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Oonagh Reidy

Vodafone Calls For Mobile NBN

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Forget fixed wireless, NBN should go mobile, says VodafoneAustralia’s third biggest telco has kicked off a campaign for NBN mobile service, as the government mulls over mobile coverage in regional areas. 

Vodafone says the National Broadband Network is the solution to Australia’s mobile coverage problem in rural areas. 
NBN Co plans to build around 2000 wireless towers across Australia but Voda says only a “small additional cost” would deliver mobile services via the fibre network, and solve coverage issues in regional areas and eliminate blackspots. 
The NBN already has a pricetag of around $41 billion. The costs of adding a mobile service would be incremental and networks would pay for access, so it would provide another revenue stream for NBN Co, Vodafone says.  
The telco unveiled research today, Telecommunications in Regional Australia, that finds mobile coverage remained vitally important to regional Australians, with showing eight out of ten in favour of NBN mobile solution to solve coverage issues plaguing these areas. 
Eighty-three per cent of rural dwellers want to be able to choose a mobile telco based on customer service and competitive pricing, rather than being forced to go for the only available provider, which is often Telstra. 
The issue is currently under review under the Federal government’s Mobile Coverage Programme which is currently accepting industry submissions on how to invest $100 million to extend mobile coverage. 
“It’s clear that consumers want a choice of provider, rather than the monopoly that exists in some areas of regional Australia,” claims Vodafone General Manager of Public Policy, Matthew Lobb.
“Right now across regional Australia, many customers don’t have access to reliable network coverage and for those who do, a significant number have no choice of provider.  
“While this idea seems so obvious now, when the NBN was originally conceived in 2009, there was a strong focus on simply replacing the copper network to deliver a more robust fixed line network.” 
But, he says, times have changed.  
“It’s no exaggeration to say that in the years that have followed smartphone and tablet technologies have fundamentally changed the way we communicate. NBN should now focus on improving both fixed and mobile broadband services.” 

IPTV ‘Massive Growth’, Bundles War 2013

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As Samsung announced its Yahoo IPTV deal and Foxtel Boots up its Internet TV service, the Internet telly wars have officially kicked off.
And there’s no better time as DVD stores seems to be fading away from relevance to the web savvy Aussies. 

Scott Lorsen, the CEO of IPTV providers FetchTV, says the “new wave of Internet based services such as FetchTV, Apple TV and Telstra T-Box are true substitutes for the video store.”

And he predicts 2013 is going to be a massive year of growth for online TV, and “far more aggressive bundling strategies from telcos” as Telstra looks to increase its penetration of T-Box and Foxtel, while Optus and iiNet bundle FetchTV with its Internet/phone services.

Conversion rates (to FetchTV) are around 100%, meaning once users convert to online rentals there is little or no going back to old ways of consuming content, says Fetch’s CEO.

“If you’d asked me a year ago, I would have said the demise of the video store was overstated, but now we’ve reached tipping point,” he told SmartHouse.

People are now talking about these new IPTV service more and penetration accelerates, especially around the holidays and BBQ seasons as people are exposed to new TV services in homes.

Although not releasing exact subscriber numbers, Foxtel said growth was “subdued” last month and has been busy releasing a slew of Internet TV services for Samsung TVs, iPhone and iPad, and also added the interactive social media app zeebox for viewers, which Channel Ten already has, and Nine and Seven also have pursued social TV apps.

“We continue to deliver to our customers and look forward to bringing many more devices and features online in 2013”, the Pay TV giant’s General Manager of Emerging Platforms, Kym Niblock said last week, and alluded to multi-screening  becoming “the new ‘normal.”

And speaking of free-to-airs, last week Yahoo7 announced PLUS7 catch-up TV service exclusively on Samsung devices where Seven shows can be watched 24 hours after live broadcast.

Foxtel is also planning to launch an enhanced version of Foxtel TV Guide, as it seeks to increase the services for subscribers to multi screens.

Foxtel was not available for comment at the time of writing.

Like Foxtel, Lorsen, would not not reveal exact subscriber numbers for the Oz-based FetchTV, but told SmartHouse growth is “very healthy – averaging 3.4-4 movie rentals from its on-demand service per week, identical to video store rentals.

Although Optus, iiNet andAdam are the only telco’s currently offering Fetch service, provider expansion could soon be forthcoming, Lorsen hinted.

“Our stated desire is to include all non-Telstra players and we have had discussions with all of them,” he said.

 

He also predicts the bundling of TV, Internet and phone services to become more commonplace, as “people prefer one bill.”

