June 2013

Verizon, Netflix Dispute Not Just over Peering; Servers are New Battlefield

High-profile flare-ups between content providers and broadband providers over traffic exchange are becoming an annual or even semi-annual Internet tradition. The latest flare-up is between Cogent Communications, which provides backbone connectivity for Netflix, and Verizon. But this time there’s a new issue embedded in an old issue.

The old issue is how to deal with traffic imbalances between broadband providers and content providers who tend to send more traffic to broadband providers than they receive from them. The new issue pertains to a new approach to solving those traffic exchange problems – allowing the content provider to put servers in key broadband provider connection points, thereby minimizing the distance content has to travel between the two companies. The goal is to minimize transport costs and enhance the quality of the end user experience. And the fight now seems to be over who controls those arrangements.

Mobile Data Will Soon Dominate Wireless Service Revenues

Mobile data service revenue continues its impressive run for the wireless industry, according to leading wireless industry consultant Chetan Sharma.

Mobile data revenue now accounts for close to 45% of total service revenue, and Sharma predicts it may pass the 50% mark for the U.S. market sometime this year (it’s already 65% in Japan), generating a total of $90 billion in 2013. Much of the explosion in data revenue can be tied to the rapid adoption of smartphones. Sharma’s data reveals that smartphones are now in the hands of over 50% of U.S. subscribers and account for 85% of all new device sales (for 1Q13). According to Sharma, there’s still plenty of room for growth, considering that the 50% of subscribers who now own smartphones are concentrated in only 30% of U.S. households.

Americans, Especially the Young, Oppose Internet Sales Tax

Americans, by 57% to 39%, say they would vote against a law that would allow each state to collect sales taxes on purchases its residents make online over the Internet.

Young adults voice the most widespread opposition to such a law. The majority of Americans across nearly all key groups oppose an Internet sales tax law, but there are modest differences in the degree of support. Democrats are somewhat more likely than Republicans to favor an Internet sales tax, 48% to 34%. College graduates are slightly more likely than those without a college degree to support it, 46% to 37%. And support is higher among adults in households making $60,000 or more annually than among those in lower-income households.

Much faster Wi-Fi coming soon

The latest Wi-Fi technology, called "802.11ac," offers speeds of up to 1.3 Gigabits per second.

That's fast enough to transfer an entire high-definition movie to a tablet in under 4 minutes, share photo albums with friends in a matter of seconds or stream three HD videos at the same time. It's more than double the top speed of the previous standard, known as 802.11n. Those speeds are theoretical maximums -- very few people have anything close to 1 Gigabit speeds from their home broadband connection. Average speeds are less than 1% of that. But the faster speeds mean the new Wi-Fi standard will offer a much bigger pipeline for all those videos, songs and games that a growing number of people are streaming on multiple devices simultaneously.

Tech is at a tipping point

As smartphones replace dumb phones and tablets surpass laptops, the world is shifting to a more mobile world this year -- and it's not looking back.

Project Chess: How U.S. Snoops On Your Skype

If you thought that the U.S. government only tracks meta-data on your calls or scoops up your Facebook page and YouTube videos, think again. Skype — a subsidiary of Microsoft since October 2011 when Redmond bought it for $8.5 billion – operates a program that makes it easy for the government to snoop on your Skype calls.

Broadcasting Board of Governors Calls For End To Harassment And Threats To Press

Members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors emphasized the need for global press freedom and renewed their call for the release of journalists being held in Syria.

Citrix: Data Provides Insight into Mobile Subscriber Behavior and Mobile App Preference

Citrix released the Citrix ByteMobile Mobile Analytics Report for the second quarter of 2013. The Mobile Analytics report provides insight into mobile data subscriber usage patterns and the impact this behavior has on operators’ networks.

This quarter’s key findings indicate:

Mobile audio – and Internet radio in particular – is an emerging category representing 12 percent of mobile data volume in North America and four percent outside of the region.
Mobile search per subscriber has increased 25 percent since February 2012.
Four apps – Media Player, Safari, App Store and Facebook – generate 82 percent of mobile data volume on iOS devices.
Google Maps is preferred over Apple Maps on iOS devices throughout most of the world

New Research Provides Insight into LTE Usage by Smartphone Users

Mobidia Technology released new research which offers new insights into LTE usage from an extended analysis of the leading LTE markets of the U.S., Canada, Germany, Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Using a data set spanning 8 months from August 2012 to April 2013, and covering markets that have more than 90 percent of the current LTE subscribers, the analysis indicates a positive impact for the more than 100 mobile operators that have deployed LTE. LTE subscribers are shown to be using more data and buying larger volume-limited data plans. The data also reveals the reliance of Wi-Fi networks by smartphone subscribers, especially those using heavy data-consuming applications such as video. This could represent both a threat and opportunity for the mobile operators.

The analysis highlights the following trends:

In all markets, LTE subscribers are buying more larger data plans from the mobile operators.
LTE subscribers are using less Wi-Fi than 3G subscribers
Wi-Fi continues to be a critical network for smartphone users.
Apps that subscribers value while mobile, such as Google Maps, or that subscribers want all the time and everywhere, such as Facebook, were used more by 4G subscribers.

Verizon Remains Committed to Fire Island With Voice Link

Recently, Stop the Cap! published stories about Verizon’s decision to discontinue traditional wired landline service for approximately 500 customers on Fire Island and offer them a wireless alternative called Voice Link.

This is an important change for Verizon and our customers, and we wanted to clarify several points about the service and how Verizon is deploying it. In places like Fire Island, New York and some communities along the Jersey Shore, such as Mantoloking and Seaside Heights, Verizon evaluated the extent of the damage to its facilities – which in many cases were literally washed away by Super Storm Sandy – and conducted extensive research before deciding the best course of action to take in terms of restoration. Fire Island is a popular beach community with only a few hundred year-round residents, but the population swells each summer. Verizon’s equipment on the eastern side of the island was not too heavily impacted, so repairs were made and services restored. On the western side of the Island, however, a large percentage of Verizon’s copper facilities were damaged beyond repair. We studied the voice traffic on and off the island and where it was originating from on both Verizon’s wireline and wireless networks.

The company discovered that 80 percent of the voice traffic was already wireless. If other wireless providers were factored in, it is likely that the percentage is closer to 90 percent. This made it clear that people had already made the decision as to what technology works best. They had abandoned copper long before Sandy.

Benton

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