More than half of all Europeans regularly use the internet and the majority of them surf via high-speed connections, according to a report on digital competitiveness compiled by the European Commission, which found that Europe’s digital sector has seen strong growth since 2005 and – in several areas such as broadband and mobile peneteration – is a world leader.

The report (pdf), which outlined progress on the Commission’s i2010 initiatives to boost Europe’s competitiveness in information and communications technology (ICT) by increasing investment in new networks, services and creative media content, said that the digital economy and digital users are playing critical roles in lifting Europe out of the current economic crisis:

Key report findings:

• The number of regular internet users in Europe has increased from 43% in 2005 to 56% in 2008; most of them use the internet almost daily and with high-speed internet access.
• Regular internet use is  becoming more inclusive, with the numbers of users in disadvantaged groups (the inactive, the less educated and those ages 55-64) rising the fastest.
• With 114 million subscribers, Europe is the largest world market and penetration rates are rising swiftly. Half of all European households and more than 80% of European businesses have a fixed broadband connection; three-fourths of them have  average download speeds above 2 Mbps.
• Broadband internet is available to 93% of the EU25 population, up from 87% in 2005.
• In terms of country-specific statistics and rankings, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and France have the highest percentages of their population downloading, listening to, or watching music and/or films:

• Sweden, The Netherlands, and Denmark have the highest percentages of their population accessing the internet at least once a week:

• High rates of broadband connectivity have translated into higher usage of advanced services. Some 80% of regular internet users engage in increasingly interactive activities, e.g. communicating, using online financial services, sharing and creating new content and participating in innovative processes.
• Europe is still behind the US and Japan in R&D investments in information and communication technologies (ICT), high-speed broadband communications, and developing innovative markets such as online advertising – though it has closed the gap with the US somewhat on this front:

• Europe has made fast progress in the supply and use of 20 benchmarked online public services. The supply of fully available services to citizens has increased to 50% in 2007 (27% in 2004) and for businesses to 70% (58% in 2004). One third of European citizens
  and almost 70% of businesses in the EU use eGovernment services.

Mobile Penetration Exceeds 100%

The analysis also noted that the European market for mobile phones has exceeded 100% penetration – increasing from 84% of
the EU population in 2004 to 119% in 2009. This, according to the report, makes Europe the world leader in mobile penetration, since the penetration rates in the US and Japan are around 80%.

Consumers spend more time talking and texting at prices at least 34.5% lower than in 2004, including a 70% drop in roaming charges since 2005, the EU said.

Digital Natives Lead Way

Those who have grown up using the internet will play a vital role in growing Europe’s economy, according to the report. These young adults between ages 16-24 are the most active internet users in Europe.  Nearly three-fourths (73%) of this age group regularly use advanced services to create and share online content, twice the EU population average (35%).

Furthermore, two-thirds (66%) of all Europeans under age 24 use the internet every day, compared with the EU average of 43%. These “digital natives” have more advanced internet skills than the rest of the population, according to a separate European Commission study on digital literacy.

Paying Without Saying

Although this digital generation seems reluctant to pay to download or view online content such as videos or music (33% say that they are not willing to pay anything at all, which is twice the EU average), the report said that in reality, twice as many of them have paid for these services compared with the rest of the population (10% of young users, compared with an EU average of 5%). They are also more willing to pay for offers of better service and quality.

“Internet use will soar as Europe’s digital natives begin their professional lives, increasingly shaping and dominating market trends,” the report said, predicting that as traditional business models stall, companies will have to offer services attractive to the next generation of users.

As a result the Commission urged legislators to create conditions that are conducive to the access of new online content while also ensuring remuneration for creators.

More Progress Needed

Despite progress, the report also found that one-third of EU citizens have never used the internet and only 7% of consumers have shopped online in another member state. Numbers, the Commission said need to be improved upon.

About the report: The EU’s i2010 strategy to boost Europe’s lead in ICT and unlock the benefits of the information society for European growth and jobs, adopted by the Commission in July 2005 ( IP/05/643 ) comes to a close this year. Endorsed by all EU Member States and the European Parliament, the strategy aimed to strengthen the single market for businesses and users and to stimulate ICT research and innovation.

 URL Link to Marketingcharts.com:

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/european-digital-stats-56-of-population-uses-internet-10436/european-commission-mobile-penetration-eu-2009jpg/

Cambridge, Massachusetts -based MF Analytics, Ltd, a financial solutions provider for Microfinance and SME institutions, is acquired by TriLinc Global, LLC of Los Angeles, California. TriLinc Global is a social impact investment company. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The MIT Venture Capital & Private Equity Club presents the 12th annual MIT Venture Capital Conference. From the conference website: “Against the background of a quickly changing economic environment, the 2009 conference will illuminate the critical trends and opportunities available in this ‘Brave New World.’ How have dramatic shifts in the political and financial worlds changed the venture capital and entrepreneurial landscape? If this is the time to start or fund a venture, where are the best opportunities in healthcare, energy, digital media, internet and mobile? How are venture capital funds adapting given the challenges in exit markets and LP relationships? Can the VC model work in emerging and social markets?” Keynote speakers include Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Greycroft managing director Alan Patricof. Full agenda and registration information here.

