What will AT&T’s $1 billion buy for businesses?

Mobile operator AT&T announced details of a $1 billion investment plan today. This money is going to be put towards improving the services that AT&T offers to its enterprise customers around the world. So what does a billion get you these days? Read on for more detail. AT&T has offered five areas in which it is investing, but it can really be broken down into three: 1) Global 2) Network 3) Applications. Global – AT&T is looking to provide better services for businesses; both at home and abroad. So this won’t just be an America investment. Companies of all sizes, from SMEs in the States to multi-nationals, will be benefiting from this – including plans for additional sub sea cables to provide better service in the Caribbean and South America, and better communication performance from the US to both Asia Pacific and Europe.

Mobile internet usage soars past fixed web in Africa

It’s one of those ideas you hear repeated from all sources: mobile phones are the main way connecting to the internet in Africa. Now there are definite figures to back that claim. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has reported that use of mobile internet surpassed fixed internet in the last quarter of 2009 – and has extended its lead to 300,000 users in Q1 2010. According to the ITU, it wasn’t until the end of 2009 that mobile internet actually overtook fixed usage. African net surfers connecting through mobile phones or portable modems increased to 3.8 million at the end of the year, overtaking fixed by 100,000 people. It now reports that this figure has increased to 4.2 million, putting it 300,000 users ahead of the current 3.9 million fixed subscribers.

Region shifts to online and mobile media for news

Experts call 2010 the year of digital media. In the UAE, 49% of consumers use both the internet and print media .More than half in Egypt, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia use online sources. Consumers of digital and mobile media are expected to see growth that will confirm 2010 as the year of the digital, say industry reports. In line with global trends, the region’s news consumption, particularly in Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, is shifting towards online and mobile media, as confirmed by experts According to the Arab Media Outlook 2009-2013 report, news consumption in the region is seeing an impressive shift to the usage of online media.

Companies Look to Take Advantage of Mobile Marketing Opportunities

Despite coming out of a recessionary year in which advertising and marketing budgets were slashed, mobile marketing remained steady, and in some cases showed gains. Financial institutions, however, lost ground to wireless operators, ISPs and merchants. SMS text remains the means to reach the greatest number of consumers, but the rapidly rising percentages of smartphone users and the success of the Apple app store has increased the need for developing a greater mobile web and in-application advertising presence. This report covers the mobile marketing and advertising landscape, including consumer likelihood, preferences and adoption of mobile marketing and location-based services, consumer methods of response, and segments to target.

Mobile Marketing Proves Profitable for Sports Franchises

Mobile marketing has proven a slam dunk for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the NBA franchise that dabbled in the mobile space long before most others in the world of professional basketball. Beginning two years ago during the NBA Playoffs, the Cavs teamed with Phizzle to beta test a mobile alerts program that delivered a variety of exclusive downloadable content to basketball fans.  Since then, the initial trial run has evolved to help generate a cool 200k in incremental revenues on an annual basis.

Hotelier’s Web Analytics Action Plan: Turning Knowledge into ROI-Focused, Action-Oriented Results

Hospitality is an information intensive business. Hotel managers are exposed to numerous reports that touch upon practically every aspect of running a hotel. In addition to reports dealing with hotel operations, today’s hotel managers have another category to consider that has become vital to their property’s success—how their hotel website is performing. Forty-five percent of all hotel bookings in the U.S. will be generated via the Web in 2010. At least 62% of those will come from the direct online channel, i.e. the hotel branded website (71% for the top 30 hotel chains); therefore the “health” of the hotel website is vital to the survival of any hospitality company today, affecting E-Commerce Managers, Revenue Managers, Directors of Sales & Marketing, General Managers, owners, reservations departments and front desk clerks.

MABS joins global M-Commerce Summit

MANILA, Philippines – The Microenterprises Access to Banking Services (MABS) program of the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) participated in the M-Commerce World Summit 2010 held last month in Singapore. The summit covered mobile money transfer and mobile money remittance, mobile payment and NFC technologies, mobile banking, banking the unbanked and microfinance services, and mobile marketing and advertising.

MABS regional manager for Mindanao Anthony Petalcorin discussed how mobile money worked well with microfinance in the Philippines.

Mobile App or Mobile Website?

Before you invest in mobile marketing consider your audience and the startup costs. NBC reported 58.2 million page views of its Winter Olympics programming on the mobile web and iPhone app through the first 11 days of coverage. If the thought of your prospects fixing their attention on your company anytime and anywhere through their mobile phones sounds appealing, you’ll be happy to know that the options for reaching consumers on mobile devices are growing broader and less expensive.

MMA Highlights Retail Mobile Marketing Growth

During CTIA Wireless 2010, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) today commented on its commitment to advancing sustainable standards and best practices for retail mobile marketing through new member programs and leadership initiatives. “We’re already seeing significant buzz this year in the mobile retail space, with major brands delving into a variety of mobile marketing and commerce opportunities,” said Michael Becker, MMA North American Managing Director.  According to CTIA, more than 20 percent of the show’s attendees come from the retail space. In fact, this year’s event features a new exhibit area, called the Retail Zone, with more than 150 exhibitors.

Strategic tips for brand mobile marketing: CTIA panel

Some of the biggest businesses in the world have embraced mobile marketing to complement traditional forms of advertising and have incorporated it into their brand strategies. In the “Mobile Marketing for 2010 – Successful Brand Strategies” panel at International CTIA Wireless 2010 discussed best practices for mobile marketing for brands. “With mobile, there’s a lot of directions you can go,” said Bryan Seti, vice president of WaterCraft Group at Yamaha Motor Corp. “In our business, most of it is done in a four month window.

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The survey interviewed 1,400 SNS users, aged between 15 to 35 years, from December 2008 to January 2009. It is part of a series of studies that evaluate the impact of Web 2.0 on Internet users in Australia, India, China, Korea, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

“The survey findings thus show that mobile phones and mobile Internet hold the promise of changing the SNS landscape in the Asia-Pacific region. Particularly in markets where PC penetration is relatively low, mobile phones have the potential to eventually overtake the PC as a preferred way of accessing SNSs,” said Debbie Swee, market analyst at IDC Asia-Pacific Emerging Technologies Research.

SNSs include sites such as Friendster, Facebook, Hi5 and MySpace. Non-SNS include sites such as YouTube, Amazon and Wikipedia. Read more

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