The do-it-yourself life
I love do-it-yourself technology. I gave up tellers long before my bank started charging $3 per conversation with a live person. Even this summer, when there were virtually no lines at our cinema multiplex, I still bought my movie tickets from the self-service machine. I even enjoy the self check-out at the grocery store, even as a disembodied voice virtually accuses me of theft ("Unexpected item in bagging area") on a frequent basis...
What dog days?
In the telecom industry, August still feels a little like the lull before the storm, with major trade shows looming in just a few weeks. But thanks to regulatory reform, the sudden interest in the municipal broadband issue and a steady stream of vendor announcements, this once sleepy month has more personality than usual...
The numbers don't lie--or do they?
According to the report cards pasted into a scrapbook by my mom, I was a pretty good math student. But judging by my recent inability to make sense of the numbers swirling around telecom, I have to wonder what good that "A" was in trigonometry...
How complexity prevents habituation
The voice on my mobile was distressed. Panicked. There are seven remotes in the living room seven! All I want to do is watch television!...
Breaking the log jam
The ebb and flow of regulatory action is sometimes hard to fathom. There seemed to be a long period--three years at least--when the telecom industry was languishing but key issues remained unresolved at the federal level that kept everyone--incumbents, competitors, equipment vendors, investors--frozen in place...
Let the games begin
After considerable discussion as to whether telecom reform would happen this year, a lesser known force in telecom circles--Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.)--has introduced a bill that, with one major exception, is a comprehensive overhaul of existing telecom law...
Interoperability, peering or “walled gardens”
Over the past several months--several years, actually--I’ve found myself asking the following questions innumerable times, sometimes to myself and my associates and oftentimes to high-tech industry players of all stripes...
Price war lite
Anyone who lived through the long-distance wars of the '90s gets a little nervous at the notion that broadband services are now entering a period of price wars. After all, at the end of their bloody battle for customers, which only hit bottom when AT&T and others were offering to pay prospects $100 to change long-distance providers, the entire industry was decimated and its once-lucrative service completely commoditized...
Competitive or not?
What constitutes competition? The definition of competition is at the heart of a new White Paper by the staff of the New York Public Service Commission, which recommends some fairly stringent requirements for Verizon and MCI to be allowed to merge...
Equal footing
For an industry that can spin positive news out of the most dismal earnings reports, it would seem odd that U.S. carriers and vendors should be concerned about broadband growth...
Ball's in FCC's court
It is no exaggeration to say that what happens at the Federal Communications Commission over the next year will determine the landscape of the U.S. telecom industry for many years to come. Of course, the converse is also true--what doesn't happen at the FCC over the next year will determine the landscape of the U.S. telecom industry for many years to come...
A bunch of moving broadband parts
After spending part of the at Supercomm and then jetting off to Europe for a client meeting, I found myself confronted by the confusion that all prospective broadband customers might face--confusion in choosing a type of broadband service, as well as trying to use broadband while traveling both domestically and abroad...
What will voters say?
There are times when one person, one town or one state becomes the focal point of a much broader issue, often for reasons that are not all that apparent. Lafayette, La., has become a focal point of municipal broadband advocates...
Following the money
The long-standing dilemma for service providers has been how to wring new cash out of the transition to Internet protocol. Based on recent evidence, they are beginning to solve that issue...
Carriers' evolution to integrated service providers
Wi-Fi deployments will allow fixed-line service providers to sell a variety of broadband services across wide market demographics including consumers, businesses and public venues...
The search for an upside
A study released this week by Insight Research points to a new and disturbing trend for carriers: Even as service provider subscribership is increasing, revenue growth isn't keeping pace...
What's left for Qwest?
Earlier this week, Qwest Communications abandoned the bidding battle for MCI it was waging with Verizon. Carol Wilson's Broadband Reality newsletter on Monday outlined the reasons and the likely impact a business services duopoly will have on enterprise telecom options...
The MCI inevitability
Qwest Communications' decision to abandon its pursuit of MCI comes as no real surprise. MCI's Board of Directors had made it quite clear that it was only going to accept Qwest's money if forced to...
Inside the shades of gray
Nothing in this world is black and white, and the battle over municipal broadband is certainly proof of that...
Striking the right balance
The Florida State Senate last week struck what seems to be a reasonable compromise in the escalating battle between municipalities that want fiber optic networks and the network operators that don't want taxpayer-funded competition...
