Is it finally time for a national broadband policy?
By: By Carol Wilson
There seems to be a consensus growing that the U.S. should (finally) have a national broadband policy. Now the question is, what will that policy include?...
Clueless on IPTV quality?
By: By Carol Wilson
Service providers used to build quality networks for voice services. Then they began offering data and needed to guarantee a quality of service for that data. Now, as they offer video, they need to guarantee a quality of experience for the video consumer...
Mobile broadband’s double-edged sword
By: By Sarah Reedy
ABI Research predicts that worldwide shipments of mobile Internet devices will rise from under 3.5 million this year to nearly 90 million by 2012. It is great news for those service providers looking to capitalize on the trend. It is potentially precarious news, however, for the mobile carriers faced with a bandwidth crunch...
The end of all-you-can eat?
By: By Vince Vittore
A number of reports have surfaced recently that claim Internet traffic will increase by 5 times over the next several years driven largely by a massive increase in video traffic. We can always quibble over the actually amount that traffic will increase, but suffice it to say it’s going to get extremely busy in the Ether...
Net neutrality nervous
By: By Carol Wilson
The new Net neutrality legislation from Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass) seems, on the surface, to be un-objectionable. Markey isn’t asking for a law that banishes tiered services with stiff penalties for violators. He isn’t trying to codify a limited set of behaviors for broadband Internet service providers, he’s only asking for additional policy statement which hardly seem that onerous...
Broadband for all
By: By Ed Gubbins
As the FCC proposes significant changes to the Universal Service Fund, it will consider for the first time the notion of applying USF to broadband deployment -- which I'm sure will bring no end to the political and philosophical debate over what extent rural broadband should be subsidized...
Cable concerns
By: By Carol Wilson
The Internet didn't invent conspiracy theories, but it has given them a more powerful voice and the ability to go global in hours if not minutes. When the first speculation surrounding cuts in two undersea fiber optic cables connecting India to Europe ran to thoughts of sabotage, paranoia seemed to be in full flower...
Video compensates for broadband declines at AT&T and Verizon
By: By Teresa Mastrangelo, Broadbandtrends.com
At this stage, it is hard to escape news about a weakening economy in the United States. However, judging by the earnings calls from both AT&T and Verizon, everything is great. So why are they so confident when all the signs point in a different direction? ...
Ask Steve: Our new monthly Q&A column
By: By Steve Hilton, The Yankee Group
Welcome to our monthly column, Ask Steve. We’re going to tackle small and medium business-focused questions every month. We’ve received some great questions so far and will try to get to all of them. This month we’re going to look at smart phone applications and broadband connectivity. Keep those great questions coming!...
No tough times for telecom?
By: By Carol Wilson
It seems inevitable that the slowing U.S. economy will begin to spill over onto the sales of the voice, video, data and wireless bundles that telecom service providers are now peddling. Or it did to me. But that’s not necessarily the case, according to some of the industry analysts I polled for this column...
Can home control services be the next wave for telcos?
By: By Danny Briere
Telcos still have a long ways to go to perfect their triple/quadruple play services. IPTV is improving, but it’s still not there. And the long talked about IMS-driven integration of content across three (or more) screens isn’t yet a reality. OK – so all of these things need to be progressed. Work remains to be done...
Deconstructing the 3G data cap
By: By Kevin Fitchard
It would be quite ironic if AT&T, just months after bragging about its open network, were to implement a 5 Gbyte cap on 3G data usage...
Hopeful signs on the cost vs. consumption curve
By: By Ed Gubbins
Telecom carriers have struggled for years with contradictions between their cost structure and their revenue streams. Life would be easier for carriers if their customers would pay more according to what they consume, though how could they ever be convinced to do that?...
CES: And the twain shall meet?
By: By Carol Wilson
The Consumer Electronics Show this year seemed all about bigger and better home video services and devices, and smaller video that can go mobile...
I can't see clearly
By: By Carol Wilson
Spend a few minutes online at sites such as The Consumerist and you'll come away convinced that all service providers -- telco, cable, satellite -- are engaged in an evil plan to defraud consumers and make their lives as difficult as possible...
Interesting times
By: By Rich Karpinski
As the year ends down, the year-in-review stories wind up. Let it never be said that Telephony missed a chance to add our two-cents. Thus: the 2007 Best and Worst issue, on newsstands now, as they say. Or you can hop over to our Web site and see our Top-X lists right now...
Consumers want it all
By: By Carol Wilson
Consumers want faster Internet access and cheaper prices, right? Apparently not. In the U.K., where broadband service speeds are going up and prices are falling, customer satisfaction is going down...
The rise and fall of cable
By: By Carol Wilson
This year's stumble by cable stocks, which are down about 25% even after last week's FCC-inspired rally, continues to puzzle me. The industry has done a far better job than its chief rivals, the telcos, of delivering triple-play bundles to the majority of its customers...
It’s that time again…
By: By Carol Wilson
Telephony will be celebrating the best and worst of 2007 in our Dec. 10 print issue, and we want your input. We are asking our readers to respond to any or all of the questions listed below...
Facebook: More social than network
By: By Sarah Reedy
Facebook has come up at most major trade shows this year, touted as a professional networking tool, advertising medium and communications hub...
Squeezable services
By: By Ed Gubbins
The term couch potato is more than just a cute nickname for television consumers. Though we talk a lot about how to win over those couch potatoes, we too often forget what the term really means: lazy, shiftless people...
It's an upstream world
By: By Vince Vittore
Forget what you know about network engineering because it's worthless...
Survey says: AT&T is wrong
By: By Carol Wilson
Last week, I asked what you thought about AT&T's plans to stick with its fiber-to-the-node strategy, in the face of industry criticism, and you didn't disappoint. Most respondents agree with the critics that AT&T is being short-sighted, and they brought up some issues I didn't tackle, such as...
Standoff at the bandwidth corral
By: By Carol Wilson
Most of the time, when presented with two absolutely conflicting views, I can figure out which one I believe. In the life-standard debates, Republican vs. Democrat, Cubs vs. Sox, chunky vs. creamy, I have no problem picking sides. When it comes to AT&T’s broadband strategy, however, I admit to being flummoxed...
Mining the 'social graph'
By: By Rich Karpinski
Is it possible for one company's PR problem to be another company's billion-dollar business model? When it comes to telecom and Web companies sharing and leveraging information about their users, this indeed seems to be the case...
