News and developments in the Personal Broadband Industry –
July 22, 2009

PERSONAL BROADBAND PERSPECTIVE

What’s Needed Next: A Culture of Candor

We won’t be able to rebuild trust in institutions until leaders learn how to communicate honestly—and create organizations where that’s the norm. Until recently, the yardstick used to evaluate the performance of American corporate leaders was relatively simple: the extent to which they created wealth for investors. But that was then. Now the forces of globalization and technology have conspired to complicate the competitive arena, creating a need for leaders who can manage rapid innovation. Expectations about the corporation’s role in social issues such as environmental degradation, domestic job creation, and even poverty in the developing world have risen sharply as well. And the expedient, short-term thinking that Wall Street rewarded only yesterday has fallen out of fashion in the wake of the latest round of business busts and scandals. It’s clear we need a better way to evaluate business leaders. Moving forward, it appears that the new metric of corporate leadership will be closer to this: the extent to which executives create organizations that are economically, ethically, and socially sustainable. More...

Sprint says it must ‘let go’ to enable innovation

Sprint's vice president of strategy Russ McGuire Sprint-Nextel Corp., the U.S.’s third-largest mobile phone company, signaled it must take a more hands-off approach to keep pace with innovation at MobileBeat. “We need to let go of demanding permission,” said Russ McGuire, Sprint’s vice president of strategy. “You don’t want to move at carrier speed. You want to move at Valley speed.” They are unusual words for a wireless carrier, underscoring Sprint’s recognition that it can’t control the consumer experience from end to end if it wants to compete against Apple and AT&T’s iPhone partnership and its explosive app store growth. Sprint-Nextel partnered with Palm Inc. to launch the Pre smartphone last month in an effort to take back market share from AT&T Inc. The company posted first-quarter earnings of 3 cents a share on the back of job cuts beating analysts estimates’ of a 5 cent loss per share. More...

Yahoo, Microsoft finally near deal

It's unclear whether they brought the requested "boatloads of money," but several top Microsoft executives are in Silicon Valley to try to finalize a search deal with Yahoo, according to an All Things Digital report. According to the report, the two sides are "down to the short strokes" after years of excruciatingly well publicized on-again, off-again talks. A deal could come within a week, All Things Digital said. Included in the Microsoft entourage, according to the report, are three of its top online executives: Yusuf Mehdi, Satya Nadella, and Qi Lu. More...

Online Multitasking Increases Bandwidth Demand

In humans, multitasking can cause stress and anxiety. But for the Internet, it just contributes to the ever-rising demand for bandwidth. The pace of that rise shows no sign of letting up, according to an update on Tuesday of Cisco’s yearly tracking and forecast of Internet traffic growth. Cisco’s research, covering 2008 to 2013, projects a fivefold increase in Internet traffic over that span. “It’s almost anticyclical to the economy,” said Suraj Shetty, a marketing vice president at Cisco, the network router maker. The Cisco report looks at other Internet traffic research, like that done at the University of Minnesota. But it goes beyond monitoring recent history to also make longer-term projections, based on its own research of consumer and business trends in Internet use. A huge engine of traffic growth will be smartphones and other mobile devices. According to Cisco, mobile data traffic will double every year through 2013, jumping 66 times from 2008. More...

Report: Viewers Will Pay for Online Video

Despite all the optimism surrounding the potential for free, advertising-supported online video, some analysts see a far more lucrative market for selling video content online—one that will materialize this year in fact, despite the rocky economic picture. According to a new report issued by Strategy Analytics, consumers may be far more willing to open their wallets to purchase video content on the Web—much like they do with music.--than many once believed. The Boston, Mass.-based researched forecasts that globally, consumer spending on online video content will reach $3.8 billion in 2009 in spite of the deep, worldwide recession. That figure should exceed the $3.5 billion in online video ad revenue expected this year, says the report. More...

Genachowski appoints FCC managing director and general counsel

Newly appointed FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is wasting no time getting his staff in order, as he has appointed Microsoft alum Steven Van Roekel as managing director and Austin Schlick as General Counsel. Van Roekel, an 18-year IT and management veteran, made a name for himself as an executive in Microsoft's Windows and Tools division, and prior to that he served as a strategist and assistant to company founder Bill Gates. Tasked with overseeing the FCC's operations, Van Roekel replaces acting managing director Mary Beth Richards, who was working under acting FCC chairman Michael Copps. Richards now becomes the special counsel to Genachowski on FCC reform. More...

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