France files TMP

France's national broadcasting authority, the CSA, selected the happy not so few DVB-H winners : 16 channels for 13 spots and 11 players, including 1 total newcomer in the broadcasting / mobile field : Luc Besson's EuropaCorp TV. TMP (Television Mobile Personnelle) echoes TNT (Television Numerique Terrestre), the free DVB-T package, and a 30% coverage is expected by EOY 2011 (TNT reaches 95% then). TMP packages should range between 3 and 6 euros, not including premium channels.

New slots will be awarded next year. Not necessarily from the pack of losers.

And the winners are :

France Televisions (3 channels to be determined later by the CSA)
TF1 Group (Eurosport - a pay TV - and TF1).
Canal Plus Group (Canal + - the premium channel - and i tele)
M6 Group (M6 and W9)
France Telecom (Orange Sport TV may join the pack of pay channels after clinching part of French Ligue 1 soccer rights – anyway, FT confirms its big league status)
Next Radio TV (BFM TV)
Groupe Bollore Medias (Direct 8 Mobile)
NRJ Group (NRJ 12)
AB Groupe (NT1). TMC channel (a JV with TF1) didn't make it.
Lagardere Active (Virgin 17)
EuropaCorp TV (EuropaCorp)

In predictable moves :
- the CSA denied a spot to TF1's LCI news pay TV (unlike free competitors i tele and BFM TV) but did the same for Canal Plus' s Infosport (vs Eurosport)
- Groupe AB saved only its top channel, already on TNT. NT 1 Remix and TMC (a JV with TF1) didn't make it. Ditto for Nextradio (RMC Sport and Business 24/7 failed) and FT / Orange (no to O'TV).
- Lagardere Active secured only the Virgin / music brand for the first round (Elle TMP, Canal TMP, Gulli, MTP 1, MCM Top also failed)

16 + 12 = 28. 7 more projects were refused :
- MCS / Ma Chaine Sport (Numericable)
- E3TV (L'Equipe + Les Echos + Equidia)
- Life BAC (Lifebac)
- Tele Melody (Cofites)
- TVSF (Association TVSF)
- Aprod TV (Adamique Production)
- One TV Plus (Mobibase)

Korea : 2G WiBro South, 3GSM North

North Korea (or at least certain parts of the hermitest kingless kingdom) has been enjoying 2G GSM since 2002. And for an even more restricted public since 2004, after the train explosion rumored to be an assassination attempt against KIM Jong-il.

Now the Dear Leader can enjoy movies on the go even outside of his personal bunker-train. CHEO Technology (a Korea Post & Telecommunications / Orascom - 25% / 75% - JV) was awarded a 25 year 3G W-CDMA license earlier this year and obviously started investing ($ 400 M for the network and the license).

Cross the border, China Unicom has been stripped of its CDMA network. New investments in online gaming (30% of Hong Kong's Magicgrids Networks and partnerships with its mainland China Magic Tech Network subsidiary) did not make up for this great loss for SK Telecom.

But the Dear South Korean Mobile Leader announced this week a successful real-time HD video trial of its Wibro Wave 2 : this 2G WiBro claims rates of up to 10Mbps / 37Mbps (up/downlink) will be rolled out across the capital (TTM H2 2008).

SKT wants to market Wibro Wave 2 cheaper than 1G WiBro. KT started its service much later but leads the market. Besides, it is merging its customer service units with KTF and the merger of the two companies seems everyday more probable.

And the competition is raging, forcing MNOs to slash prices for data (ie -30% for SKT phone-mail) and increase marketing expenses (+30% YOY for SKT 2008Q1 - handset subsidies frenzy is back). No wonder SKT's operating income went down 16.3% in 2008Q1.

The worst may be coming : as of July, USIM lock will end and Koreans will at last enjoy the fun of handset and operator switch.

Helio lands on Virgin island

Brand with prepaid subs would seek added value services king with cool devices.

Virgin Mobile USA and fellow Sprint M-VNO Helio may tie the knot after SK Telecom failed to get Nextel for $5 bn (and cyworld to outperform MySpace).