How many good, memorable, toll free phone numbers remain available for new subscribers? This is an issue of constant concern for those of us in the telecommunications industry. With a limited number of numerical possibilities and increased interest in obtaining the remaining numbers, the finite supply could eventually be depleted. But the good news is that there is an expected turn-about within the next year or so. New numbers–the new 855 area code–are expected to be released to re-nourish the dwindling supply.

Why I don’t have a cell

by Troy Nowaselski.
Submitted in partial fulfillment to Lynda

1. - I have no friends and no one will call.
2. - Cellphones are not simply phones but address books, day-timers, cameras, video machines, photo albums, music players, gaming devices, storage units and internet browsers among other things …and losing one (which is easily done) can be both traumatic and dangerous for reasons of personal security.
3. - Cellphones can demand your attention 24/7 and often to the peril of those around you.
4. - Cellphones can be annoying and contribute to rudeness and poor manners.
5. - Cellphones increase the risk of physical harm; whether hand or vision problems or through inattentiveness while walking or driving a vehicle.
6. - Cellphone use is addictive and creates a dependency.
7. - Shutting off your cellphone is like not having one …so why really have it?
8. - If I had one I’d be cool …and I hate being cool.  Then I’d have to get a tattoo!
9. - I’m also a sucker for technology.  If I had one, I’d waste yet more of my time by calling people I don’t want to talk to. “Can you hear me now!?”

My Dad was employed in the telecommunication field and as a kid it may be the case that being exposed to ‘remote communication’ at a young age deterred me from wanting it as an adult.  I remember being able to call home from our van in the late 70’s (gulp!) …so needing a cell phone is kinda like needing a toaster; I have one, it serves me fine and I’d rather make toast at home.  Kids now however may not be so lucky – by continually expanding a ‘phones’ ability (see Number 2) the makers keep current with trends.  No one wants a cellphone because it’s simply a phone anymore …that’s boring.  Of course there are appropriate uses for them, like travel or an urgency of some type, but now-a-days most cellphone use isn’t centred around that.

Heck, are cellphones even phones anymore?  We call them ‘cells’ and have dropped the ‘phone’ part …perhaps it’s the case that cells are numbers where we can be reached physically?  “Hello.  My name is Troy.  If you’d like to interact with me physically then contact my cell.  Have a pleasant day.” -lol.  Perhaps the cell number is to eventually become our identification code of sorts?  Hummm.  Instead of tracking our ‘cell’ (which is easy to do) our ‘cell’ gets physically ‘coded’ onto us …and we’re instantly contactable (and traceable) by anyone with a ‘cell finder’.  …I’ve digressed again.

I get along though.  I have an address book (computer and scraps of paper), daytimer (computer), camera (two of them …and for different uses), video machines (computer and camera), photo albums (photo albums …and the computer), music players (many and of many different shapes), gaming devices (don’t use anymore), storage units (computer and backup drive), internet browsers (computer) …geeze, maybe I’m a little too dependant on my computer!

Oh, and a phone?  I have that too.  It’s a few steps away from my toaster.

Image from Life123.com

]]> http://indiaprwire.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/one-third-internet-users-use-digital-transactions-r-chandrashekhar/ Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:06:57 +0000 indiaprwire http://indiaprwire.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/one-third-internet-users-use-digital-transactions-r-chandrashekhar/ http://indiaprwire.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/spice-digital-and-zoom-developers-memorandum-of-understanding/ Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:59:41 +0000 indiaprwire http://indiaprwire.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/spice-digital-and-zoom-developers-memorandum-of-understanding/ http://integr8group.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/kelly-group-recruits-a-premier-ict-services-partner-in-integr8-group/ Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:34:42 +0000 integr8group http://integr8group.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/kelly-group-recruits-a-premier-ict-services-partner-in-integr8-group/

Two 2009 Topco National Business Award winning companies partner to offer clients substantial value in service and support

The Integr8 Group, South Africa’s largest privately owned national BEE ICT network integration and infrastructure management specialist, has emerged as the face of Information Technology at The Kelly Group, an established local provider of employment services.

The HR specialist services provider has made a substantial investment in the expertise, managed ICT services and capability of the Integr8 Group, making the ICT managed services company directly responsible for the management and support of users infrastructure and back-end systems.

This service level covers laptops, desktops, servers as well as the daily operations and support of the business units within The Kelly Group.

