Telefonica to lower prices on data roaming

Spanish mobile giant Telefonica SA said it will reduce the price it charges customers to use mobile data services whilst travelling in Europe by more than 40 pct.

The company said its O2 and Movistar branded mobile businesses will implement the new roaming charges ahead of the summer holiday season. The reduced charges will cover data services and a cap of 0.32 euros on the cost of sending a text message from any EU country, which will apply to all customers from April.

The company is also introducing lower tariffs for business customers which typically use more data traffic, offering a flat monthly fee equating to 1 euro per megabyte of data downloaded.

O2 UK customers will save up to 80 pct on pre-pay data service bills, while post-pay customers on O2 contracts can look forward to a saving of almost 60 pct.

Mobile companies were forced to reduce roaming charges following EU regulation introduced in June last year to cap the cost of voice-calls.

The regulation did not include a cap on data service charges, but at the time national regulators were charged with monitoring the costs of text message and data communications services.

The European Commission will present a report to Parliament at the end of 2008 on the effects of the roaming caps and on the development of prices for text messaging and data roaming.

This is cut in prices is only for Europeans. When are we going to see something relevant for non Europeans?

Twitter Irashaimasu

Twitter, the microblog platform, is going to Japan, officially, and has received an undisclosed amount of investment (though small) from local investment firm Digital Garage, according to reports. The company has said previously that about 20 percent of its traffic comes from Japan, so this move to have local presence seems logical.
The service is supposed to be launched in Spring this year, the report says. Digital Garage is the incubator founded by investor Joi Ito, and has invested in Technorati Japan with Technorati. One of the market differences Twitter faces in Japan is that Japan does not use SMS on mobile phones..e-mail is used.

Apple store Aventura Mall

Apple store Aventura Mall
Originally uploaded by Florian SEROUSSI.

Sent via BlackBerry 8320 WiFi powered by www.CelTrek.com

A must-read interview

A must-read interview
Originally uploaded by Florian SEROUSSI.

A living legend giving an interview as he announced he is stepping down from
Microsoft.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/bill-gates-the-exit-interview/

Our new office

Our new office
Originally uploaded by Florian SEROUSSI.

Sent via BlackBerry 8320 WiFi powered by www.CelTrek.com

Never mind what are Twitter costs, whats the cost of Twitter?

Here is a post we co-writted with my friend and business partner Pat Phelan.

Over the past few days we have seen lots of posts on the cost of running Twitter from such luminaries as Jason Calacanis, Paul Walsh, Marc Canter, Dave Winer , Fred Wilson and Allen Stern

Myself and my business partner Florian Seroussi both serious Twitter users have been knocking around figures for the past 24hrs and Florian had a Eureka moment today

“Never mind what Twitter Costs, what the cost of Twitter? ”

According to @missrogue and @fredericguarino there over 450.000 active users and 750.000 registered users on Twitter and with Twittown suggesting 340,000 accounts in July and a growth figure of 60,000 users per month you can settle on a rough 1 million users.

Jens Alfke over at Thought Palace suggested

“11,000 requests per second”

The figure that stands out to me is “…up to 11,000 requests per second”. Jesus Christ, that’s a lot. Where does that come from? Even assuming a million members who each post ten times a day, that’s only about 100 posts per second”

Some users like @Warzabidul say they are on Twitter 17 hours per day and with heavy users like Silicon Valley superstars Robert Scoble, Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur , New York Video superstar Loren Feldman and Vonage founder Jeff Pulver keeping an incredibly strong presence on the site we suggest that the average user spends at least one hour per day Twittering.

Our figures suggests 27M minutes per day about 450,000 hours/days around 13.5M hours month of non productivity due to our obsession.

At a growing pattern of doubling it sizes every 6 weeks, we can expect twitter to cost 30M hours per month of productivity.

Our estimates for 2008 suggest @ a minimum lost productivity cost of $20/hour this will represent $300M/month so $900M for first quarter, $600M per month for 2nd quarter so $1.8B, $1.2b per month for 3rd quarter so $3.6b and $2.4b/month for 4th quarter so $7.2b.

In total Twitter should cost economy around $13.5b in 2008!! Isn’t that FB value?

Update- We excluded the costs of sending and recieving SMS’s that are likely coming from/to a corporate phone’s.

