Those 2 wild and crazy guys in the US broadband duopoly keep telling us they can’t make a living selling us big dumb pipe at a fair price. As a result we endure paying for a phone line we may not need to get DSL, and have valuable bandwidth filled with TV channels few watch, but all subscribers pay for to allow them a chance to recover their “losses”. Those fortunate few Americans that have access to a big dumb pipe like Verizon’s FIOS pay a big multiple of what someone in France, Japan or Korea pays for similar service. The problem is this: Anyone with a duopoly position in a $190 billion market that can’t make money from something as simple as a big dumb pipe needs career counseling. For now their shareholders are still buying the lie, and losing money.

More than 415 million broadband accounts will be active by the end of the year, according to estimates published by Strategy Analytics today. The market research expects this number to grow to 612 million by 2012.

Worldwide, broadband service revenues will increase from $130 billion in 2008 to $190 billion in 2012, with Europe, Asia Pacific and North America leading the way, Strategy Analytics said. (Toms Hardware)

In what is a far reaching non-action by The Supreme Court; they have decided to not hear a case steeming from a class action against T-Mobile and AT&T and rendered by the CA SC. –

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dashed a bid by T-Mobile and AT&T to stave off a class-action lawsuit challenging the carriers’ policies against unlocking mobile phones.

The justices declined to review an October decision by the California Supreme Court that cleared the way for a lawsuit that attorneys claimed could represent “millions” of California customers.

In response to similar lawsuits, Verizon and Sprint, both CDMA carriers, have agreed to provide the software code to unlock cellphones after customers nationwide have completed their original contract, attorneys said. “That was the compromise we ended up with to get the cases settled,” said California attorney Robert Bramson, one of the lawyers suing carriers T-Mobile and AT&T.

As a consequence the CA SC ruling in favor of the plaintiffs suit stands unchallenged. So now the carriers in CA must proceed to trial or settle out of court for some agreed terms. My gut says they settle and agree to unlock phones. If they do that opens the door like the Carterphone decison of the 1980s for serious competition in the handset market in Calif. Calif is the biggest handset market of them all. Representing the biggest chunk of revenue for all of them on a State by State basis. The landscape is going to change very quickly I figure.

Trend? Biggest I see is internet handset sellers/resellers in CA offering unlocked handsets around the country. Once that cats out of the bag the carriers are going to have to open up.

Linky.

Previous posts here., here

Folks we have covered this before. Let me say its an interesting technology. But as soon as you tell a customer that some of their bandwidth could possibly be used by their neighbor for cell calls the jig is up. Then of course there are the legal implications that are pending in both the House and Senate on open access. But there is a niche for this, after the jump. –

The most recent report from ABI Research concludes that 2008 will remain “fairly low-key” for femtocell vendors, as only about 100,000 units are expected to ship by year’s end. Next year, the industry will see results from more than 20 trials currently underway, but the firm doesn’t expect units to ship in the tens of millions until 2010.

“By 2010, femtocell silicon solutions will have been optimized to the degree that $100 price points for femtocell access points will be within reach and OEMs’ order books will have the volume to sustain critical wholesale price reductions,” wrote Stuart Carlaw, VP and research director at the firm.

“The turning point for this market will be late 2009. There is little doubt that all the technical hurdles regarding femtocell deployments can be overcome. The really critical issue will be whether initial carrier deployments are supported by robust business models and service plans that extend beyond pure fixed-mobile substitution goals.”

The niche? Industrial warehousing. Think about it. The AP will probably go for less than $500 otherwise I don’t think it would make it commercially in the residential market. Especially when 900mhz wireless sets are so cheap. Think about it — I buy the base, maybe not even hook it up to the broadband connection. Then buy some cheap $10 used cellular hand sets. I have a in-house communication system at ¼ a similar proprietary system or the nextel system.

You know there are just some days it does not pay to be a CEO! This is one of those days, if you happen to be General Instrument a maker of settop boxes. –

The set-top box, a necessary appendage for millions of cable television customers for decades, is moving toward extinction.

A leading television manufacturer, Sony Electronics Inc., and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said Tuesday they signed an agreement that will allow viewers to rid themselves of set-top boxes, yet still receive advanced “two-way” cable services, such as pay-per-view movies.

In most cases, cable viewers also could dispose of another remote control since they could use their TV’s control rather than one tied to the set-top box.

The agreement marks a significant meeting of the minds between cable companies and one of the world’s dominant makers of consumer electronics. The two industries have been feuding for a decade about how best to deliver cable service to customers while allowing them to buy equipment of their own choosing.

