Convergence Conversation

AGCOM, the Italian national regulatory authority, have had NGN on the top of the agenda for the last two years. Yesterday, Paolo Romani, Undersecratary for Economic Development, announced that the Italian government will invest  € 1bn for the deployment of NGN in Italy. It has been estimated that the rolling out of the NGN over the entire country will cost €10bn and it will be completed by the end of 2013. The project is supported by a public-private partnership.     More...

My school days were not school days without a BIC® pen. The story of the most famous pen in Europe started in 1945 when Marcel Bich and Edward Buffard established BIC®. After a long history of success in stationary, the yellow little man carrying a pen, the company logo, is also on the mobile phones. On the 11^th of July 2008, BIC® and Orange France launched the BIC® Phone, “the simple cell phone that is 100% ready to go”. The picture below shows how the BIC® phone looks like.

 

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The last issue of the prestigious Technology Review, the MIT publication on the future of technology, is largely dedicated to social networking. As usual, I am devouring it during my journeys on the Tube. This morning, a story captured my attention. A technology blogger wanted to move their 5000 Facebook friends into his Microsoft Outlook address book. He asked some techie friends for some help. In the end, he managed to fulfil his task using an ad-hoc program.

Unfortunately, the program triggered alerts to Facebook, which disabled his account. “My identity disappeared. If I was your friend, I turned grey – all my information went grey” (Technology Review, July/August 2008). More...

On May 2008, the Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA) published “The Road to Full Convergence – Strategic Directions”. The paper provides readers with an accurate picture of the status of the convergence market worldwide highlighting forecasts and encouraging signals from industry players. The paper also contains an interesting point of view on what convergence means for consumers. The FMCA’s “Customer Convergence Charter” states that:

“Convergence” means bringing together my communications, information, media, and transactions from any of my service providers, on any of my devices, with a consistent service experience, in a cost effective way in order to manage and engage in my personal, social and business life anywhere!

Although most of us may have read something similar in other studies, reports, and research, this recent Charter is ‘refreshing’ as More...

One of an analyst’s critical tasks is being able to develop a solid forecasting model and spell out market trends. This exercise becomes more complex when the issue at hand pertains to an emerging market. Mobile advertising is at the moment, giving me a migraine! My colleagues assure me that I am not alone in this painful journey. At least my forecasts thus far have not been too far off the mark (so they say!).

Chetan Sharma, Joe Herzog, and Victor Melfi, the authors of “Mobile Advertising. Supercharge Your Brand in the Exploding Wireless Market”, compared forecasting models about mobile advertising in the USA from different research companies. More...

In May 2006, 3 Italia launched the first mobile broadcast TV service in Italy. In an atmosphere of scepticism, the operator undertook a significant financial investment and rolled out its own DVB-H network. At the time, the operation seemed risky and there was uncertainty about the return of investment. However, the sceptics were forced to reassess their position when the football World Cup 2006 came around. By the end of the Cup in August 2006, 3 Italia had more than 100,000 mobile TV users. 3 Italia was able to offer a good deal to football fans: high-quality viewing of matches on their mobile phones at a reasonable price. More...