The service delivery platform conundrum
There is nothing more important to today’s telecom service providers than finding ways to more quickly deliver new, competitive services in a cost-effective, user-friendly fashion....
Mutual Assured Profitability
Back in the good old days, when wars were served cold and Wall Street wasn’t looking for handouts, political theorists used to wax poetic about Mutual Assured Destruction....
Broadband Agnostics
Broadband is all the rage these days. Seems like you can’t discuss any kind of electronics gear -– phones, computers, or flat screen TVs -- without mentioning high-speed broadband connections...
A Rosebud by Any Other Name
While it’s not exaggeration or deception to argue that the actual sales of IMS-based equipment are not substantial at this point, the storyline that major service providers have yet to commit to the architecture is a fairy tale....
Email: Killer App of the '80's to Killed App in the '00's.
It is amazing the generational shift that can occur in a short 20 years. A kid sitting by himself in a tree used to be a lonely sight. These days a kid sitting in a tree with a cell phone could be in the midst of a multi-person discussion and be happy as a lark....
The Social Taboo Trio: Politics, Religion and Telecommunications
I’ve being around long enough to know that there’s no faster way to make enemies – or turn off readers – than to start talking politics. ...
IP's customer advantage
Most operators around the globe are engaged in next-generation network transformation projects or IP transformation projects, moving from multiple single-service TDM networks to a single multiservice packet network...
Best-effort: Weakness or strength?
There's an absolutely fascinating dynamic in play right now one that without a doubt will determine the shape of the industry for years to come...
What Verizon’s SureWest and Alltel deals have in common
It’s always fun to interview someone who has a good answer to every question--and Steve Oldham, CEO of Sacramento-based SureWest Communications, recently provided that kind of interview. I talked to him about the company’s strong take rates for triple-play services and about one service the company won’t be selling any time soon--wireless...
Why I like UMA
When I recently heard someone refer to the technology known as Unlicensed Mobile Access as if it were a woman’s first name, I couldn’t help but consider my own thoughts about the technology...
Green packets and broadband
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...
The Web is the Web and telecom is telecom
Since returning to Telephony last fall, I've set out to try to understand the intersection of the Web and telecom...
IMS: A pregnant pause
As a tribute to the recently deceased Arthur C. Clarke, please indulge a slight detour into science fiction to better emphasize the thesis of this column...
Ask Steve: IP communications and SMB adoption
IP telephony and unified communications: two great tastes that taste great together. These topics are near and dear to our hearts as we enter 2008. IP communications and SMB adoption are our topics this month in Ask Steve...
Microsoft, Yahoo! and the myth of the dumb pipe
So where’s the service provider bid for Yahoo! now that it’s on the market? Obviously, it’s nowhere to be seen. And that’s a good, sensible thing...
Growing pangs
Ever get a notion about something only to dismiss it because it's not your area of expertise? Ever been reluctant to open your mouth about something that appeared obvious to you, but stopped because you knew that the experts in that field would scoff and snicker?...
An all-too familiar pattern
With its IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) efforts, the telecom industry is reliving some of its past as well, but with no assurances of different outcomes...
The omniscience of time
When pondering the intentions of Verizon Wireless and its vendor cohorts in the recently announced enhancement proposal to the IP multimedia subsystem standard known as Advanced IMS, or A-IMS, the only real answer is: time will tell...
IMS: More important and confusing all the time
A new study from Infonetics Research points out the current problems legacy telephone companies face as they look to converge their services onto an IP backbone, with IMS...
The real FMC/IMS relationship
An increasing number of fixed/mobile convergence, or FMC, deployments are being announced worldwide...
IPTV's next big target
Ericsson is now in the IPTV business, and though it may be a latecomer, it might just have a few interesting twists to bring to the table...
Building the IMS business case
Much has been written about IP multimedia subsystem architecture and the benefits of removing network silos. However, the significant economic benefits of IMS depend on the execution plan for the operator's strategic framework...
The IMS difference
Is the IP multimedia subsystem architecture any different from any earlier, barely successful efforts at broad-based telecom infrastructure standards?...
IMS to the enterprise
Although most recent announcements about IP multimedia subsystem-enabled applications have centered on consumer voice services, network operators are...
Who needs IMS anyway?
Convergence is occurring with or without IMS, it seems. Tuesday AT&T launched its new Go Mobile service in partnership with Yahoo. It basically takes the Yahoo portal on the AT&T consumer DSL platform and transfers it to the wireless handset on Cingular's network...
