Throughout 2009, consumers were talking (or Tweeting) the most about:

•  Location-based mobile services/apps
•  Facebook tops 300 million users, even Friendster comes back from the dead – social network still a fad?

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In 2009, these trends stole all the headlines:

•  Cloud and virtualization coming to operator networks – stage 2.1 of the IP revolution
•  DPI and policy intelligence added to the network – stage 2.2 of the IP revolution
•  LTE emerging rapidly, along with converged packet core – stage 2.3 of the IP revolution

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Operation Chokehold is set to go down within the hour, but it remains to be seen what affect it will have on AT&T’s (NYSE:T) network – if any. Born from a satirical blog post by the “fake Steve Jobs” that was spurred by comments AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vegas made to analysts, the protest has taken on a life of its own. more

Revenue was harder to come by in 2009, but these business models put a new spin on making money:

•  Charging competitors for preferred access to the network – CDNs, wholesaling of network APIs, quality of service guarantees for over-the-top players
•  Whoever successfully moves Google’s Ad Words ad engine (Google itself; someone new) into the world of mobile advertising
•  Taking advantage of billions of M2M devices plus the possibility of driving mobile penetration among consumers from 80% to 400% (every customer has multiple wireless devices)

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In 2009, everyone but the companies in question (okay, mainly Google and Apple) were talking about:

•  Google buys Sprint.
•  Cisco and/or Google acquiring everybody – both are back on acquisition trail, they say

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There’s a now often-told anecdote about a sole employee within Comcast starting using Twitter to respond to customer complaints — setting off what company CEO Brian Roberts has called a “culture-changing” event.

Are telecom service providers ready to join the social media parade?

They are in Australia, where Telstra has made social media training mandatory for its 40,000 employees (video after the jump).

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These technologies might be as old as the name Telephony, but they just needed a new twist to make it big (Connected Planet, anyone?):

•  Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM), boosting the speed of ol’ DSL
•  SONET as timing-enabling transport for IP/Ethernet
•  The decades-old concept of AIN – Advanced Intelligent Network – actually deployed on today’s IP networks

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The mobile industry can stop worrying about slipping sales and shrinking ARPUs – the economic recession will be over for them come 2010, according to custom research company TNS. In its annual Global Telecoms and Insights survey of 24,000 consumers released today, the firm found that 53% of Americans plan to buy a mobile phone in the next six months, up from just 24% this time last year. more

Vice President Joe Biden announced the recipients of the first $182 million in broadband stimulus grants today (just 9% of the first round of funding and 2% of the overall total) in Dawsonville, Ga.

The 18 projects included in the winners being announced today will benefit 17 states and have already been matched by more than $46 million in private funding, the White House said.

UPDATE: The full list of recipients announced today is available here.

Though the administrators of the program promised to announce the first round of winners this month, the White House said today those announcements — pertaining to $2 billion in awards — will be spread out over the next 75 days. Of the $182 million in funds being announced today, $129 million will come from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and $54 million will come from the Rural Utilities Service.

The awards announced today include: more

These companies, which burst on to the scene in 2009, could steal the scene in 2010:

•  Best Buy – The big-box retailer is making its presence in the wireless world known. It has the potential to give wireless operators a run for their money.
•  Move Networks
•  Root Wireless

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