By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Ignacy Paderewski’s Symphony in B minor (Polonia), Op. 24 in Greyfriars Church,
Edinburgh in January 1998, Jerzy Maksymiuk conducting:
Consummating a deal which had been announced Monday, Norwegian
state telephony provider Telenor ASA today paid over $1 billion for two broadband services providers in Sweden
and Denmark “as the switch to IP telephony threatens to crank up competition in
the whole of Europe,” according to Computer Wire.
The price breaks down to $821.8 million for Bredbandsbolaget
AB in Sweden, and $202.6 million for Cybercity A/S in Denmark.
Growth in broadband is big in the Nordic region now, and this purchase moves
Telenor, 53 percent owned by the Norwegian government, ahead of Sweden’s
TeliaSonera AB in the lucrative market.
“Strategically, this is a necessary move
for Telenor,” Poul Jessen, an analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen tells Bloomberg.
“Fixed and wireless services are converging, and Telenor needs to be able to
provide a complete package to compete” with TDC A/S and TeliaSonera AB.
According to TheDeal.com,
the purchase will double Telenor’s broadband customer base to about 800,000. Telenor
expects the move to save about $390 million over the next few years on its
existing Sweden and Denmark operations.
With its core wireline revenue in decline, Computer Wire
says, “Telenor sees growth prospects of the triple play of voice, data, and TV
to the home, and a whole raft of IP-based services to business users.”
“There is huge growth potential in the broadband market in
this region,” Berit Svendsen, head of Telenor’s fixed line division tells
TheDeal.com. “We expect the market to grow from [$3.9 billion] to [over $6
billion] over the next five years and we want to be a part of that.”
As Robert Parker’s Spenser or Susan Silverman might say, “anybody
would.”
…
The Taiwan telecom industry is “making history today,” in
the words of Taiwan Mobile company officials, with the initial launch of Taiwan’s first 3G service
by Taiwan Mobile.
Primary amongst such 3G offerings will be Hong Kong-based Artificial
Life’s products V-girl – “Your Virtual Girlfriend!,” “Virtual Disco”
and “Virtual News Reporter Service.” The launch of the 3G products in Taiwan is
scheduled for Q3, 2005.
Virtual girlfriend, disco and news reporter? Cue up the old Sesame
Street song – “One of these things is not like the other, one of these
things just doesn’t belong…”
“Closely supported” by Nokia throughout the long process
leading up to this milestone, the initial launch, branded “catch 3! catch your
eyes!” (First CoffeeSM supposes it reads better in the original
Chinese) will give Taiwanese subscribers “their first taste of 3G services,”
according to company officials.
As Taiwan Mobile’s sole supplier of its WCDMA system, Nokia,
reasonably enough, is keenly interested in the success of the venture. They’ve provided
3G products and technologies, shared global 3G business experience with Taiwan
Mobile, provided handset customization and facilitated mobile content
development.
Taiwan Mobile, formerly named TCC Group is Taiwan’s largest
private mobile operator, carrying over six million mobile subscribers and three
portfolio operators: Taiwan Mobile, TransAsia Telecommunications and Mobitai
Communications.
...
Darius Wey posted on
Pocket
PC Thoughts that Telecom New Zealand is making “MSN Messenger connections free on their wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) hotspots.”
You don’t need an account with Telecom
or Xtra (their ISP) to use the wireless service, Wey writes, which is available
in some airports, hotels and Starbucks across New Zealand:
“While they still
limit the full use of this wireless service to current Telecom account holders
(which defeats the purpose for overseas visitors and people who do not use
Telecom’s services), it seems that there’s some work in the background to
enable roaming with some large wireless LAN provider, plus some other cool
features.”
Those Kiwis, huh? First Coffee
SM thinks this is a great idea and
can easily see how it could be expanded into something genuinely useful worldwide,
hint hint, wink-wink nudge-nudge.
…
This came out yesterday so you might have already seen it,
but since it was published in
Enterprise
Networks & Servers, still just a hair away from mass-market circulation
First Coffee
SM imagines a few of you might have not seen it yet.
Unisys Corp.
is offering what it’s billing as “
the
industry’s first CRM benchmarking research service,” cleverly named
“Unisys 3D Benchmarking for CRM.”
“Does anyone truly know what a CRM best practice is?” Rich
Jaso, managing partner of Unisys’ North American CRM practice, asks – obviously
rhetorically, since he says “No, they don’t. Up until now organizations had to
rely on ‘observed’ best practices, containing little or no statistical evidence
to support them.”
Well, “little or no statistical evidence” except for whether
it was profitable or not. Other than that, you’re right, absolutely nothing whatsoever
to go on.
“In an industry first, Unisys 3D Benchmarking for CRM will
provide statistically-validated best practices that allow organizations to
confidently implement those CRM programs that will best support their business
goals,” Jaso claims. Caveat emptor, friends.
…
Denver-based TouchStar Software is introducing something
called Dial-On-Demand. The press advisory was self-servingly jargon-heavy even
by press release standards, but after hacking through the thicket here’s what
First CoffeeSM thinks is going on:
If you’re a call center who can’t afford a lot of
infrastructure, like a start-up, or an established concern who’s spiking you
can contact these guys and they’ll offer pay-as-you-go help for as long as you
need it. Scale up or down on the fly.
…
First CoffeeSM subscribes to The Writer’s Almanac, and
today’s edition notes that today in 1787, at Independence Hall the Constitutional Convention got underway.
The Articles of Confederation the United States had used
since the end of the Revolutionary War weren’t helping much – colonies were
acting like little independent countries – so Congress decided to call a
convention to redo them. Thomas Jefferson was soaking up Paris, John Adams was
in England, Patrick Henry was sulking in Virginia muttering about smelling rats
in Philadelphia.
When the convention decided to scrap the Articles of
Confederation and start over, they knew they had to work in secret. “The
windows were nailed shut, guards were posted, not a word was leaked to the
press,” Writer’s Almanac says. “55 delegates were there… most of them were
young; only four of them over 60, five of them still in their 20s.” All
colonies except Rhode Island sent delegates.
George Washington, reluctantly, was persuaded to preside. He
rarely spoke, but other delegates said his enormous prestige across all
colonies was crucial for success, and that his presence alone affected what
people said. Delegates later said they gave the head of state more power
because they imagined Washington holding that position.
Today America has the oldest written constitution in the
world, and one of the shortest – about 7,000 words. The currently-proposed EU
constitution weighs in at over 60,000 words, and certainly nobody expects it to
last 200 years, if it’s ratified at all.
If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/
for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored
content placement, and uncompensated recommends ‘72 VW Beetle ragtops, dark roast
coffee, monogamy, T.S. Eliot and Moose
Drool Beer.