The Kelly Group encompasses approximately 22 brands and 12 companies, comprises more than 65 branches nationwide, 1273 permanent employees and a base of more than 25 000 temporary employees.

In seeking to partner with a credible, proven ICT managed services provider, IT executive management at The Kelly Group sought out a company that cares about its business, one that is focused on exceptional client service and can benefit its clients with the latest available technical skills sets.

Critical aspects of consideration included global best practices governing client service, proven methodology, processes and procedures, and a keen understanding of optimised, automated response to requests and requirements.

Furthermore, IT management at The Kelly Group was mindful of the need to boost its objective of developing into a world-class IT organisation and an ICT services provider would need to keep this critical goal at the forefront of engagement and delivery.

The Integr8 Group’s role in the development of The Kelly Group’s business is based on a two-pronged service approach. The first is desktop support across the country, including branches that fall outside of the Group’s centralised footprint.

The second channel of service delivery involves proactive response and comprehensive support of centralised headquarters. Every call made to The Kelly Group or query sent by a Kelly Group customer to the Group’s helpdesk is branded a Kelly Group IT call but is supported entirely by Integr8 Group personnel and technicians.

“In terms of our priorities, considering our short and long term objectives, we continue to witness the crucial and increasingly integral role that IT plays in our business. The influence of next generation infrastructure has a definite impact in terms of cost management, revenue enablement, operational efficiency and on our growth strategy going forward,” said Evans Munyuki, Group CIO, The Kelly Group.

“Information technology is positioned as a highly effective mechanism to run and control mission-critical systems and applications which are pivotal to our success. For example, we are a people business and payroll is critical to us and our employees. Our systems support more than twenty six thousand payroll runs by our payroll organisation (for temporary and permanent employees) on a weekly and monthly basis,” he added.

Munyuki believes that the Integr8 Group has played an integral role in the strategic use of IT to help grow the company and impact directly on IT costs to bolster the bottom line within an environment of economic pressure.

“They achieved this by listening to our requirements, intrinsically understanding our pain-points, by being sensitive to our cost requirements, and by applying their minds and IT models in innovative ways which hit the sweet-spot of our needs. As our strategic partner, they have brought to the table smart and cost effective problem solving, and effective focus on managing call volumes, improving first-time-fix, and working down the calls backlog. Additionally, we continue to receive very positive feedback from the user community in terms of the technically-sound and client-centric friendly interaction which the Integr8 Group is consistently providing – both onsite and telephonically,” he says.

“We have a client-focused Integr8 IT account manager who understands the meaning of putting the client first, and understands how and when to go the extra mile in crafting mutually beneficial propositions of value,” Munyuki concludes.

Andre Gross, Group Infrastructure Manager at The Kelly Group, says that the combination of high level expertise and consistency of focus on directives and objectives has enabled the free flow of benefit and value.

“The Integr8 Group has high level specialists specifically around our strategies and what we want to achieve as a company. I believe that it is about the skills we have on board and the intrinsic value they provide to projects and service levels,” he adds.

Robert Sussman, joint CEO at Integr8 Group, said the company is very pleased with the progress being made at its client The Kelly Group.

“We are very happy to be a part of the growth of this very dynamic, determined and exceptionally strong company. It is encouraging to witness the level at which The Kelly Group has embraced and utilised systems and the strategic manner in which resources are pooled and honed in to boost its service and offering to market,” Sussman concludes.

My opinion on the below article:

I personally do not see a shift back to SMS advertising.  Working with one of the largest open mobile networks across Europe we see a huge increase in display and text link based advertising.  They work and work well.  Currently, SMS advertising can cost far too much.  CTR’s on SMS advertising generally are much less than display or text links.  SMS can cost an advertiser up to £200 CPM, whereas display and text links will vary from much lower CPM’s or CPC’s.  Whilst with SMS you can get reach that a branding campaign will demand, the majority of campaigns in the UK market this year have been DR.  Moving forward, I believe Network Operators will need to focus on more integrated campaigns across all mobile properties like: Display, Text Links, Video Pre & Post, Idle Screen, Voice Messages, SMS, MMS, Customer Service Messages and so on.

I believe agencies find mobile advertising a challenge because they are learning it is never just about selling an ad spot. Mobile advertising often forms part of a wider mobile marketing strategy tied in with CRM, Customer Acquisition and Engendering Loyalty.  In addition, it often forms part of a campaign that is integrated into traditional media which again presents further hurdles.  Therefore, when brands want and need to understand the entire spectrum and not just the advertising element many agencies struggle.    We can keep blaming lack of clarity on where the buying points are and lack of ad-serving capabilities and reporting but I think this is a weak argument.  All growing industries will have these kind of challenges.  The key should be more focused on how we can work better together, understand each others skills and how this can transform into combined positive output to the client.