“The battleground has shifted from a broadband led offer to a IPTV led one. Bundling also means cutting cost of the service compared to having 3-4 separate providers,” he says.

Bundling is more efficient and lower prices compared to 3 or 4 separate providers.

Apple iBook Price Fixing Scandal?

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Apple and publishers are accused of price fixing e-books higher and has been warned to cease the practice. Or else.


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The US Justice Dept. believe the iBookstore owner along with 5 other publishers have been raising the price of electronic books to the detriment of consumers.

The publishers in question include Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS), Hachette Book Group; Penguin, Macmillan, and HarperCollins Publishers, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

The story was revealed by the Wall Street Journal, also owned by News.

“Several” of the parties are now said to be in discussion with the Justice Dept in order to resolve the case and prevent it from going to court and facing million dollar fines for antitrust breaches.

Cupertino forced a new pricing model for the ebook industry in 2010 just prior to iPad launch under the instruction of Steve Jobs, where retailers like Apple took a 30% cut of every ebook sold, with the price set by the publisher rather than the retailer.

However, the snag is under the new deal known as the “agency model” proposed by Jobs and prevented rival retailers from selling ebooks at a lower price, something that Amazon did a lot in the early days of Kindle to lift sales and also had the scale to do so.

The e-tailer often sold electronic titles for as little as $9.99 – until the iPad came along.

Jobs admitted the scheme to his biographer, saying “yes, the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway.”

Apple currently flogs 700,000 titles in its iBookstore which can be viewed on Apple’s iPhone, iPad or iPod. Steve Jobs’ book by Walter Isaacson is sold on the iBookstore for US$14.99, while other books titles can cost as much as $24.99. 

 

If the publishers agree to back down from the pricing model, it could mean lower prices for ebook customers and Amazon may go gung-ho on undercutting rivals, to the horror of Apple.

The EU is also engaged in a similar investigation into the price fixing scandal across the pond.

Google Glasses: Look Out!

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Ok we knew we could search the World Wide Web. But now it looks like we can even skydive on Google. Literally.
Codenamed “Project Glass”, Google’s glasses are technology you can wear. Basically when you put these speccies on, it will feed information across the (left lens) screen including emails, video chat, Google searches and GPS direction.

Oh and the augmented reality specs, first announced in April, are kitted out with a camera so it also holds a memory function.

The clever clogs at Google are working with some of the world’s top athletes on the project to “share the experience — through their eyes — with the world.”

The high tech specs are “designed to help you live in the moment — even when you’re falling from the sky,” says Google and to prove their point sent co-founder Sergey Brin and others on a skydiving expedition.

Brin showcased his experience of skydiving from a plane while sporting the Google glasses which captured his experience – from jumping off the plane to landing minutes later for 6000 attendees at the Google I/O conference, on in San Francisco this week.

“That was amazing,” Brin declared. “There was no way I could have that memory without this device.”

(But one can’t help but think that they could also be a massive distraction as your strolling down the street as its literally like a smartphone stuck to your face).

However, the specs won’t come cheap and will costs US$1500, and are being sold to computer programmers in the US only, but will be a mass consumer item by 2014, Google are hoping.

 

“We want to get it out into the hands of passionate people as soon as possible” said Brin, but also admitted,” we do view this is as a premium sort of thing,” reports Bloomberg.

However, it is a very telling indicator of where AR technology is going and how it is fast becoming a reality.

“We are always pushing the limits of our technology, and Project Glass is no exception. We’re still in early development days,”  the tech giant blogged earlier today.

Pumped Telcos Hop On Samsung S4 Wagon

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Both Vodafone and Telstra today expressed their undying love for Samsung’s new S4 smartphone, revealed today in New York.

Telstra got in first declaring the news via its Twitter account:

“Oh yeah! We’ll be offering the new #GalaxyS4! Pricing/availability will be confirmed closer to launch register here:http://www.telstra.com.au/s4”

Samsung’s 5 inch S4 phone, has been kitted out with a Full HD Screen, 4G, 13 MP camera and a slew of new software like S-Health, eye scroll and hover feature.

Read more about its S4 specs here:

Vodafone too breathed excitement on its Twitter page today asking: “Are you as pumped as we are about the announcement of the Samsung #GalaxyS4? Pre reg is now open!”

Earlier, Optus said it didn’t “have a link for GS4 specifically” and gave one Twitter enquirer a link to register interest in new phones, so it wasn’t clear if it would definitely carry the new device.

But since then it has confirmed they will be carrying the S4 via statement.

“Customers can register their interest at www.optus.com.au/smartphonealerts to get the latest updates on pricing and availability for the Samsung GALAXY S 4.”

