Convergence Conversation

As broadband subscriptions continue to grow in the European Union (EU) countries, Point Topic has forecast that related pay-TV adoption is set to treble by 2020.

“We’re projecting just over 160 million broadband subscribers in the EU27 by 2020 -- and just over one in three will take an IPTV subscription,” says Oliver Johnson, CEO at Point Topic.

According to their latest market assessment, IPTV adoption in Europe has been very different in countries where it is deployed. The success of IPTV depends primarily on two factors. Firstly is it available, not only the physical network but at a price the consumer can afford? Where the cost and the link are suitable, is there demand for IPTV -- as seen in France?

However, in many markets not only are cost and availability significant barriers but the incumbent pay-TV service providers are well entrenched. More...

So far 110 people have completed our smart pipes survey. We are getting some fascinating results through so a big thank-you to all participants.

The survey forms part of a wider analysis of operator strategies regarding 'smart pipes' - what the term means, what value (if any) can be derived from being smart and what the key challenges are to becoming so. We are examining operator activities in Europe, North America and Asia and are evaluating specific operator actions.

The final report, published in September, will be made available to all participants.

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Here's a 5 minute video on Russian operator MTS's and Roox's 'world-first' innovation - a personalised portal on Facebook that allows customers to interrogate their balance and change tariff plan for example.

In this concise interview, Pavel Roytberg, Internet Services Director MTS, and Andrei Beletsev, CEO Roox, explain how the innovation works and helps telcos 'go to where the customers are' - Facebook. See also our recent analysis Facebook: really 'worth' $30 billion max - $100 billion is hype and Facing up to Facebook.

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Just found this really interesting infographic of 'The Internet of Things' on visual.ly. Should we run another convergence conversation on the subject?

 

There is an ongoing debate in the wireless industry with respect to where the capacity is going to come from. Historically, capacity was added in three dimensions: Improvements in spectrum efficiency Increasing available spectrum Increasing the number of cell sites Martin Cooper has often been credited as one of the pioneer’s of cellular communication. He [...]

I was doing a little houskeeping on the blog the other day and decided to check up on the stats. It’s been quite a while since the last time I did that and found many interesting facts.

Here’s something nice: the top 10 articles in Broadband Prime, ordered by popularity. Only one is in “My Favorites” list ( in the right hand column of this page). I’d like to know why!

Greek IX traffic slashed down to 30% – torrents closed

The Definition of Broadband

OTE announces VDSL rollout and upsets Greece’s FTTH Plans

FTTH in India (again)

Will That Be Google’s FTTH Business Model?

New NGA Recommendation & Communication by the EC

What is the realistic comparison between FTTH and FTTC costs?

FTTH in Germany

A Telco 2.0+ Business Model for Telcos

A business model for municipal FTTH/B networks:

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It’s been estimated that 11m people in Britain are disabled, with around 7m of those being of working age. What’s more, there’s a significant (and rising) number of older people who may not think of themselves as disabled but who might have difficulty with their sight or hearing. So, at a time when an increasing number of contact points are being moved online, it’s clear that unless accessibility is embedded into communication strategies, organisations may be unwittingly creating a digital divide.

In December 2010, the British Standards Institution (BSI) launched a code of practice on web accessibility. More...

Net neutrality. A topic that stirs strong emotion and strident commentary that sometimes bears little resemblance to the underlying issues. The European Commission today published a remarkably thoughtful, balanced and considered Communication on the open internet and net neutrality in … Continue reading →

Readers will recall from the curious case of Mr Spitz that European telecoms operators already retain very large amounts of information about their customers. In an evaluation report adopted today by the European Commission, the Commission proposes to review the existing rules. … Continue reading →

Video games had been the domain of teen males in the past, but this is no longer the case. Two distinct developments have changed the player demographic of online games. First, the development of social networking sites, such as Facebook. Second, the increasing prevalence of mobile smartphones.

In the past, within the U.S. market you had to pay $30 to $50 for a game -- or $20 per month for a subscription -- but now you can play them for free, thanks to the rise of the virtual goods revenue model.

This transition has driven the number of social networking and online worlds (SNOW) accounts beyond 10 billion in 2010 -- with nearly 4.5 billion of those considered active accounts, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. More...