To summarize, Mobile is so different to traditional media.  Historically speaking, it has always been ‘ONE FORMAT’ Print, Radio, TV or online.  Mobile is a whole world of different formats from one device to the next few thousand, all with different capabilities and don’t forget the users all come with different mindsets.  It requires specialist knowledge to effectively utilize this channel and understand the dynamics.  This is not knowledge that can be shared overnight and will take time for all to learn.

Whilst I agree it has been tough year from a recession perspective I would argue that mobile marketing and advertising budgets have grown and not been cut.  Well this is certainly what we are experiencing having a record year in the UK. As mobile budgets traditionally have been so small brands cut the bigger budgets in TV, Print, Radio and Online. If anything mobile budgets have grown this year and I certainly would anticipate huge growth in 2009 from 2008.

This is not going to happen over night.  Online took a good part of 11 years.

by Global Telecoms Business

Mobile operators have extensive data about their customers, so why aren’t they earning more revenue from advertising? The market seems as far away as ever, according to key participants in the business


Jay Seaton of Airwide: Trying to force-fit ads to
thousands of different handsets is an issue

Mike Short of Telefónica: Mobile advertising is
going to have to have a debate about reach and
responsibility

John Rands of WIN: Sometimes an agency puts
together a campaign and will do mobile as well

Neil Wentworth of mCentric: Brands are in the
dark. They have no idea how to access people by mobile

Why has mobile advertising not had the stunning success that many have been forecasting for so long? For years the mobile industry has looked for ways to earn revenue by targeting its users with advertising — and there has even been a whole operator, Blyk, which wanted to cut call costs to zero if its customers simply checked a few ads every day.

But little has been achieved, even with smartphones that could, in theory, deliver high-quality content to phone users.

Indeed, says Nick Lane, chief analyst at research company MobileSquared, where operators are achieving anything it’s via the 15-year-old technology of SMS. “We spoke to 30-35 operators around the world,” says Lane. “Just over 60% said they used SMS messaging as the foundation for next generation messages. A lot of agencies are going back to SMS. There’s a shift away from what people were saying 12 months ago.”

James Tagg, head of mobile at ad agency Starcom MediaVest, agrees: “It’s been a very tough world for mobile advertising this year,” he says. The recession means advertising budgets have been cut around the world “and mobile was the first to be cut — massively”.

One of the reasons is that mobile advertising still earns small revenues for agencies, which employ few specialists in the medium. “Some have only two people covering mobile, compared with 30 for print advertising. There’s only so much those people can do until the money is there. We’re not losing money but we’re not making huge money.”

And behind that, “most clients don’t really understand mobile”, he adds. Now’s the time to remedy that, he says: begin to adjust now “and you’ll be in a lot better position in two years”.

One of the key problems is a lack of information on which to make decisions, says Stewart Goldberg, executive chairman of Business Logic System. “The operators don’t have the same demographics about their base that the TV companies have.”

Mike Short, vice president of Telefónica Europe disagrees: “Some of the demographics that we have is a lot better — but it’s in a different format.” The mobile industry is working via the GSM Association and mobile marketing analyst ComScore to remedy that. “We can do age, location and subject,” he says.

Lane is not convinced: “Traditional advertising is very visible,” he says. And potential advertisers can easily get information about how much it costs to advertise. “If you want a rate card [for mobile advertising] you have to go down a long dark tunnel and sign a non-disclosure agreement.”

There is widespread ignorance among potential advertisers, says Neil Wentworth, director of sales at mCentric, which runs a service delivery platform for the industry. “Brands are in the dark. They have no idea how to access people by mobile,” he says.

It is starting to shift in agencies, says Alistair Hill, a senior analyst ComScore. Its work with the GSMA is aimed at “simplifying the process of buying”, so that agencies can see metrics that allow them to compare different types of advertising — including mobile with conventional, if that is the term, online.

Mobile is too often an addition to an existing ad budget, complains John Rands, managing director of WIN, which describes itself as “a dynamic enabler of entertainment, information and interaction services”. Sometimes a brand or an agency puts together a campaign “and will do mobile as well”, he says: “It’s the ‘as well’, and that might mean just putting a text number in the corner.”

It’s better in some countries, says Goldberg. “In south-east Asia and Australia there are millions of transactions executed using two-way text.”

Simeon Coney, vice president of business development at Adaptive Mobile, adds that in South Africa mobile advertising is starting to dominate, because of an underdeveloped traditional media business.

Many customers see mobile advertising messages as spam. “What’s considered as spam is personal,” says Jay Seaton, chief marketing officer of Airwide.

Coney believes the industry has to be careful, as governments might impose rules about what can and can’t be sent. “Governments will be putting the onus on operators,” he warns. “It will be a real challenge to the industry.”

