Archive for the 'telecom' Category

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The mobile web is irrelevant

Published December 5, 2007 Internet Business , Life , media , telecom 2 Comments

Deserving of a separate post I think - those mobile browser stats show one important thing:

Nobody cares about the web on mobile phones.

The top 3 mobile browsers added up to a paltry 0.16% of web traffic, which for most Websites is approximately nothing. Of course if you are Google it’s a lot of pages, and they do have a mobile version.

Interestingly, if you look at the full stats, the iPhone has over four times the share of browsers than Windows 95.

But it all means that the whole mobile web thing is essentially irrelevant right now, though the growth is strong in the US/Europe.

However, we should recall that the iPhone and other newer phones have full web browsers, so there is no need to make pda versions of those web pages going forward.

Why the iPhone matters: Mobile internet that works

Published December 4, 2007 Internet Business , media , telecom 0 Comments

It’s simple - just look at the stats.

After just 5 months on the US market, the iPhone browser is showing a 0.09% browser traffic share.  (and that’s with 2.5G not 2G)

Compare that with Windows Mobile devices - rating 0.06% of the market, with about 14 times the number of handsets out there.

Why?

Simple. or more to the point Simplicity.

The iPhone is easy to use -  you turn it on and go.

The iPhone includes free data, so you don’t have to worry about usage.

The iPhone has a larger screen, and a great browser, so browsing is actually useful.

Other phones (and my Nokia E90 is included) are hard to figure out, both for individuals and for telcos.

For example, my E90 is still, after months here, unable to connect to the Vodafone network in Australia. The problem is on the VF end, and any number of trips to the very helpful local store have made no difference.

More importantly, pre-pay phones in Oz and in NZ are not web-data connected, denying the web to over half of the market. And that half of the market is probably the most web-savvy.

Meanwhile, data charges for traditional telcos and phones are not just sky-high, they have the ability to go super-stratospheric.  Start traveling and browsing overseas, and wait for the extra two or three zeros on the bill when you get home.

Goodbye payphones…

Published December 4, 2007 Global Macro Trends , Life , media , telecom 1 Comment

At least in chunks of the USA. AT&T is getting rid of them by the end of next year.

The USA had 2.6m payphones in 1998 and about 1m now.

Apparently, the story goes, AT&T (or someone else) commissioned McKinsey years ago to determine the demand for mobile phones.

The answer that came back was that the demand for mobile phones would be tiny, as folk were almost always within a few metres (ok - probably feet) or minutes of a pay phone.

I guess that study’s methodology could actually work these days - and even come up with the right answer.

Telecom - believing marketing trumps reality

Published November 5, 2007 Business , media , telecom 2 Comments

It may not actually be an iPhone, but Telecom is inviting comparison between its latest handset, the Okta Touch, and the much-hyped Apple handset.

We don’t have to see the Okta to know the answer to this one.

I watched the video. TVNZ interviews David Gray (Grey?) Telecom’s Head of Consumer Marketing, which is just the title of the person you’d expect Telecom to send. Why not send the CEO, if this is so important?

David answered the first question (Why Okta?) by saying that the brand

Resonates with consumers as a name that has technological expertise and is accessible.

I’ll refrain from commenting.

He later said that the Okta Touch is aimed at business users. This is clearly not the iPhone market.

David reiterated 3 times that the Okta has Windows Mobile 6, but I’m not sure people care.

Finally he got caught trying to nuance the distinctiveness of the phone - “does this exist anywhere else? was answered by “This product does not exist with the Okta branding”. The interviewer drilled and got a more honest answer in the next question.

Nobody talked about the path beyond obsolescence when Telecom changes their high speed network next year

Telecom’s $1.4 billion investment

Published October 29, 2007 Broadband , Internet Business , Politics , telecom 0 Comments

It’s great news. Score plus one for Paul Reynolds, who is making all the right moves as he embarks on the Telecom turnaround.

I’m running on the promised ADSL2+ here in Perth, and it is fast enough for most purposes, with an upgrade path to 20 MB per second ahead for TCNZ.

Sadly - that 20 MB is in 2011, whereas it should have been right now. But it will still put us ahead, in 2011, of where everyone except Finland, Korea and Japan are today.

(yup - I can see the bad in almost anything)

worldpolitics review

Legal unlocked iPhones

Published October 17, 2007 Life , media , telecom 0 Comments

Perhaps available only in French, but it seems iPhones will have to be sold in unlocked form in France, to comply with an excellent French law.

Unlocked: tick

3G: not yet.

Still time to kill until next year then.

Fast Broadband is here - in Perth that is

Published October 10, 2007 Broadband , Life , telecom 2 Comments

Finally I have broadband again. It took Perth based iiNet about a week to arm-twist Australian monopolist Telstra into connecting me. Their communications and service (24/7 help desk) has been faultless - which is stunning in this industry.

iiNet uses ADSL2, and here’s what I get:

From me at home in Perth to a local Perth server.

speedtest

From me at home in Perth to  San Francisco

speedtest SF

and from me in Perth to Wellington

speedtest - wellington perth

Meanwhile Telecom’s Broadband test shows a speed of 3300 Kbps - which is almost 50% above the maximum on their meter:

xtra

Finally - do check out the cool graphics on speedtest. It knows where you are, and lets you test your speeds from where to are to anywhere in the world.

speedtest

NZInstitute BB report: Telepresence growth benefits are limited

Published September 26, 2007 Air Travel , Broadband , Internet Business , NZ Business , New Zealand Institute , telecom 1 Comment

NZ Institute

That’s the second part of the tree on page 7 of the NZ Institute report. It shows total annual benefits of $165-$335m in increased exports from decent broadband allowing better telepresence. Telepresence I guess is defined by the authors as basically video conferencing with big screens and higher resolution.

To work it out the authors have basically said we’d get 5-10% increase in overseas sales productivity, which is applied to new sales activity 20% of the time, and as a result we wll sell and export more stuff.Now this is a really tough thing to work out, and credit to the NZ Institute for giving it a go. The validity of the answer lies, as it always does, in the numbers on the right hand side of the tree. Let’s go through them.

Current Exports: $3,200m

Continue reading ‘NZInstitute BB report: Telepresence growth benefits are limited’

The NZ Institute report - the benefits of broadband

Published September 26, 2007 Broadband , Internet Business , NZ Business , New Zealand Institute , telecom 0 Comments

If you are frustrated as hell at the ponderous pace of broadband adoption and speeds in New Zealand, then the New Zealand Institute report:

DEFINING A BROADBAND ASPIRATION:

HOW MUCH DOES BROADBAND MATTER
AND WHAT DOES NEW ZEALAND NEED?

is essential reading.

NZ Institute

The presentation is in classic McKinsey style, which is an acquired taste, but has proven a remarkably effective method of communicating results. For more on this see The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto.

I’m going to comment on the report in a series of posts.

#1 NZInstitute BB report: Telepresence costs savings are minimal
#2 NZInstitute BB report: Telepresence growth benefits are limited

Other Sites

NZ Institute report: Defining a Broadband Aspiration

Rod Drury: The business case for Broadband
Mauricio Freitas: New Zealand Broadband needs action now

How to buy Apple iPhones in NZ

Published September 24, 2007 Internet Business , Life , NZ Business , Trade Me , telecom 8 Comments

{update - From July 11th2008  you can now just go to a Vodafone store and get an iPhone 3G. And a contract.}

Want to buy an iPhone in NZ?

Well - the quickest way to get your hands on one is down on Queen street at Parallel Imports.

You can also buy them online from the Parallel Imported store - software unlocked and ready to go with Vodaphone. They cost $1299, which is a bit over double the US$399 retail price before unlocking, detachment from AT&T and GST. Probably $3-400 too pricey for me, but then again I’ll walk past a few  times today.

Parallel Imported

(Luckily the Nokia E90 is out of stock - so I can rest assurred that my current phone is still not available in NZ. It is also outrageously expensive.)

Parallel Imported

I found 5 iPhones on  SellMeFree, but all 5 are listed by people with zero feedback. Zero feedback and bleeding edge technology reeks of scam - stay clear. One person even has his email and phone number in the listing, which is a bad bad sign - showing lack of policing by SellMeFree..

eBay has plenty of phones, but you get dumped into the US site after keyword searching, and it is hard to filter out the ones that will ship here, the ones that will work here and the non scammers. So go back, hit ‘advanced search’ and show only those that accept PayPal and will ship to NZ. I got 713. The prices are in the US$400-$600 (buy now) range, with the cheaper ones being the 4GB model. That’s a much better price, and there seem to be some giant sellers in the game that will accept PayPal and ship (only to) PayPal confirmed addresses. PayPal gives fraud protection for these guys, so you are relatively safe. It is a pain (and can take time) to get a PayPal confirmed address though.

and of course Trade Me sadly doesn’t have any iphones. grrr.

N90 and iPhone…

Published September 21, 2007 Life , media , telecom 0 Comments

Stephen Fry agrees with the N90 and iPhone combo. He puts us all to shame as gadget geek though..

