UK 3G operator, 3, launched SeeMeTV late last year, as a foray into User Generated Content (UGC - hot new TLA). The idea was that you took a short video on your 3 phone and uploaded it to 3’s servers at a cost to you of 50p (88 cents).

Then whenever someone else downloaded it, you earned the princely sum of 1p (1.7 cents). Like many pundits, I thought that most people would be lucky to earn their 50p back, let alone earn a serious return on the investment.

While that’s probably true in the vast majority of cases, there is a way to earn money though and that’s by amateur porn. According to Mobile Marketing Magazine one lucky female subscriber earned £1,300 ($2,305) in a month for making a video of herself flashing her breasts, which translates into an impressive 130,000 downloads.

So did the 3 team tap into this hidden market knowingly, or was it merely serendipity? A condition of SeeMeTV is "Don't strip naked, nobody wants to see your bits on their handset."

Shows how much they know then.

If you can read this, you’ll almost certainly remember a time when having your wife or girlfriend flash her breasts for publication in the media was something that wasn’t really done, outside of a few specialist top shelf magazines. Now, the Maxim affect has made it mainstream.

Is this a good thing, or don’t we really care?

10:30:42 PM    comment   

MocoNews points out that PayPal is advertising open positions in “PayPal Mobile, signaling its intent to get into the mobile payments space. The listings describe PayPal Mobile as “a dynamic, young ’start-up’ business unit within PayPal dedicated to bringing value-added mobile payment services to consumers and merchants.” Of course, this is the same unit they pointed out in November 2004, and PayPal’s WAP service is still hanging on.

So many mobile payment companies described themselves as “like PayPal for mobile”, and it was always assumed that eventually PayPal would come in and own the space. The thing is though, most mobile payment systems are still a product in search of a market. Who needs PayPal-style mobile payments, really? The idea of using your phone to PayPal a merchant for purchases really isn’t that compelling when you’ve got credit and debit cards and good old cash, and reverse billing to a mobile phone bill works pretty well for mobile content.

Some of the contactless IC payment systems, like the ones used in Asia, are pretty interesting — but the payment stuff there is really just a sideline to all the other applications enabled by the robust and powerful platform carriers there are using. There’s a reason why the history of the mobile industry is littered with failed mobile payment companies. It’s got nothing to do with technology, marketing or implementation (though that often leaves something to be desired), it’s because there’s really little value in it for people in mature markets. There are plenty of existing payment mechanisms that satisfy people’s needs; mobile payments don’t promise to simplify things, or offer much benefit over them.

In emerging markets, however, there’s a huge opportunity. People are already using airtime as currency in some places, and Globe’s G-Cash system in the Phillippines is probably the best example of a mobile micropayment system. The opportunity for this type of m-banking, whether it’s “official” and run by a bank, or a more de facto or improvised system is huge. Several companies are already working in these areas, and they’ll find much more success than PayPal, or anybody else, pushing mobile payments in Europe and North America.

10:26:44 PM    comment   

According to the information ministry, a DMB demonstration is slated to be held in Mumbai in mid-February and the Korean and Indian governments have agreed to sign an MOU in principle. Like Korea, India reserves Band â[sigma]¢ for DAB(Digital Audio Broadcasting), which means that once the Indian government decides to employ DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting), the service is promptly available in the nation.

See related story: Korea's mobile TV technology advances to India (The Korea Herald) [ContentSutra]
1:37:33 PM    comment   

Here comes the Google Beetle.

Volkswagen has formally announced it's working with Google and nVidia to, as Reuters reports, "build an in-car navigation map system and a three-dimensional display so passengers can recognize where they are in relation to the surrounding topography." VW says it's also working with the two partners on ways to deliver "automatic personalized content updates for its vehicle navigation systems," according to a press release. "Automatic personalized content updates" sounds like "ads" to me.