Short says: “We’d rather have a simple set of rules. Mobile advertising is going to have to have a debate about reach and responsibility.” Child protection and parental controls will have to feature in that debate, he adds. “It’s now getting to ministerial level.”

According to Hill of ComScore, mobile advertising is still some way behind online advertising. “Everything on the internet has become contextual,” he says.

Lane also believes that the parallels with PC-based advertising should not be ignored: “All we’re doing on the mobile is browsing: email and social networking, and news, sport and weather.”

Goldberg, who has just had to extend his daughter’s mobile package to 1,000 texts a month, says: “We should have 11-year-olds on the boards of our companies.” Though Hill retorts that “the average age of the mobile media user is 35”.

Gather any group of enthusiasts for mobile advertising together — and this group was at an event hosted by Airwide — and you’ll soon hear stories about mobile advertising successes.

Unfortunately, most of these stories date from those optimistic times before the recession: such as BMW sending its car customers in Germany localised weather warnings by MMS, complete with a picture of each customer’s car in the right colour.

In theory, the industry has the data that could be enormously useful to advertisers — but Short points out that one of the problems is the sheer volume of it.

Goldberg sympathises: “The amount of data on the network is huge — 120 million transactions a day.” That’s the figure for the UK. “You’d need data warehousing the size of small countries. Operators have the data, but extracting the data is a non-trivial exercise. It just can’t be done in real time.”

Short emphasises the scale of the challenge: “We know the location of 50 billion text messages a year,” he says.

But operators haven’t explored new opportunities, suggests Goldberg. They would know the identity of 150,000 people attending a grand prix or other sports event, he notes. There’s potential there to use information to send them messages.

Mobile advertising, in theory, is a lot more economical than television advertising — which reaches many more people than could possibly be interested in a deal. With mobile, “you offer a deal only to people to want to offer the deal to”, he says.

One of the problems is that there is an advanced market for advertising in developed countries, says Seaton. “In developed markets there’s not such a need to innovate.”

Smartphones, if anything, make life for mobile advertisers complicated — simply because there are so many, built with different standards. “The market’s evolving quickly, with lots of new handsets,” says Tagg.

Seaton notes that this is why in some markets advertisers have relied on the simple technology of text messaging. “Trying to force-fit ads to thousands of different handsets is an issue. That’s why we’ll be having the same advertising discussions in two years.”

Goldberg returns to the theme that the industry is ill-informed about mobile advertising: “Operators and suppliers need to educate agencies and brands,” he says. “Many just don’t know what you can do.” That, he adds, is “why text is so good” — advertisers do understand that.

So how should the market move? “It’s up to the operators to expose their assets,” says Seaton. “There will be thousands of opportunities. Application developers can leverage all the assets, not just the 15% of smartphones.”

But Lane concludes with a sceptical note: “There’s hardly any money in mobile advertising and it dominates all our conversations,” he concludes. GTB

URL Link to Global Telecoms Business:

http://www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com/Article/2346535/Operators-still-waiting-for-ad-revenue.html

Experts in the telecommunications industry have regularly advised that anyone looking to secure a toll free number should find a reputable provider with flexible policies, access to good numbers, and an educated staff. When looking for an existing, available, toll free number–or if interested in learning how to obtain new numbers once they are released–this advice is important to remember. Toll free plans are a benefit to any business and subscriber IF they are obtained through a provider with a solid reputation.

It is a relief to hear the buzz that new toll free phone numbers will likely be released within a year or two. Telecommunications industry sources say this new supply of numbers could thwart an embargo on new toll free phone service in the United States. Facing a severe shortage of available 800-numbers coupled with a skyrocketing demand for toll free service and an emerging black market for 800 numbers, insiders say officials felt they may have needed to impose an embargo. But with an expected turn-about, the embargo may not be necessary.

There has been a great deal of concern about language in the recent FCC call for rule making on network neutrality.  The FCC notice is intended to developed a definition of net neutrality along the lines proposed in the rule making.  The concern is directed at language that would permit network operators (I always use the words network operators because these rules would apply to Internet and non-Internet networks) to conduct ‘reasonable network management.  The Ars Technica article makes one glaring error; there is nothing about ‘tiering‘ that violates net neutrality, but it is a bad idea for a lot of other reasons.   First, here are the principles the FCC has offered for public comment:

“Under the draft proposed rules, subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service:

1. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from sending or receiving the lawful content of the user’s choice over the Internet;

2. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from running the lawful applications or using the lawful services of the user’s choice;

3. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from connecting to and using on its network the user’s choice of lawful devices that do not harm the

network;

4. would not be allowed to deprive any of its users of the user’s entitlement to competition among network providers, application providers, service

providers, and content providers;

5. would be required to treat lawful content, applications, and services in a non-discriminatory manner; and

6. would be required to disclose such information concerning network management and other practices as is reasonably required for users and

content, application, and service providers to enjoy the protections specified in this rule making.”

