billso.com

From the New York Times and Om Malik: Google and five telecom companies will build a trans-Pacific cable between Tokyo and Los Angeles, to increase bandwidth and reduce costs. The Times reported on the Unity consortium last September, but this new announcement confirms the US$300 million project. GearLog has more information on this topic. I haven’t determined if this new cable will connect with Honolulu.

It’s an important announcement because, as Om notes, this is the first time that Google has publicly confirmed its corporate strategy of building its own international telecom infrastructure through acquisition and investment. Google claims it wants to provide more reliable service to its users, so the company is entering the undersea cable industry not as a competitor but as a customer and complementor of Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel.

As I mentioned on 7 February 2008 and 31 January 2008, the oceanic cable business can be risky. Google will have priority on the 7.68 terabit connection when it is completed. Adding more bandwidth is an essential part of providing scalable, reliable web services in North America and the Pacific Rim. If Google controls its own network as a source of competitive advantage, will competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft face higher costs to stay in business?

Business Week has updated a popular article from 2005 on business blogging. The new version is well worth reading. It now covers social media, including social networks. and provides many examples of how these Internet services have become sources of competitive advantage for some companies.

In a few industries, blogs and social networking have become key success factors. Higher education is well on its way.

Here’s an interesting statistic: only 27 percent of US Internet users read blogs. If you’re reading my blog regularly, I guess you’re an early adopter!

In Boing Boing this morning, I found a link to John Heilemann’s article in New York Magazine about Steve Jobs and the iPhone.

The cover seems to say it all, but the article makes some of the same points that I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

Apple is taking a huge risk with the iPhone, and AT&T has decided to come along for a ride on Steve’s “reality distortion field”. There are other places to read about Steve, but Heilemann tosses in some of Jobs’ better moments - questioning the sanity of the Segway, for example, or rolling out the iPod, then changing his mind and porting iTunes to Windows.

There’s a nice section about the internal Apple debate regarding the iPhone’s keyboard. There was no debate, because Steve Jobs didn’t want a physical keyboard, even if customers want one.

The discussion regarding AT&T’s poor reputation as a mobile carrier is also worth reading.

Heilemann asks one of my favorite questions: what happens if this new iPhone business really takes off?

The follow-up: If consumers really want US$500 cell phones this year, how will competitors adapt?

UPDATE 15:26 HT: Seth Godin has posted his take on Heilemann’s article. Seth believes that Heilemann is being “small-minded”. Steve Jobs is really a “rifter” who fixes problems and leaps from one market to another.

UPDATE 19 June 14:35 PM: Also see Kawika Holbrook’s brief January 29 screed about call quality.

One of the nice things about this summer is that I’ve had more time to read. Here’s a sample:

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow. In this short story, a sysad faces the ultimate outage. Available for free as PDF, HTML and a podcast at his web site, or buy the the Locus award winning compilation from Amazon.

Companies should learn how to play “tag”

Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. A mind-bending book about the modern Web, with serious implications for competitive strategy. This may become an optional reading for IS 7010 in the fall. I was pleased to learn that my tagging strategies can work better than traditional knowledge management techniques! Weinberger’s discussion of Wikipedia is balanced and interesting. Can companies satisfy new key success factors by letting users sort data as they see fit? See these interviews at Boing Boing, read chapter 1 for free at the book’s website, or buy the book at Amazon.

The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. A 1991 steampunk classic by two excellent writers. In 1855 England, a new ruling class has taken power with the help of mechanical computers. But watch out for those pesky Luddites! Buy the book at Amazon.

As I predicted on June 11, DirecTV will offer WiMax.

Clearwire has agreed to cooperate with two satellite television providers in the US. DirecTV and EchoStar will sell Clearwire WiMax Internet connections to customers.

Clearwire will also get to sell video services from EchoStar and DirectTV to its customer base. Reuters has a few more details here.

This agreement helps all three companies compete with AT&T, Time Warner, Comcast, and other telcos that are developing all-in-one service offerings for the consumer market.