via collegehumor.com
Brilliantly observed.
Author Archives: Hamish MacEwan
T-Mobile CEO confirms the iPhone and the death of phone subsidies
T-Mobile is eliminating all device subsidies in 2013, requiring new customers to pay full price for their phones up front, buy it on installment or bring their own unlocked devices, Legere said speaking at corporate parent Deutsche Telekom’s Capital Markets Day in Bonn.
T-Mobile will shift entirely to its unsubsidized Value Plans, which offer customers far cheaper rates for voice and particular data. Traditionally carriers factor subsidies into their normal contracts rates – basically you’re paying a mortgage on your phone. With the Value program, T-Mobile is keeping the contract, but passing what it saves on subsidies back to consumer.
via gigaom.com
Sky has never bought you a TV set. The subsidy has always been a burden, justifying lock-in contract periods. The era of opportunistic cellco choice on the fly for best bargain data bundles gets closer.
???Call of Duty??? Reaches $1 Billion Faster Than ???Avatar???
???Call of Duty: Black Ops II,??? thelatest installment in Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI)???s best-sellingvideo-game franchise, topped $1 billion in retail sales withinits first 15 days of release.
The sales figure, which relies on Chart-Track retail data,means ???Call of Duty??? reached $1 billion faster than the movie???Avatar,??? the record holder for feature films, Activision saidtoday in a statement. The previous installment in the seriesaccomplished that same feat last year. It took 16 days to reachthe $1 billion milestone, compared with 17 for ???Avatar,??? whichcame out in 2009
via bloomberg.com
Top 10 Overused Professional Buzzwords 2012
Telecom in the new era
“Telcos are mostly going to sell gigabytes in the future. The revenue that funds all our massive infrastructure, whether it be fixed or mobile, is going to come from selling gigabytes as opposed to minutes and messages.”
Excellent. Recognition that the need for consumers to pay the operator to manufacture voice calling services is over, trumped by the handset’s edge to edge audio capability.
“Data is the saleable item and will be bought in parcels and volumes, and it’s good for the market to have alternatives that are cheap and low volume and medium and high. Some fast, some slow. Unless you create a diverse range of offers that meet every market, you end up with an unhealthy market.”
Half right, nothing is “saleable” when it exists in abundance, which data does in the wired envrionment. Having recently moved to 0.5TB quota at a residential price, there may be caps, but who’ll know. The saleable item is subscription to the connection, the end.
Moutter says there is no point in uncapped plans. “That would be like selling electricity with unlimited electricity for $50 a month; how the hell would that be efficient? That would be insane.”
Wholly wrong. What is insane is comparing an energy transmission network delivering a costly limited commodity to consumers with a datacommunications network that exchanges a functionally infinite commodity provided by subscribers.
#freeandopen
Responding to Martin Geddes
There are lots of social values created by internet use that aren’t adequately “paid for” by individual internet subscribers, and aren’t appropriately appropriated by network owners. Innovation is one of those positive spillovers that we don’t want to allow a single property owner to own forever, because the second innovator might do a better job with the idea. Same thing online — the network owners shouldn’t necessarily be allowed to internalize all of these externalities, because we can’t assume that optimal social values will be the result. Rewarding a single innovator isn’t always the best thing to do.
via scrawford.net
This was a poor excerpt to illustrate the title, it’s just such a good point I wanted to bring it out. Benefits that don’t accrue to the operator, essential, the more the merrier. Relates to monopoly generally, telco, copyright, patent et al. A point that those dismissing Metcalfe’s Law overlooked, no the n^2 factor does not accrue to the operator, leaving value on the table makes renting seats at the table easier.
More selected Martin Geddes
Gmail and Drive – a new way to send files
Have you ever tried to attach a file to an email only to find out
you can’t attach files from GDrive, to Gmail? You still can’t but you can send links.
Cyber-bullying: education and narrow focus critical
“We understand that physical bullying is far more prevalent than cyber-bullying and that cyber-bullying peaks in Years 9 and 10. It is clear to us that cyber-bullying cannot be addressed without simultaneously addressing bullying as a whole in schools.”
“While generally supportive of the legislative measures proposed by the Communications (New Media) Bill, InternetNZ has put forward 10 recommendations to address the policy issues it raises. In particular, InternetNZ recommends that the Communications Principles should be used for guidance and education only. Further, given a lack of evidence that a Tribunal is really required, those provisions should be removed from any new legislation developed. A review should be held after two years to determine whether a Tribunal is in fact really needed.”
via InternetNZ
Hamish MacEwan 