Business News Holding

Tag: market-data

  • Rising Demand For VoIP Tied To Bundled Packages


    A growing number of UK broadband users plan to start using VoIP in their homes, according to research.

    The study by consultancy Booz and Company found that 44 per cent of consumers plan to use VoIP in the next six months.

    It also showed that 45 per cent of respondents want to bundle their communications packages to include telephone, broadband and television.

    John Ward, principal in Booz and Company’s UK CMT practice, said the recession is revealing characteristics about consumers that operators can capitalise on.

    He said that the successful service providers will be the ones that offer the most innovative ways of purchasing telecoms and media services.

    Other research in the UK found that very few broadband users in the UK switch their service provider in order to get the most affordable package.

    Comparison website Consumer Choices reported that just ten per cent of broadband users switched their service in 2008 for a better deal.

  • FCC Slashes Number Porting Delay To 1 Day


    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US has cut the time allowed for wireline, mobile and certain VoIP providers to transfer a customer’s existing telephone number to a new provider from four to one business day.

    The move will make it easier for consumers to switch voice service providers.

    Delays in number porting cost consumers money and hamper the selection of providers based solely on price, quality and service.

    Now the FCC is requiring all providers – with the exception of small carriers – to implement the new number porting interval within nine months from the time the Commission receives key input from the North American Numbering Council (NANC).

    This is due 90 days after the effective date of the order.

    Small carriers have 15 months after the NANC recommendation to implement the new interval.

    In a second order, the FCC expanded consumer protections for customers of interconnected VoIP providers.

    Interconnected VoIP providers are those whose customers can place calls to and receive calls from the public telephone network.

    These providers are now required to notify customers before they discontinue, reduce or impair service, as conventional providers currently must do.

  • Wireless Makes ZTE Fastest Growing Telecom Maker


    ZTE was the fastest growing telecom equipment maker and solutions provider in 2008, according to a report by research firm IDC. The report was based on 2008 earnings.

    Driving the growth is the company’s wireless business, which grew 20 per cent year-over-year.

    This part of ZTE’s operations, which includes sales of infrastructure, handsets, software and services and other wireless-related items, amounted to 38.5 per cent of the company’s total revenues.

    ZTE’s full year net profit jumped by 32.5 per cent to USD $239 million and revenue rose 27.4 per cent to USD $6.4 billion.

    The company has made it clear it intends to push deeper into the US handset market – currently the company currently sells phones mainly through MetroPCS – but it has still to sign many infrastructure deals.

    Its Chinese counterpart, however, the privately held Huawei, has made progress in that area.

    Huawei won a contract to provide the infrastructure for Cox Communications’ 3G CDMA network and is reportedly one of the three infrastructure companies AT&T has short-listed for its trial of LTE technology.

    Yin Yimin, president of ZTE Corporation, said the IDC result showed ZTE’s commitment to spearheading R&D initiatives, coupled with its determination to innovate and introduce high quality telecom equipment solutions, is paying off.

    "With a strong global workforce ready to provide the best technical support to our customers, we believe ZTE will remain a key player in the highly competitive telecom market in the years ahead," he said.

  • Consumers Prefer Discs Over Downloads At Home


    Watching movies and other video content on DVD and Blu-ray Disc accounts for 88 per cent of home entertainment spending – even although newer digital methods are beginning to gain a foothold in the consumer market.

    The average US home video consumer reported spending an average of USD $25 per month on all types of home video purchases and rentals, according to NPD Group.

    The researchers found that when it comes to spending on home video content: 63 per cent was spent on DVD purchases; 7 per cent on BD purchases; 18 per cent on DVD/BD rentals from retail stores, subscriptions or kiosks; 9 per cent on video on-demand (VOD); and 3 per cent on digital downloads and online streaming.

    Most consumers don’t use digital options to watch a full-length movie, although the numbers have grown over the last year.

    Digital movie downloaders also tend to buy and rent Blu-ray Discs more than the average consumer: 25 per cent of them bought or rented a Blu-ray Disc in the last three months, versus 5 per cent overall.

    Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD, said discs are still and by far the dominant way Americans enjoy home video.

    "But there is an increasing appetite for digital options," he said. "The good news is that the consumers engaging with digital video today also tend to be heavy consumers of DVDs and Blu-ray Disc, but it remains to be seen just how long physical discs and digital formats can co-exist."

  • Service Level Reporting Is Crucial For VoIP Quality


    The use of service level reporting (SLR) could help VoIP users to addresses any quality issues on their networks.

    An increasing number of IT professionals are using SLR to manage their network quality, according to the latest report compiled by Light Reading’s VoIP Services Insider.

    The report indicates that the overall goal for firms introducing SLR is to "learn as much as possible about the quality issues on their networks".

    However, it adds that the reporting industry may face various challenges over the next 18 months due to possible reductions in IT staff in response to the economic downturn.

    Denise Culver, research analyst and report author, said: "Worries about the economy continue to top the list of concerns for vendors of SLR solutions.

    "Confusion in the SLR marketplace could become an issue because of the prolific nature of some solutions."

  • Rackable Systems Announces First Quarter Fiscal 2009 Financial Results


    Rackable Systems this week announced its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2009.

    The ecological server and storage product provider reported Q1 revenue of USD $44.4 Million, up 14 percent sequentially, including delivery of two ICE Cube containerized data centers.

    Total revenue for the first quarter ending April 4, 2009, was USD $44.4 million, compared to USD $38.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2008 and USD $67.8 million in the first quarter of 2008.

    Mark J. Barrenechea, president and CEO of Rackable Systems, said he was pleased with its revenue and working capital progress quarter over quarter.

    But he admitted dissatisfaction with the overall results.