Smart move. There's been a lot of speculation about delivering location-specific advertisements over cell phones, but car dashboards may be an even better medium for mobile ads. You can certainly imagine local shops, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses bidding to deliver map-based ads targeted not just to your location but to your consumer profile and even your car's current status. Imagine how the price of a gas station ad would go up as your tank empties.

Assuming carmakers get a cut of the ad revenues, you can expect navigation systems to make a quick leap from pricey option to standard feature.

1:34:33 PM    comment   

E-mail was the internet's original killer app - the service that spurred the multitudes to go online. Now, it may turn into a very different kind of killer app - the one that kills the traditional internet. Saul Hansell, of the New York Times, reports that email giants AOL and Yahoo "are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered." The tariff will, the companies argue, make spam easier to identify and manage. The companies also, as Hansell notes, "stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted."

The tiered system raises a much bigger issue, of course. By drawing a commercial distinction between how different types of digital content are treated, the system would seem to be the thin edge of a wedge that could utimately destroy the "network neutrality" that has defined the internet up to now. As Hansell explains, "the move to create what is essentially a preferred class of e-mail is a major change in the economics of the Internet." If AOL proves the viability of creating a tiered pricing system for email, would that provide its parent, Time-Warner, with a model and a precedent for introducing a broader tiered system for delivering internet content through its big cable business?

This move shows how difficult it is becoming to see the internet in the black-and-white terms of the past. Whether it's the censoring of digits or the pricing of digits, we're now moving into a grey area, and that's where the future of the net, as a commercial, social and technological force, will be determined.

12:57:37 PM    comment   

Business Week article about how Verizon wants to reserve 80% of its network bandwidth for itself, caused a minor ruckus yesterday as one after another, everyone brought up the issue of network neutrality and started the finger pointing. Given the Bells past record, that was hardly a surprise.

Documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission show that Verizon Communications (VZ ) is setting aside a wide lane on its fiber-optic network for delivering its own television service. According to Marvin Sirbu, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who examined the documents, more than 80% of Verizon’s current capacity is earmarked for carrying its service, while all other traffic jostles in the remainder.

It did not make much sense, given how Verizon is building its network. They are using passive optical network technology (PON), where the transport bandwidth of a fiber is shared amongst N-homes, where N-varies between 8-and-16 homes. Verizon FTTH is split into two parts - one part for video transmissions and the other for data-Internet traffic. The video part of has spectrum limitations and that is why company can currently offer only upto 120 channels. The video signals are sent to your TV set pretty much like how cable companies send their signals to consumer homes. This is TV, not IPTV, and it sucks up most of the available capacity on the network.

IP Democracy points out that the video part of the network will be 3.5 Gbps capacity whole date will have 622 Mbps. Data (Internet) part of the network needs less spectrum, but PON technology for now limits the amount of bandwidth that can delivered per household. In theory, a 622 MB/s link that is shared among say 32 households, means each home gets about 20 megabits/second. Business Week story wasn’t all that clear about the crucial difference between the “TV” and the “Internet part.”

Still, not sure about this, I decided to check with a bunch of smart folks who know more about networks and the Internet than I do. Vint Cert, who is now Chief Internet Evangelist at Google (in an email) said, “My understanding is also that VZ wants to reserve BW for video to compete, presumably, with cable companies.” Going forward, however, the architecture adopted by VZ is going to become a bottleneck, says Cerf (in an email.) “The consequence of this is that the “broadband” access to Internet will be limited in capacity and likely not symmetric, unlike plans of the Japanese NTT-east to offer 100 Mb/s symmetric capacity access to Internet, for instance. “

Dewayne Hendricks who is quite wise in the ways of the Internet wrote back in response to my query…. “It seems to me that one of the unstated things in this controversy is the meaning of ‘broadband’. Take a look at this blog entry and you’ll see what I mean.” If you go buy into the definition of the incumbents, then 20 megabits/second is plenty. “If like some of us, you see broadband being something like 100 Mbps symmetric and above, then we’ve got some real problems with their current and future offerings and network neutrality takes on a entirely different meaning,” says Hendricks.

