ESPN is reportedly in negotiations with Verizon to exempt its content from the carrier’s data caps. Such a deal would set a precedence for a very different mobile internet than the one we know today. Read more »
Vodafone Ventures is leading an $8.3 million investment in Jibe Mobile, which is working on a platform to help developers integrate Joyn. Joyn, which is backed by GSMA, enables rich communications such as IM, voice and video calling and file transfers. Read more »
Everyone may be focused on the forthcoming T-Mobile iPhone, but T-Mo revealed a strategy Thursday that will have far greater implications for the mobile industry. By eliminating subsidies it’s changing the way phones and services are sold and altering the consumer’s relationship to the carrier. Read more »
WhatsApp, the huge mobile messaging app, has hit 100 million downloads on Google Play. The company is still not releasing overall mobile install numbers from its other five platforms. But the milestone shows why carriers are signing deals with it. Read more »
Viber, the hot VoIP and messaging app, has just hit 90 million users, adding 20 million of them in the last two months. Now, it’s adding group messaging and an HD Voice engine, which should just encourage users to send more messages and make more calls. Read more »
KakaoTalk, a messaging and VoIP app, has been growing at a breakneck pace with 38 million registered accounts in Korea, its home market. In response, the leading carriers have worked to make life difficult for KakaoTalk and similar apps, blocking and throttling service for these apps. Read more »
Disney’s new iOS apps let youthful Comcast Xfinity subscribers watch live feeds and a limited video-on-demand selection of their favorite shows on iPads and iPhones. Missing is the catalog depth found on Netflix. Is Disney trying to carve space for its licensing partner, a cable-industry rival? Read more at paidContent »
Openet has bagged $21 million in new funding. The vendor makes a mobile network element that most people have never heard of, the policy control and charging manager, but the policy manager is already having a huge impact on the way we consume mobile data. Read more »
The emphasis by Comcast’s critics on the near-term regulatory implications of its Xbox strategy may be misplaced. Rather than challenging net neutrality rules directly, Comcast seems to be playing a long game against its over-the-top competitors based on quality of service and premised on the coming, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Hong Kong Broadband Network, a company I have covered numerous times in the past, is perfectly comfortable selling a lot of bandwidth cheaply and embracing all sorts of over the top services running on top of their network and are okay selling big fat dumb pipes. Read more »
