Independent Commentary Archive
:: Independent Commentary Archive ::
Public/private potholes
By: By Ed Gubbins
This has been a tough week for public/private partnerships in the telecom sector. Last night the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, voted to take its Wi-Fi network back from EarthLink, which bought the 147-square-mile network a year ago for roughly the same amount it cost the city to build ($7 million)...
Post-auction pandering
By: By Joan Engebretson
Scan the list of A and B Block winners in the recent 700 MHz auction and you’ll see a lot of familiar names from the Independent telecom industry...
Getting in the door
By: By Carol Wilson
Many years ago, when cable TV was first being deployed, I owned a Madison, Wis., town home that had a finished basement. One day, a cable installer came to my front door and explained he needed access to my basement to run a cable so that a fellow resident could get cable TV. Wanting to be a good neighbor, I allowed him to come in...
What’s wrong with one damn-good open network?
By: By Carol Wilson
It’s generally frustrating to listen to all the reasons why our government sometimes can’t seem to get anything done, but it’s specifically frustrating to listen to all the reasons why the U.S. can’t have a broadband policy that guarantees access in areas there are underserved today...
Telco transformation: A do-or-die proposition
By: By Kermit Ross, Millennium Marketing
For the telcos, the 20th century was all about growth. A telco’s size was measured by its access lines. Its mission was to add more lines every year. But the 21 century offers a different challenge...
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?...
Getting on the same page
By: Bernie Arnason
I recently participated in a focus group with marketing directors from several Independent operating carriers. Our goal was to discuss and brainstorm how carriers need to adapt in these competitive times and become more market-focused...
The Independent beat
By: By Joan Engebretson
When the chance to edit The Independent came up at the beginning of the year, I jumped at it. In the 15 years that I've been reporting on the telecom industry, one of my favorite focus areas -- or what journalists call "beats" -- has always been Independent telcos...
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...
Q&A: Gillis Cashman, MC Venture Partners
By: By Ed Gubbins
After eight years at MC Venture Partners, Gillis Cashman made partner this month at the venture capital firm, which focuses on technology and communications startups. Cashman, who sits on the boards of Cavalier Telephone, Zayo Bandwidth and cable player Baja Broadband, spoke with Telephony’s Ed Gubbins about the future of CLECs and current economic trends shaping the telecom service provider space and investment in it...
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?...
The Android conundrum: Which comes first -- the phone or the app?
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Android may have generated a lot of buzz in the wireless community, but one thing it hasn’t yet generated is an actual operating system...
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 ...
Embarq’s third act begins
By: By Ed Gubbins
I had the pleasure of spending some face time with Dan Hesse this summer for an in-depth and exceedingly well-written profile I wrote about him and Embarq. Hesse has a warm, easy smile, but he is frighteningly tall...
The undisputed blabbermouth champion
By: By Tim McElligott
If nothing else, time can certainly be characterized as the biggest blabbermouth in the known universe. Because for all things uncertain, the fallback position is: "Time will tell" ...
Bookmarks and bookends
By: By Tim McElligott
This final issue of the year opens and closes with stories about WiMAX wireless bookends if you will...
What is IPTV?
By: By Ken Pyle, President of Viodi LLC
Given the relatively high profile of IPTV in the telecommunications industry, it may seem strange to ask such a fundamental question...
The secret inside
By: By Tim McElligott
Ever been told by a parent or teacher to wipe that smirk off your face? I have....
Telecom, Alaska-style
By: By Margaret Bauman
Residents and newcomers to Alaska alike these days take for granted the convenience of telephone lines for local and long-distance calls, faxing, and Internet dial-up service, plus myriad services such as call waiting and caller ID...
Dark horse
By: By Ed Gubbins
On the down slope of the telecom bubble, as things started to look grim in the CLEC sector, the two names that kept coming up as likely survivors in that bloodbath were Allegiance Telecom and McLeodUSA...
Stay the course
By: By Tim McElligott
There is no way anyone is going to step in and block the $2.7 billion sale of access lines between Verizon and FairPoint Communications. There is no reason to block it...
Flight of the mayfly
By: By Tim McElligott
In the old 25-year lifecycle of telecom infrastructure, engineers used to worry about many things while deploying new technology. However, that the technology would be obsolete shortly after being installed was not one of them. It is today...
The 700 MHz window of opportunity
By: By Bernie Arnason
The activity surrounding the auction of 700 MHz has been vigorous. As well it should. There is much at stake...
To whom it may concern
By: By Tim McElligott
I, Tim McElligott, being of sound but balky mind and body do hereby announce my retirement from Telephony. I have had a great (for me, anyway) run but wish to spend more time with my family and to pursue other, less time-sensitive interests...
An ill-timed tweak?
By: By Tim McElligott
The bigger AT&T gets, the older Qwest gets and the more Sprint is associated with them, the more unpopular it gets to defend their policies. Defending them pits someone like me against the radicals of the Internet and brands me as a backwards Bell head, a supporter of a dying industry that is best forgotten--and the sooner the better. After all, who needs that old infrastructure when we have the Internet?...
