The Internet is Changing

It is said one of the three largest U.S. cable operators now is using technology from Procera Networks to classify and prioritize packets on a much more granular basis than simple Multi-Protocol Label Switching would imply.

Traffic shaping, though some object to its use, seems not to be an optional practice anymore, as the Internet increasingly is asked to supply real-time services such as voice, video and audio that are tough to deliver with assured quality.

That's a big change for the Internet, to be sure. But it seems an irreversible change, precisely because the Internet and other IP networks now are asked to support real-time services that require quality of service control.

Procera Networks announced availability of the PacketLogic PL10000, the latest in the PacketLogic family of deep packet inspection products and said to be the industry's highest-performance DPI platform, with four times the capacity of its nearest competitor.With up to 80Gbps of throughput, PacketLogic PL10000 is purpose-built with tier one broadband network deployments in mind.

Generally available now, the PacketLogic PL10000 already has four service provider customers from around the world and is currently operating in production networks, said to include at least one of the largest three U.S. cable networks.

Procera Networks systems are used by universities and colleges to manage recreational Internet use at times of peak load, prioritizing academic applications. Some university users say compliance with copyright laws is another reason the Procera Networks solution makes sense.

There's a broader issue here. The Procera approach is in line with thinking that it is not enough to prioritize broad classes of applications. According to a developing line of thinking, service providers need to categorize and control specific applications and specific Web sites, or possibly specific users at specific times of day, not simply "real time" traffic or "email" or "file transfers.

That of course will strike some observers as a dangerous violation of historic Internet "anybody can connect to anybody" norms. But the Internet is changing, not least because users want high-quality voice, video and audio performance, and packet classification is a major tool to allow that sort of choice.

There are, to be sure, anti-competitive implications if an access provider wants to behave that way. One has to assume market forces and governmental action will dampen those impulses.

No doubt about it: the Internet is changing.

Sprint loses 1 Million Customers Last Quarter

Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse thinks the hits to operating income will stabilize by the end of 2008, so it is going to be a long year. Hesse declines to comment on speculation about a Nextel spin off, saying only that it might be complicated for technical reasons related to the way the company manages the separate Sprint and Nextel networks.

Tackling the churn problem is the number one job for the rest of the year, as day-to-day management of the WiMAX initiative will be handled by Clearwire executives.

Mobile Internet: More Messaging than Content

Communications--in the form of social networking--might be more important than content for the developing mobile Internet use. Or at least that's what analysts at Informa suggest.

Mobile social networking is based more on communication than content, the thinking goes. Time and again, communication services have led the way for content and advertising to follow, Informa argues. In the case of the Internet, it was e-mail and discussion boards—not Web pages—that triggered the explosion from early adoption to mainstream consumer use. In the mobile arena, the first really successful data service was text messaging. Short message service services drove mobile data use and they still account for the majority of mobile data revenues by carriers.

According to February 2008 research by Informa, the global market for all current forms of paid mobile entertainment should reach $31.7

billion by 2012. That's a lower forecast than predicted in 2006, when Informa suggested paid mobile entertainment would reach $42 billion by 2011.

In the U.S. market alone, mobile data service revenues reached $23 billion in 2007, according to industry trade group CTIA. Mobile messaging for SMS/MMS/IM/e-mail worldwide is expected to be between $100 billion and $200 billion by 2011.

Email Communities: 1.3 Billion Accounts

It might be over-reaching to describe every population of application users as an actual community, but each might be considered a passive, or potential community.
And much as instant messaging platforms frequently are referred to as creating social networks, so email communities in some ways also create the foundation for social networks of extremely large size.

The leading email providers in the U.S. market, for example, can claim as much as 1.3 billion accounts.

Is Social Networking a Videogame?

Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat asks a good question: "Is Facebook a video game?" The question is of immediate importance for the video game industry. "Funware," applications with game-like mechanics and game-like behavior, just might steal the thunder from video games, which may no longer have a monopoly on either interactivity or fun, Takahashi argues.

Web-based social interaction is changing the way that many people entertain themselves. Ask anybody who has discovered that Facebook is a "time waster."

Funware includes applications such as eBay, which made it fun to earn rewards as a competitive buyer or seller on its auction site. The term may also be applied to alternate-reality games such as “ilovebees.com,” where masses of players collectively solved a mystery about an invasion of earth.

The Google Image Labeler, created by Carnegie Mellon University researcher Luis von Ahn, is built around a game where two people try to simultaneously label an image and, without being able to communicate, try to come up with the same label for the image as the other person. The game also helps Google improve the accuracy of its image searches.

Flickr traces its origins to game industry veterans Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake, whose team stumbled upon photo-sharing while they were trying to make a game.

One of the ominous things for the video game industry is that almost none of these Funware ideas or businesses have come from game companies, which are now failing to catch on to an expansion opportunity, says Takahashi.

Funware game mechanics include things like leader boards, tournament challenges, ratings systems, badges for accomplishments, levels, and other things that can boost user engagement. Users find these features enticing because they elevate the user’s status in the eyes of the community.

Mediacom Upgrades to 20 Mbps

Anybody who thinks high-speed Internet access is not being offered to rural customers should take note: Mediacom Communications, which serves 1,500 non-metro communities scattered throughout 23 states, is upgrading its top of the line 15 Mbps service to 20Mbps downstream, 2Mbps upstream, by the end of June 2008.

That isn't to say rural penetration is as high as it is in urban or suburban areas, or that the number of providers is greater or that speeds are higher.

It is to say that rural providers know they've got to do better, and most executives at most companies have plans to upgrade.

Analysts Knock New Clearwire

Some financial analysts don't like prospects for the new Clearwire, says Eric Savitz Barron's writer. Savitz notes that Citigroup’s Michael Rollins dropped his rating on Clearwire to "sell" from "hold," because the stock now trades at a “substantial premium” to fair value, which he puts at $13 a share, down from a previous estimate of $17.