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Posts Tagged ‘business model’

[prwire] The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) welcomes today’s announcement of the Future Directions ‘road map’ for the development of Australia’s Digital Economy. The paper was developed by the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy and released by the Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy.

“The Australian Information Industry Association applauds the focus and intentions of the paper, which is very timely,” said AIIA CEO Ian Birks. “This paper, which has been developed in close consultation with the ICT industry, shows that we are headed in the right direction. It has outlined the foundations that are being laid for the success of Australia’s digital future.”

Some of the key attributes in the paper that the AIIA supports are:
The acknowledgement that the National Broadband Network will support and drive the development of vital elements of a future digital economy. This includes value added services and a content-rich environment that drives new consumer behaviours, enhanced community connections, competitive business models and open, consultative government.

Identifying the government, community and industry as primary stakeholders who will need to work closely together to create a successful digital economy. The AIIA believes the ICT industry itself needs to be engaged as a critical stakeholder to drive a deeper understanding of the possibilities offered by the digital economy within government, industry and the wider community.

Developing a common understanding of what success will look like as Australia plans for the development of a digital economy.

Birks added, “The digital economy has the potential to transform Australia’s economy. The ICT sector is ready and willing to work with the Government in whatever ways it can to deliver this transformation by creating the awareness, understanding and ultimately, the adoption of the right technologies and processes.”
“For the next steps, the AIIA will work closely with the government to develop related policy measures, clear goals and metrics that are attached to the outcomes in the Future Directions paper.”

The Australian Information Industry Association responds to Australia’s Digital Economy: Future Directions
see also Australia’s Digital Economy: Future Directions

[apc] After the wave of neo-liberal policies during the 90s, the Andean region has seen important changes. The State played a larger role and the telecommunications policies that were put in place reflected this change. Under these new circumstances, broadband plays a critical role in the social and economic development of the region and its people. In order to better understand the new opportunities and challenges that are emerging as a result of the current political and economic landscape, APC conducted a series of studies in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela from a civil society perspective. The objective of the study is to devise informed propositions so that the expansion and development process around broadband is supported by inclusive and democratic policies.

APC presents five reports that examine the issues surrounding broadband and telecommunications reform in the Andean region from different angles, as an introduction that offers elements of context and analysis from a more general perspective.

Researcher Orlando Arratia points out that in Bolivia, 4% of the population has access to the internet. Even if the new constitution introduces the principle of the universalising the basic services including telecommunications, it is still not clear how these proposals and advances will be materialised in a continually changing environment that faces serious political, technical and economic challenges.

In Colombia, the policy of opening public ICT access centres presents an opportunity to expand access to broadband infrastructure, as observed by researchers Olga Paz, Mauricio Escobar and Paula Ospina. The researchers stress that there are serious gaps in the integration of rural and marginal urban areas in telecommunications networks as a tool for economic and social development. They conclude that public policies should address aspects such as promoting broadband service in low-income areas, reducing the costs of infrastructure investment and operation, taking advantage of technological convergence to reach isolated sectors, and increasing demand through training in the use of ICTs for development objectives.

Ecuador is one of the countries with the lowest broadband internet penetration rates in the region, a mere 2.7%, notes researcher María Eugenia Hidalgo. This, she says, is the legacy of a failed privatisation process in the telecommunications sector and the subsequent adoption of legal reforms that handed the most profitable segment of the market (mobile telephony) to the transnational private sector. Hidalgo points out that the emergence of wireless technologies, especially Wi-Fi, offers an alternative for internet access in areas that are unprofitable by market standards and lack infrastructure. She stresses that strong state involvement in the provision of services and infrastructure should create a favourable environment for implementing the concept of universal access.

In Peru the issue of broadband is approached from a net neutrality perspective. Currently there are two opposing viewpoints: those who want the internet to remain open and unfiltered and those who propose the use of network management systems in the name of making more efficient use of the network. Researcher Jorge Bossio concludes by emphasising the need for a wide-reaching debate in order to prevent, on the one hand, de facto practices that violate consumers’ rights, and on the other, vertical and hastily adopted legislation that could result in disincentives to investment, higher prices for services and deterioration in the quality of service. At the heart of this conflict are two opposing models of development, one based on the market and the other on the administration of public goods.

In Venezuela both the quality and cost of communications services, especially broadband, are affected by the fact that most internet traffic must travel outside the region before returning back to the region, observes researcher Ysabel Briseño. She analyses why Venezuela still has not succeeded in implementing plans for the creation of a Network Access Point (NAP) to address this problem. Briceño concludes by asking whether rapid changes in technology are generating other solutions for the problems that the creation of a NAP was initially meant to remedy. Finally, she highlights the potential influence of the nature of interrelations and negotiations between the State and society in Venezuela on the decisions that are ultimately adopted.

Broadband in the Andes: Alternatives to the free-market model
see also introductory report and
Bolivia,
Colombia,
Ecuador,
Peru and
Venezuela

[wired] Google Voice is coming to cell phones, bringing with it cheap overseas calls, free SMS messages, instant translation of voice messages into text and a single phone number to control all of your phones.

The mobile version is currently only available for Android OS phones or Blackberrys, and you need to already have be one of its invitation-only beta users. That’s expected to change shortly when the service, built around its acquisition of a company called GrandCentral, opens to all.

When that comes, one would also expect an app for Windows Mobile phones and the iPhone. Google Voice comes with a panoply of features that no wireless carrier comes close to matching. Think of being able to program your phone to automatically shunt calls from your landlord to voice mail, but send calls from your spouse immediately to ring to all of your phones.

But really the mobile app is about two things: extending Google’s reach so that more of its users’ lives runs through Google’s all-seeing code where they can be served ads. And secondly, it’s a jab at the wireless carriers, which have long acted as if their subscribers belonged to them, charging entrance fees for outsiders to offer services to them.

Now Google has made a better phone service than any offering you can get from a traditional telecom. That’s an attempt to turn wireless carriers into dumb data pipes, since all a user now needs to get control over their voicemail, messages and phone number is install an application.

Telecoms will hate this product. It will cost them millions to duplicate its basic features, which they will have to do to compete.

Of course, if the phone companies had sat down five years ago and thought about what they could do to make phone service better, rather than more profitable, then companies like Google and Apple wouldn’t be so successful at demolishing their business models.

Google Voice Now Available for Mobile Phones

Bad news for the auto industry?

A new study by the University of California at Berkeley finds that the key to electric vehicle success could be dependent upon the ability of electric car owners to swap their batteries. Under such a plan consumers might own their car, but not the battery, much like the idea behind Project Better Place.

I haven’t been able to read the whole study yet, but I’ve been a big fan of Better Place’s out of the box thinking. Nonetheless, it makes me wonder, is the entire established auto industry capable of surviving such a business model?

[reuters] Orange’s ambition to use exclusive TV content to retain and draw customers suffered a setback on Tuesday after France’s competition watchdog imposed a limit of one to two years on such offers.

Orange has invested heavily in premium television series, films and League 1 soccer matches but the regulator recommended that it gave access to its content to a wider pool of customers than just its own existing broadband subscribers.

The watchdog said the telecoms operator, part of France Telecom (FTE.PA), should distribute its TV content to users of other platforms after an initial period of one to two years, threatening its closed-circuit business model.

In May, Orange won a court appeal that gave it the right to sell subscriptions to its Orange Sport channel only to its triple play subscribers – getting television, high-speed Internet and telephony services.

Pay-TV group Canal Plus and telecoms group SFR, part of Vivendi (VIV.PA), have attacked the exclusive nature of Orange’s television broadband offers.

Watchdog hits Orange’s exclusive TV broadband deals