A marketing wizzard, Korea's mobile leader is good at launching brands on the national market but building an international vehicle is a tremendous task. And investing in an ailing MNO on a huge / consolidating market would have been a waste of time and money.

Now SKT has both*, and it should focus on a relevant partner to give its platforms the global reach they deserve. And quick : Korea's new and US friendly president LEE Myung-bak just met with his new IT advisor : Bill Gates... Microsoft's dark period seems over in the country.

* even if it may lose after China Unicom sells its CDMA network to China Telecom - another blow abroad for SKT, which owns a little bit more than 6% of the MNO.

IPTV in Korea

A 100 Mbps connection, a brand new Homevita home networking service including a complimentary Samsung Q1 Ultra (slick, black, DMB enabled, lovely keyboard). And all I can get is VOD channels. The closest thing to live TV I get is through classic web browsing or through CCTV (most exciting Reality TV program : who paid me a visit the last few days ?).

Forget about real time broadcasting : the Ministry of Information and Communication is in favor of it but the Korea Broadcasting Commission lobbied against it. The freshest news, sports or series you can get must be at least 24h old. And provided your IPTV service reached an agreement with the broadcaster, you must pay for them (like KRW 500 apiece - never mind those corny loyalty program points).

24 hour old ! Ancient by the standards of a (supposedly) information / knowledge society where 90% of households are already enjoying pay TV, where internet / mobile banking is commonplace, where interactivity starts when you wake up and stops when you fall asleep.

In spite of this key regulatory hurdle (the only reason why France is still a leader in commercial IPTV), and the competition of so many technos (including DMB*) IPTV is on its way to 3 M subs by EOY 2008.

And Daum still wants to become the 4th player this summer ; a TVNO on its competitors' backs with powerful partners : Microsoft (platform and Xbox 360 access), Celrun (set top boxes), and NHN / Naver (Korea's second portal and already a key VOD and TV aggregator - see Naver VOD or Naver TV news for example)

The competitors ? The usual suspects :
- SK Telecom : the mobile leader is wolfing pionneer and leader Hanaro Telecom down. HanaTV targets 1.8M subs EOY (800k EOQ1 2008) with a break-even point at 2M.
- Korea Telecom (on the way to merging with KTF) : Mega TV has the cutest logo and the best network (optic fiber all the way through its Megapass broadband subsidiary).
- LG Telecom : #3 as always for the TTM as well as the market share. myLGTV has the weakest VOD catalog but that's better than nothing.

These 3 players just reached the 10M 3G subs plateau : 5.28M for KTF (+440K for Show in April), 4.68M for SKT (+470K for T Live) and 190K for LGT's Rev. A service.

* KBS, a top broacaster, is also national and regional T-DMB license holder (with KTF) - about U-KBS (VOD, KBS Star, KBS Heart, KBS Music, KBS Data, KBS-Mozen TPEG telematics... - yet another "Ubiquitus" service), see kbs.co.kr/dmb.

FT, Telia, Sonera - back to the nineties

Didier Lombard clearly prefers dealing with former CNET coopetitors rather than coping with entertainers or content providers, especially after the departure of Quillot for Lagardere Group.

The Telia-Sonera opportunity looks much prettier than Alitalia for Air France - KLM. Of course, Scandinavia is no more leading innovation in mobile as it did in the early nineties. And Nokia's favorite lab Sonera didn't survive the change of scale of the industry. And overall this deal doesn't look like a major disruption for FT which recently claimed such emerging markets as Africa were priorities.

Telia-Sonera will strengthten FT in Northern Europe and open new East Block opportunities. It's also an interesting entry point for Scandinavian silicon valleys, but FT already owns centers in the region, local start-ups don't need local MNOs to go international, and the Orange brand doesn't necessarily need Orange as a MNO. The fact is competition is much tougher in the Asia Pacific region where FT also owns R&D centers but no networks.

This deal would only make FT an even more powerful European and "tech / IT" player, retarding the overall evolution of its business model, whilst Orange World needs contents. Orange did invest a lot in digital rights and multiaccess contents in France, but the strategy demands a lot of money, especially when you intend to have a global reach.