    "Although the economic turmoil will remain a challenge in 2009, we are focused on accelerating innovative products to market, controlling expenses and completing the acquisition of Silicon Graphics’ assets, enabling us to achieve better gross margins and customer diversification," he said.

    Rackable Systems ended the first quarter of 2009 with USD $181.2 million in cash, cash equivalents, long-term and short-term investments, compared to USD $180.6 million at the end of last quarter.

    The company’s lower gross margin was attributed to three factors:

    • reducing high-cost inventories of certain components through aggressive pricing
    • the significant revenue mix of our large Internet data center business
    • increased competitive pressure from various server vendors offering aggressive deals during the quarter

    Rackable Systems has received court approval to acquire substantially all the assets of Silicon Graphics, Inc. for USD $42.5 million in cash, plus the assumption of certain liabilities associated with the acquired assets.

    The acquisition is anticipated to be completed by approximately in May subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions.

  • Consumer Storage Demand Continues To Soar


    Digital content in the average US household could reach 12 terabytes by 2014, according to researchers.

    A joint report by Coughlin Associates and Objective Analysis includes DVD libraries, which accounts for a large chunk of the 12TB total.

    Tom Coughlin, president of Coughlin Associates, estimates that half of the data is commercial content, like DVDs.

    Making up the remaining content is user generated data, such as photos, music, and videos, and downloaded material such as video on demand.

    It’s not surprising that since increasing numbers of people are downloading HD content from the likes of Netflix and iTunes this requires even greater storage capacity.

    Coughlin said that the trend was also for more physical media, like DVDs and music CDs, to end up being stored on disk.

    The reports suggest that key differentiators for storage vendors looking to service the home include:

    • remote storage access
    • privacy protection
    • disaster recovery
    • automatic backup
    • metadata
    • automated metadata generation of content

  • HD Uptake Drives ZON's Q1 Figures


    Portugal’s leading cable provider ZON has doubled the take-up of its HD DVR.

    Called the ZON Box, it was installed in 93,000 homes in the first quarter of 2009, pushing total installations up to 184,000 – 12 per cent of the total customer base.

    ZON has attributed the success of the high-def product to an increase in per subscriber RGUs to 1.94, as ARPU grew by 3.5 per cent year-on-year to EUROS 32.7.

    The total number of subscribers receiving digital extended basic increased from 399,800 to 539,600.

    Premium pay-TV subscribers increased slightly to 835,300.

    Operating Revenues increased to EUROS 201.5 million in 1Q09, a year on year growth of 7.1 per cent giving an EBITDA increased to EUROS 64.3 million.

  • Apple Expected to Extend iPhone To Multiple Carriers


    Apple will almost certainly break with its exclusive AT&T agreement and allow other carriers to support the iPhone, according to analysts.

    Citigroup’s research firm say that while the arrangement with AT&T has benefitted Apple, the company is likely to open its smartphone to more US operators within the next two years.

    Analyst Richard Gardner cites a number of reasons for this, including the fact Apple is in a strong position and so can have its demands met by carriers.

    These extend to generous data plans, a lack of co-branding and an absence of revenue sharing at the App Store.

    What is also likely to be a major issue for Apple is the potentially dwindling pool of new iPhone users at AT&T.

    It is estimated that rivals Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile combined could offer a target market of up to 150 million subscribers by 2010 (although only around 20 per cent are likely to become iPhone owners).

    While it has been suggested that AT&T is interested in paying to extend exclusivity, the cost to do so might be prohibitive.

    As Gardner points it would need to be high since the revenues offered by going with multiple carriers are large.

  • Cost Savings Drive SMBs To IP Telephony


    Small to medium-sized businesses primarily shift to VoIP services because of the cost savings they offer.

    That’s the conclusion of a new report from Infonetics Research, which also points to powerful features as a secondary motive for SMBs to switch to IP telephony.

    It cites the fact that the growth of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunking is outpacing other VoIP services as evidence of the importance of price in enterprises’ decision-making.

    The report found that global VoIP services grew 33 per cent in 2008 to USD $30.8 billion. The researchers include hosted VoIP, hosted UC (unified communications), integrated IP access, managed IP PBXes, residential VoIP, SIP trunking and other types of IP voice access in its definition of VoIP services.

    They found that while business VoIP services represented only 31 per cent of the total, they grew faster than residential services during the year.

    Managed IP PBX, hosted IP PBX and hosted UC services accounted for three-fourths of the business VoIP total.

    Diane Myers, directing analyst at Infonetics, said demand for residential and business VoIP services continues to grow through the economic downturn because of the cost savings they provide.
    She said that as a result, in 2008 the VoIP services market had healthy growth of 33 per cent to USD $30.8 billion.

    "For the first 3 months of 2009, service providers experienced an average of 40-50 per cent year-over-year growth for IP Centrex, indicating the demand for outsourcing and managed solutions remains healthy," she said.

    "We expect hosted UC services to take off, with worldwide revenue doubling between 2009 and 2013, and we forecast SIP trunking service revenue to hit an 89 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013."

    Other highlights of the report include:

    • NTT, France Telecom, and Comcast took the lead as the world’s largest VoIP service providers in 2008
    • Deregulation plays a significant role in the adoption of VoIP in some countries, such as France, where it costs only USD $0.02 per minute for fixed-to-fixed line calls worldwide, making PC-based services such as Skype irrelevant
    • Residential VoIP growth in Central and Latin America has grown stronger in the past year, particularly in Brazil where Embratel ended 2008 with 1.8 million subscribers to its NetFone service
    • In 2008, there were 106 million residential VoIP subscribers worldwide, the majority in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) and Asia Pacific, where competitive operators and incumbent carriers are in an aggressive battle for subscribers