FOCUS
Internet – Broadband
China takes broadband crown from Japan
According to a recent market analysts report, China is now top when it comes to DSL - outstripping the broadband-savvy Japanese to reach the top spot.
In terms of subscriber numbers, China overtook Japan at the end of last year with nearly 11 million users, while Japan came a close second with 10.2 million. However, with the largest population in the world - about 1.3 billion in 2003, according to UN figures, But the figures for number of DSL subscribers per 100 phone lines tell a different story, with China managing just 5.1, Japan ahead with 14.4 and broadband flagship South Korea notching up a whopping 27.7. In terms of percentage growth, China lagged again, with Portugal more than doubling its DSL take-up in the second half of 2003.
China's official news agency, Xinhua, put the huge jump in DSL down to a boom in the Chinese entertainment industry, with users hungry for broadband, film and gaming. Tim Johnson, a principal analyst with Point Topic, favours a combination of factors, including China's desire for industrialisation and to be seen as a high-tech player, as well as providing economic incentives for those going online to go straight to broadband rather than first opting for dial-up.
However, while DSL makes gains in China, Wi-Fi may be set to struggle. Intel, one of the biggest manufacturers of wireless chips, has given the two-fingered salute to the Chinese market after refusing to comply with a Chinese encryption standard that is due to come into effect on 1 June.
Some manufacturers regard the standard as prehistoric and insecure, and Intel has threatened to stop selling its Centrino chips - used by China's most popular laptop maker, Legend - after the June deadline. The Chinese government will only release the protocol to Chinese companies, so if Intel wants to stay in the market, it will have to partner with a local firm.
The overall picture for broadband, however, is looking bright, with almost 28 million DSL lines added worldwide last year to create a grand total of 63.8 million.
Source; March 04
Internet – Services
Hotmail back online
Microsoft has blamed an internal problem for leaving millions of Hotmail users unable to access their email on Friday.
The service, along with MSN Messenger, suffered an outage early Friday evening (+1 GMT), although it is now understood that the service is fully up and running again.
A spokesman for MSN told that, along users around the world were hit. He ruled out any notion that the email service was the subject of a malicious attack. He also declined to discuss the nature of the internal problem.
Although he couldn't say how many people were hit by the problem he described it as "extensive", adding that it hit a majority of Hotmail's 140m users, locking them out of their email accounts.
Source; The Register, March 04
Broadband – USA Market
Broadband Internet Grows To 25 Million In The U.S.
According to recent analysis the US cable and DSL providers accumulated over 24.6 million high-speed Internet subscribers by the end of 2003. The twenty largest cable and DSL providers in the US added a combined 7.4 million high-speed Internet subscribers in 2003.
Additional broadband provider results include:
- Cable adding about 4.5 million broadband Internet subscribers compared to close to 3 million added by the major DSL providers over the same time period
- The top cable broadband providers now have a 63% share of the overall broadband market.
And, from a new LRG study, Broadband Internet Access & Services in the Home 2004, based on a survey of 1,600 households nationwide, come some details on the usage and opinions:
- 62% of residential households subscribe to an online service at home, and about one-third of this group subscribes to broadband
- 73% of broadband subscribers are "very satisfied" with their Internet service compared to 49% of narrowband/dial-up subscribers
- About 30% of current narrowband subscribers are interested in getting broadband
Clearly the market for broadband has become more competitive in the past year, and competition will only intensify as the number of broadband subscribers in the US doubles over the next four years. Yet it is premature to proclaim that DSL is catching up to cable.
Broadband Internet Subscribers at end of 2003 Net adds in 2003
Cable
Comcast 5,283,900 1,663,600
Time Warner 3,228,000 802,000
Cox 1,988,527 580,577
Charter 1,565,600 427,500
Cablevision 1,057,020 286,895
Adelphia 951,406 324,236
Bright House Networks 620,000 130,000
Mediacom 280,000 89,000
Insight 230,000 85,200
RCN 195,000 42,669
Cable One 133,800 54,400
Total Top cable
15,533,253 4,486,077
DSL
SBC 3,516,000 1,317,000
Verizon 2,319,000 649,000
Bell South 1,462,000 441,000
Qwest 637,000 127,000
Covad 517,000 136,000
Sprint 304,000 153,000
ALLTEL 153,028 82,846
Cincinnati Bell 99,000 24,400
CenturyTel 83,400 31,100
Total Top DSL 9,090,428 2,961,346
Total Broadband 24,623,681 7,447,423
Sources: The Companies and LRG, Inc. – March 04
Environment – Legislation
E.U. moves to protect dolphins, porpoises ensnared in fishers' nets
European Union nations are close to agreeing on measures designed save the lives of thousands of dolphins and porpoises caught accidentally in fishing nets, officials said Tuesday.
The proposals, which would require fishers to install acoustic "pingers" on their boats to scare away the marine mammals, could be approved next week at a meeting of fisheries ministers in Brussels, E.U. officials said.
The rules could apply to fishers in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, English Channel, and other waters off northern and Western Europe, although some nations are seeking exemptions for some areas and smaller boats, given the high cost of installing the equipment.
According to British estimates, the pingers could cost up to 6,000 euros (US$7,400) per boat and would need renewing every 18 months.
Despite the cost, some fishing organizations backed the proposals.
"It's pretty much a disaster to catch a dolphin or a porpoise; you lose catch and you damage gear," said Hamish Morrison, chief executive of the Scottish Fisherman's Federation, in a telephone interview. "Many fishers have respect and affection for dolphins," he added. "There's an old legend that dolphins are the souls of drowned fishermen."
E.U. funds could be used to help fishing organizations cover the costs of the acoustic equipment.
The new rules would also phase out drift nets in the Baltic Sea. Such nets, often several miles, long have been banned in other waters because of the risk of entangling marine mammals.