Now first of all, let’s give the FCC a great big hand for doing such a fine job putting the definition of network neutrality into words, and going much further than most folks would have imagined.  Now, the way the FCC phrased it, they made all six principles subject to the prefatory phrase ‘reasonable network management.’  That is not the way I would do it.  Only principle 5 (OK maybe 4, too) needs to be made subject to reasonable network management, because none of the rest of the  principles implicate any kind of network management at all.  I would like to see the Commission simply take the phrase ’subject to reasonable network management’ and move it down to principle 5.  Then there would be no confusion that any of the other principles would somehow be compromised by allowing the network operators to ‘manage’ them.

If we can define network neutrality in six pithy phrases, I don’t see why we can’t take a whack at defining reasonable network management in a few pithy phrases also.  My framework for this is based on my research concerning comparative telecommunications laws, and specifically the European Union Framework Directive and Access Directive.  I’m not going to dissect the EU directives here, but I wanted to give some background.

The basic principles for reasonable network management:

1.  The management must be directed to traffic on the network.  It must be directly related to a specific, identifiable traffic problem existing on the network.  If audited, the operator should be able to show what the problem was; it is an identified situation.  This excludes peremptory management, for example taking actions to prevent a traffic problem.  The correct action to peremptorily address traffic is to expand the capacity on the network.  The rule is addressed this way intentionally, so that a network operator will be forced to open or expand capacity to solve traffic congestion.   Network management must stop as soon as the congestion has cleared.

2.  The network operator cannot discriminate between one kind of data and another to management traffic congestion.  The operator must act to remove the congestion, not the data.

3.  To help improve service during periods of congestion, the operator can prioritize certain data.  For example, if an episode of congestion made it hard for voice data to travel over the network (thereby rendering some voice-over-IP apps inoperable), the operator could prioritize voice data.  But the operator cannot retard other data.  Actually, the scenario painted by US ISPs of slowing some data to somehow create some space (??) for other data to move faster, like on a freeway, just doesn’t make sense.  That is not how a data network works.  The analog between freeways and networks breaks down.

4.  The operator cannot act to improve the ‘user experience.’  Since the operator is handling data for all kinds of users, who are sending data as well as receiving it, the operator would have to pick and choose which users’ experience to improve.  Obviously, this can’t be done because how do you choose?  This may also violate the rule against peremptory management.   Network management must occur on the network, not at the user.

5.  All management must be transparent.  Operators are limited to the use of management that meets the technical standards and specifications laid down by the Commission.   Operators must provide a complete description of the methodology they use for network management to anyone who asks.

6.  A network operator cannot refuse network access based on ‘reasonable network management grounds.’ “Where obligations are imposed on operators that require them to meet reasonable requests for access to and use of networks elements and associated facilities, such requests should only be refused on the basis of objective criteria such as technical feasibility or the need to maintain network integrity.”  (EU Access Directive)  When you send a message to someone on another network, you are ‘accessing’ the network.

7.  Network operators cannot manage the network in any way that distorts competition.  For example, they cannot refuse access or slow down access from some competitors, but not others.  They cannot favor their own traffic over others’.

That is pretty much it.  If the FCC wants to define the terms of reasonable network management, I see no reason they cannot.  I strongly urge the Commission to regulate network management in a way that is consistent with the rest of the world.  There is no US Internet or EU Internet.  There is just an Internet, and network operators and users should be able to use it the same way wherever they are.

]]> http://excapite.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/are-your-customers-packing-the-new-plastic/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:10:07 +0000 mobcon http://excapite.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/are-your-customers-packing-the-new-plastic/

If you run a business or a marketing and promotions program based on a loyalty card, rewards card, points card, advantage card, club card, credit card or debit card then very soon (if haven’t already) you’ll be thinking about the benefits of migrating your customers to New Plastic.

New Plastic? You guessed it, the Mobile Phone.

Now your “New Plastic” strategy could take shape in one of two ways.

• You could just build lots of Mobile Apps and distribute them to all your members (Thereby adding to the costs of managing the program), or
• You could turn your Loyalty Program Cost Center into a Profit Center by offering your customers the opportunity to sign up to your branded mobile phone network.

Interested in Plan B? Let’s show you how and why you should be thinking about becoming a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

First, let’s deal with the obvious question. What is an MVNO?

If you take a look at the diagram of the MobCon value chain below you will see a group of activities called Service Provision (i.e. Customer Care, Billing and Marketing). In this MVNO model a third-party steps in and takes over these functions from Telco and “owns” the retail customer relationship.

What this means is you own the customer and the Telco owns the transport system. You provide your customers with mobile phones and plug them into the Telco’s network. You buy wholesale air time and then bill the customer based on the network data records provided by the Telco.

