mapping average Internet download speeds in U.S.

Akamai’s publicly filed dataset of observed average Internet download speeds for U.S. network connections is now on Needle.  Needle makes it easy to map the reported cities and states according to an average speed threshold.  For example, 79 out of the 500 reported cities have average Internet download speed less 2048 kbit/s.  Here’s a map of states that contain those cities.  The map shows that relatively low average Internet download speeds by city are widely dispersed geographically.

To generate a map for an average speed threshold of your own choosing, click on “city” under “every” on the left of the Needle page.  Then click on “>>” on the table heading, just to the right of “every city.” Then click on “keep only those where…”, and then click on “ave speed.”  Ave speed jumps to the top of the list and a drop-down selection box appears. Select “is less than,” and enter a figure (kbit/s) in the box to the right. Then click on next.  The screen will change slightly to reflect your choice, and a “done” button will appear.  Click on the “done” button. You’ll then see a list of the relevant cites.  On the upper right, change the drop-down selector from “table” to “map.”  You’ll then see a map with markers for states that contain cities that satisfy your selection criterion.  If you change the “group by” drop-down selector from “state” to “city,” the map will change to include markers for each city that satisfies your selection criterion.  You can similarly map state average speeds by clicking on “state” rather than “city” in the first step.  To change your selection criterion, you must start by clicking on “city” or “state” on the left and redo the steps above.

Related post: dispersion of Internet download speeds

whither telephone companies?

trees made horizontal

Telephone companies face serious business problems. Broadband Internet connectivity can support telephone service as just one app among many apps. For example, Google voice is just one feature among the many that Gmail offers. Texting is already competing with telephoning, and video communicating is likely also to do so in the future.  Providing network connectivity squeezes the telephone business from below, and a multitude of new communications apps squeezes telephone service from above.  Vertical disintegration of the telephone business seems inevitable. Yet vertically disintegrated communications services may fall far short of generating as much revenue as did the historical telephone business.

Martin Geddes, a thought leader on telephone company business transformation, believes that telephone companies’ future is in serving enterprises’ commerce with customers.  He calls this business framework “connect-interact-transact.”[*] In place of traditional media for companies’ advertising,  companies can reach out to connect directly with customers through their own custom-generated content.  Companies’ relations with their customers can become more ongoing and more interactive, and customer-relation management now includes managing relations among customers, i.e. distribution of information and recommendations across social networks.  Communications services like those built into PayPal and Amazon OneClick can contribute significantly to enabling and facilitating purchases. Offering enterprises advantageous trans-organizational communications networks  is a promising future that Geddes sees for telephone companies.

That future makes telephone companies into new media companies.  Corporate advertising dollars have funded traditional media’s mass-market distribution networks.  Those print and television networks lack the cost advantages and capabilities of Internet-based networks. Telephone companies as new media companies would have a business position similar to that of traditional newspaper companies and television networks, but with a better cost structure, greater technological capabilities, and a wider array of business services.

Peter Csathy, Sorenson Media CEO, offers a similar view on the video business.  He argues that video monetization through ads, download sales, and subscriptions is only a small part of a much bigger business field:

While certainly important for media companies and other content providers, that narrow definition of video monetization has little to no resonance with the other 95 percent of businesses online who can benefit in a big way by harnessing the unique power of video to better monetize their businesses themselves — that is, by using quality video to better market their goods and services, engage with customers and potential customers, train their staffs, share best-practices and maximize overall revenues.

The development of the Internet has unleashed wide-ranging business warfare.  In these circumstances, selling communications weapons to all sides seems like a propitious business strategy.

Media businesses involve considerable political engagement and significant political exposure.  For example, telephone companies that market business communications advantages need to avoid net-neutrality blow-ups.  From the personal vanity of business leaders in boardroom strategizing to the intensely mediated theater of national politics, media businesses involve much more than calculations of business profits.  Media businesses can be highly lucrative, but also politically complicated.

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[*]  See also Martin Geddes, “Connect, Interact, Transact: a paradigm shift in the business model of communications service providers” (Aug. 2010), available from Geddes.

media politics in a difficult media transition

Some points to ponder:

  • In the U.S., a large number of lawyers, the FCC, and federal courts have spent years arguing about the use of f**k and similar words on broadcast television.  Those words are regularly used on cable television.  Why is the use of f**k and similar words on broadcast television so much more publicly significant that the use of those words on cable television?
  • Craigslist has been forced to shut down its adult services section in the U.S.  What effect will this have on buying and selling sex and the many possible forms of sexual exploitation?
  • Comments on a recent TechCrunch post concerning Topix display outrage at Topix’s comment moderation policies.  What happens when more people learn that anyone, anywhere in the world, can post anything on the Internet without any moderation whatsoever?