However, some Baltic nations want to delay the ban to protect their fishers. Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Estonia — which are set to join the E.U. in May — are especially concerned about the impact of a ban on their fleets.
Worldwide more than 300,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises die unintentionally in fishers' hauls, according to a study released last year by American and Scottish biologists. Before it introduced its own pinger program in 2000, Denmark estimated up to 6,000 porpoises were caught annually in its waters alone.
However, although the acoustic gear has proven effective in protecting dolphins, porpoises, and small whales, Morrison said the ultrasound frequency used to scare them away from nets has the opposite affect on some types of seals.
"There has to be some fine tuning of the technology, literally, because they act like a dinner gong for harp seals," the Scottish fishers' leader said.
The E.U. plans would also place observers on selected boats to ensure that skippers respect the rules. Failure to respect a ban on drift nets in the Mediterranean costs the lives up to 4,000 dolphins every year, the WWF estimates.
Source: Associated Press
HIGHLIGHTS
Telecommunications – Wireless
T-Mobile Takes Wireless PocketCinema
Cinemaelectric, Inc. announces the launch of its PocketCinema™ mobile video content offerings via leading operator T-MOBILE in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Austria and Czech Republic, a total market of over 40 million mobile subscribers.
Source; CinemaElectric, Inc
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
FOCUS
Telecommunications – Mobile
Vodafone publishes guidelines for content publishers
It seems that Vodafone is moving to control parts of the mobile Internet that are not controlled by anyone else - until now. The company has published a set of documents that explain how content will be rated, billed and distributed to the end users.
Source; Vodafone
Telecommunications – Mobile Europe
Despite the Myths, the Reality is that Consumers Will Appreciate 3G's Value
3G should not be targeted at business customers but used to support and improve the wide range of consumer services that are beginning to emerge on today’s GPRS networks
Source; The Yankee Group
Telecommunications – UMTS Germany
3G UMTS Portal launch
O2 Germany is launching their ClixSmart enabled UMTS or 3G (Third Generation) mobile portal. With ClixSmart UMTS, content over the O2 Active UMTS mobile portal is delivered dynamically from all content sources.
Europe: O2 Germany is launching their ClixSmart enabled UMTS or 3G (Third Generation) mobile portal at the leading ICT and Telecoms Tradeshow, CeBIT, in Hanover. With ClixSmart UMTS, O2 Germany offers faster, more sophisticated and dynamic mobile data services than have ever been offered before on its O2 Active mobile portal. The new O2 Active mobile portal offers subscribers rich, personalized, dynamic content more efficiently and with new possibilities.
With ClixSmart UMTS, content over the O2 Active UMTS mobile portal is delivered dynamically from all content sources. This means that content is dynamically refreshed and updated on the portal every few minutes. With ClixSmart, the mobile operator can control how frequently the UMTS portal is updated. For example, with news and sports, this content can be dynamically updated every few minutes, as this is information that is likely to change very frequently. Games and downloads could be updated once a week. As a result, the portal user is presented with constantly refreshed and updated content.
All of the content feeds from different sources and content partners are aggregated by the ClixSmart Aggregation Server to manage the presentation and delivery of the content over the UMTS portal. This merges content from both the operator portal and external portal content to optimise the presentation.
Moreover with ClixSmart UMTS, the portal content can be subdivided and conveniently organized into 'chunks' of information better suited to individual users based on their profiles. This means that the end-user sees units of concise and relevant information on a mobile portal page. These small units of content within the UMTS portal can be personalized as a unit in the same way as a menu link or option i.e. they may move up the page as a user shows a preference for that content unit.
O2 Germany has developed a great variety of information and entertainment services for its O2 Active mobile portal. With ClixSmart UMTS, O2 Germany can now enhance the presentation and delivery of these mobile data services across its UMTS handsets. UMTS mobile portals exhibit significant differences in character and ChangingWorlds ClixSmart Menu Manager and Device Manager cater seamlessly for this. ClixSmart Menu Manager enables an operator to rapidly develop, update and maintain a UMTS mobile portal effectively and efficiently. ClixSmart Device Manager recognizes UMTS enabled handsets and can use enriched style sheets to make the most of the handset capabilities.
Having launched ChangingWorlds industry-leading ClixSmart Intelligent Portal solution on the O2 Active mobile portal over a year ago in January 2003, O2 Germany has since succeeded in achieving and maintaining amongst the highest mobile data usage and revenues in Europe. With the ClixSmart solution, O2 Germany can now also manage its UMTS mobile portal more effectively and provide better overall, personalized mobile data services and enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) to its customers. Moreover, with ClixSmart Intelligent Navigation, O2 Active portal subscribers now enjoy rich and dynamic 3G portal content that is also easier to get to as a result of reduced click-distance.
Source; O2
Telecommunications – CDMA Europe
Nortel deploys CDMA in Latvia
Nortel Networks has been awarded a supply agreement by Latvia's Telekom Baltija to deploy a CDMA2000 1X network. Deployment of the network, which will operate in the 450 MHz radio spectrum, is already underway. Telekom Baltija expects to launch the CDMA network in the second quarter of 2004 and offer commercial service beginning in the third quarter of 2004.
Nortel Networks providing Telekom Baltija with a cost-effective 450 MHz wireless voice and data solution based on its specific business needs, this will help position Telekom Baltija to usher in a new era of wireless services in Latvia.
A/S Telekom Baltija plan to use in Latvia one of the most progressive and advantageous mobile technologies in the world – CDMA.
CDMA 450 is a standard for use in countries transitioning to digital wireless service from Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) 450 analogue service and in countries advocating universal access to voice and data. Because of the lower radio spectrum, CDMA 450 has the advantage of covering a significantly larger geographical footprint compared to traditional cellular systems. This means fewer cell sites, lower capital expenditures and no need for licensed operators to acquire additional spectrum.