Canal+ can made fun of this new "mini TPS" (deals with Warner and the French Soccer Federation), Orange is a small national competitor on its core business, but the Canal+ part of Orange is only a side dish for that major multiaccess multiservice provider.

Vivendi is feeling the heat and starting to leverage on Streamezzo, its JV with Vodafone : neuf cegetel (now back to SFR, another Streamezzo platform user) just launched everyworld.fr. As the name tells us, it is suppose to bring you a less monochromous world Orange World. There, you can hand pick your apps and follow them on any device. Which reminds me of BLOKKS and BRIKKS. A nice looking system where a friendly UI... but back then there was no broadband access on one end and no content on the other. Framfab Labs did that and guess what ? They were from Sweden... and the late nineties (definitely pre-9/11).

Next thing you know, Orange will get the exclusivity for Bjorn Borg's games.

Hop-on - yes we can

Hop-on, Inc are into mobile gambling. And judging by their recent press releases, they kind of hit the jackpot in Las Vegas.

Because Hop-on are also into mobile phones ; the disposable, no-screen, no-frills, GBP 10 / USD 20 kind of mobile phones. And their stuff seems to be flying off the shelves around the CTIA Wireless show :

- 20080318 news : 50,000 "pieces" of GSM/CDMA Dual Mode PDA HOP2001 for $ 16 M... Yes, that's $ 320 apiece - I guess there was the heck of a pionneer premium / development fee along with it.

- 20080410 news : 10,000 "phones" sold as part of test purchases

- 20080418 news : 150,000 "pieces" a day now !

Now don't ask me how many "pieces" make a "phone". I'm already all thumbs as far as gallons, stones, inches and feet are concerned.

Yet those metrics sound good.

I mean if you are doing the PR for this kind of company.

Hectic for hactic

Samsung released its Anycall Hactic handset : for KRW 700,000, your touchscreen gets responsive when you use it.

Good vibrations for Samsung, warmer feelings for LG : one handset is coated with silicon that feels like human skin (can you use Moto's Razr on that LG-SH240 ?), another displays interactively smart and supposedly energy saving light (the Touch Lighting Phone - KRW 600,000).

LG Electronics, along with Casio, is also providing handsets for LG Telecom's cdma2000 1x EV - DO Rev . A service - branded OZ (unlimited data download for 6,000 won per month)... a tribute to the wizard or Korea's lightweight MNO ? Good luck to them - the HSPA bandwagon is long gone in Korea.

By the way : KT teams up with another key Japanese player. After importing NTT DoCoMo's techno, they may export Korean contents through their 50/50 JV with Softbank : both players will invest KRW 20 M into contents for IPTV (90% Korean content).

All you can eat content

apple is considering unlimited music services, Nokia style. apple cares more about hardware than service. apple somehow feels something has to be done in the format field if it doesn't want the iTunes / iPod / iPhone success to dry up.

SK Telecom IS an expert in marketing mobile services. It owns the platforms and the contents. And its deal with SanDisk last month in Barcelona looks more interesting to me. SanDisk's Flash memory cards + SKT's DRM solutions aim at the mobile TV and PVR (Personal Video Recorder) applications.

OK. Storage is key. OK, there's this thing about CDs going south vs immaterial music et al, and that thing about MNOs enhancing the mother of all cards, the SIM/USIM. And OK, we are more into the Blu Ray / Tera octet hard drive era than in memory card times.

But SK Telecom is venturing beyond the MNO's yard, taking yet another initiative on yet another part of the value chain. And it had been a while since they did something like that. So let's wait and see.

Mobile TV for WIMAX, lingo-free

What's in a name... From IPWireless to NextWave Wireless* and from TDtv to MXtv, the TDD champion abandons the techno lingo for a vocabulary fitter for this meshy / cloudy / blurred world.

