if connected

Isn’t digital all about freedom and flexibility, not just free?

Regular readers may wonder why I’ve been blogging so much on mobile-related topics.
There are a few reasons:
- I’ve been working on a major report on digital communications that looks completely cross platform: mobile and fixed, pstn and voip, IM and email etc. So, I’ve had numerous briefings with mobile IM and VoIP companies. The report is published here:
Competing with Free Communications,
Delivering Revenues from Rising Consumer Adoption of Digital Communications.
- There is so much happening in mobile just now, that from those briefings that I had to do, it was extremely easy to be drawn in. As someone who’s worked in the PDA industry and in mobile, it’s tremendous to see so many exciting developments (finally!).
- The broadband market, which I normally research, is fast becoming the multiplay market. In other words: consumers are no longer being marketed just a broadband Internet service for the home. But, instead, they are being offered packages of broadband, home telephony, home TV, mobile, or some combination thereof. As someone that has worked in both the mobile and cable TV industry, I’ve been picking up Multiplay as the lead analyst in Europe. You’ll see more JupiterResearch reports on this area soon.
- One of the many great hopes of operators at the moment is for consumers to take home broadband Internet access with them, either on a new dedicated class of devices like an ultra mobile PC or an Internet tablet, or using an evolution of current smartphones, or using consumer-owned laptops that have a dual life of DSL broadband at home and HSPA/3.5G cellular outside. Again, like multiplay, this doesn’t fit neatly into research practices that divide alongside platform lines. So, I’m taking the lead on this in Europe, working closely with the teams that focus on mobile and digital home.

One year on from Carphone’s “free broadband” launch, the CEO apologises:

“I wish I knew a year ago what I know now, we could have saved ourselves and our customers much stress.”

and:

“Thank you again to everyone who took the plunge at the beginning, sorry if we caused you problems. If you haven’t joined the revolution yet – one year on we are a much bigger, wiser and more reliable supplier maybe it’s time you gave the Challengers a chance to prove that we will save you a great deal of money and provide you with a great product.”

Of course, after last year, the brand has suffered and Carphone will need to work hard to re-build it.
Read Jupiter’s analysis of the UK’s “free broadband” offers or read a case study on Carphone’s “Free Broadband Forever” launch and the impacts on customer service and retention.

I agree, I wish James all the best and hope his blog will re-start in the near future.
[Posted from my personal laptop from the Jupiter London office, connected to my 3.5g mobile phone on a T-Mobile Web 'n' Walk subscription]

The French regulator has just launched its own blog, see ART – Le Blog. Initial topics include: discussion on the extent of alternate operators’ DSL infrastructure through local loop unbundling — so called ‘grey zones’ — and the longer term effect on rural areas. This is surely the first telecoms regulator anywhere to launch a blog, and reflects a tremendous degree of openness compared with many regulators.
But should you read it? Well, if you read French, and are interested in one of the most dynamic LLU markets in Europe, with early ADSL2+ rollouts it’s worth a go.

Quick post to highlight this recent Jupiter Research report into the use of blogs for business: Web Log Best Practices – Seizing Business Benefits. Most interesting finding for me were the demographics to support the suitability of blogs to communicate with that hardest of groups: highly tenured, long standing, Internet users. Read the report for the full findings and recommendations.
Other blog-related news: AOL’s move to add blogs — now called ‘journals’ — into AOL 9 is of interest due to the link with AOL Instant Messenger. Should make it even easier to update a blog, increasing the volume of blog entries, and encourage less tenured AOL users to become blog creators. But will the composition of the readership change too? Probably.

I’m going to cover many many areas in this blog, all with a European perspective, including: broadband Internet access, mobile phone handsets, personal technology (gadgets) and digital television. Please do email me if you have ideas, or suggestions for topics, or with interesting links.
I’m aiming for the content to be a commentary on recent events, that I’ll mix with my experiences as I use these products and services.
For detailed analysis of these markets you must access Jupiter’s full reports service. Please do, the reports are a massive addition to one individual’s personal opinion: they contain quantitative support for the analysis and all reports undergo peer review prior to publication. Go to www.jupiterresearch.com for more information.