Cynthia says it well when she writes, “I’m not being an apologist here for Verizon or the telcos — far from it. But, if you’re engaging in a political fight, at least be accurate with your aim and don’t drum up problems that don’t exist.” My sentiments exactly!

I think the most amusing part of this whole drama has been overlooked by all. So lets assume, Verizon starts selling you video-on-demand movies for $3.99 a movie over its analog TV pipe. Yet at the same time, using the Internet pipe, I can download the same movie (or even stream it) from an online service like Vongo or Movielink for $2.99 a movie. Wouldn’t VZ end up competing with itself. Maybe that’s why the incumbents want the network “tolled.” Just a thought….

12:56:42 PM    comment   

Deloitte's Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) industry group predicts that, in 2006, search will displace email as the most used digital application, girls will hit the video games, and subscription radio will soar. Subscription radio 2.0 -- radio will follow television as its business model evolves from being advertising-dominated to subscription-dominated, providing added flexibility for customers and new opportunities for providers.
Tag:3G | Posted in: Specific 3G News Business case
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12:50:00 PM    comment   

The Federal Communications Commission has finally set a date for the auction of the wireless spectrum to be used for 3G data services in the US. On June 29 of this year, 1,122 licences for spectrum in both the 1700MHz and 2100MHz frequency bands will be auctioned off. Not only are cell phone carriers expected to take part in the auctions, but also wireless broadband providers seeking to get a cut of this valuable spectrum.
Tag:UMTS | Posted in: Countries Specific 3G News Americas USA Country
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12:49:44 PM    comment   

In the firm's January report on 3G handset sales, CIBC found that 12 out of a total of 76 handsets sold in the United States support high-speed data networks. nterestingly, CIBC said Nokia Corp. will soon join the ranks of EV-DO handset suppliers with the introduction of its EV-DO 6305i slider phone through Verizon Wireless. A Nokia spokesman said the company has not announced any such phone, and that the company would not comment on "market rumors." A Verizon Wireless representative was not immediately available to comment.

Tag:WCDMA | Posted in: Countries Specific 3G News Americas USA Devices
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12:49:07 PM    comment   

Introducing Brian L. Clark, Gizmodo's new writer on all things TV. He'll talk about everything that's coming next[~]IPTV, Video-on-Demand, HD, Blu-ray, Interactive Media, iPod and cellphone video, video downloads[~]stuff that's going to turn a decades-old, highly-entrenched industry on its ear. Brian is a reporter and consultant on all things digital, runs the The Tech Enthusiast's Network, and writes for Money,Men's Health, and Laptop.

Let's tune in...

We See IPTV

This just in from the obvious news bureau*mdash;a new study from IBM entitled, [base "]The Future of Television 2012,[per thou] clearly shows that TV as we know it is changing; that disruptive technologies like IPTV will put consumers in charge of the viewing experience and, in turn, screw up TV[base ']s traditional business model.

Duh.

Frankly, the idea that you can get 57,000 channels via a broadband connection makes me tingle all over. What doesn[base ']t is the idea that I[base ']m somehow going to have to pay for all those channels, except for the one from that guy who broadcasts out of a barn in Billings. His channel[base ']s free.

Before discussing the future of IPTV, it might be useful to talk about what it is not. It is not any old video popped up on the Web. Rather, says Ed Graczyk, director of marketing for Microsoft[base ']s television division, IPTV is next-generation television delivered over a managed network. Graczyk promises IPTV will be better from a viewer's perspective. [base "]Users will get functionality they can[base ']t get over a one-way broadcast service,[per thou] he says, [base "]like multiple picture-in-picture and incredibly fast channel changing.[per thou] The typical digital cable box takes a second or two to channel hop. IPTV flips take 300 milliseconds. It[base ']s surfing at the speed of light.

