You're gonna have to serve someone

Readers of this bloglet may have noted that I am developing an obsession with ancillary industries lining up to feed on the desperate carcass-to-be which is the telecom industry. First and foremost among them is advertising, which in my casual observation, seems to be going great guns in the UK market as the various carriers, handset manufacturers and broadband access providers swim ever faster to avoid being washed away by hypercompetition and consumer forces which they may not really grasp. David Jackson, who seems to be quietly pioneering this holy grail of hybrid blog and solid fundamental research (another developing obsession), has some very exhaustive and interesting observations to share. I slotted both Google and Yahoo! in my global model portfolio for this year in anticipation of exactly this scenario (not that I have anything to show for it yet...).

On a related note, if this weblink weren't broken, you would see the Nielsen//NetRatings press release I received earlier today, which contains the following table, which reveals that Vonage ranked third in numbers of impressions in the US in the month of February:

Top 10 Advertisers by Company
Advertiser*------------------------------Impressions (000)
1. LowerMyBills.com, Inc.-----------------2,535,700
2. Netflix, Inc.-----------------------------1,884,247
3. Vonage Holdings Corp-------------------1,791,195
4. Dell Computer Corporation --------------1,656,487
5. Ameritrade Holding Corporation---------1,652,247
6. United Online, Inc.-----------------------1,395,761
7. Monster Worldwide, Inc.-----------------1,365,388
8. InterActiveCorp--------------------------1,357,191
9. Scottrade, Inc.----------------------------1,320,070
10. The News Corporation Limited ----------1,318,400

*Impressions reported exclude house ads, which are ads that run on anadvertiser's own Web property.
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

Outgunning the likes of Dell, Ameritrade, Monster and Rupert Murdoch must carry quite some price tag.