where it works well enough for broadband Web access applications?

Also, what are the niches for dual-mode mobiles able to use wireless networks and Wi-Fi, but whose owners opt not to buy full-coverage, unlimited or large data plans? In other words, is Wi-Fi coveratge at home, in the office and at public locations satisfy a use case for enough potential users to create a sizable business?

Rivals Pooh Pooh iPhone

As was to be expected at a wireless show where enterprise applications are a big part of the content, rival handset manufacturers dismissed the iPhone's prospects as an enterprise device. Most of the barriers seemed to center on the lack of openness, compared to what is available on other platforms such as the Windows Mobile and Symbian platforms. Enterprise IT manager resistance was another frequently cited hurdle. Some pointed to the still-small volumes Apple can point to, in light of a market with an installed base of two billion. One executive quipped that his firm sold more phones "during lunch" than Apple has sold to date.

Still, Apple got begrudging respect for its design skills, ability to capture the essence of "cool" and for the way iPhone has singlehandedly changed handset design. The LG Prada, for example, features one such new look. Others pointed to the way Apple has pushed the U.S. market further in the direction of unlocked phones and consumer choice. Some pointed to Apple's unheard of ability to dictate terms to carriers used to getting their own way with handset providers.

Some said iPhone was a tipping point, milestone or landmark. It is the first phone that really puts Web experience right up there with voice performance. Up to this point high end phones have been about productivity. iPhone arguably is the first to put "fun" at the center of a high end device.

"For the first time, you have a Silicon Valley company disrupting the whole market," says Cyriac Roeding, CBS Mobile EVP.

Still, there are lots of other important segments, even though there seems universal agreement that, at some point, just about every phone sold in North America and Europe will be a smart phone. Not everyone is going to want a touch interface for text entry, as useful as it is for Web browsing. The HTC Touch seems to require fingers much smaller than mine, for example. The lack of tactile feedback seems to require some getting used to as well, though Nokia seems to have a solution for that.

Microsoft Aims to Mobilize the Enterprise

One issue enterprise information technology staffs must contend with is the difficulty of managing and securing mobile devices used by enterprise associates in the same way they manage desktop PCs. But Microsoft thinks it has a solution. Microsoft next year will roll out the Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, a new mobile-dedicated server solution that helps companies manage Windows Mobile phones as they would their Windows-based laptops and PCs.

Using Mobile Device Manager, companies can deliver new applications to phones over the air as well as by mobile virtual private network. Samsung's Blackjack II smart phone and at&t Wireless are two early partners.

Blackjack II, a new Windows Mobile 6 phone featuring GPS that will be updatable to support Mobile Device Manager, will be deployed by at&t in a Mobile Device Manager 2008 configuration.

In fact, at&t and Sprint both say they will support Mobile Device Manager for business customers next year.