Goin' Mobile - Speeds and Content

Some quick notes on the expanding mobile broadband/online video front -

The last leg in mobile broadband for most people will be their home, office, or public WiFi loop.  Telecomm research from the Dell'Oro Group note that the wireless LAN market (i.e. WiFi) grew 17% in 2012.  But even more significantly, the new 802.11ac standard, which offers speeds up to 1 Gigabit/second data rates will be increasingly available on hardware devices this year - contributing to a convergence of wired and wireless data speeds.

There's a massive data speed war in Japan, with multiple operators offering 1 Gbps services over fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, and one operator announcing the rollout of the Nuro 2Gbps FTTH residential service.  So-Net's initial pricing for 2Gbps runs around $50 a month, significantly lower than competing 1 Gpbs services. Meanwhile, Japan telco NTT is said to be working on a 10Gbps residential network, to be available in a few years. 1 Gbps networks are popping up sporadically in the U.S. and Western Europe - Google's test markets offer 1 Gbps data plus multichannel video at around $100-150, and independent 1 Gbps network operators are pricing their services at $200-250 per month.  For most potential residential subscribers, there is little noticeable difference between 2 Gbps and 1 Gbps top data speeds, or for that matter 100 Mbps (corrected  from Gbps) speeds, so there is minimal incentive to switch to ultra-broadband services - aside from bragging rights, and price.  So many analysts are cautious about the rush to ultra-fast broadband, wondering if the cost of upgrading network speeds is recoverable from residential subscription fees.

On the content front, research from ABI is predicting substantial growth in use of the movie industry's UltraViolet "content locker" initiative.  Ultraviolet offers those with accounts online access to selected movies they've purchased on home media and registered with the service.  Ultraviolet currently has 6-8 million accounts; ABI estimates that the global market is likely to reach 65 million users (100 million if several major movie distributors join the program).  What's holding up growth at the moment, the report concludes, are consumer attitudes about trust and usability.

Consumers don’t yet trust the concept, with most still opting for subscription and digital content rental services such as Netflix and Hulu. “The ease of accessing and storing digital video libraries must approach that of digital music,” noted ABI practice director Sam Rosen.

Sources -  Wireless LAN Market on Fire,  CableFAX Tech
Broadband operators must beware the dangers of FTTH 'speed race',  telecoms.com
ABI: UltraViolet Could Radiate 65 Million Accounts… or More,  CableFAX Tech

Edited to correct typo in broadband speeds in middle story.

Amazon's Cloud vs. the RIAA

Last week's "Next Big Thing" was Amazon's Cloud, and it's offer to freely host not only 5 GB of anything, but also all of the music you buy from Amazon (which doesn't count towards the 5 GB).  The idea is that you can access the "Cloud" from anywhere, on anything (that provides basic Internet access).  Sounds great, and something that can help foster the transition from a focus on owning physical copies of content, to a concern with being able to access your legally-acquired content when and where you prefer.  It also reflects an alternative approach to copyright for music that's been floating around - again from an emphasis on rights being only associated with owning a physical copy, to owning rights to access and use content (with or without DRM).
If you're familiar with US Copyright law, and Court decisions on "fair use," there's nothing wrong with Amazon's offer (which is similar to the permanent hosting Amazon provides for books you buy from its Kindle bookstore).  You've paid your licensing fee when you buy the music, and you're exercising your "fair use" rights to time-shift, place-shift, and device-shift your use of the content you own.
The recording industry, instead of embracing a technology that would encourage sales (Amazon's making its music sales more valuable by providing an added-value service), is reacting predictably - threatening to sue Amazon, and presumably its customers as well (after all, if Amazon is making music available in a way they don't have a specific license for, then you're also violating your license by making an "illegal" copy when streaming from the Cloud to your device).  The record industry claims to be concerned with the potential of these "cloud lockers" for online piracy (i.e., you "sharing" your content with others), and arguing that you only have those rights to content that they're willing to give you.  But it's more likely they think that a "cloud license" could generate millions, if not billions, of dollars well into the future that might help to prop up an old-line music industry that's seeing revenues decline from recent poor sales..
I guess that what happens when you don't do a good job creating content that people want to buy at prices they're willing to pay - you try to create new "rights" you can force others to pay so you can keep your industry afloat and unchanged.

Source: "Music Industry Will Force Licenses on Amazon Cloud Player - Or Else," Wired