Cable Industry Shifts Wireless Strategy
Posted on August 24, 2011
Historically, the Cable TV industry increased subscriber revenue in two ways. One was simply by raising prices. However, a second far more effective way was to offer incremental services, but to present the best pricing in the form of packaged bundles. Most notably over the past fifteen years Cable companies went into competition with the telephone industry by providing (1) landline telephony and (2) broadband Internet access. Presently, the classic bundle is termed a “triple-play” of telephony, Internet access, and Pay television in a single monthly subscription. A typical fee for “triple-play” is $140 a month.
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For much of the past decade the Cable industry looked lustfully at cellular telephony as a promising incremental service for bundling. To that end, leading operators invested in Clearwire in hopes of getting a “quadruple-play”. But Clearwire did not have a competitive footprint. Furthermore, its system standardized on WiMax whereas the dominant cellular carriers, Verizon and AT&T, gravitated toward a Fourth Generation standard termed “Long Term Evolution” (LTE). Although Clearwire recently announced it will also switch to LTE, the decision may be too late. Read more…
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Creating Effective QR Code and Watermarking Campaigns
Posted on August 16, 2011
The key is to start at the end and work backward.
Consider the example of a print advertising campaign enhanced with QR Codes, Digital Watermarks, or other embedded signaling. Whatever the signaling methodology, the technology itself is not the strategy. Instead it is merely a tactical weapon to trigger a desired consumer response.
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There are basically four steps. First, is to identify a concrete action the advertiser wants consumers to take. Second, is to design an ad that will capture attention. Third, is to determine what embedded signal payoff might motivate consumers to initiate the intended action. Fourth, is to minimize the “friction” encountered to complete such action.
Concrete Consumer Action
Normally the ultimate objective is to get consumers to buy the advertiser’s product or service. But shoppers are constantly hounded to “buy.” Another mere voice in the crowd is more likely to be resented than appreciated. Instead, methods of engagement or intermediate calls-to-action often get better results. Read more…
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Bypassing CATV-Telco Internet Duopoly
Posted on August 10, 2011
Yesterday Online Video Insider published the article below which I wrote.
(Phil Leigh, August 9, 2011) Rising popularity of Internet video in combination with the advent of the smartphone and tablet computer places an obscure segment of the Internet Service Provider industry at the threshold of major opportunities. Although Internet access is dominated by a duopoly of CATV and Telco operators, a promising third category is the Wireless ISP (WISP). Not to be confused with cellular carriers, WISPs offer Internet service to subscribers from fixed base stations to radio transceivers typically mounted on the rooftops of customer premises.
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The first WISP was organized twenty years ago by a young computer consultant in Laramie, Wyoming after he discovered the only Internet access in the town was at the University. He approached a number of local businesses with a proposition to provide them Internet access wirelessly through unlicensed spectrum normally used by cordless phones. His connection to the Internet backbone was a T1 line (1.5 mb/s) which the local telephone company connected to his house for $6,000 a month. Essentially, all subscribers shared the bandwidth of that singe T1. Read more…
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The Wireless ISP Industry & Cellular Wi-Fi Offloading
Posted on August 2, 2011
Today we are releasing our market research report entitled “The Wireless ISP Industry & Cellular Offloading: Analysis and Forecast” It is a 38 page dot-PDF document that includes a five year quantitative forecast as well as embedded animations, videos, and graphics.
Download eight minute audio narration for iPhone, iPod, and iPad here.
Need:
First, the domestic CATV-Telco duopoly of landline Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may attempt to choke Internet growth in order to protect Pay TV subscriptions. Research at Cisco Systems concludes over half of consumer Internet traffic will be video next year and grow 17-fold by 2015. As landline ISPs impose bandwidth metering and/or other pricing schemes to retard Internet growth, they’ll create opportunities for fixed-station Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) to compete, especially among commercial accounts. A projection of the applicable forecast parameters and sectors is provided on the following page. Read more…
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