Telecom and media shaken by the power of packets and broadband

Vinton Cerf on the power of packets“, an online video program, “Tea with The Economist”, 5 Jan. 2011, was inspiring.

Vint said:

  • The underlying technology of the Internet, packet communications, has unchanged.
  • The ever-increasing speed of broadband network exceeded the speed for human beings to see videos.
  • We can transform a wide variety of information, from print media to videos, in a packet form.
  • Packets don’t recognise information contents. The just keep transmitting them.
  • This means that future of communication will be performed by file transfer.
Vint Cerf

This would be a terrifying statement for existing players of telecommunications, media owners and contents producers, especially for large ones.

A long-lasting business model of telecommunications carriers that they make money from the hours during which users hold lines will not valid any more. Media giants have to create innovative ideas to distribute contents over smart and personalised ICT device, such as smart phones and tablets such as iPad.

It is not a coincidence that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is publishing an iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, and its image has been just published. What’s important in this newspaper is that it will be a paid subscription.

Will and how many readers are willing to pay for the contents over the iPad is an interesting question and worth following up. What I see here is a challenge of an established print media to ride on the changing media habit of readers. ICT is behind the change.

A paradigm change in is coming to be reality very fast.

In 2011, it will be interesting to see innovative ideas from old and emerging players in the fast-moving ICT and media industries, that involve telecom carriers, publishers, SNS innovators, a variety of contents produces and providers, and more.

This is what iPad-only newspaper will look like

2 thoughts on “Telecom and media shaken by the power of packets and broadband”

  1. Dear Yoshiko,

    Happy New Year to you!

    Thanks for your interesting post.

    I’m always sceptical when I hear about tools that are voluntarily limited in capacity when these are “naturally” gifted for more purposes and capacity.

    The iPad-only newspaper is a good example. It would be interesting to hear Vint Cerf’s opinion about it.

    In the meantime, I recommend a good book, “Content” by Cory Doctorow, which you can download here:
    http://craphound.com/content/download/
    (and read on your tablet – not the News Corp. one, though 😉

    1. Hello Rapha,

      Good point! and I fully agree.

      I take this iPad-only newspaper as an experiment. A form of electronic newspaper will change / evolve in the future, shaped by comments by readers, especially in the form of sales performance. What’s important is to do something, rather than spending time for thinking.

      Thanks for a lint to an interesting reading. Will take a look!

      Ciao, Yoshiko

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