Let's forget about the recent controversy about WiMAX, TDD (now), and FDD (soon according to Bill Gateses, someday according to Steve Jobses, maybe according to Arun Sarins, never according to WiMAX haters) ; let's forget about that fabled path towards 4G**: this is about next gen "waves", about giving you the "MAX", about TV on the go.

If you enjoy techno lingo and old style hardware, you can also try Huawei's E510 HSUPA datacard. If your device still has the slot for it next June the 5th.

* see "Social networking for social networks" (20080214)

** see "3G & 4G - WiMAX flirts with ITU" (20070303)

Daily news

Burning gates in Korea

Seoulites are crying for the loss of the city's ancient Southern Gate : Sungnyemun, also known as Namdaemun, was burned down in arson two weeks ago. The building survived the Japanese occupation as well as the 1950s War.

Korean handset manufacturers are worrying about other another monument : the protective walls around their home market. W-CDMA is blooming across the country, and Koreans are getting used to seeing a USIM card each time they manipulate their much more valuable memory cards, but there is a lock on that one.

This month, the said lock will be partially lifted and consumers will be able to change handsets as often as they want. Provided they're from the same operator, at the beginning. Which limits the second hand market to today's leaders, especially LG (Cyon) and Samsung (AnyCall). But that's a beginning. LG Telecom, stuck to CDMA, can't take the move (no USIM there).

We're still a long way from European standards, but roaming charges are eventually about to drop. With China and Japan, as a start (KTF with its partner DoCoMo). On the fixed networks too, or so I hope : I do enjoy cutting edge home networking and VOD services but what's the point of FTTH ?

Social networking for social networks

With Yahoo!'s oneConnect, mobile users will enjoy one interface to synchronise all their social networking services (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace).

Except for the "contacts" part of the services.

What a shame. Imagine Steve Balmer wants to become your friend while you're on the go...

Talking about Stevie Nowonder : he's daring to buy Danger. So Microsoft's idea of innovation is to purchase a netco that used to be hype in the mid 90s and a small manufacturer that happened to make one hype device in the early 2000s ? Danger is my middle name, but I just use the initial : D as in "Dfence"... at least SonyEricsson is joining the Windows Mobile wagon.

Social networking again : Orange and T-Mobile will launch mobile TV in the UK using TDtv technology from NextWave Wireless (formerly known as IP Wireless). No spectrum hassles here, unlike with DVB-H. And as we recently saw*, Orange will soon be able to put satellite on the top of it.

Qualcomm is fuming : no one wants its MediaFLO, nor its UMB, nor its 4G (key CDMA players, including Verizon Wireless, are going for LTE).

Maybe Qualcomm should have tried social networking instead of asocial pervasive licensing.

* see "Orange has its rights, Orange has it right" (20080210)

Orange has its rights, Orange has it right

Two good points for Orange :

- a greater share of French soccer rights : beyond the mobile rights it already earned in the previous contest, VOD and saturday night games should prove great teasers for the other sides of its quad play offers. Orange Sports is likely to become a better known and respected brand.

- a strategical partnership with Samsung for satellite TV broadcasting (DTH, probably via Eutelsat's Hotbird, but not on a wire) : 1 to 1.5 million sets (PVR + HD tuner) are expected from the begining. UK, Poland and Spain could follow France.

If Canal+ secured its lion's share in both soccer rights and satellite accesses, Vivendi is definitely facing a much tougher challenger...

... and all three French MNOs are now enjoying a strong TV flavor to better face a potential new entrant on their core market (see "3G license part III - France's fourth wedding or a funeral ?"- 20070309).

The WiBro Affair

A negative word about WiBro from SK Telecom's CEO ignited a PR frenzy in favor of Korea's "Mobile WIMAX" technology.

Recently endorsed as ITU-R IMT-2000, this member of the 802.16 family is alive and kicking in Seoul. While SKT focuses on HSPA and rolls out WiBro reluctantly, KT insists with the benediction of Korea Inc : the Government, the ETRI, and of course Posco, the mother company of POSDATA, a major promoter of WiBro who's seeking new markets and opening offices in Kuala Lumpur

KT claims 100,000 subs EOY 2007 with the ambition to reach 400,000 EOY 2008, and downloads to be 3 times faster than with HSPA (3 Mbps vs 1). It's WiBro service sounds almost cheap : a little bit under 20,000 wons, that's halfway between ADSL and FTTH.