In October 2003, A/S Telekom Baltija received a public mobile telecommunications operator license, giving the company the rights to establish, develop and maintain the public mobile telecommunications network and to offer public telecommunications services.
Source; Nortel Networks
Health – HIV
HIV experiment shows child welfare system running amok
Reports of improper medical testing by New York City's foster-care bureaucracy could lead to overdue reforms that would make child-welfare agencies more transparent and accountable, according to Wendy McElroy, research fellow at the Independent Institute.
One hundred HIV-infected children -- some as young as three months old - were assigned by the city's Administration for Children's Services to be tested with experimental AIDS treatments. But the agency lacked both the medical expertise and the legal authority to supervise the treatment of children without a parent or foster parent to render consent.
"No one could fault researchers for administering appropriate drugs to sick children and monitoring the results, especially when the children might not otherwise receive treatment," writes McElroy in a column for FoxNews.com. "But questions immediately arise concerning studies that purportedly tested the 'safety,' 'tolerance' and toxicity' of AIDS drugs. Or one that tested the reaction of HIV-positive children, ages six to seven months, to the injection of two doses of meals vaccine."
Medical experts have called the experiments outrageous and potentially fatal, but the data that could confirm or dispel such fears have disappeared from the agency. Furthermore, the former head of the agency - during whose tenure the agency conducted the Experiments - has remained silent.
"Hopes are not enough," McElroy concludes. "For once, a child welfare system must have the courage and decency to open itself to public scrutiny."
Source; See "When 'Mother' is a Bureaucracy," by Wendy McElroy
Democracy – China panoramic
China adopts amendments
Breaking with doctrines laid down by Mao, China's legislative assembly yesterday passed what appear to be the most promising institutional reforms China has seen in more than five decades of oppressive communist rule - constitutional amendments that formally protect property and human rights.
Constitutional safeguards have long been recognized in the West as essential for securing the rights of the people from governmental overreach and thereby enable people to enjoy the prosperity that accompanies liberty. In China, however, the notion of a constitutionally limited government never took hold. Authoritarian rule has been the norm in China for at least two millennia.
But this doesn't mean that China has no liberal traditions to draw upon in its fight to break the chains of oppression. For example, as James Dorn explained last spring in THE INDEPENENT REVIEW, Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu advised political rulers to rule with the lightest touch:
Administer the empire by engaging in no activity.
The more taboos and prohibitions there are in the world,
The poorer the people will be.
The more laws and orders are made prominent,
The more thieves and robbers there will be.
Therefore the sage [ruler] says:
I take no action and the people of themselves are transformed.
I engage in no activity and the people of themselves become prosperous.
It remains to be seen, of course, whether China's government will actually move to protect property rights and human rights. Speaking out against the Tiananmen Square massacre, for example, can still land you an extended stay in the Laogai work prison system. But China's adopt of the new amendments does give one hope that China will take meaningful steps away from the tyranny that has victimized the world's most populous country.
Source; See "China Codifies Property and Human Rights" by Edward Cody. The Washington Post, March 2004
HEADLINES
Economy – USA
Setting the Standard for American Working Families
Wider Opportunities for Women has been working to change the terms of the debate about what it takes to make ends meet in America, providing state-specific budgets and strategies to help low-wage families reach economic self-sufficiency. This report profiles state data and next steps for 32 states and the District of Columbia - with tools for practitioners and advocates.
Source; Wider Opportunities for Women
Telecommunications – Mobile
Vodafone publishes guidelines for content publishers
It seems that Vodafone is moving to control parts of the mobile Internet that are not controlled by anyone else - until now. The company has published a set of documents that explain how content will be rated, billed and distributed to the end users.
Source; Vodafone
Telecommunications – Mobile Europe
Despite the Myths, the Reality is that Consumers Will Appreciate 3G's Value
3G should not be targeted at business customers but used to support and improve the wide range of consumer services that are beginning to emerge on today’s GPRS networks
Source; The Yankee Group
Telecommunications – UMTS Germany
3G UMTS Portal launch
O2 Germany is launching their ClixSmart enabled UMTS or 3G (Third Generation) mobile portal. With ClixSmart UMTS, content over the O2 Active UMTS mobile portal is delivered dynamically from all content sources.
Europe: O2 Germany is launching their ClixSmart enabled UMTS or 3G (Third Generation) mobile portal at the leading ICT and Telecoms Tradeshow, CeBIT, in Hanover. With ClixSmart UMTS, O2 Germany offers faster, more sophisticated and dynamic mobile data services than have ever been offered before on its O2 Active mobile portal. The new O2 Active mobile portal offers subscribers rich, personalized, dynamic content more efficiently and with new possibilities.
With ClixSmart UMTS, content over the O2 Active UMTS mobile portal is delivered dynamically from all content sources. This means that content is dynamically refreshed and updated on the portal every few minutes. With ClixSmart, the mobile operator can control how frequently the UMTS portal is updated. For example, with news and sports, this content can be dynamically updated every few minutes, as this is information that is likely to change very frequently. Games and downloads could be updated once a week. As a result, the portal user is presented with constantly refreshed and updated content.
All of the content feeds from different sources and content partners are aggregated by the ClixSmart Aggregation Server to manage the presentation and delivery of the content over the UMTS portal. This merges content from both the operator portal and external portal content to optimise the presentation.
Moreover with ClixSmart UMTS, the portal content can be subdivided and conveniently organized into 'chunks' of information better suited to individual users based on their profiles. This means that the end-user sees units of concise and relevant information on a mobile portal page. These small units of content within the UMTS portal can be personalized as a unit in the same way as a menu link or option i.e. they may move up the page as a user shows a preference for that content unit.