Good to see him blogging - that’s his first entry.

UK iPhone - what to do in NZ?

Published September 19, 2007 Business , Internet Business , NZ Business , Trade Me , auctions , telecom 3 Comments

So the iPhone is in the UK - with O2. The interesting thing is that, like the USA, the iPhone is not coming with any 3G high speed mobile internet. Instead Apple and O2 have signed a deal with The Cloud, giving iPhone users free WiFi access at 7,500 UK locations.

We don’t have that option in New Zealand, so perhaps we’ll have to wait for late 2008 before we get the ‘proper’ 3G iPhone. So you may as well be like the Australians, and buy one.

Sadly Trade Me seems to be lacking iPhones, perhaps because of high scammer potential. Is TM is removing these? If so why? and please stop - there is a real market and I can’t think why we can’t buy them.  Meanwhile eBay has a bunch, but watch for scammers as they are attracted to the latest greatest kit.

Apple is apparently making big dollars from the telcos, who are kicking a decent percentage of their fees for the privilege of being launch operators.

One great thing Apple has done for the UK market is to get O2 to launch ‘all you can eat’ EDGE and WiFi broadband. That seems to be a market first, and hopefully the others’ will follow.

Sadly though Apple appears to have a country by country strategy, so those international roaming charges, especially data charges, will still be an issue. While Apple is shaking up the market structure, how about a global iPhone, or at least a pan-European iPhone?

Coming to your mobile phone: Google ads

Published September 19, 2007 Internet Business , media , telecom 0 Comments

Google is expanding the adwords product to websites designed for mobile phones.  web page providers can simply choose wether to accept the ads, much like adwords does so now.

With the limited screen real estate on mobile, Google recommends 2 ads per page. It’s tough though, on mobile devices where you pay so much for bandwidth, and speeds are slow, to see that many clicks. Google ads do have the best chance though, as they are generally pretty good at being relevant.

However - is this too late? Are we not (at least in the USA) moving to wireless internet on decent sized devices that show the ‘real’ internet?

I’ll be really interested to see the current traffic numbers on mobile only webpages, and I’ll be really really interested to see the trend in the last and next few years.

Last word to Gizmodo:

Perhaps Google’s “two ads per page” advice will bolster clicks, but we’re not holding our breath. Or clicking, rather. 

Free wifi - part of the iPhone success

Published September 17, 2007 Internet Business , NZ Business , telecom 1 Comment

a telling comment from Rod Drury:

I also noticed that iPhone behavior changes once you move from the carrier network to wifi. Almost everywhere we stopped there was free wifi. As soon as the iPhone user had free wifi then the iPhone was out and being used in conversation.

When I travel in the USA I don’t need a mobile internet solution - just the built in Wifi capability of my mac. Cafes, hotel and similar businesses offer it for free, and in residential areas there are any number of unlocked nodes.

It has been like this for years now.

Back here in NZ and Australia, with our data caps and absurd pricing, we are still years behind. Sure we have high speed mobile data, but at stupid rates, requiring expensive devices, and with crippling international roaming fees.

We need to embrace free wifi, and it starts with our own setup at home.

Telecom is a trade barrier

Published September 16, 2007 Business , NZ Business , Politics , telecom 1 Comment

Rather amusingly, the US Foreign Trade Barriers document referred to below also has some tasty things to say about Telecomms in NZ:

 U.S. industry has expressed concern about the fees charged for completing calls using mobile networks in New Zealand, which are among the highest in the world.

That’s a clear statement that Telecom’s under-investment and over-pricing has had a destructive effect on New Zealand’s competitiveness. It doesn’t say much for Vodafone either.

The piece seems to have been written prior to this year, and

The United States will continue to monitor … developments. 

So the US Government is telling us that market forces have failed to provide competitive mobile phone rates, and indeed, their response to the legislation splitting Telecom into three and mandating naked DSL is unequivocal:

The United States commends New Zealand for taking positive actions towards enhancing the competitive environment, which may lead to increased opportunities for U.S. service providers and equipment manufacturers in New Zealand’s market.

So you folk who believe that our “out of control loony left wing government” should have let market forces decide Telecom’s fate cannot even count the conservative led USA among your supporters. Indeed the USA was the original monopoly buster in Telecommunications when it broke up AT&T.*

The situation in NZ was simple - the market failed and the Government had to step in. Telecom could have avoided the ensuing action if they had been more responsible to all of their stakeholders, including customers, society and Government, not just shareholders.

*Of course in recent years AT&T has essentially got back together and is bigger than ever.

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