E-tailer Kogan too is looking to lure smartphone buyers in promising “world’s best price” on Samsung Galaxy S4 and opened up an online Waiting List.

 
 

No pricing or other details are available yet but Samsung Australia did confirm the S4 would be here in second quarter, so thats April to June time frame.

And by the looks of things pricing will be competitve as all telcos look to nab Samsung fans.

4K, “Faster 4G”: Is This LG’s Smartphone Weapon?

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Phone maker ups ante 4K video, faster 4G, eye-popping graphics on Snapdragon 800 processor.

LG’s new Optimus G will house quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 – the “most advanced mobile chipset” in the industry, it announced yesterday. 


LG says its next G series (likely to be Optimus G2) with Snapdragon 800 “redefines the smartphone experience” with potent performance, graphics (new Adreno 330 GPU ) and battery life. 


The potent chip also has next gen 4K abilities will also video capture, playback and display in Ultra HD (four times the resolution of 1080p Full HD), 4G LTE  ‘Advanced Carrier Aggregation’ technology making web speeds “even faster “and less latency.  


The “advanced” mobile chipset promises “up to” 75% better performance than the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor on the original Optimus G. 


“The new, best-in-class Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor will help deliver blazing fast web browsing, eye-popping graphics, seamless connectivity, as well as an unmatched multimedia experience.” said Murthy Renduchintala, executive vice president.


LG’s Mobile boss said the move was a “significant step forward in the mobile experience.” 


“With a powerful combination of LG’s core smartphone technologies and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, we are taking a significant step forward in the mobile experience,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Mobile Communications. 


“The result of this collaboration will in many ways be the industry’s best smartphone, by which all other devices will be measured.” 


Here a list of the new technology on new Snapdragon 800. 


Higher speeds with Krait 400 CPUs in quad configuration to deliver greater processing and communication performance; 


 

. Enhanced aSMP (asynchronous Symmetric Multiprocessing) architecture for dynamic power sensing and control for peak performance per core and improved battery life without the use of specialized cores; 


. Fully integrated connectivity with a wide variety of communication options including 4G LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation; 


. New Adreno 330 GPU, delivering more than two times better performance for compute applications over the current Adreno 320 GPU; 


. Video capture, playback and display in Ultra HD format, four times higher density than 1080p HD; 


. HD multichannel audio with DTS-HD and Dolby Digital Plus, supporting higher display resolutions up to 2560 x 2048 pixels and Miracast 1080p HD; and 


. Qualcomm IZat Location technology, featuring GNSS for more accurate navigation and location services. 

OZ Internet SLOWER Than Brazil

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The NBN is critical for Pay TV to survive, as current web speeds are not up to scratch.


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And Australia’s broadband speeds are currently slower than developing nation Brazil, a top NBCUniversal exec has warned.

Speaking at the Astra Pay TV conference in Sydney yesterday, Kevin MacLellan , President International TV for NBCUniversal (behind channels like NBC News, CNBC, E!, Bravo) warned Australia will be left behind if it doesn’t adopt the controversial $36bn high speed broadband network.

“NBN is a good thing for Pay TV as a whole” he declared.

 Fast broadband helps “upstarts” like Facebook, YouTube and Google happen and facilitates consumers who want to download movies and other content quickly.

“If the NBN is going to be as fast as it says then interesting times ahead,” he added.

However, slow broadband speeds are holding Australia back, with the international boss at NBCUniversal noting web speeds were faster in Rio, where he was recently on a business trip, than Sydney.

This is nothing to be laughed at considering Brazils ‘developing’ country status compared to Australia’s as ‘first world’ nation.

“Bandwidth is changing the landscape delivering education, information and communication tools,” he added.

MacLellan also reckons the proposed Austar/Foxtel merger, which the competition watchdog is due to make its final decision on next week, will also be a good thing for subscription viewers as it will drive competition.

He described the deal as a “monumental moment” in Oz TV industry.

“There is still opportunity for pay TV penetration growth” MacLellan believes, despite the fact both Foxtel and Austar numbers have dwindled in recent quarters.

Regional player Austar, which Foxtel is about to acquire, lost 8,845 viewers in the past year, while over at the biggest pay TV operator, flat growth of just 2.1% was announced in February.

The NBCUniversal boss also made comparisons with the Aussie and US TV markets and spoke of his previous employer Comcast, who was ten years ago No.5 cable provider in the US and “struggling.”

“Some people [at the time] thought cable was dead,” he added.

However in the 11 years since then Comcast is now the largest media company in the world with $61 billion revenue (and market cap of $80bn).

How?