O2 Germany has developed a great variety of information and entertainment services for its O2 Active mobile portal. With ClixSmart UMTS, O2 Germany can now enhance the presentation and delivery of these mobile data services across its UMTS handsets. UMTS mobile portals exhibit significant differences in character and ChangingWorlds ClixSmart Menu Manager and Device Manager cater seamlessly for this. ClixSmart Menu Manager enables an operator to rapidly develop, update and maintain a UMTS mobile portal effectively and efficiently. ClixSmart Device Manager recognizes UMTS enabled handsets and can use enriched style sheets to make the most of the handset capabilities.
Having launched ChangingWorlds industry-leading ClixSmart Intelligent Portal solution on the O2 Active mobile portal over a year ago in January 2003, O2 Germany has since succeeded in achieving and maintaining amongst the highest mobile data usage and revenues in Europe. With the ClixSmart solution, O2 Germany can now also manage its UMTS mobile portal more effectively and provide better overall, personalized mobile data services and enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) to its customers. Moreover, with ClixSmart Intelligent Navigation, O2 Active portal subscribers now enjoy rich and dynamic 3G portal content that is also easier to get to as a result of reduced click-distance.
Source; O2
Telecommunications – CDMA Europe
Nortel deploys CDMA in Latvia
Nortel Networks has been awarded a supply agreement by Latvia's Telekom Baltija to deploy a CDMA2000 1X network. Deployment of the network, which will operate in the 450 MHz radio spectrum, is already underway. Telekom Baltija expects to launch the CDMA network in the second quarter of 2004 and offer commercial service beginning in the third quarter of 2004.
Nortel Networks providing Telekom Baltija with a cost-effective 450 MHz wireless voice and data solution based on its specific business needs, this will help position Telekom Baltija to usher in a new era of wireless services in Latvia.
A/S Telekom Baltija plan to use in Latvia one of the most progressive and advantageous mobile technologies in the world – CDMA.
CDMA 450 is a standard for use in countries transitioning to digital wireless service from Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) 450 analogue service and in countries advocating universal access to voice and data. Because of the lower radio spectrum, CDMA 450 has the advantage of covering a significantly larger geographical footprint compared to traditional cellular systems. This means fewer cell sites, lower capital expenditures and no need for licensed operators to acquire additional spectrum.
In October 2003, A/S Telekom Baltija received a public mobile telecommunications operator license, giving the company the rights to establish, develop and maintain the public mobile telecommunications network and to offer public telecommunications services.
Source; Nortel Networks
Health – HIV
HIV experiment shows child welfare system running amok
Reports of improper medical testing by New York City's foster-care bureaucracy could lead to overdue reforms that would make child-welfare agencies more transparent and accountable, according to Wendy McElroy, research fellow at the Independent Institute.
One hundred HIV-infected children -- some as young as three months old - were assigned by the city's Administration for Children's Services to be tested with experimental AIDS treatments. But the agency lacked both the medical expertise and the legal authority to supervise the treatment of children without a parent or foster parent to render consent.
"No one could fault researchers for administering appropriate drugs to sick children and monitoring the results, especially when the children might not otherwise receive treatment," writes McElroy in a column for FoxNews.com. "But questions immediately arise concerning studies that purportedly tested the 'safety,' 'tolerance' and toxicity' of AIDS drugs. Or one that tested the reaction of HIV-positive children, ages six to seven months, to the injection of two doses of meals vaccine."
Medical experts have called the experiments outrageous and potentially fatal, but the data that could confirm or dispel such fears have disappeared from the agency. Furthermore, the former head of the agency - during whose tenure the agency conducted the Experiments - has remained silent.
"Hopes are not enough," McElroy concludes. "For once, a child welfare system must have the courage and decency to open itself to public scrutiny."
Source; See "When 'Mother' is a Bureaucracy," by Wendy McElroy
Democracy – China panoramic
China adopts amendments
Breaking with doctrines laid down by Mao, China's legislative assembly yesterday passed what appear to be the most promising institutional reforms China has seen in more than five decades of oppressive communist rule - constitutional amendments that formally protect property and human rights.
Constitutional safeguards have long been recognized in the West as essential for securing the rights of the people from governmental overreach and thereby enable people to enjoy the prosperity that accompanies liberty. In China, however, the notion of a constitutionally limited government never took hold. Authoritarian rule has been the norm in China for at least two millennia.
But this doesn't mean that China has no liberal traditions to draw upon in its fight to break the chains of oppression. For example, as James Dorn explained last spring in THE INDEPENENT REVIEW, Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu advised political rulers to rule with the lightest touch:
Administer the empire by engaging in no activity.
The more taboos and prohibitions there are in the world,
The poorer the people will be.
The more laws and orders are made prominent,
The more thieves and robbers there will be.
Therefore the sage [ruler] says:
I take no action and the people of themselves are transformed.
I engage in no activity and the people of themselves become prosperous.
It remains to be seen, of course, whether China's government will actually move to protect property rights and human rights. Speaking out against the Tiananmen Square massacre, for example, can still land you an extended stay in the Laogai work prison system. But China's adopt of the new amendments does give one hope that China will take meaningful steps away from the tyranny that has victimized the world's most populous country.
Source; See "China Codifies Property and Human Rights" by Edward Cody. The Washington Post, March 2004
HEADLINES
Economy – USA
Setting the Standard for American Working Families
Wider Opportunities for Women has been working to change the terms of the debate about what it takes to make ends meet in America, providing state-specific budgets and strategies to help low-wage families reach economic self-sufficiency. This report profiles state data and next steps for 32 states and the District of Columbia - with tools for practitioners and advocates.
Source; Wider Opportunities for Women
Monday, March 15, 2004
FOCUS
Communication – Advertising
Havas’s MPG draws offer by rival
At least one company has made advances to French advertising group Havas concerning a 49% stake in its media-buying arm, Media Planning Group. Although Havas has been struggling of late, the proposal was apparently made as a partnership, rather than a buyout. According to one estimate, the stake could be worth around $150 million.