The new AT&T (formerly SBC) has launched a controlled-market IPTV entry in San Antonio, where the company is headquartered, and is promising to pass 18 million homes by mid-2008. Meanwhile, the mere promise of IPTV already has cable companies quaking in their steel-toed boots. And they[base ']ve begun to kick back. Last week the California Cable & Telecommunications Association attacked AT&T[base ']s initial plan to provide IPTV services in the state. At issue: Whether telcos should have to pay communities the same franchise agreement federal law requires of cable operators. Balderdash, responds AT&T spokesman, Gordon Diamond. [base "]They want to frame it that this is just about video,[per thou] Diamond says, [base "]when it[base ']s really a network upgrade.[per thou] As a result, he adds, AT&T[base ']s offering doesn[base ']t meet the requirements of a cable service as defined under state or federal laws. We[base ']ll see which industry has the better lobbyists.

Still, phone companies are drooling over the possibility they[base ']ll soon be able to offer everything cable companies can. That means bundling (TV, broadband and VoIP) services, instead of having to partner with a satellite provider to offer television service. When telcos add TV to their bottom lines, greedy little shareholders get richer.

Alas, the real holdup with IPTV is not regulation-related, but the Internet itself. Today[base ']s broadband connections aren[base ']t [base "]broad[per thou] enough, so video via the Net isn[base ']t at all like flipping channels on a cable box. In fact, IPTV, Internet access and VoIP require 20-25Mbps downstream (VDSL or very high speed DSL). So telcos are in the process of laying even more fiber to the neighborhood.

Until then, there is another way to get 57,000 channels (sort of) via the Internet. Video aggregators spend a great deal of time consolidating webcasts solely for your viewing pleasure. Here[base ']s a short list:

BeelineTV - Features TV from around the world. Great for Internationalists who need to know that the Luxembourgers are thinking, not so great for those looking for good, old-fashioned American TV.

http://www.mediahopper.com or http://www.tv4all.com Bills itself as the ultimate guide to live TV webcasts with 1,169 channels (forgive us for not counting them), including 232 from the U.S. alone. There[base ']s even a connection to Vatican TV should you need to get your confession on.

NeepTV - Claims to have 300,000 members so far, watching live TV, movies and music videos. It charges for access[~]$60 for a 12-month subscription. Hmm, let[base ']s see: $60 for choppy video dependent on my Internet connection, or catch many of the same webcasts elsewhere for free?

Web62 - Includes music, sports, style and travel videos. Not a lot in the way of live television, but if you just feel a hankerin[base '] to relive the 2005 World Bowl, or gawk at Oakland[base ']s Raiderettes, this is the place for you.

Comment on this post
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12:26:03 PM    comment   

Average monthly revenue per subscriber has declined to Rs 374 for the quarter ended Septemebr 2005 for GSM mobile operators while for the CDMA operators the figure is even lower at Rs 244.

ARPU for post-paid subscribers was much higher compared to pre-paid customers. All India postpaid ARPU stood at Rs 646 per month which is about 2.3 times than that of all India prepaid ARPU of Rs 284. For CDMA operators too, postpaid ARPU is much higher compared to prepaid.

Lets wait for a few months more to find out the effect lifetime plans have on ARPU. Its ironical that CDMA operators, who are best placed to offer data services having the potential to increase ARPU, have users with low ARPU while GSM operators who have more top-end users are not ready with services for them.

Also, TRAI has concluded that if first 11 years of performance is considered, the performance of Indian mobile sector appeared to be better than China. China launched its mobile services in 1988 and India in 1995.

China has been adding about 4 to 5 million mobile subscribers every month in last five years. India has also achieved this landmark in December 2005 when the mobile subscriber addition reached around 4.5 million in a single month for the first time since the launch of mobile services in the year 1995.

[base "]Thus India seems to have really caught up with China in mobile growth,[per thou] TRAI said in a statement.

The question is why are we five years late and also it remains to be seen if we can sustain new additions at that rate.

Source: Zee News

12:25:40 PM    comment