Sounds simple in theory? Obviously it takes some effort to implement but as you will see much later on the financial benefits can make it worth the effort.

Why would the Telco allow this to happen?

Historically the Telecoms industry has struggled with 3 key aspects of customer relationship management.

Firstly their customer acquisition costs are very high. Secondly they struggle to retain these customers. Customer loyalty is poor and consequently the industry suffers from a high level of churn. Then there is the ongoing problem of billing.

The final problem the telcos face is the Voice problem. Essentially they need to increase ARPU on Data to replace the trend downwards in Voice ARPU.

In a nutshell Telcos are very good at building, maintaining and managing the “Dumb Pipes”. What they are not very good at is Customer Relationship Management.

The reality is any organisation operating an efficient and successful loyalty program can address all these issues of Customer Relationship management more effectively than the Telcos.

To begin with the Loyalty program operator has already resolved the customer acquisition and retention problem. They also have an effective customer service and billing platform. The challenge for the operator of the loyalty program is to add value to that customer loyalty by providing them with goods and services which will help keep the customer sticky and more profitable.

Mobile phones add value, deliver a new revenue stream and provide the perfect platform for mobile communications and mobile web commerce applications.

Properly implemented and managed, the SmartPhone not only becomes the perfect customer loyalty platform it can also add tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to your bottom line.

The MVNO model is not for everyone. There have been some well documented disasters over the past 5 years. The most notable being Disney and ESPN. (Om Malik’s piece from 2005 A MVNO Train Wreck Coming?)

The most successful global brand in the MVNO space is of course Virgin. In fact Virgin have been so successful in the US that their Telco has just bought them out. (See Sprint buys out Virgin’s US MVNO business for or around $483m).

The other success story is of course Britain’s Tesco. 2.25% of this national grocery retailer’s profit  is now generated by its MVNO business Tesco Telecoms.  Today they are seeking to significantly expand their market reach with their investor announcement of plans to double their profits in the sector by pushing into traditional sectors of the Telco market like broadband and home phones (e.g See the Telegraph’s Tesco plans assault on broadband market, The Times Tesco links with Cable & Wireless in broadband and home phones push and UK Compare Broadband’s Tesco aims to be the new BT) and moving into the premium iPhone market (See TechCrunch’s Mike Butcher: The iPhone comes to Tesco — will a price war follow?)

All this success is prompting retailers around the globe to take a good look at the MNVO model. (See Woolworths (Australia) Launches Its Own Mobile Network and Walmart launching own pre-paid cell plans)

Want to see who is getting it right today? Then start your search here at TelecomPaper.Com . Here you will find an up to date list of the MVNO’s and their Telco partners operating in every market around the globe.

So how do you know if you can get the model right? The simple answer is this.

The EGO:ID of CRM or How to profit from managing the customer lifecycle

If you have the EGO:ID of Customer Relationship Management in place then you are ready to profit from introducing a MNVO loyalty program (See Customers for life?).

The quickest and biggest losers so far in the MVNO market (e.g Disney and ESPN) made a fundamental error of judgement. They thought that content was the hook to build a successful MNVO business. As Virgin proved they were wrong. What you need to succeed is great Customer Relationship Management. Get that right and the rest is relatively easy.

The primacy of CRM in the MVNO Business Model is the reason why the MVNO model is not the answer to the future of Newspaper or Web Portals. Yahoo!, MSN, The New York Times and News Corp may have enormous online traffic but they do not have a relationship intimacy with their customers in the same way that a retailer, bank, hotel chain, rental car or airline may have.

I guess you could say they have followers rather than customers. Sadly,the Disney and ESPN experience proves that these online followers do not easily translate into profitable mobile phone customers.

In front of me sits the Barracuda Networks Web Filter 310, armed and ready to fight off web based dangers, and to ensure that wandering eyes don’t take company assets to the web’s seedy underbelly. No, we are not partnering up with Barracuda Networks. In fact, the AdTran Netvanta 7100 offers some of the same protections that the Web Filter does. But either way, both point to an important need – you must do everything necessary to protect your assets. Every nook and cranny of a network must be analyzed, every SIP trunk scanned, data protected and backed up. In short, batten down the hatches and be on the lookout for danger at all times! And it comes in so many forms. We all have visions of the hacker, trying to break into your server and steal data, or the virus planted in the seemingly innocent e-mail, but that’s just a fraction of the current dangers. How do we protect ourselves? Where do we start? A little education will help not only your own infrastructure, but knowing about addressing web threats and issues may help your clients as well and allow you to become more of an “all-in-one solution” for your customers. Let’s take a look at some trouble you may face and their possible solutions.

