While Verizon is selling its wireline (including approximately 1.6 million FiOS Internet customers; and approximately 1.2 million FiOS Video customers), AT&T is upgrading U-Verse to 75 Mbps in some areas. Now they will actually be delivering broadband under the new FCC definition.
Frontier - making its 3rd acquisition from the RBOCs - "FTR will have to break the bank to do so, creating huge debt and diluting shares further," per SeekingAlpha. One thing to remember: not one of tehse acquisitions have gone well for Frontier (or Fairpoint). It is horrible for the customers; but it results in customers for cable. Where will FTR get another $10 billion after raising $2 billion to buy CT from AT&T?
It started years ago with Xerox PARC, an innovation center thousands of miles from Xerox campus in NY state. PARC pumped out invention after invention. (See Robert Metcalfe and Ethernet). 3M lets its people experiment. Google supposedly does, too. Ebay has a secret lab. SalesForce used to house its R&D team in Tampa Florida, miles from California. Florida Blue Cross has a relationship with Healthbox, an incubator for healthcare apps. Adobe just announced its version: Adobe's Kickbox: The Kit To Launch Your Next Big Idea for employees at Adobe. Innovation is needed in US companies, but it has to be allowed to happen in a safe environment, away from the corporate curmudgeons and other people who just want to pee on someone's parade. Smart companies are looking for ways to help ideas grow inside their business (instead of folks leaving and taking these ideas with them). In Tampa, Dabble Labs will be launching soon. Dabble Lab is a growth hacking studio that helps established companies innovate like a start-up.
Analytics and Big Data are the 2 buzzwords that go hand-in-hand in 2015. "8x8 is now offering its large business customers a new set of big data analytics and reporting tools to provide insight on how they use their communications services and usage trends specific to their organization," reports FireceTelecom.
DISH Network bought a lot of AWS-3 spectrum, but it hasn't forgotten that it is first and foremost a TV distributor. Today, it launched Sling TV, an OTT streaming TV service for $20! USA Today and CNet both take a view. It is limited but designed for the Millenials - as best as possible considering how much a pain in the ass content providers are (yes, you, Disney/ABC/ESPN, Fox, CBS, NBCU/Comcast). I hope it breaks the system up. There are a number of moves coming (besides Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu) that could help crack this nut, like AT&T soon releasing a U-Verse package with HBO streaming. Be careful what you wish for because when this breaks, a lot of content will stop being made because it is expensive.
DISH bought a lot of AWS-3 spectrum to go with its 50 MHz of other spectrum it has been sitting on and experimenting with ... what will they do with it? They owe the FCC $10 Billion by May for it. That's more cash than they have.
Email Marketing Vs Social Media - Which is Better? via Adweek and some more from Eloqua (Oracle). Social is for reach; email is for cash. You drive for show and putt for dough.