Special Report: Telephony's Best and Worst of 2007

We spent 2007 writing about the news and talking to news-makers. Now Telephony's editors tell you their highlights -- and lowlights -- of the year that was.

2007 Will Be Most Remembered As …

The year Apple caused people to camp out overnight for a friggin' cell phone.

The year private equity players bet big in telecom. From Alltel and Covad to 3Com, ECI Telecom and Integra Telecom, private equity firms pulled the trigger on telecom acquisition.

The year Wall Street warmed up to fiber-to-the-home. Only two years ago, Verizon was under fire for the cost of its FiOS build. But as those economics improved and AT&T's U-verse rollout saw delays, investors who once scoffed at Verizon changed their tune.

The year WiMAX took off … or became just another crazy Sprint wireless idea.

The year Web/IT/telecom industries met. From Web 2.0 application patterns to IT-driven service architectures to IP everywhere, 2007 was the year true convergence took place across the technology world.

The year IPTV got real. Globally, and even in the U.S., the arrival of real MPEG-4 set-top boxes meant U-verse could be deployed in volume and a lot of Independent telcos could advance their early services as well.

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