Comcast achieved this through the acquisition of broadband provider NBCUniversal, and was then able to offer “treble play” with subscription TV, broadband and phone services.

Comcast is now the largest Pay TV, broadband and also a major phone supplier in the US, which is no mean feat.

Regional Pay TV operator Austar’s 755,374 subscribers plus Foxtel’s 1.58 million, means a newly formed Pay TV operator will have just under 2.5m subscribers here.

And with 50% of Foxtel owned by Telstra this is precisely what the ACCC is fearing will happen in an Austar owned Foxtel world – that the media behemoth will have a monopoly on broadband services in some regional areas of Australia.

 

Read: Why ACCC Fears Foxtel

“It remains a tough environment in which to win new customers” Richard Freudenstein, Foxtel CEO said last month although appeared optimistic for enormous growth potential if the $2.5bn deal to buy Austar comes to pass.

And with rivals from Internet TV (IPTV) providers like FetchTV, Telstra, Apple TV, as well as content from TV makers like Panasonic and Samsung and free-to-air, Foxtel will have its work cut out. 

But clearly Freudenstein and his troops are hoping Comcast’s story in the States will be repeated at Foxtel HQ.

But the ACCC must approve the deal first.

A decision by the competition watchdog will be handed down March 27.

Telstra: We’re No Data Snoopers

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Telco confirms it has ceased giving user information to US company.


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Telstra went on a PR offensive after revelations it gave NextG mobile customer web usage information to a US company, yesterday .

“Customers’ trust is the most important thing to us, so upon hearing concerns about the development of our new cyber-safety product we have stopped all collection of website addresses for its development,” Danielle Clarke, Telstra’s Head of Online and Social Media, wrote on a blog.

Telstra insisted the web addresses were being collected in order to develop a “new cyber-safety tool” which would help adults  choose the websites kids can access on mobiles.

The telco insisted  “we needed to classify internet sites, based on the content they hold.”

However, Telstra insisted no other user personal user data other than web usage was given to the US company.

There was outrage among Telstra users over fears of a lack of cyber security on Next G and Clark confirmed a “number of our customers have contacted us over the past 24 hours about network activities.”

“I want to reassure all our customers that at no point in the development of this product was personal information collected or stored and we’ll be reviewing what we learned from this project.

“We understand our customers’ concerns about protecting their privacy online and are serious about keeping trust on this front by being transparent about the way we deal with customer data, ” Clark said.

Jabra New ANZ Channel Manager

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Jabra eyes mobile market, announcing Jessica Schmid as its new Channel Manager.
Schmid will be responsible for Jabra’s partner system and customers in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania in the newly created role based in Melbourne.

Bluetooth specialist Jabra recently made several new appointments to its channel, sales and marketing division, as its looks to bolster its position as a mobile comms expert.

 “It is a particularly exciting time for Jabra. With the rise of the mobile worker, businesses are encouraging BYOD and there are new opportunities for Jabra’s product range,” said Fulvio Toniotti, MD, Jabra.

“With our new channel manager and the ongoing sales initiatives, we are uniquely placed to meet the diverse needs of ANZ businesses in unified communications and contact centre solutions.”

Schmid formerly worked at Ethan Group, responsible for sales development including government clients and was key to assisting in the ecommerce rollout of the company’s website and product solutions.

Prior to that, she held a number of sales/product management, development and customer facing positions at Simply Headsets.

Schmid will be reporting to Fulvio Toniotti, managing director, Jabra ANZ.

Panasonic Hits BigPond Movies

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First Quickflix, now Panasonic Blu-ray is getting BigPond Movies


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Telstra’s BigPond extensive movie library can now be streamed to Panasonic Blu-rays, Players and Home Theatre systems through its Viera Connect IPTV platform.

BigPond has over 4,000 titles on demand, including new release movies ‘Salmon Fishing in Yemen’, ‘American Pie: the Reunion’ and ‘Contraband’ to TV shows like ‘Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals’, ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Small Time Gangster. ‘

Classic movies start at $3.95; $5.95  for new releases; $2.95 for TV shows. Plus, there’s no late fees involved.

 “We are delighted to announce the addition of BigPond Movies to our VIERA Connect platform, offering Australians even greater viewing flexibility in the home,” said Anthony Smyth, Product Marketing Manager, Panasonic.

Panasonic’s Blu-ray Recorders and Players boast several smart home networking features, including DLNA, built-in Wi-Fi on some models and smartphone connectivity.

Other content already on Pana Blu-ray devices includes ABC iView, Yahoo!7’s PLUS7; Skype, as well as You Tube, Facebook and Twitter.