Thanks Dameon

Follow us on Twitter Pat-Florian

Tweets for Today

• 18:57 another twitter outage tinyurl.com/248vtj #
• 18:57 @vickibrannock thanks for the add!! #
• 18:59 I had a busy day and no time to twit. mostly meetings...anyway now I'm here! #
• 19:04 @chazfrench you are already on my list! #
• 09:55 Good morning twitter!! #
• 09:56 What a night!! ER @ mt sinai hospital. I am in bed and will certainly stay this way for the next 2/3 days... #
• 09:57 @dayngr hello twitter friend - happy morning. #
• 10:00 @vicequeenmaria actually they were above average last night. thanks for your kind words. #
• 10:27 @justpeg @roam4free @tomraftery thanks for your support. I can't rely on my knee but I can count on my twitter friends. #
• 10:29 @aqualung same as snitter will do. #
• 10:38 @aqualung snitter should work fine if you update adobe air beta 3. #
• 10:42 @Dayngr i'll try it. #
• 10:45 Is there a better client than twitterberry for blackberries? #
• 12:16 @Dayngr twittering from twhirl. You are right it's a great client!! thanks for the tip! #
• 12:17 @twhirl i tried twhirl few months back and i was not convinced. Just downloaded new version few minutes ago and it's great! #
• 12:34 @digitalmaverick i have deleted my superwall. Only spam there! #
• 12:36 i'm preparing a blog post on twitter is there any general stats on twitter. How many twits per day? how many users? average twits per user? #
• 12:38 @digitalmaverick i dont think there is such an option. Maybe @jeffpulver FB expert can tell us? #
• 12:43 @digitalmaverick unfriend whoever is spamming. works pretty good :) #
• 13:09 @digitalmaverick drastic and efficient. I had to do it for a friend who was vampiring me 10 times/day. He get my blood :) #
• 13:15 @mkrigsman cool definition of twitter, it's alcohol free too! #
• 13:15 @StarrGazr nice pics - great link. #
• 13:17 @digitalmaverick lol #
• 13:19 do you think there is an addiction to twitter? #
• 13:22 @shamir how addicted? #
• 13:23 @princess_belle how much do you think you are spending on twitter on average? reading or writing? I am preparing a blog post on twitter... #
• 13:25 @girlygeekdom welcome new twitter friend. of course I could stop. But do I want to? do you consider yourself addicted? #
• 13:26 @StarrGazr that was going to be my second question. Can you spread rumors via twitter...but you did not answer the first one!! #
• 13:29 @roam4free never say never...you might want to keep your account there. Who knows... #
• 13:31 @StarrGazr how much time do you spend on average per day reading/writing on twitter? #
• 13:32 @shamir following people you knew before or mostly new friends like me? #
• 13:49 @StarrGazr i got your point. thanks for the input #
• 13:49 @shamir i agree with you. so much interactivity on twitter #
• 13:50 we are preparing a nice blog post with @roam4free on twitter. It should be ready this week end. #
• 13:51 @MMartin @chattee @davedev thanks for the add!! #
• 13:53 @StarrGazr and the answer is? #
• 13:55 @StarrGazr you get all the points. but you will get much more if you give the answers :) lol #
• 13:56 @warzabidul and you, are you addicted to twitter? how much time do you spend on twtiter/day reading/writing? #
• 14:05 @warzabidul nice for your info - we are working on a blog post with my buddy @roam4free about twitter. we needed the view of an expert. #
• 14:09 twitter on ABC news tinyurl.com/224rvg #
• 14:11 ABC says twitters has more than 100.000 users. Seems to me there are much more users. #
• 14:18 @warzabidul @StarrGazr i think the 100K is below any expectation. #
• 14:31 @girlygeekdom i like your answer...not yet..lol #
• 14:32 @oemperor do you know what is the number roughly? #
• 14:41 according to twittown there was 340K twitter accounts back in July 2007 snurl.com/1wl90 how many today? at least double I would say #
• 14:56 @fredericguarino i agree with you. I guess we'll never get the exact number of active numbers. But if I had the # of twits/day it would help #
• 17:08 @oemperor thanks a lot for the link to @missrogue #
• 17:26 @susanreynolds thanks for the link of Ann blog #
• 17:35 @jkuramot i just saw that - thanks for the tip. Blog post coming out soon. #

