Europe Jumps On Wi-Fi Bandwagon. WiFi is experiencing rising popularity in Europe as demonstrated by the considerable increase in the deployment of wireless hotspots in the continent. According to a new study by BroadGroup Tariff Services, the number of hotspots in the region grew by 28 percent from May 2005 to September 2006. Majority of these devices are found in the U.K., Germany and France. The report also noted that two-thirds of all hotspots in Europe are managed by telcos and mobile operators.
[NetStumbler.com]
10:14:31 AM    

U.S. Mobile Web Adoption Slow. A lower percentage of Americans access the Internet on mobile devices than Europeans, though U.S. users frequent portals more often. [ClickZ Stats]
10:06:55 AM    

T-Mobile Launches Converged Cell/Wi-Fi Voice [Wi-Fi Networking News]

This is the first meaningful UMA launch in the US (though it's only a limited pilot in Seattle, with no release dates announced). The most salient aspects of the plan:

- $20 / month for unlimited minutes over wifi. Subscriber must have a $40 minimum voice plan an can combine offering with T-Mobile's $30/mo GPRS data service

- it requires a t-mobile router at home. "The requirement of a specific router relates to the low-power mode of handsets that needs a particular protocol embedded in the router to work—WMM Power Save. Few routers have this right now, but it’s really a protocol-level feature, not a hardware change. However, it does require Wi-Fi Alliance certification if you want to use the label on the product, and thus adds cost at that level.

9:51:52 AM    

MuniWireless.com Estimates $3b in US Spending by 2010 [Wi-Fi Networking News]
9:39:53 AM    

Is The WiFi Revolution Underway?. ABI Research sees a rise in the demand for consumer electronic products with wireless networking capabilities and an explosive growth for WiFi with a shift in the way entertainment is delivered. The firm expects shipments of WiFi-enabled consumer electronic devices to jump from 40 million this year to 249 million in 2011. The key to this expansion is the bridge between PC and TV and the growing use of mobile telephony but content availability and bandwidth problems could present as challenges to such possibility.
[NetStumbler.com]
10:20:37 AM    

More Wi-Fi Demanded In T-Mobile Poll. A survey by YouGov revealed that WiFi users hope for more hotspots in more locations. Half of the 253 respondents want WiFi access in trains and a quarter on the tube. Some 86 perecent with laptops, however, do not know how useful having such connection during rush hour. The study also showed that 45 percent of those surveyed use the technology to keep in touch with family and friends and 30 percent believed their work/life balance improved due to high-speed wireless connectivity.
[NetStumbler.com]
10:19:50 AM    

Online payment methods for the un-banked

 

According to some industry forecasts, over 10 million low-income U.S. households will be brought online via municipal programs by 2010. In fact, the main impetus behind municipal networks is the economic and social development of under-served communities. Yet., most low-income families will not be able to take full advantage of the Internet: nearly 80 million people (about 36 million households) are “underserved” in terms of financial services, and most inner-city users of free or low-cost wireless broadband fall in this category.

 This mostly means no credit card, debit card or even bank account. What is the benefit of being online if onecannot purchase goods and services, including books, music, clothes, participate in auctions or send money overseas at bargain rates? Municipal governments will soon find out that providing free broadband access to households that don't have means of paying electronically will significantly hinder adoption and effective use of the service. The answer? Prepaid, reloadable cards that do not require credit or even a bank account.

 

10:05:17 PM    

The number of hotspots in India is expected to grow tenfold with 3,000 active by December: for a country with many times the U.S. and with a vast technically trained population--and extremes of poverty as well--hotspot growth is a given. The government only recently legalized the use of 2.4 GHz and 5.1 GHz devices for this purpose.

Dishnet announced a 6,000-hot spot network this week with 2,000 planned to be active by December; Microsense has 200 now with 1,000 expected by December; other networks have hundreds of locations targeted, too. Prices have plummeted as growth has expanded--but probably not fallen "100 percent" as the article indicates.

[Wi-Fi Networking News]
9:40:12 AM    

Web Usage Growth Flatlines in U.S., Other Mature Markets

More on the Nielsen/Netratings report on changes in average time spent online at home. The classification of Brazil as a "mature" market and Australia as "emerging", considering that Internet household penetration in Australia is far greater than in Brazil, is somewhat questionable. Nevertheless the trend of flattening growth in more developed markets is evident.

9:56:02 PM    

By the end of 2005, over 1,000,000,000 people will have access to the Internet around the globe. 150 million, or 15%, of them will be connecting regularly at high speed. At that point, US broadband users will account for approximately 25% of the global broadband population, with countries like South Korea having already reached almost an 80% penetration of broadband into the home.

Total % DSL Subscribers by Region
Region	Q3 04 Total	% of Total DSL Subscribers by Region
Asia Pacific	24,062,660	28.22
European Union	26,518,252	31.10
Latin America	2,864,775	3.36
Middle East & Africa	858,500	1.01
North America	15,162,697	17.78
Other Europe	1,199,000	1.41
South & SE Asia	14,601,500	17.12
Totals	85,267,384	100.00
Source: DSL Forum and Point Topic

Given that over 70% of the potential market for Internet services is outside the US, it is surprising to see how many IT companies are still approaching globalization as an after-thought. Part of the problem is a management culture that is still mired in the old paradigm of getting it right in the US first before going overseas, while evidence abounds that, by the time the company is ready to go international, it is often too late. In today's world, a successful business model becomes replicated faster than the blink on an eye.