Any IT person can tell you horror stories about viruses and phishing scams. Just last week I spent a whole day reformatting an employee’s hard drive after he “clicked on the wrong thing.” A short while ago there was a chuckle that accompanied this statement because the “wrong thing” meant that he was on a site where he shouldn’t have been. Porn jokes aside, these days viruses or phishing attacks can be based off of even the most benign web sites (social networking sites are very popular). For example, a user may visit a news site and encounter a pop-up that says she has a virus and must renew her anti-virus software. One click of the pop-up will allow the “malware” (short for malicious software) to load itself to a machine and render it unusable. Sites that once came up, no longer do. Every click is followed by more pop-ups. The computer must be wiped out and started from scratch, down to reinstalling the operating system, sometimes more. This costs a company time and money, both for the IT work and for the dip in productivity. These dangers come in countless packages, delivered by web, email or even flash drives or CDs.

While computers can be rebuilt, you may not be so lucky with your data. This is why it is vital to protect and manage your data. Are you running daily data backups? Do you know what your company’s backup plan is (if there is one)? Were there to be a server crash, could you easily get your files back? How about your email? Do you know who has access to what data? Can your data be accessed from beyond the firewall – and by whom? These are important questions to ask. Yet many companies don’t, and when disaster strikes they find themselves scrambling to rebuild, sometimes from scratch. And aside from the time and money, data loss can have serious legal and human resources implications as well if items such as contracts, personnel or financial files are lost.

So what can be done? People build careers and companies around protecting others from attacks so it’s no small task. However, it can be managed by a competent IT support person. In the case of attacks, these threats need to be addressed by multi-faceted means. There are dozens of combinations that will help stem the tide. For example, virus and malware attacks, sometimes referred to as “blended threats,” require both hardware and software solutions. Network based anti-virus will help stem the tide of email based attacks, while a solid piece of firewall hardware, such as the Netvanta 7100 or another device, will help control access to and from the web. All can be monitored and controlled from the server by IT personnel.

With some planning and a few resources, data can be managed easily. In a pinch, portable data storage is priced to sell and backup software can be obtained cheaply off the internet. Though if one is interested, there are solutions well into the thousands. Determining the type of backup to be run is important as well, as they can be run in full, incremental and differential modes. If a company is short on IT staff, going to a hosted or co-located solution for email or file storage is certainly a viable solution. Vendors like Level3, Telx or Qwest offer such solutions. Most of these companies run daily backups, and use multiple servers to build in redundancy for your data. In addition, many of these companies build in some form of anti-virus or spam protection, which will cut down on management costs. Above the protection, using a solution like this can save you or your client dollars once spent on general IT maintenance. Companies that solely perform web based back-ups are plentiful as well and, depending on the overall size of your data, may be a viable option. Talk to your clients today about their backups and file structure. If they need help, don’t hesitate to work with them to find the right service.

Aside from all the hardware and software needs, the need for culture change is crucial. Starting at the top, principals should be aware of the dangers that their company faces, and they should know who to turn to with questions or concerns. In addition, every desktop, laptop, server and peripheral should be kept up to date with patches and updates. Questionable web surfing should be monitored, filtered or put to a stop. End-users need to be educated to be less trusting of attachments or pop-ups. For example, if the aforementioned anti-virus pop-up asks you to renew, stop and think “this isn’t from my admin – why would I click it?” We should all want to be part of the solution. Money lost scrubbing computers or recovering data cuts into the bottom line. It could be the difference between getting that holiday bonus or not.

Finally, here’s something to think about from the agent perspective: knowing about the potential issues out there can help you target client solutions. And helping them build good habits may turn out to be opportunities for the right agent. Recognizing the need for safety and security can be the final point to nail down an AdTran sale or to contract hosting with Level3. This is called being an “all-in-one solution” for your clients. The “blended threats” of the day require it.

The European parliament approved Tuesday a major overhaul of EU telecoms law aimed at boosting the rights of European mobile phone and Internet users and protection against access restrictions. The move, after months of bargaining, was eventually approved by a broad majority. It unblocks a package of reforms due to be implemented in the next 18 months to “enhance consumer rights, safeguard Internet freedom, protect data, boost competition and modernise radio spectrum use,” according to the parliament. Under the bill, authorities would no longer be able to cut off Internet services to users without providing evidence of illegal downloading or other activity. In cases deemed urgent enough to require immediate action, the procedures must be in line with Europe’s human rights rules. The draft law would also boost privacy and consumer rights, make it easier for customers to switch telecoms providers and increase competition for Internet and phone services. When changing providers, customers will have the right to keep their old phone number. The new rules also make it obligatory to obtain users’ consent before installing Internet “cookies” that log websites viewed. The deal stresses that “citizens in the EU are entitled to a prior fair and impartial procedure, including the right to be heard, and they have a right to an effective and timely judicial review.”

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/parliment-telecoms.1m8