Source; Market, March 2004
Telecommunications – Wireless
DoCoMo offers FET WCDMA guidance
Japan's NTT DoCoMo and Taiwan's Far EasTone (FET) today announced the signing of a consulting agreement under which FET will launch a WCDMA-based commercial service in Taiwan with technical support from DoCoMo. FET intends to introduce its WCDMA service this year and under the consulting agreement, which will be in effect from March 23 through Sept. 22, 2004, FET will conduct a 3G network field test with the technical assistance of DoCoMo. In October, DoCoMo and FET entered into an MoU to collaborate in the fields of WCDMA and i-mode. Earlier this week, DoCoMo announced the creation of a technical partnership with Thailand's AIS.
Source; DoCoMo, March 2004
Law – Technology
EU moves to block Oracle as well
Add one more stumbling block to Oracle's $9.4 billion hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft. The European Commission has issued a "statement of objections" to the deal, objections Oracle would need to rectify before the EU approves the deal. The specifics of the EU complaint have not been made public, but anti-competitive issues are undoubtedly at the heart of it, much as they are in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against the merger. Oracle has a chance to respond to the complaints in writing and at a hearing before the EU makes its final ruling on May 11. Now facing the prospect of two government rulings against its proposal, many feel Oracle's chance of succeeding is getting very slim.
Source; AP
ALSO: Institutional Shareholder Services is supporting re-election of PeopleSoft's board members at the company's annual meeting on March 25, but also suggests PeopleSoft should drop its touchy refund program. Story
Technology – IT
Storage software market up 18% in Q4
According to recent market analysis the storage software sales increased 18 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003 to $1.78 billion. For the whole of 2003, the market jumped 8 percent to $6.29 billion. But the strong showing in the final quarter suggests the increasingly important role software is playing in a storage industry trying to meet the needs of companies, which are trying to comply with new regulations and still looking to cut costs. EMC topped the market for storage software with a 31.7 percent share, followed by Veritas Software at 21.9 percent and Computer Associates at 9.8 percent.
Source; CNET, March 2004
HIGHLIGHTS
IT – Enterprise
Server sales in Asia grow 6.7 percent in 2003
According to a new report from Gartner, server sales in the Asia-Pacific region rose 6.7 percent to more than $5 billion in 2003.
Source; AFP, March 2004
e-Learning – Cyber teaching
Sketchy grades for Cyber schools
Dozens of online schools offer instruction in 19 states, and more are getting into the act. But many of the current schools aren't measuring up.
By John Gartner
Source; Wired, March 2004
Communication – Advertising
Havas’s MPG draws offer by rival
At least one company has made advances to French advertising group Havas concerning a 49% stake in its media-buying arm, Media Planning Group. Although Havas has been struggling of late, the proposal was apparently made as a partnership, rather than a buyout. According to one estimate, the stake could be worth around $150 million.
Source; Market, March 2004
Telecommunications – Wireless
DoCoMo offers FET WCDMA guidance
Japan's NTT DoCoMo and Taiwan's Far EasTone (FET) today announced the signing of a consulting agreement under which FET will launch a WCDMA-based commercial service in Taiwan with technical support from DoCoMo. FET intends to introduce its WCDMA service this year and under the consulting agreement, which will be in effect from March 23 through Sept. 22, 2004, FET will conduct a 3G network field test with the technical assistance of DoCoMo. In October, DoCoMo and FET entered into an MoU to collaborate in the fields of WCDMA and i-mode. Earlier this week, DoCoMo announced the creation of a technical partnership with Thailand's AIS.
Source; DoCoMo, March 2004
Law – Technology
EU moves to block Oracle as well
Add one more stumbling block to Oracle's $9.4 billion hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft. The European Commission has issued a "statement of objections" to the deal, objections Oracle would need to rectify before the EU approves the deal. The specifics of the EU complaint have not been made public, but anti-competitive issues are undoubtedly at the heart of it, much as they are in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against the merger. Oracle has a chance to respond to the complaints in writing and at a hearing before the EU makes its final ruling on May 11. Now facing the prospect of two government rulings against its proposal, many feel Oracle's chance of succeeding is getting very slim.
Source; AP
ALSO: Institutional Shareholder Services is supporting re-election of PeopleSoft's board members at the company's annual meeting on March 25, but also suggests PeopleSoft should drop its touchy refund program. Story
Technology – IT
Storage software market up 18% in Q4
According to recent market analysis the storage software sales increased 18 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003 to $1.78 billion. For the whole of 2003, the market jumped 8 percent to $6.29 billion. But the strong showing in the final quarter suggests the increasingly important role software is playing in a storage industry trying to meet the needs of companies, which are trying to comply with new regulations and still looking to cut costs. EMC topped the market for storage software with a 31.7 percent share, followed by Veritas Software at 21.9 percent and Computer Associates at 9.8 percent.
Source; CNET, March 2004
HIGHLIGHTS
IT – Enterprise
Server sales in Asia grow 6.7 percent in 2003
According to a new report from Gartner, server sales in the Asia-Pacific region rose 6.7 percent to more than $5 billion in 2003.
Source; AFP, March 2004
e-Learning – Cyber teaching
Sketchy grades for Cyber schools
Dozens of online schools offer instruction in 19 states, and more are getting into the act. But many of the current schools aren't measuring up.