Putting off international expansion is a strategic mistake that has cost companies such as eBay and AOL the market leader's position in countries as vital as Japan (where eBay had to concede defeat to nimbler, more aggressive Yahoo!), or Europe (where AOL has never been able to be in the top 3 positions in any of the major markets). (In both cases, the key mistake, by the companies' own admission, was having waited too long). At the same time, companies like Skype have used the limited size of their home market (Luxembourg) to their own advantage, launching services that were global from the get-go and quickly acquiring more users than more established - albeit more US-centered - VoIP companies. Google, a company that had chosen a very aggressive international roll-out early on, had more than 50 localized versions of its site by late 2002!

Designing and launching products for global release is a challenging endeavor: legal, cultural, technical, financial and management issues can make the process daunting. To compound the problem, the US market has developed a number of peculiarities that can make a US-oriented business model inapplicable to the rest of the world. For instance, a very developed coax cable network in this country has attracted a multitude of entrepreneurs targeting cable companies as their customers, only to find their prospects for growth severely hampered by the almost complete lack of cable operators overseas. Conversely, a much more developed cellular network in Europe and Asia has allowed foreign operators to gain economies of scale and expertise that has virtually shut out US companies from many markets.

The Internet has made early-stage global planning a necessity. Fortunately the Internet itself - as well as the lessons learned by the more successful international marketers - is giving us the opportunity to create global companies without the huge investments, risks and management distraction traditionally associated with international expansion.

8:54:29 PM    

Study: Internet use in U.S. homes dips

US tech marketers, heed the signs of an important shift in priorities: "Americans are spending slightly less time online that they did a year ago, while some of their counterparts in Asia and Europe are logging longer hours on the Net. "

"Acquiring users in markets that are currently in their growth stages will lead to a loyal user base that will pay dividends for Internet companies in the future,"

No consumer-oriented business plan can afford  to ignore key international markets from the get-go.  The old conventional wisdom of "we'll get it right in the US first and move overseas afterwards" dangerously ignores the unique branding opportunity offered by high-growth markets and provides local competitors with the opportunity to establish themselves. By the time you will be ready to attack their domestic turf, it will be too late or too expensive for you to dislodge them.

8:29:49 AM    

Broadband penetration to reach 15% worldwide by end of 2005

With 150M users, 15% of Internet users worldwide will be connecting at high speed by the end of 2005. DSL continues dominate the broadband market by a ratio of about 2 to 1. "That disparity is based on the relative ease of converting existing telephone networks into digital subscriber lines in countries that, unlike the U.S., do not have sophisticated cable networks in place."

4:43:46 PM    

Gobal Internet Population to pass the 1B threshold in 2005

This means that about 14 out of every 100 persons use the Internet in the world by the end of the year.

Asia continues to lead in the number of surfers with  32% of the world total. Europe comes next with 28% of the total. Northern America is third with  27% of the total.

Internet growth to date since the year 2000 has been 125.2%, or about 25% per year.

4:33:28 PM    

World Economic Forum Networked Readiness Report 2003-2004

Framework

 

 

8:13:55 AM    

Hot spots on the rise in Asia-Pacific

"The average revenue per user (ARPU) for public WLAN access and the overall revenue the business generates for telecom companies will be tiny compared with Internet access revenue and will continue to remain so until 2008, IDC said. "

This seems like a disingenuous way to look at the problem: rather than comparing hotspot subs to internet subs (of course we are talking a few orders in magnitude difference!), one should compare the # of hotspot users (or even wi-fi users) to the number of wireless internet users" in the region. That should help local business planners and authorities decide between pushing massive 3G rollouts or  supporting a home-grown hotspot phenomenon.

Other interesting data:

"But the country that generates the highest average income from each hot spot is India, as many of its access points are located in business hotels rather than in cafes and restaurants, the report said. "

10:40:35 AM    

World Summit on the Information Society: The digital divide begins here.

"African countries support the creation of a special "digital solidarity fund" to pay for extending the Internet into remote villages, but European nations, the United States and Japan have been wary, saying existing development aid money could be used instead and that creating a new fund would lead to bureaucracy, which would hamper its effectiveness."

Anyone who knows how little current development money is going to ITC infrastructure in Africa finds the letter statement very hard to believe. 

A better take on the Summit comes from Wired Magazine:

"Toothless Rhetoric . More than 170 countries have approved an ambitious call to extend the Internet and the benefits of information technology to the poorest corners of the world, but dodged some of the difficulties of doing so. In particular, the World Summit on the Information Society put off a decision on whether to set up a special fund to finance the necessary infrastructure, for which African countries have lobbied hard. Instead, the conference wound up three days of lofty speech-making by endorsing a declaration of principles and a 29-point action plan. "

10:21:55 AM    

Internet Demographics site

3:56:13 PM    

Russia Leads Mobile Subs for Region

Russia alone accounts for over 32 million subscribers, overtaking Poland as the largest market in Central and Eastern Europe by 14 million subscribers. Mobile phone provider Nokia forecasts Russian mobile users to exceed 60 million by 2008, and The Yankee Group found that more Russians purchased mobile phones in 2002 than the previous eight years combined, with Moscow leading the way.

3:54:40 PM    

Nordic Nations Lead Digital Technology Access

The studies, covering 178 economies, showed that many once poorer states have in recent years invested heavily in digital information and communication technology as a driver for development and established a relatively high rate of access.

3:50:35 PM    

Net Users in Western Europe Seen Jumping

"The biggest growth markets will be in France, Spain, and Italy, growing at 90 percent, 88 percent and 55 percent, respectively, Jupiter said. "

 

9:39:54 PM