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Tweets for Today

• 18:05 @roam4free since when do you sleep anyway. Another ny resolution? #
• 23:47 cold weather for 48 hours in Florida and everyone is panicking www.local10.com/weather/14965607/detail.html #
• 23:56 @shelisrael Global Exagerating - world is mad! Anyway it's not too cold. A bit chilly but dry. #
• 23:57 @splashgirl Iam confident cat will find his way back home. Have a good night! #
• 23:59 @susanreynolds just saw your twit regarding knee. I wonder how it happened. pre-existing condition?? #
• 00:06 @revtriste lol - the good point is that there is no other bad news. Watching CNN/Fox with special reports from Miami is almost relaxing... #
• 00:10 @susanreynolds thanks for your kind words. hopefully doc will fix it. What would we do without them ;) #
• 00:14 @iteachcomputers are you saying that specificaly for Florida? #
• 00:22 @iteachcomputers it may affect prices of few oranges but no more. though next year we might see some ski stores opening up on Lincoln Road. #
• 00:23 @OurielOhayon twitter must improve on that subject. I agree. Alerting and archiving are becoming a major issue. #
• 00:28 doc said ice, elevate and rest. I should take his word for it. Shutting down the lights. See you in the morning. #
• 07:50 Good morning - I hope your night was better than mine... #
• 08:15 @jeffpulver good morning. I 'm keeping an eye on your place. Don't worry no ice on balcony for now :) #
• 09:55 Going to the office now. late starter today. #
• 10:59 @threefive welcome and thanks for the add. #
• 11:00 @sass I was planning to come but my knee problem is holding me back. #
• 11:01 @infomaniac take vitamin C a lot to keep you out of trouble. #
• 11:27 @warzabidul are you trying to quit?? we missed you here. #
• 11:29 new office desk too nice. i cant find anything - i need my mess back! #
• 11:42 @roam4free are you planning on moving? #
• 11:45 @loiclemeur Good morning to you! #
• 11:46 @conoro do you have sip settings available on your N95 vodafone branded? #
• 11:48 @scobleizer I heard from @jeffpulver you can get the 5000 limit lifted. He had over 6000 friends on FB. #
• 12:38 @warzabidul you got me scared for a while... #
• 12:39 @conoro you should also try twibble.de for your n95. great app for mobile twittering #
• 12:56 @kr8tr welcome to my twits and thanks for the add! #
• 13:06 @NseriesWOMWorld when I first updated my N95 8gb got a freeze. Phone was bricked. #
• 13:15 I'm in StarrGazr's room on photophlow www.photophlow.com/flickr/user/tracylee #
• 13:16 @1938media ok - guns on the table...Loren is back! #
• 13:19 TC says 'Only three days into 2008 and we've already seen two monster exits in Israel' tinyurl.com/392fn9 #
• 13:56 @TonyOlivero Comcast's Motorola box is crap! it freezes most of the time - only way to fix the problem is to unplug/replug #