I take this as a positive development for the delivery industry as a whole. Its one more appendage out of the way. The cable mavens aren’t out of the woods yet. But this is a good first step.

More here.

Art Earl, director of strategic development at the tech firm Hypres in Elmsford, N.Y., offered an outside-the-box idea in an FCC proceeding in which everything is on the table for discussion.

“My idea is for the government to deregulate the 700 MHz band and just give it away for a few years for small businesses to develop new revolutionary technologies and give the U.S. a technology booster shot without spending any money,” Earl said. “If you have to compromise on deregulation, then perhaps only devices blessed by the PSST and FCC could be used at this frequency range. This will help stimulate innovation in a significant and meaningful way and perhaps pave the way for the U.S. to re-emerge as a significant global power in broadband wireless. Look at how much the prior deregulation of 5 GHz and 2 GHz bands have stimulated the economy.”

Actually I could support that kind of plan. Especially if the FCC is going to continue with any sort of private-public stupidity like the last auction. Fact I would go so far as to recommend the following –

Three Bands —

• One Opened but licensed band for any sort of experimentation/development.
• A guard band.
• A closed license band for Metro - Public service use.

Doing it this way solves a lot of problems. The Commission avoids a nasty legal battle with the NAB. US industry/inventors get a band to develop new technologies with given appropriate power and spectrum usage. The Metro wireless might get a new lease on life. The convenient factor is that most of the first responder orgs are city departments for the most part anyway. Using spread spectrum technology and appropriate software it would be quite possible to leverage the use of the band for both public and private use.

More at RCR.

When it comes to determining who has how much in real terms, not marketing terms, content delivery provider Akamai is in a position to know. A new report that is expected to be revised quarterly shows that a paltry 20% of US connections accessing their servers has a =>5MBPS connection. This is very bad news because a great many of the new applications and services now in the pipeline will simply not worl correctly with the majority of the US connections. Talk about killing the economy! Before you bash Mr. Bush by his lonesome, remember that the other party controls both houses of Congress where laws are actually written of repealed. The entire cast of DC Pols are collectively out to lunch.

Akamai data shows that South Korea is the leader in delivering what the Massachusetts-based CDN provider calls, high broadband. It means connections that connect to Akamai’s at speeds exceeding 5 Megabits per second. Nearly 64% of South Korean connections qualify as high broadband.

US, by that metric is a deplorable, with only 20 percent connections qualifying as high broadband. Interestingly, when you reduce the connection speed to 2 megabits per second, US ranks at #24 with 62% of connections at speeds exceeding 2 Mbps.

In US, the state of Delaware has 60% connections that qualify as “high broadband.” California scores rather poorly and is not even among the top ten. Thanks to Cablevision, Verizon and Time Warner, New York comes in at #3 with 36% of its connections at speeds exceeding 5 Mbps. (Gigaom)

Memo to Pols: Make no new laws unless the said laws end the conditions that created the duopoly and continue to protect it from competition. Laws do not make for improvement in service. An open competitive market does.

According to Cnet, Amazon will be entering the pay per view business with a TVoIP video streaming service. The assault on closed content delivery networks continues….

In an interview with Walt Mossberg at D6, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said, “We are working on a new version of video on demand, a for pay streaming service we will release in the next couple of weeks. The streaming service will start instantly and it’s a la carte, for pay.” (Cnet)

AT&T with new contracts is prorating the ETF’s. From DSL Reports –

Back in April I noted that AT&T will now be pro-rating their early termination fees. Just as a reminder: that new policy started yesterday. Instead of paying the previous $175 penalty no matter when you cancel, new and renewing AT&T customers will now see that $175 total reduced by $5 for every month they’re under contract. Sprint, AT&T and Verizon all changed their plans after facing massive ($1 billion, in Verizon’s case) lawsuits for misleading customers. The carriers are currently trying to wiggle out of those suits by lobbying the FCC.

I say that is a positive development but a little too late. Why is it a Yank can go into any cell store in Bangkok, plunk down his money, and have an active no contracts phone in sight of 15 minutes? The contract idea is passe.

Excuse me Verizon but I thought you had a green initiative going on? So what’s a Hummer doing in your fleet line up?

Photo by Connumerist.

There is a Dutch outfit that has relaunched a long range WiFi system they they have branded Max-Fi. At 2km the throughput is still get 2Mbps. Not bad for what is nothing more than 802.11 with attenuated modulation.

According to the Mfr the deploy cost is much lower than WiMax. More details here.