By John Gartner
Source; Wired, March 2004
FOCUS
Telecommunications – Latin America market
Spain: Telefonica swoons to the Latin beat
Following its recent US$5.8bn purchase of the Latin American assets of Bell South, Spain’s Telefonica is not only the largest mobile operator in Latin America--it now stands alongside Vodafone, China Mobile, China Unicom and Deutsche Telekom as one of the top five mobile operators in the world. In the ultra-competitive mobile sector, however, it is not yet proven that big is best, says Business Latin America
Although the global telecoms market recovered last year, the sector’s biggest players still bear the scars of the downturn of 2001/02. For most companies, balance sheets remain stretched and margins have yet to return to their former strength. Telefonica’s long-term debt, for example, built up during the group’s big expansion during the last boom, is now shrinking. But at E19.2bn, it still tops shareholders’ equity of E16.7bn. And while the company stopped losing money last year, its net profit margin in the last quarter of 2003 was only 2.5%.
Still, it is not difficult to see why the company is betting on its mobile-phone business. As the company itself points out, this part of its business became the biggest contributor in terms of the group’s profits before interest and tax last year and now accounts for nearly a third the company’s total sales of €28bn. However, despite the fast growth in this area of the business, with the number of new subscribers jumping by a factor of five in the fourth quarter alone, Telefonica’s margins were lower in the fourth quarter than for the full year.
In addition to the competitive nature of the mobile-phone market, Telefonica’s latest deal also increases its exposure to Latin America where the political and economic climate are less stable than in Europe. Indeed, although the company enjoys a A/A-1 credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency recently announced it was placing the company on its CreditWatch list with negative implications following its decision to buy BellSouth’s Latin American mobile businesses. The rating agency cited the "economic, financial and political risks of operating in Latin America and the investments necessary for the future developments of these operations" as reasons for issuing the warning.
Learn the limbo?
For Telefonica, however, Latin America offers a great deal of opportunity that is simply unavailable in the developed world. According to recent market statistics the number of mobile subscribers per 100 in Europe is 84, while in Latin America the number is just 27 per 100. And while Latin America’s economic performance has been poor since the beginning of the decade, growth picked up last year and recorded an overall expansion of about 1.6%, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. The EIU also forecasts annual economic growth for the region should average nearly 3.4% through 2008.
Given these statistics, the company should easily be able to see its mobile phone sales grow by 4.5% a year through 2006, which is a higher growth rate than any other European telecoms company is predicting. The problem, however, is that Telefonica will be winning that growth in countries with high currency risks, high political risk and with non-investment grade markets. Argentina, for example, cost Telefonica more than €3bn by ending the peso’s link to the dollar in 2002.
And even if it does negotiate these risks, longer term it remains unknown whether demand for mobile phones in the region will expand as it has elsewhere in the world. In Venezuela, for example, 80% of the country’s population is living in poverty. And as in other developing countries, pay-as-you-go phones are proving to be the most popular. However, this kind of account is the least lucrative for the phone companies as pre-paid phone customers are less likely to purchase the more profitable add-ons, such as picture and video-phones or Internet-linked services.
Against this, however, remains the fact that the mobile phone can also put even the smallest entrepreneur in touch with customers and clients across the country. Should Latin American entrepreneurs adopt mobile phones as they have been in China, where small, family-owned businesses are the norm, Telefonica’s bet could well pay off. In the meantime, however, the company will need to stay ruthlessly focused on the bottom line if it wants its Latin American gamble to pay off.
Source; Basic data from BLA, March 2004
IT – Wireless
WiMAX, NLOS and Broadband Wireless Access (Sub-11Ghz)
Market Trends
Fixed broadband wireless market (sub-11Ghz) will grow from $430 million in 2003 to more than $1.6 billion by the end of 2008. In 2003, BWA shipments increased 45% over 2002. Vendors have announced both multi-million dollar contracts and hefty growth earnings compared to 2002. Technology news editors are now talking about a BWA come back with the emergence of millions of WiFi access points connected by more flexible and less costly fixed wireless solutions.
Despite the 2001-2002 market slowdown, the steady demand for bandwidth, coupled with wider access to the Internet and data in general, provide sound fundamentals for expecting future growth in both telecom services and equipment sales in the first/last mile. In other words, both residential and business subscribers worldwide are demanding faster connections for their applications and operators are struggling to give them that access. According to the ITU, there were almost a 100 million broadband subscribers worldwide at the end of 2003. Although DSL and Cable are poised to remain the dominant broadband access technologies worldwide, wireless access technologies are becoming a reliable and cost effective complement or alternative to providing data, voice and video services. Governments worldwide are also driving the growth of Broadband through continuing frequency allocation and programs to subsidize broadband deployments in order to reduce the digital divide between regions of high and low density areas.
Some Key Findings include:
- There were over 10,000 PMP BWA (sub 11Ghz) base stations and 1.2 Million CPEs installed worldwide providing 256Kbps+ broadband services to over 1.5 million subscribers.
- Alvarion is the market leader with about 25% market share followed by SRTelecom with 12% and Proxim with 9%; ZTE is the market leader in the fast growing Chinese market with about 30% market share;
- EMEA which represented 32% of the overall market in 2003 continues to represent the largest market opportunity but Asia will outpace it by 2005;
- The carrier and private networks market segments represented respectively 85% and 15% of the total market in 2003;
- The access and backhaul applications represented respectively 84% and 16% of total sales in 2003. However backhaul will represent 30% of equipment sales by 2008;
- 3.5Ghz, the most allocated frequency band for BWA, represents the largest opportunity for BWA representing 40% of total sales followed by the 5.2-5.8Ghz band. We believe the 2.3 and 2.5-2.7Ghz market share will grow to 25% of the market by 2008
Already 12 vendors offer a 3.5Ghz product and 4 more players will offer a 3.5Ghz product in 2004, which will render that band market even more competitive
Among Plug & Play, NLOS, portable systems, IPWireless is the leader in shipments and revenues, followed by a small group of companies, which include Navini, NextNet Wireless, or SRTelecom (Angel). It is however difficult to sub segment the whole market on system capabilities.