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Tweets for Today

• 18:48 back on my pc. great to read your twits. I see you were having fun while i was away. #
• 18:55 @aruni @scobleizer I also mentioned this bug earlier this morning. #
• 20:15 @jennyjenjen that sounds very tasty #
• 20:16 1000th twit!! wow #
• 20:18 @idadi I love your background - nice work #
• 20:19 is there a twitter meeting during CES? would love to join if there is one... #
• 20:20 @abiteofsanity where?? lol #
• 20:21 @warzabidul i am way far from your numbers! in 3-4 years maybe... #
• 20:33 @warzabidul I was an early icq user. But still I believe twitter is not another IM #
• 20:35 @callkathy thanks for the link. I will check it out. #
• 20:38 @warzabidul I was only 5 digits but stop using it long time ago. #
• 22:43 @warzabidul tu as une invite pour photophlow? #
• 22:54 @warzabidul DM stp. merci. #
• 23:11 I'm in Florian SEROUSSI's room on photophlow www.photophlow.com/flickr/user/cizake #
• 23:12 trying to post from photophlow - thanks Richard!! www.photophlow.com/flickr/user/cizake #
• 23:14 photophlow looks cool. GUI is nice, but placing is confusing. More to come after few days of usage. #
• 23:43 @StarrGazr going back to chatrooms reminds of irc 15 years ago. More colors but still very confusing. #
• 00:09 Good nite - need my sleeping hours. #
• 07:09 Good morning to all from freezing Miami #
• 07:17 @jeffpulver good day to you too. it's a bit of NY winter in Miami. Strange very strange. #
• 07:19 @roam4free 5C - it's a 25C drop. People wearing ski mask in my building. Floridans like to exagerate everything nature is sending... #
• 07:23 @lexia i should have said 'workers around the building'...no swat team at scene. #
• 07:23 @duncanriley how long are you staying in SFO? #
• 07:27 @jeffpulver you won't see me waiving at my balcony today...hopefully we are back in the 80's this week end. #
• 07:27 @lexia no way - keep the beautiful irish sunshine where it is!! #
• 07:30 @duncanriley Pat will certainly work on a diner while we are all in SFO around the 22 or 23rd. #
• 07:33 need to run see you all in a few. #
• 07:53 @TomRaftery the cold wave is historical in Florida. Yearly average temp for florida is still 23c. #
• 07:59 @tomraftery my mistake I meant miami-dade - not Florida. #
• 08:00 @Merlene and they don't even have @jeffpulver on their side ;) #
• 08:11 @longlegs no one blames you. there is nothing better than 'stealing' minutes in a comfy bed #
• 08:17 @shamir very interested. That would be nice. HNY 08 #
• 08:39 one invite for photophlow must go. Anyone?? #
• 08:59 no more photophlow invite. Gone. #
• 09:22 @chrispirillo nice tips! #
• 09:41 @PATTI_with_an_i Good morning #
• 09:49 Qik Live video: qik.com/video/5835 #
• 10:01 @JustPeg i sure will. Might get some shareholders upset when they discover the lake view from my office... #
• 10:02 @roam4free corner is mine pal. yours is much bigger and nicer with a nice view on our new assistant as per your request. oops. #
• 10:04 @mbites if it's not fake I will get one! looks much lighter and thiner too. #
• 10:05 @predictions08 nothing is impossible. Everyone making bets - we hear that all day long. At the end we will know right? #
• 10:09 @roam4free now you got their attention!phone ringing - 'Hi Florian, I've just heard you got a DB9 - can you send back the checkbook asap' #
• 10:10 @ChazFrench sorry to read that! #
• 10:11 @starrgazr yeap! nice view on the water. Smith Barney's building in Aventura. More a pond than a lake but hey it's Florida. #
• 10:12 @roam4free that's it - where do we block someone on twitter?? #
• 10:16 @alexdc @flixwagon Pat is right N95 8gb is currently the best phone to go with. #
• 10:29 @JustPeg we decided that if we make no money in the telecom business we move to Broadway. #
• 10:31 @brisbourne welcome to twitter!! #
• 11:32 Qik Live video: qik.com/video/5843 #
• 12:02 @alexdc new n95 8gb US is coming out in a couple of weeks. #
• 12:02 @roam4free you will have to see that with Jenny. She has 'her' taste...what a woman wants... #
• 12:19 @JustPeg I look at the nice view and he looks at me...that's part of the deal. #
• 12:24 Qik Live video: qik.com/video/5846 #
• 13:04 @broy you are doing a great job!! Qik is really cool. #
• 13:05 Qik Live video: qik.com/video/5854 #
• 13:07 @JustPeg I think it's a buffering problem. Will tell @broy about it. Thanks. #
• 13:12 @broy @justpeg is having some hard time watching will I stream. I also see that a videocast was divided into 3. I guess buffering problems? #
• 14:28 Knee going wild again- red, swelling and hurting. Rushing to the ER now. #
• 17:27 I am out of the ER. Couple of shots in the knee. Will have surgery very soon. #
• 17:28 I need a chauffeur now. #
• 17:37 @callkathy I will dm from a pc- I am twittering from bb at present. #

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Tweets for Today

• 18:31 @acomputerpro happy new year to you and your love ones. I'll keep in mind my special number :) #
• 19:01 Happy new year in Ireland @roam4free #
• 19:13 @cattias happy new year to you too #
• 19:15 @TomRaftery happy new year Tom #
• 19:19 @loiclemeur bonne année de Miami Loic. encore qq heures a tenir pour nous. Plein de bonnes choses pour toi et ta famille. #
• 19:19 North Miami Beach is dead quite. Are they saving it for later?? Who said Florida was for elder people>> #
• 20:20 @cattias on n'est pas passé loin en 2007. RDV en 2008. #
• 21:08 @jjprojects twitter is really one of the good things I have discovered in 2007. #
• 21:12 anyone still sober online?? #
• 21:13 @michelleoshen nice resolutions. they look doable... #
• 21:15 @DougMeacham thanks for the add. Happy new year. #
• 21:18 @shelisrael thumbs up for cali. try to keep twitter 'clean' - lol #
• 21:18 @callkathy we will both be sober!! #
• 21:20 @Marti_L Chocolate?? are you kidding!! nothing more important then good chocolate for NYE...lol. Happy new year twitter friend. #
• 21:30 @michelleoshen Happy new year to you too. I love your resolutions. Poor Loren is going to loose more hair... #
• 21:38 @lexia happy new year alexia. protect your eyes :) #
• 21:41 @Scobleizer I need to thank you for showing me qik in 2007. Happy new year!! #
• 21:52 things I will not do in 2008: #1 I will always be home for week ends. All my travels will end by friday noon and resume next monday #
• 22:00 #2 things I will not do: no more junk food. no reeses at the gas station. feckin' peanut butter will kill me one day. #
• 22:03 @geekmum thanks for the add. Happy new year to you too. #
• 22:10 going to a birthday party on NYE. on my way out moving to twitterberry. #
• 22:12 @1938media #8 is a definite winner. #
• 22:14 @lexia good nite. #
• 22:29 @PATTI_with_an_i Happy new year to you too Patti. #
• 00:00 Happy new year twitter #
• 00:11 Incredible party with fireworks cracking all around. Have fun! #
• 01:10 @Mackcollier happy to be part of your community. Thanks for the add. Happy new year. #
• 02:10 Good nite twitterers. I need some serious sleep. HNY again. #
• 09:17 Good morning 2008 #
• 09:18 @Pistachio Miami is a great place. Make it happen. #
• 09:43 @Pistachio don't come here from May-Oct. Cafe still good...:) #
• 09:47 @paulswansen I met @Pistachio in Paris...she hald 'stolen' a cheese plater when I ran into her...cheese in Denver?? #
• 09:53 @khaynes HNY new twitter friend. Thanks for the add. #
• 09:55 @guy_david working?? well it's a good way to start 2008. Hang in there. #
• 09:57 @dalecruse good morning to you too. #
• 09:58 @mmcallen happy new year to you new twitter friend #
• 10:00 @OurielOhayon yes I like it too very much. GUI is simple. #
• 10:01 @mkrigsman how is Boston? Still snowing? #
• 10:17 @YoGeek thanks for the add and happy new year to you too. #
• 10:46 @Steven3985 happy new year to you too. May everyone be safe there. thanks for the add. #
• 10:52 Going to the pool. See u soon. #
• 14:06 @infinitypro aloha twitter friend #
• 14:10 @mklopez wow temp drop for 2008... #
• 14:10 @MaxWeb Greetings to you too twitter friend #
• 14:15 @AnnOhio welcome to you - thanks for the add #
• 14:20 @LenEdgerly I believe twitter is grabbing a lot of market shares in the online social world. those figures sound possible #
• 14:22 I just added $$ on my daughter stardoll account. This is the future of web my friends...$5 to get my daughter happy and busy...lol #
• 14:39 @callkathy www.stardoll.com #
• 14:40 @philiphodgen looking at WB as well #
• 14:47 @callkathy i have 4 girls and 2 boys!! #
• 14:48 my tab 'replies' is now empty?? strange...am i the only one #
• 14:49 @StarrGazr welcome to you too. Thanks for the add. #
• 15:04 @tomguarriello on web you have 3 tabs archives, replies and recent. Under replies nothing shows up. #
• 15:14 @tomguarriello i use safari. But it's also on firefox. trying to link a screenshot give me a minute #
• 15:19 @callkhaty thanks for the tip - downloading now #
• 15:21 @tomguarriello you saved me the hassle of screenshots...stay sober :) #
• 15:26 Qik Live video: qik.com/video/5749 #
• 15:38 a good resolution for 2008: I will use a MacBook instead of my vaio. ok i'll try #
• 15:39 @loiclemeur your n95 is unlocked? #
• 15:40 @jberrebi nothing is supposed to happen. go to your menu buton and try 'friends timeline' see if it works #
• 15:41 @mkrigsman don't get loren upset today. #
• 15:44 @deekdeekster get a n95 8gb - so far the best phone i have ever used. #
• 15:46 @roam4free we had an iphone sometime ago...before we gave them away - lol but now I am using my wife's mac and i feel better with Mac OS #
• 15:56 @mkrigsman not always cute - ask @loiclemeur -lol #
• 15:57 @roam4free I might use both - jeff pulver's style... #
• 16:04 @mkrigsman i think he has much more influencal power than you describe. affluence and influence usually work together. #
• 16:08 @roam4free you know he is my neighbor - dont get me in trouble with the guy...lol #
• 16:23 Going for a walk with kids. See you in a bit. #
• 16:55 Thanks @roam4free - gift received. - mobypicture.com/?ngimwq #

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