UsageWatch.org

Point Topic estimates at more than 5 millions the number of VoIP subscribers in Q2 2004. This estimation takes into account subscribers of the 6 leading voice over broadband providers, "where the customer plugs a telephone into the customer’s broadband modem"; and does not include Internet-only services like Skype.

Yahoo Broadband in Japan reported over 4 million VoIP subscribers, around 80% of worldwide VoIP subscribers. Helped by traditionally high telephony tariffs in Japan Yahoo Broadband boasts an impressive penetration rate of over 94% of its broadband subscribers.

The other 5 leading VoIP operators are Free (France) with 330,000 subscribers; FastWeb (Italy) with 300,000 subscribers; Vonage (USA) with 200,000; Cablevision (USA) with 115,050; B2 (Sweden) with 50,000 subscribers.

In a previous posting, the estimation of 16 M for Q3 included Skype and other Internet-only services, but didn't take Japan Yahoo Broadband, Free, FastWeb and B2 into account. If we added the 4.7 VoIP subscribers from these operators in Q2, the total estimation of VoIP adoption for Q3 2004 would be well over 20 M worldwide.

According to Quantum Web (via Digital Media Europe), there were 128 M broadband subscribers across the world at the end of Q4 2004. This represents an 9.3% growth in a quarter. Close to 90% of these subscriptions (115 M) were residential.

The largest broadband region is Asia, with 53 M subscribers, followed by the Americas with 43 M and Europe with 33 M. The Middle East-Africa region has nearly 1 M broadband subscribers and the strongest quarterly growth of 11.06%; followed by the Americas (9.85%), Europe (9.22%), and Asia (8.46%). According to the Telecom Research firm, falling prices, especially in Europe (- 23% on average since the beginning of the year), have contributed to increasing Broadband subscriptions.

Italians have been among the world most enthusiastic adopters of mobile telephony, and are among its keenest users. Beginning 2004, in Italy the number of mobile subscriptions was about 55 M. Even considering that most subscriptions are for prepaid accounts (according to the Italian Telecom Regulator, in 2002 80% were prepaid) and many people have more than one subscription, 55M is still a very large number of mobile subscriptions for a country of 58 M people.

How are Italians reacting to the Mobile Operators' UMTS offer of new data, multimedia, video mobile services?
The Corriere della Sera article, dated November 15th and titled Ricerca: il 31% vuole comprare un cellulare UMTS, does not report much excitement about this innovation. The article is based on a survey carried out by opinion research institute ISPO on behalf of Vodafone. It concerned a representative sample of 4198 people from age 14 who were interviewed at home between the 22 and 24 October of this year. Of these 4198 people, 2922 possess a cellular phone.

Existing mobile usage
Looking at current mobile usage, the survey finds that three services: voice (25%); voice and SMS (30%); voice, SMS and SMS push info (22%) account for more than three quarters of what mobile users do. Close to one in five mobile users (18%) also use photo or video services.

Knowledge of UMTS
The majority of interviewees (56%) have never heard of UMTS or 3rd generation technologies. A relatively large group (31%) have heard of them but don't really know what they are, while a smaller group knows what they are (13%). I find this finding puzzling as media and advertising have been talking about UMTS and 3rd generation on a regular basis since 1999.   

Interest for UMTS services
Asked to express their level of interest with respect to 5 services: richer communication; fast Internet navigation and email; always-on; downloading and listening to Hi-Fi music; gaming and real-time TV; the majority of interviewees expressed no or little interest in all five services. Services that were rated interesting where communication and fast Internet. Four out of ten respondents rated then as very (11%) or quite (29%) interesting.

Intention to buy a 3G-UMTS phone as next mobile phone
Close to half the interviewees say they do not intend to buy a UMTS-3G phone (for sure, 21%, probably not 23%) when they'll replace their current phone. One in three say they intend to: 26% say they probably will and 5% certainly will.      

Since the last post on Firefox Adoption, on December the 1st,  the downloading counter indicates 2 M supplementary downloads in nine days. This corresponds to a mean of around 220.000 downloads per day; with a high peak of 400.000 and low peaks of 150.000 downloads a day. There may be a correlation between low peaks and week-ends. Compared to the first ten days after 1.0 launch, between November 9th and 19th, when on an average day the number of downloads was around 460.000, adoption is growing more slowly but steadily in a quasi linear fashion.   

Since 1991, Somalia has been living without national institutions. Recent presidential elections by a transitional Parliament will hopefully lead to a democratic normalization. In Mogadishu Telecoms thriving in lawless Somalia, BBC News journalist Joseph Winter describes how three telecoms - Telcom, Nationlink and Hormuud - have managed to emerge in this context and to operate at relatively low prices: 10$ monthly flat fee; International calls at 50 cents per minute. They have joint forces in the ISP Global Internet Company which mostly serves Internet cafes in and around Mogadishu. Internet cafes are extremely popular. One-hour web surfing costs 50 cents. E-mail is the killer app as people can use their own language; have many family and friends abroad - the Somali Diaspora being very large - with whom they keep in touch and do business. What I found very strong in the article are a series of portraits of Somali Internet Cafe users who describe how they came to use e-mail and Internet and how they usually use them. I warmly recommend you to read these portraits, and look at the vivid pictures that accompany the text.

In Botswana Internet usage a meagre 5 per cent, an article published on 30th November 2004 by the government DailyNews Online, Pelonomi Venson, the Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, presents her views on the development of Internet usage in Botswana. Botswana, which has built a fiber-optic telecom network and is experiencing strong mobile uptake, has 5% Internet users, on a total population of about 1.6 M people. They were 2% in 2001.

To explain what she takes to be a low adoption rate, the Ministry invokes the high cost of PCs, lack of electricity in most rural areas and high telephone bills due to dial-up Internet access. And to tackle these issues, she cites initiatives from Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) to reduce wholesale bandwidth prices for ISP; from Botsnet to offer a connected PC Bundle; from the government, ISP and the corporate world to deploy on-line services "tailored to the needs of the population".