The cable industry long ago widened its ambitions beyond video, addicting millions of customers to cable modems and more recently adding voice over internet protocol telephony to its menu. Insiders call this video-voice-data combo the "triple play" strategy. So with a trifecta of moneymaking schemes on its plate, the cable guys must be pretty satisfied, right? Uh, no. "We're all still waiting for that aha moment in which we have a portable device that came from the cable company," said Dale Fox, vice president of digital phone at Time Warner Cable. That's right. The cable industry wants you to chuck your cable -- at least when you're outside the house. The addition of a fourth wireless component to the cable package is now affectionately known as the "quadruple play." At the annual meeting of CTAM, the cable industry's top sales and marketing folks gathered in Philly this week to figure out new ways to get at your wallet. And while the conference focused on many topics, including better customer service, VOIP, video on demand and improving cable-modem speeds, the big buzz was about mobility. After all, customers now want to take their entertainment and communications with them everywhere they go. The last thing cable operators want is to be left out of that party.
The world of eCommerce payments has evolved. As we look toward the latter half of this decade, we're witnessing a transformation in how digital commerce operates, with a clear shift toward localized payment solutions within a global marketplace. The numbers tell a compelling story. According to Juniper Research's latest analysis, global eCommerce transactions are set to reach $11.4 trillion by 2029, marking a 63 percent increase from $7 trillion in 2024. This growth isn't just about volume – it's about fundamental changes in how people pay for goods and services online. Perhaps most striking is the projected dominance of Alternative Payment Methods (APMs), which are expected to account for 69 percent of global transactions by 2029, with 360 billion transactions processed through these channels. eCommerce Payments Market Development What makes this shift particularly interesting is how it reflects the democratization of digital commerce. Traditional card-based systems ar...