February 25, 2008

Privacy matters

In their rush to create more customized services that capitalize on knowing more about consumers, service providers may find themselves forced to slow down and proceed with caution through a veritable minefield of privacy issues. Part 1 of a Telephony staff report on privacy concerns...

Privacy and the holy grail of mobility

By Sarah ReedyFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

With location-based services, carriers have the power to access the most granular information about their consumers. Whether they use this knowledge for or against the customer is a matter of interpretation. Part 2 of our privacy special report...

Privacy matters: Consumers beware

By Carol WilsonFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Consumer groups are actively seeking new rules and new protections even as they admit that rapidly changing technology makes lines in the sand hard to draw. Part 3 in our privacy special report...

Privacy matters: Web of identity

By Rich KarpinskiFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Internet players may have at last cracked the identity code by giving users better control over their own profiles, data and relationships. Where do service providers fit in this vision? Part 4 in our privacy special report...

Privacy, what privacy?

By Carol WilsonFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Use an automated toll payment device such as an E-ZPass, and the state knows where you've been. Travel public transportation using a smart-card payment device, and your transit agency knows where you've been. Of course, with GPS devices on many cell phones, almost anybody can find you. For convenience, we surrender privacy...

LTE grabs MWC spotlight

By Kevin FitchardFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Long-term evolution was all the rage at the Mobile World Congress, the latest incarnation of the GSM Association´s annual European extravaganza. While 3G and mobile data services have dominated the GSM event in the past, 4G definitely came to the fore with all of the major vendors offering at least some kind of LTE demo...

P2P in play

By Rich KarpinskiFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

February saw BitTorrent, traffic shaping and Net neutrality come to the fore...

Mobile game-changers loom

By Rich KarpinskiFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

While Google marketers were using the Mobile World Congress as a mobile coming-out party, Google developers were busy releasing a significant new version of the Android software developer kit...

VC: Slowdown not a telecom phenomenon

By Carol WilsonFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Even in uncertain times, venture capitalist Matt Rubins of M/C Venture Partners in Boston is still bullish on mobile broadband, CLEC investments and network infrastructure plays in 2008. Rubins spoke with Editor-in-Chief Carol Wilson...

Gearing up for the digital revolution

By Sarah ReedyFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

At this time next year, the world will have gone through a digital revolution, making analog anything a thing of the past. In preparation for going all-digital, consumers are charged with putting together a digital environment that suits their own unique needs. Telecom analyst Carol Ingley felt the impending transition was so important that she started her own company, Media Mogul of the Home, and wrote a how-to book on the subject to be published in April. She shared with Associate News Editor Sarah Reedy why “digital” will be the buzzword of 2009...

The fiber trough is over

By Ed GubbinsFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

The amount of cabled fiber shipped last year topped even that in the heady days of 2001, according to CRU Analysis...

Wireless price wars unlimited

By Sarah ReedyFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Despite much speculation, Sprint Nextel remained on the sidelines during last week’s race for flat-rate freedom...

USF stakeholders may see fund cuts

By Ed GubbinsFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

As the FCC works to overhaul the Universal Service Fund, some changes could have important consequences for a number of rural carriers...

Microsoft, Yahoo! and the myth of the dumb pipe

By Rich KarpinskiFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

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...

Driving wireless into the IP core

By Rich KarpinskiFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

The promise of IP-based fixed/mobile convergence is clear: Allow subscribers to maximize wireless and wireline connections, seamlessly moving between networks based on user location and application requirements...

No integration issues here

By Carol WilsonFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Having survived a period of turmoil, XO Communications is moving in a direction different from its national CLEC brethren...

What comes after GPON?

By Ed GubbinsFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

With Verizon ramping up deployment of gigabit passive optical networks this year, work is already well under way to develop successors to GPON. David Foote, chief technology officer for Hitachi Telecom USA, gave Telephony a view into that process...

The next beachfront property

By Alex Liu, A.T. KearneyFeb 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Like sand on the beach, profitability in telecommunications is shifting from the subscription-based cableco/telco world of pipes to the advertising-based Internet world of portals, and the “beachfront property” in these sectors is all in play...