Monday, July 12, 2010

Indian Operator Aims at Wireless Broadband Market

Infotel Broadband Services plans to use its 20-MHz worth of national wireless spectrum in India to make a dent in that country's roughly one-percent broadband services penetration. But the company will not be able to offer switched voice services, according to the terms of its license. The restriction means Infotel will offer a fairly focused data access service, with users able to use PC-to-PC calling services to other Infotel subscribers.

The restriction illustrates the foundational impact regulation has on business models. Some observers say Infotel can only get so big while it has no ability to offer full mobile voice, which would require that it acquire another firm able to do so (a 2G or 3G provider, for example).

Government officials note that 30 percent to 40 percent of  36 million fixed line connections in India are not capable of supporting broadband services.

read more about Infotel

read more about fixed broadband in India

Friday, July 9, 2010

How Apple Hopes to Dominate its Rivals

Social Media Dominates Asia Pacific Internet Usage | Nielsen Wire

Social media usage has seen unprecedented growth in Asia Pacific in the past year and is now one of the most critical trends in the online sector, according to Nielsen.

A new survey found that three of the seven biggest global online brands are social media sites: Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube.

Close to three quarters of the world’s Internet population (74 percent) have now visited a social networking or blogging site, and Internet users are spending an average of almost six hours per month on social media sites.

Korea is one of the most social media engaged countries in the world, with the country’s leading social media site, Naver, attracting 95 percent of the Korean Internet population every month.

Japanese Internet users are the most avid bloggers globally, posting more than one million blogs per month, significantly more than any other country in the region.

Cisco Touts "Connected Conversations"


Services, not raw speed, is where consumers think the value of faster broadband will be.

SIP Trunking: Growing, But T1 Remains the Mainstay

Although many organizations have deployed VoIP on their premises, they still use legacy technologies to connect to the PSTN, with T1 lines the most commonly used trunking service today through 2012, according to Infonetics Research.

Much of the SIP trunk demand is fueled by fast-growing hosted IP telephony services. For the first three months of 2009, service providers experienced an average of 40 percent to 50 percent year-over-year growth for IP Centrex, indicating the demand for outsourcing and managed solutions.

Infonetics Research expects hosted UC services to take off, with worldwide revenue doubling between 2009 and 2013, and we forecast SIP trunking service revenue to hit an 89 percent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013.

It also is worth noting that many carriers interconnect with each other using T1 protocols, even if end user service is supplied exclusively in the IP domain.

SIP trunk use is growing, and by 2012 will be the second most commonly deployed trunking service, says Infonetics.

AT&T and Verizon are used most often as providers of SIP trunking services, survey respondents said.

Mobile Subscriptions Hit 5 Billion

Mobile broadband subscriptions will reach 3.4 billion by 2015, up from from 360 million in 2009, Ericsson forecasts. Ericsson also predicts 80 percent of all people accessing the Internet will be doing so using their mobile device.

In 2000, about 720 million people had mobile subscriptions, less than the amount of users China alone has today.

The way Internet access gets used also will shift. Mobile subscriptions allow people who don't have access to a bank or a bank account to transfer money; fishermen and farmers can get quick updates on sudden changes in the weather forecast, villagers to get local medical care, and children to access online education.

Most VoIP LInes Sold as Part of a Bundle


Most VoIP service is sold as part of a bundle, data from the Federal Communications Commission shows.

About 79 percent of IP telephony or VoIP lines sold by cable companies or competitive local exchange carriers are sold as part of a bundle, and intended to be used at a fixed location.

About 90 percent of IP telephony or VoIP lines sold by incumbent telcos are sold as part of a bundle, and intended to be used at a fixed location.

Many Winners and Losers from Generative AI

Perhaps there is no contradiction between low historical total factor annual productivity gains and high expected generative artificial inte...