Anti-Communications matter

A US reader in "computational condensed matter physics" writes scathingly:

"I have one question. Is the
World Communication Award a joke? I ask this for the simple reason that
Cogent Communications is a finalist. As a consumer of reliable, high
volume, high throughput data networks, Cogent ranks number 1 on my list of
companies that do their best to harm the Internet. They have made no
substantial positive contributions, but have engaged, on numerous
occasions, in Tier 1 provider wars, using blockades and service
degredation as tactics in contract negotiations. I recall the Cogent and
Level 3 incident of last year. Plus, every 3 months, it seems Cogent has
a spat with AT&T, in which it cuts data throughput between AT&T's network
and theirs. In fact, as I write this, it seems the spat which began on
August 26th has just ended. Without doubt, Cogent is tops on my
Anti-Communication Award list."

(trans.).. Ouch, doesn't that Internet neutrality really hurt the heavy user! If only AT&T just ran everything like they used to ...

i-Telecom

Back after a week out of office without broadband, it's good to see the back office movers and shakers catching up on telecoms/IT convergence. IBM's latest acquisition suggests the time is right to get the money out.

Der Ball ist Rund

Deutsche Telekom missed out on the World Cup, but it has got around to IPTV football now with Bundesliga games going live this season.
It might help get some momentum back into DTAG's broadband campaign, which slowed up a lot in Q2 - analysts expected nearly 250k DSL adds from T-Online; they got 15k.

NGN hits the buffer

Telstra has cancelled a A$3.4 billion NGN investment reportedly, just as Sol Trujillo had threatened. Regulators (outside the US and Japan) don't seem to be taking telcos seriously enough.

SACkloth and ashes

Despite what we said about SACs the last couple of days, there are ways to control them, as KPN's mobile man in Germany, Stan Miller, is showing. He's got SACs down without hurting revenue, and margins are 30% versus 20% in other KPN mobile subsidiaries. So unpick that!

Mobile data data

Yesterday's bill from my mobile service provider came in at 50.42 GBP for the month. Of that, I spent 20.95 GBP on data services, WAP browsing and downloads etc but not including texts- because of a "texts included" package I only spend a couple of quid on them. On that basis I'm in the supertax league i.e 40% plus for data services, and way above typical data ARPUs for UK mobile MNOs. Looked at another way, there's good scope for mobile data revenues. If I'm spending 20 quid, somebody else is only spending 2 pounds.