But Korea Telecom will need to widen the range of devices available - up to now : 10 modems, 5 laptops and 3 handsets (PC Cards and PDAs are also on the market).

And KT needs to spend a lot on IPTV this year.

To add to the fun, competition is definitely getting fiercer in Korea : POSDATA is facing technology thieves within its own staff and 4 researcher have just been put in jail because they tried to steal WiBro secrets for the US.

Now that's a brilliant PR operation : you don't want to steal something you can't sell... Unless you're an art lover falling for rare antiques.

Your personal safe haven

I just answered a friend's question about convergence. Which led me back to a point I raised a couple of years ago*.

As the customer experience in a converging environment gains in seamlessness and fluidity, a sense of unease may be growing. Yes, as expected, the home and the office won back part of their central role. Yes, as expected, a main personal device allows you to switch seamlessly from a residential to a nomadic to a mobile mode. But at the same time, you are more and more led to grow what I call your "main ID" on distant servers.

Nowadays, social networks services get a major slice of that aggregate. It used to be your e-mail service provider, your homepage host or your blog dealer. It may be someone else tomorrow... and not necessarily that Microsoft-Yahoo! 800 pound gorilla (the latest Alien-Predator flick, or rather the latest 70s-90s revival).

But there as well, convergence is on the way. And the consumactor will be torn between the one-stop shopping need of a centralized management and the fear of leaving his most precious personality to one greedy corporation.

To me, beyond the access commodity, the core of the value shall lie at that level. And the best service providers will have to be as efficient, independent and trustable as top private bankers in charge of precious diversified portfolios (ie cultural rights, databanks, IDs...).


* see "Open Spheres, Personal Spheres, Shared Spheres and Safe Heavens" (20050520)

Sideloading live concerts

Nokia claims that 75% of mobile music downloads are actually sideloaded via the PC. So while competitors launch "traditional" online stores (PlayNow for SonyEricsson), the Finns teamed up with Universal Music Group to offer "Come With Music" packages : a sexy name for a classic hardware + 12 month subscription package... except the service is unlimited music downloads, and the mobile operator is out of the loop.

Orange Music Store eventually tries to catch up with the Vodafone platform, but at the same moment SFR Live Concerts puts the bar one notch higher. Vivendi must have noticed that the business models of music majors are changing, that album / track sales go down while live events and merchandizing go up. Majors are trimming off their catalogues, renegociating contracts, competing with concert producers, and building participating platforms to scoot new talents across the web 2.0.

So Live Concerts makes sense. So did SK Telecom's Auditions 6 years ago...

Back To Square Auctions

AT&T and Verizon trembling, Vodafone sweating, Cox, Cablevision Systems Corporation and EchoStar waiting, Qualcomm peeping, Google smiling... and the FCC counting the billions...

... Welcome to the 2008 700 MHz wireless spectrum. A few blocks up for grabs*, 214 potential bidders, and no winner will be known before the end of the whole process.

Some losers have already made the headlines, or rather the frontline of an obscure web page : "01.12.08 Frontline Wireless statement - Frontline Wireless is closed for business at this time. We have no further comment." Which means Frontline Wireless is already out of the race, and out of business without having ever been in.

This is a wild race and a wild world. We are talking wide and deep coverage : this spectrum will help go through large areas, through walls. The FCC even proposes a "Tribal Land bidding credit" for someone who would care for uncovered reserves. How generous from an organization that optimizes the chances of a 2000-2001 redux.

We're talking CLEC of the wireless kind, FMC and the whole shebang. We're talking about scared incumbents in the mobile as well as in the fixed areas.

Back then, T-Mobile would add a few rounds in the German auctions - totally unnecessary, except for the government. I guess they wish they had that money right now.

Chances are the biggest winners won't get one bit of spectrum at the end of the day.