Shipments of OFDM based product already represent 39% of all shipments and that proportion will grow with the adoption of 802.16d to close to 60% by 2008 Shipments of 802.16e will grow exponentially after 2007 to 1 million units and will be dominated by Intel deployments.
Source; Data from Maravedis Inc., March 2004
HIGHLIGHTS
IT – M&F
BayStar Confirms Microsoft Connection to SCO Investment
The cat is finally out of the bag: Microsoft Corp. acted as the matchmaker for the $50 million investment led by BayStar Capital into The SCO Group Inc. last October.
Source; eweek.com
Internet – Entertainment
George Michael to offer songs for free online
Singer George Michael plans to quit the music business after his latest album and issue any of his new creations for free on the Internet.
Source; Internet Magazine
Telecommunications – Latin America market
Spain: Telefonica swoons to the Latin beat
Following its recent US$5.8bn purchase of the Latin American assets of Bell South, Spain’s Telefonica is not only the largest mobile operator in Latin America--it now stands alongside Vodafone, China Mobile, China Unicom and Deutsche Telekom as one of the top five mobile operators in the world. In the ultra-competitive mobile sector, however, it is not yet proven that big is best, says Business Latin America
Although the global telecoms market recovered last year, the sector’s biggest players still bear the scars of the downturn of 2001/02. For most companies, balance sheets remain stretched and margins have yet to return to their former strength. Telefonica’s long-term debt, for example, built up during the group’s big expansion during the last boom, is now shrinking. But at E19.2bn, it still tops shareholders’ equity of E16.7bn. And while the company stopped losing money last year, its net profit margin in the last quarter of 2003 was only 2.5%.
Still, it is not difficult to see why the company is betting on its mobile-phone business. As the company itself points out, this part of its business became the biggest contributor in terms of the group’s profits before interest and tax last year and now accounts for nearly a third the company’s total sales of €28bn. However, despite the fast growth in this area of the business, with the number of new subscribers jumping by a factor of five in the fourth quarter alone, Telefonica’s margins were lower in the fourth quarter than for the full year.
In addition to the competitive nature of the mobile-phone market, Telefonica’s latest deal also increases its exposure to Latin America where the political and economic climate are less stable than in Europe. Indeed, although the company enjoys a A/A-1 credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency recently announced it was placing the company on its CreditWatch list with negative implications following its decision to buy BellSouth’s Latin American mobile businesses. The rating agency cited the "economic, financial and political risks of operating in Latin America and the investments necessary for the future developments of these operations" as reasons for issuing the warning.
Learn the limbo?
For Telefonica, however, Latin America offers a great deal of opportunity that is simply unavailable in the developed world. According to recent market statistics the number of mobile subscribers per 100 in Europe is 84, while in Latin America the number is just 27 per 100. And while Latin America’s economic performance has been poor since the beginning of the decade, growth picked up last year and recorded an overall expansion of about 1.6%, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. The EIU also forecasts annual economic growth for the region should average nearly 3.4% through 2008.
Given these statistics, the company should easily be able to see its mobile phone sales grow by 4.5% a year through 2006, which is a higher growth rate than any other European telecoms company is predicting. The problem, however, is that Telefonica will be winning that growth in countries with high currency risks, high political risk and with non-investment grade markets. Argentina, for example, cost Telefonica more than €3bn by ending the peso’s link to the dollar in 2002.
And even if it does negotiate these risks, longer term it remains unknown whether demand for mobile phones in the region will expand as it has elsewhere in the world. In Venezuela, for example, 80% of the country’s population is living in poverty. And as in other developing countries, pay-as-you-go phones are proving to be the most popular. However, this kind of account is the least lucrative for the phone companies as pre-paid phone customers are less likely to purchase the more profitable add-ons, such as picture and video-phones or Internet-linked services.
Against this, however, remains the fact that the mobile phone can also put even the smallest entrepreneur in touch with customers and clients across the country. Should Latin American entrepreneurs adopt mobile phones as they have been in China, where small, family-owned businesses are the norm, Telefonica’s bet could well pay off. In the meantime, however, the company will need to stay ruthlessly focused on the bottom line if it wants its Latin American gamble to pay off.
Source; Basic data from BLA, March 2004
IT – Wireless
WiMAX, NLOS and Broadband Wireless Access (Sub-11Ghz)
Market Trends
Fixed broadband wireless market (sub-11Ghz) will grow from $430 million in 2003 to more than $1.6 billion by the end of 2008. In 2003, BWA shipments increased 45% over 2002. Vendors have announced both multi-million dollar contracts and hefty growth earnings compared to 2002. Technology news editors are now talking about a BWA come back with the emergence of millions of WiFi access points connected by more flexible and less costly fixed wireless solutions.
Despite the 2001-2002 market slowdown, the steady demand for bandwidth, coupled with wider access to the Internet and data in general, provide sound fundamentals for expecting future growth in both telecom services and equipment sales in the first/last mile. In other words, both residential and business subscribers worldwide are demanding faster connections for their applications and operators are struggling to give them that access. According to the ITU, there were almost a 100 million broadband subscribers worldwide at the end of 2003. Although DSL and Cable are poised to remain the dominant broadband access technologies worldwide, wireless access technologies are becoming a reliable and cost effective complement or alternative to providing data, voice and video services. Governments worldwide are also driving the growth of Broadband through continuing frequency allocation and programs to subsidize broadband deployments in order to reduce the digital divide between regions of high and low density areas.
Some Key Findings include:
- There were over 10,000 PMP BWA (sub 11Ghz) base stations and 1.2 Million CPEs installed worldwide providing 256Kbps+ broadband services to over 1.5 million subscribers.
