Broadband & Internet
NBN the key to power after Australia’s dead-heat election
When Australia’s Labor Party-led government announced in April 2009 that it was planning to build a National Broadband Network – at a time when the party was still massively favored to win re-election this year – party members could scarcely have dreamt that the NBN would end up being the slender thread that might just help them retain power.
But that’s exactly how things have turned out after an extraordinary drop in public support for the government saw the August 21 federal election result in a hung parliament, with the Labor and Coalition parties tied with 73 seats each and needing to win support from four independents MPs – three of whom are from rural constituencies – to secure a working majority. Read more »
Apple TV merely dips its toe into the Internet TV waters
The re-launch of Apple TV prompted, beyond the usual hyperbole, some intriguing rumours. A re-brand to iTV, an Apple subscription service and an iPhone-style TV application store were among many things mooted, but what we ended up with was merely a smaller, less expensive version of the same box, with broadly the same content as was available on the first Apple TV. Read more »
Music Anywhere marks the start of a wave of media-locker services from mobile players
Last week, a mobile industry player, handset retailer Carphone Warehouse, broke new ground in the cloud-music-services sector with the launch of Music Anywhere. The service is a “digital locker,” in the sense that it is designed to let users store their music collection in a central place on the Internet, which can then be accessed by different devices. Read more »
With its latest M&A activity, Disney increases its digital lead over slower-moving rivals, says Andrew Ladbrook
In July 2010, Disney, one of the largest media companies in the world, was involved in two large M&A deals. On July 27 it acquired leading social-gaming publisher Playdom for US$563.2 million, a figure that could rise to over US$700 million with a US$200 million performance bonus built into the deal. The deal follows the purchase of mobile-phone-casual-game developer Tapulous in the same month. But the Playdom deal’s significance as a strategic realignment is enhanced further by Disney’s sale of movie studio Miramax for US$660 million just a few days later. Read more »
Ofcom’s broadband speed report: interesting, but what’s it for?
I have just read the press release and the correpsonding BBC article on Ofcom’s broadband speed report, published today. The research itself is worthy and interesting, but:
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ECTA’s High Speed 2010 conference: Refreshing but still no resolution in sight
I’m no fan of conferences where everyone agrees and leaves with pretty much the same opinions they had when they arrived. In my opinion, such love-ins do the attendees a disservice and have played no small part in driving the telecoms industry down numerous dead-ends over the years. That’s why I found yesterday’s European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) conference so refreshing.
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UK subscription music revenues to hit £350 million in five years? Surely not
If ever there was a perfect example of a new business model failing to achieve in the real world what looked so good on paper it is the subscription model of music consumption. Gaining access to all of the world’s music for the price of an album (plus a few extra bells and whistles) is a business model that has all the credentials to succeed but has so far failed to deliver. Read more »
Saudicom raises questions about desire for change in KSA
Two days of presentations and panel discussions at SaudiCom clearly demonstrated that there are lots of great ideas about how the world (or the telecoms market in KSA) could be a better place. Black Swan theories, co-opetition, partnership, new business models and all that highly worthy jazz abounded. But I think anybody could be forgiven for taking it all with a large pinch of salt.
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Fixed broadband in Africa is finally turning the corner
Broadband in Africa always faced hurdles, ranging from very low PC penetration to lack of sufficient international bandwidth. Many of these problems remain, but some of the thorniest ones are being remedied. Read more »
Google plan highlights rather than closes gaps between web and TV
Google’s plans for its Smart TV product are finally out of the box. Some of the things it announced for truly lived up to the considerable pre-launch hype, and it was certainly the shot in the arm for TV that it promised to be. Read more »
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