Global - Commentary
Repeating history
By: By Carol Wilson
There seems to be one lesson that the telecom industry keeps relearning, and it is simply this: Without a business plan that includes profits, the best technology won’t succeed...
Green packets and broadband
By: By Kermit Ross
Five global forces drive growth and transformation. They are at work everywhere, albeit at varying levels of intensity, and they will change the telecommunications world...
Mobile banking’s global currency
By: By Sarah Reedy
Still a nascent service, mobile banking is expected to reach 32.9 million users worldwide in 2008 and grow to 103.9 million in 2011, according to a study released this week by Gartner...
Not satisfied on customer satisfaction
By: By Carol Wilson
One thing that must be said about global telecom executives is that they aren't overly self-satisfied. At least that's what a global survey, done by The Economist Intelligence Unit for Oracle, would seem to indicate...
A matter of timing
By: By Carol Wilson
Videoconferencing has been under-performing expectations since AT&T unveiled its Picturephone at the 1964 World’s Fair. With each new generation of technology, videoconferencing gets better, and yet, somehow, airplanes get more crowded and business events more plentiful. What’s wrong with this picture?...
Charting the global FTTH push
By: By Carol Wilson
Last week’s release of the new fiber-to-the-home global ranking gave everyone something to crow about. The Asia-Pacific region continues to dominate the world in FTTH deployment, but the U.S. was among the top three nations in terms of annual growth and Europe cracked the 1 million FTTH line mark in late November, making 2007 the best year yet for FTTH...
Digital device usage: IDC runs the numbers
By: By Jonathan Blum
One of the nuttiest things about today’s strange digital world is that when legitimately interesting data actually comes to light, nobody cares...
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...
MWC: Fighting the good fight, but is it the right fight?
By: By Kevin Fitchard
BARCELONA--The GSM Association has always been an activist organization. It pushes all sorts of industry initiatives from pushing 3G connectivity in laptops to launching Third World wireless penetration projects to producing short films for the mobile phone. The association is always on the lookout for a way to make wireless more prevalent, useful and ultimately more profitable for its carrier clientele...
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...
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...
A refreshing change
By: By Carol Wilson
MetaSwitch made its name in the early days by being a good supplier to second- and third-tier telephone companies, including many rural operators. The company was employee-owned until just recently, when it decided to seek outside funding to enable a global expansion. To be sure, this is a risk ...
Anybody game?
By: By Carol Wilson
A year after Microsoft first said it would integrate its IPTV platform and its Xbox 360 Live game system, the first of the software giant's customers -- BT -- has announced it will sell the game consoles, which double as IPTV set-tops boxes...
Standards, step one
By: By Carol Wilson
The announcement this week of the first set of IPTV standards from the International Telecommunications Union is certainly welcome, but many within the IPTV segment see this is the first of what will be many steps in the process of standardizing IPTV...
Unwalling the garden
By: By Carol Wilson
The loud 'bang' heard yesterday was the sound of the wireless walled garden crumbling under the blow of open access...