- Alvarion is the market leader with about 25% market share followed by SRTelecom with 12% and Proxim with 9%; ZTE is the market leader in the fast growing Chinese market with about 30% market share;
- EMEA which represented 32% of the overall market in 2003 continues to represent the largest market opportunity but Asia will outpace it by 2005;
- The carrier and private networks market segments represented respectively 85% and 15% of the total market in 2003;
- The access and backhaul applications represented respectively 84% and 16% of total sales in 2003. However backhaul will represent 30% of equipment sales by 2008;
- 3.5Ghz, the most allocated frequency band for BWA, represents the largest opportunity for BWA representing 40% of total sales followed by the 5.2-5.8Ghz band. We believe the 2.3 and 2.5-2.7Ghz market share will grow to 25% of the market by 2008
Already 12 vendors offer a 3.5Ghz product and 4 more players will offer a 3.5Ghz product in 2004, which will render that band market even more competitive
Among Plug & Play, NLOS, portable systems, IPWireless is the leader in shipments and revenues, followed by a small group of companies, which include Navini, NextNet Wireless, or SRTelecom (Angel). It is however difficult to sub segment the whole market on system capabilities.
Shipments of OFDM based product already represent 39% of all shipments and that proportion will grow with the adoption of 802.16d to close to 60% by 2008 Shipments of 802.16e will grow exponentially after 2007 to 1 million units and will be dominated by Intel deployments.
Source; Data from Maravedis Inc., March 2004
HIGHLIGHTS
IT – M&F
BayStar Confirms Microsoft Connection to SCO Investment
The cat is finally out of the bag: Microsoft Corp. acted as the matchmaker for the $50 million investment led by BayStar Capital into The SCO Group Inc. last October.
Source; eweek.com
Internet – Entertainment
George Michael to offer songs for free online
Singer George Michael plans to quit the music business after his latest album and issue any of his new creations for free on the Internet.
Source; Internet Magazine
Friday, March 12, 2004
HIGHLIGHTS
Technology - China market
China sets up Windows, Linux labs
China’s software industry continues to attract the attention of Western IT giants: on the same day that HP signed a deal to set up a Linux laboratory in China, Microsoft signed a deal to establish Windows.Net-based technology labs in the country. HP signed a three-year agreement with the Ministry of Information Industry of China to "set up a Linux laboratory that will focus on open-source software development, testing and certification to support small and medium-size Chinese businesses."
Meanwhile, Microsoft plans to work with both Chinese and Western IT companies to "build Windows labs and serve a large number of small and medium-size Chinese software companies and computer users in China." The article includes a brief look at other efforts by HP and Microsoft to crack the Chinese software market.
Source; ZD Net China
Internet - Search engines
Search upstarts storm Google’s gates
Yet another article on the new start-ups vying to displace Google as the leader in online search. Given the public adulation about Google’s upcoming IPO, it is perhaps not surprising that the company "faces Lilliputian threats from a fast-growing group of start-ups that hope to replicate its own meteoric rise from unknown upstart to Internet powerbroker." Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler comments: "Search is a hyper-growth area. There will be lots of special smaller players that without going public will be worth between $20 million and $100 million annually." The article includes profiles of five companies competing with Google for parts of its business: Quigo (which recently landed $5 million in VC financing), Industry Brains, Mooter, Eurekster and Dipsie.
Source; News.com
Internet - New media
Net cries out for Madrid
The terrorist attack in Madrid, which killed nearly 200 people and injured another 1,400, has led to a "huge outpouring of sympathy and concern" on the Internet. By some estimates, the terrorist attack led to at least 800 blog posts in just six hours: "There's been a big spike of posts about the bombings. There's been a burst of conversation all over the Internet about this. There's been a hell of a lot of concern." In fact, some analysts see some parallels with the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which also catapulted weblogs and around-the-clock news updates into the limelight. Included: links to weblogs with coverage of the Madrid terrorist attack.
Source; Wired News
Technology - China market
China sets up Windows, Linux labs
China’s software industry continues to attract the attention of Western IT giants: on the same day that HP signed a deal to set up a Linux laboratory in China, Microsoft signed a deal to establish Windows.Net-based technology labs in the country. HP signed a three-year agreement with the Ministry of Information Industry of China to "set up a Linux laboratory that will focus on open-source software development, testing and certification to support small and medium-size Chinese businesses."
Meanwhile, Microsoft plans to work with both Chinese and Western IT companies to "build Windows labs and serve a large number of small and medium-size Chinese software companies and computer users in China." The article includes a brief look at other efforts by HP and Microsoft to crack the Chinese software market.
Source; ZD Net China
Internet - Search engines
Search upstarts storm Google’s gates
Yet another article on the new start-ups vying to displace Google as the leader in online search. Given the public adulation about Google’s upcoming IPO, it is perhaps not surprising that the company "faces Lilliputian threats from a fast-growing group of start-ups that hope to replicate its own meteoric rise from unknown upstart to Internet powerbroker." Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler comments: "Search is a hyper-growth area. There will be lots of special smaller players that without going public will be worth between $20 million and $100 million annually." The article includes profiles of five companies competing with Google for parts of its business: Quigo (which recently landed $5 million in VC financing), Industry Brains, Mooter, Eurekster and Dipsie.
Source; News.com
Internet - New media
Net cries out for Madrid
The terrorist attack in Madrid, which killed nearly 200 people and injured another 1,400, has led to a "huge outpouring of sympathy and concern" on the Internet. By some estimates, the terrorist attack led to at least 800 blog posts in just six hours: "There's been a big spike of posts about the bombings. There's been a burst of conversation all over the Internet about this. There's been a hell of a lot of concern." In fact, some analysts see some parallels with the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which also catapulted weblogs and around-the-clock news updates into the limelight. Included: links to weblogs with coverage of the Madrid terrorist attack.
Source; Wired News
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