Blog articles from 08/2012

Written by Harry Wang, Director, Health & Mobile Product Research Okay, this question is already somehow answered. Yesterday, T-Mobile USA unveiled its own “truly-unlimited” 4G data plan—no throttling, no cap, and no hidden fee (like Sprint’s).  This move puts the nation’s two largest operators—Verizon Wireless and AT&T—under the spotlight considering that the two market leaders both scrapped unlimited data plans more than a year ago, and are promoting and...

Written by Jennifer Kent, Research Analyst With mobile data consumption just about doubling each year, carriers are rushing to deploy their next generation LTE networks. Seemingly every week, mobile operators from across the globe announce LTE network launches or extensions of LTE service to new markets. Verizon, the global leader in POPs covered, now offers LTE service in 371 U.S. markets with a goal to cover 400 by year-end. Carriers’ timetables are ambitious as they hope to stay...

By Jim O'Neill, Research Analyst Operators looking to cash in on delivering video to multiple screens have been talking about HEVC (high efficiency video coding) for a long time. Developers say the new video coding standard — H.265 — would reduce bit rate requirements of the current standard, H.264, by half, and deliver the same quality video. At the Cable Show in Boston this year, Motorola, which has been a participant in HEVC’s development,  talked about its plans...

Netflix announced on Monday that they had attained one million subscribers in the UK and Ireland , only 7 months after launching in the region. The company boasts that this rapid expansion is four times faster than Twitter managed to accomplish globally and twice as fast as Facebook and Four-square. They have also surpassed LOVEFiLM , which has been operating in the region since 2004, in every streaming-related metric. Netflix credits their success in the region to factors,...

By Brett L. Sappington, Director of Research On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published an article reporting rumors that Apple was in discussions with pay-TV providers about the possibility of an Apple-branded set-top box (STB) that would carry live and on-demand content. According to the article, Apple proposed to provide the hardware and have pay-TV providers deliver the linear and on-demand content. For Apple, which has made a strong business by leveraging content to...

By Jim O'Neill, Parks Associates Research Analyst The question, “Is Google getting ready to shop Motorola?” isn’t a new one, but it is picking up steam. Maybe it’s because of Google’s new fiber project in Kansas City that it seems counterintuitive for a sale to happen. After all, Google hasn’t named a vendor for the equipment and has said it’s making them itself. Put two and two together, and the assumption has to be that, well, Google’s subsidiary,...

Written by Jim O'Neill, Parks Associates Research Analyst During an earnings call this week, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes maintained that cord cutting is a myth, challenging someone to show him the numbers. To a point, that’s not very hard to do if you look at the cable TV industry only. Since 2008, cable has lost a whopping 4.5 million subscribers in the U.S. As the second quarter numbers roll in, MSOs are likely to lose another 1.38 million by the end of the year, and that...