Meanwhile, France is discounting the entry ticket for its fourth 3G license.


* 1,099 licenses overall - Block A : 176 EA (Economic Area) licenses - Block B : 734 CMA (Cellular Market Area) license - Block C : 12 REAG (Regional EA Grouping) - Block D : 1 national license for public / private partnership - Block C : 176 EA (minimum bidding price : USD 4.6 bn). The 698-806 MHz band was freed by TV broadcasters switching to DTV.

CES 2008 - the magic boredom

An environmental nonsense with a yearly electrical parade where people expose gadgets and all the chips nearby casinos turned down ? Exclusive features and contents that tend to turn into commodities (neon signs, Cirque du Soleil shows) ? That's Vegas, and it sounds sooo passé.

If you missed the best Western Movie Award (the flick was over even before the generic started), here's the pitch : Warner kills H.D. DeeVeeDee and picks Blu-ray.

The 15 Warholian Minutes Award went to Wistron and its GW4 Android smartphone. Google's rival didn't get as much attention, but at least those who heard about Yahoo! Go 3.0 learnt that a 1.0 and a 2.0 existed before. That was a good way of advertising about that status update feature.

And from day one, the winner of the Corniest Showman Award is Bill Gates. Yeah, the same guy who didn't realise the internet existed until 1995. Here he is now, on stage, talking about the "second digital decade"... and this great visionary sees more video and more storage ahead. I can't wait to see what other disruptive insights he'll deliver after retiring.

For Jobs on Viagra, stay tuned for at least two more decades. That will include a 5 year break to found a new pet project ("NeXt2NeXt"), and a comeback right on time for the launch of iHologram.

PS : a happy new year to you IRL

Rock n' Knols

At Google's, a knol is a piece of knowledge wrapped up in one webpage. Adsense and all Google Labs toys welcome. Everybody's invited, and one can easily imagine something like "tell us what you know about ABC" popping up each time you type "ABC" in Big G's search box.

At Google's, knowledge doesn't have to be checked. This ain't no wiki stuff : you can claim the Earth is flat and was invented 6,000 years ago, you can say Obama had an affair with Oprah and Osama, you can praise your sect and hire a new PR manager devoted to knols, no one will challenge it.

At Google's, volumes speak. Nevermind quality. Actually, with AdSense and Knols, Big G is bound to replace Wal-Mart as the biggest private employer.

Let's make it straight : Google Knols is the anti-encyclopedia, the mother of all hoaxes, an insult to the knowledge society. "Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing." For business, you bet.

The aim is not to compete with Wikipedia but to prevent Wikipedia from appearing all the time at the top of Google's search results. Instead of wasting the best advertising space, Big G will demultiply it and the beauty of it is everybody will do it for free.

Google is definitely not "[putting its] reputation on the line" : Google just doesn't care about its reputation.

Money can buy many things (including spectrum), but the era of a beloved Google seems over.

Facebooked up

Here they are, popping up each time I log on : friend requests, vampires invitations, werewolves invitation, zombies invitations, IQ test invitations, survey/petition/vote invitations, petrolhead invitations, optical illusions requests, movie rack invitations, bookshelf invitations, visual bookshelf invitation, brain game requests, moods invitations, music invitations, hatching eggs invitations, pillow fight requests...

I don't fell like becoming a werewolf, nor the "booze friend" of a soju addict. I don't feel like drinking that "Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster" concoction either. And I certainly don't feel like exposing my LinkedIn contacts without their approval.

I don't mind exposing part of my self, though - what is blogging all about ? But I don't feel so confortable with Facebook. Something to do with this closed face / open book thing, I guess...
What I do appreciate is the virtual answering machine function. Not the application, but the whole shebang ; Facebook's platform in itself. Now there's that virtual me taking care of incoming calls and spam. My homepage takes a break, and anyway most of the comments on my blogs are outsourced to the various media that relay them.

Lets me plenty of time to focus on the IRL / In Real Life side of existence. True food, authentic sweets and tricks, genuine friendship, and the mothers of all killer apps, love and life.