In the input market, mobile network operators demand spectrum, which is essentially a factor of production; in the output market, they supply cellular services. One can imagine how the market structure in the former influences that in the latter. The controversy surrounding the spectrum screen review in the United States presents a case in point. While Republican commissioners worried that any tightening of the screen could dampen participation and hence competition and revenue in an upcoming auction (the input market), the Competitive Carriers Association feared that not doing so would reduce competition in the output market.

PA Consulting Group develops Time And Relative Dimension In Space, fits a 30ft base station into a 3 inch Raspberry Pi.  As for the Pi, a BBC fan would tell you, “It’s bigger on the inside!” 

The impact of WhatsApp, and other “Over The Top” messaging clients such as Viber, have been stark. In Western Europe, for example, while mobile data usage is gathering pace, a number of other metrics are very much in retreat. In most countries around Europe, minutes of use has contracted up to 4.5% quarter on quarter. Similarly text messaging was down between -0.5% and -7.8% for those countries QoQ. As ABI Research’s Mobile ARPU Market Data has shown, monthly average revenue for Western Europe continued to decline in 3Q-2012.

Imagine it is Dec-2007, and you are in Kenya, and you heard on the television news that the government made a commitment to assure 100% internet penetration by 2017. Would you bet for or against that commitment?

Most Holiday Cards are - well - Holiday Cards.  I've recevied cards with company history (Ericsson: http://www.ericsson.com/seasonsgreetings), a donation to Second Harvest Food Bank (Cisco), and the Like.

Reading through some of the cyber trends forecasted for the next year/decade/millennia, I get the feeling that there are two very diverging paths. Either I embark immediately on the construction of a space-capable, self-supporting, eco-something survival pod or I do nothing and just give up now on ever seeing HAL 9000 pitted against ENCOM’s Master Control Program for the domination of the planet.  Science fiction too often proposes the apocalyptic vision of mankind’s doom should the machines ever rise against us. Are we headed for disaster or will things remain decidedly uneventful?  

The recent media furore about the re-negotiation of the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) has become a ludicrous cacophony of misinformed debate about how the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is set to ‘take over the internet’ and start censoring public access at the WCIT-12 (World Conference on International Telecommunications).  An analysis of why the different factions are trying to wrest public opinion in their favour is not the point of this article, although it is simply naïve to think that Google et al don’t have their own underlying agendas, which are just as vested as those of Russia, China and the other purported ‘baddies’ taking part in the process. Enough has been written on both sides of the argument for an interested reader to make up their own mind about the situation.

In a May 2012 ABI Research Insight, I talked about the rapid rate of 4G LTE population coverage roll-out in Korea. LG U+ commenced 4G services in December 2010, SKT in January 2011 and Korea Telecom in November 2011. LG U+ achieved 100% pops coverage by 3Q-2012 and its competitors were not far behind.

Let's cut to the chase. Here are some selected results: