Mark's Musings on the Telecommunications Industry

Lijit at Entrepreneurs Unplugged

2008-10-23T21:16:00.000-06:00

The War on Piracy

2008-04-09T11:21:00.000-06:00

Tonight's program of the Silicon Flatiron Partners pitted the RIAA against the EFF.

Are We Done With Broadband Service Growth...Is That All There Is?

2008-02-08T10:48:00.001-07:00

A rosy report released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) confidently states that the U.S. is doing great in broadband penetration because the current administration has increased penetration more than 1100 percent and 91.5 percent of zip codes have three or more competing service providers.

I must only be familiar with the 8.5 percent of zip codes, including my own, that have zero to two providers. I guess we can now start proudly chanting, "Were number 15!" because that is where the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) places the U.S. in broadband penetration. Although initiatives like FiOS and U-Verse are increasing penetration and access speeds, they are only touching a small fraction of homes and the lack of significant competition, like on the UTOPIA network, prevents new services and lower prices from being realized by this supposed 91.5 per cent of Americans.

Lately I have seen evidence that the U.S. broadband market is stagnating:

AT&T increases prices of its DSL service to lower tiered customers by $5 per month.
Comcast begins using reasonable traffic management practices which some label as intentional service degradation.
Time Warner Cable experiments with capping download quantities in Beaumont, Texas where it may be conceived that they are impeding competing video delivery services.

These are not trends in a vibrant competitive market. The NTIA and Department of Commerce should not benchmark their success on absolute numbers. Instead they should compare the U.S. to other countries that lead the world in broadband services. Then again this is government; whereas, business benchmarks against other similar businesses. The FTTH Council provides a thorough analysis of broadband service in the U.S. and contrasts it to other countries. They include policy recommendations and initiatives that the government can take to stimulate broadband service deployment and competition.

Article: TelecomTV - TelecomTV One - News

Technorati tags: broadband penetration, NTIA, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner Cable

AT&T Needs More Money

2008-02-06T16:24:00.001-07:00

AT&T decided yesterday to increase the price of DSL service by $5 per month for subscribers that do not purchase U-verse (AT&T jacks up DSL price $5 per month | Tech news blog - CNET News.com) except in the old BellSouth territory where they promised the FCC and regulators that they would not raise prices for a certain period of time. Apparently revenues are not increasing enough for them in their wireline and wireless businesses, and they are fearing a slowing economy. Expect a similar price increase shortly from the cable companies in AT&T's territory.

Instead of offering some value like a speed increase, AT&T just raises the price. There is almost no incremental cost of providing greater bandwidth because customers will not change their surfing behavior much. Competition is suppose to create greater value for customers and lower the price; therefore, I conclude that AT&T does not have any significant competition other than MSOs. Duopolies function similarly to monopolies in most cases. AT&T should be finding new and innovative services to offer customers that increase their revenue. This price increase may help AT&T's financials in the short-term only.

Lack of true competition for residential services is why the U.S. continues to lag in broadband penetration which will manifest itself in other ways throughout the economy.

Technorati tags: AT&T, broadband, DSL

Cable Cuts a Coincidence?

2008-02-05T14:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I wrote an analysis for a consulting service stating that three cable cuts in three days is most likely not an accident. Today, news outlets (TelecomTV) announced a fourth undersea cable cut that occurred late Sunday, presumably to FLAG's FALCON cable. One does not have to be an Oliver Stone devotee to realize that these incidents were most likely an act of sabotage. Conspirorists were quick to come out of the closet and blame the military, CIA, NSA, and/or the Bush Administration. I find it hard to believe that anyone with any credibility would even suggest that the United States had any involvement with these cuts.

The point is that someone or some organization is intent in disrupting global commerce and isolate the Middle East. I included the article I wrote yesterday below because I believe that these incidents validate the need for us in the industry to continue to ensure reliability in the equipment and networks we build.

Implications:

Now that a third undersea fiber cable has been cut, the probability is extremely low that it was an accident. Someone or some organization is intent on disrupting international commerce and finance in the Middle East in the attempt to isolate the more secular countries like the UAE, Egypt, and India. The robustness of the global telecommunications infrastructure minimizes the impact of multiple failures. Although this action has political and ramifications, these incidents demonstrate the need to continually build redundancy and reliability into our telecommunications infrastructure.

Analysis:

The original CNN story stated that two of FLAG Telecom's undersea cables were cut Wednesday and then Friday another FLAG cable (FALCON) was cut in waters outsize Dubai. The probability that these three cuts in the same region of the world all happening within three days is extremely low that it was an accident. In the telecommunications world, we design networks and products to survive single and double failures, but we almost never design for a triple failure because the probability of three nearly simultaneous failures happening is infinitesimal.

I will not delve into who or why these cables were cut because they were clearly an attempt to isolate many countries in the Middle East from the rest of the world. Cutting these undersea cables was a move to disrupt international commerce, travel, and financial transactions of some of the more secular Middle Eastern countries. The truth is that these cuts had a minimal impact on business because of the reliability and redundancy that the industry has built into its telecommunications infrastructure.

Today we expect split second trades, continuous package tracking, near instantaneous document delivery, and global access to information any time, any where. In order to meet the virtually continuous availability to communications, the industry builds its network to sustain multiple failures. Traffic is rerouted another path to the same destination when the primary path fails. Equipment has a backup in case it fails. Telephone offices are built with excess capacity to take over the load if one of its neighbors fails. As more and more of our communications travel over packets, it is easier to make the network more resilient to failures. Packets wind their way through the network until they reach their destination. They do not always take the same route to get there, but they get there.

This protection and resiliency is why cutting three cables had a minimal impact on the communications in the Middle East. Redundant capacity, alternate routes, and multiple cables are why these accidents have minimal impact. Carriers will continue to build more cables to add capacity and diversity to their networks. The capital expenditures will be tremendous, but the ROI will justify the expense. Redundancy has its price, but imagine the economic impact of 9 Middle Eastern countries not being able to conduct global business for 10 days.

Technorati tags: Undersea cable, FLAG, sabotage, Middle East

NFL Gone Wild

2008-02-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Funny that my second post of the year is more of a rant than something significant, but the situation is indicative of our desire to make money by copyrighting and patenting everything in sight. Once again this year, the NFL is stopping churches with TV larger than 56" from showing the Super Bowl (Techdirt: Super Bowl Intellectual Property Insanity: No Big Screen Super Bowl Parties, Trademarking 19-0). Are they that greedy that they have to shake down churches for licensing and performance fees although some of the mega-churches can afford it? What is even more amazing is that the New England Patriots have attempted to trademark "19-0." Will math teachers have to stop giving out subtraction problems of 19-0 unless they properly reference the trademark? Where will all of this insanity end? We need to apply some common sense to our patent and trademark laws for the greater good of innovation and business.

This article was written without the express permission, either implicit or implied, of the NFL or any of is affiliates.

Technorati tags: NFL, Super Bowl

AMD: Is a Dog Chasing Its Tail

2008-02-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

AMD (AMD)continues to disappoint investors in the forth quarter (AMD: Is The Worst Over? - Seeking Alpha) losing $1.77 billion in that single quarter. AMD's problem stems from its management team in ability to differentiate the company in the microprocessor marketplace both mainstream and embedded microprocessors. Their inability to forecast and manage product run rates will plaque the company with continued poor financial performance. They cannot spend themselves to health with acquisitions without executing on the vision that the acquisition brings. They have yet to utilize the value that ATI brings to AMD.

Analysis:

The problem with AMD is indicative of most technology companies: they develop great technology, but they do not understand what their customers want and how to communicate the value to their customers. The process is called marketing, and AMD does not understand it in any division. The CEO and COO talk like engineers and not businessmen. That was fine in the early days of Silicon Valley. Consumers want to know why they should buy a computer with and AMD microprocessor over Intel (NMS:INTC) not that their 45 nm process is finally up to snuff.

AMD has done well in the server market where savvy consumers realize the price/performance value of purchasing server blades with AMD processors. Well informed IT managers know AMD processors perform better, use less power, and are less costly than their Intel counterparts. This market is technical and understands the tech-speak that AMD spews. The problem is that this market segment is becoming a commodity business with Intel and AMD continually one-upping each other. Revenue is good but margins are eroding.

AMD has not differentiated itself well in the PC market. The acquisition of ATI was suppose to release a slew of innovative designs that would propel AMD past Intel...or at least keep them equal. ATI continues to innovate in the graphic processor and board market, but the integrated microprocessor and graphic processor designs are lacking. Their announcements at CES are proof that they are not realizing the potential of integrating ATI into AMD. Financially ATI is pulling down AMD.

AMD must look to other market segments than PC and servers. They have an embedded processor division with multiple product lines that highly overlap. For several years this division has been running at a loss because of poor vision and financial management. The embedded processor market could be a bright spot in AMD's future if it had the right leadership to focus it on specific market segments and follow through in developing a complete ecosystem for it. Not only are they competing against Intel in this market but Freescale (FSL), TI (TXN), Marvell (MRVL), Infineon (IFX), Qualcomm (NMS:QCOM), and a few others. If it uses a little marketing prowess to find a segment of the market and utilize its technological expertise to disrupt it, then it could see some success. A new class of open mobile devices is emerging where AMD/ATI could show some leadership.

The bottom line is that AMD cannot continue to compete head-to-head with Intel. It has to differentiate itself as a company. Intel has much more breadth than AMD so it can survive any price and technology war with AMD. For AMD to improve its financial situation it should take the following steps:

Enable a management team that understands how to deliver value in the server, PC, mobile device, consumer electronic, and embedded processor market segments.
Learn how to market and serve each market segment.
Leverage the technical expertise of AMD and ATI to develop disruptive products.
Stop worrying about Intel and worry about AMD.

AMD has some great talent in the company that can achieve some great things if only it could get rid of the stagnation in the company. I see it following in the footsteps of Motorola which is no surprise since many of the executives came from Motorola.

Technorati tags: AMD, ATI, Intel

50 Mbit/s Internet on UTOPIA

2007-12-01T11:40:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Mstar announced their 50 Mbit/s symmetrical Internet access service for $39.95 per month over the UTOPIA network. Although I e-mailed the press release all around, I did not discuss the service here.

There is not really much to say about it because the press release speaks for itself. Service provider competition provides better services at a better price for consumers. UTOPIA is an open-access network where several service providers compete for the 250,000 households and 35,000 businesses within reach of the network. Qwest and Comcast are there too. This price is $4 per month less and more than 6x faster on downloads than Comcast offers.

This is what happens when competition breaks out in a market. Consumers have choice and better prices. Watch how quickly Comcast breaks out the DOCSIS 3.0 modems in this area. The best way for the U.S. to get back on top of the broadband penetration list is good 'ole capitalism.

Technorati tags: Mstar, UTOPIA, 50 Mbit/s, ISP

Comcast Does Block BitTorrent

2007-11-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

I have attempted to stay out of the discussion of whether Comcast blocks BitTorrent because it has been thoroughly discussed in many other forums. This blog is about insight into the industry not jumping onto the bandwagon slamming Comcast for disrupting BitTorrent traffic. This evening I have chosen to reverse my decision because I believe that Comcast has overreacted in restricting BitTorrent and can do a better job implementing traffic shaping that can benefit all users.

There is no question that Comcast is blocking my BitTorrent downloads in Boulder. At home I am a Comcast High Speed Internet subscriber dutifully paying $44 per month while complying with their Terms of Service agreement. The video programs I am trying to download with BitTorrent are freely available in MPEG-2, MPEG-4, QuickTime, and Windows Media without DRM or copyright restrictions. I just want to Miro to use the BitTorrent protocol to download the streams that I am subscribed. For a couple of months, I have not been able to download these programs legally through the Comcast network. I had no problem last week on Verizon's FiOS network downloading anything I wanted with BitTorrent.

I decided to call Comcast's technical support line to hear the "official" version of the story. I expected to hear that they don't block BitTorrent but a technician stated that they block BitTorrent transfers because of copyright issues. Apparently that person did not read the "official" company position on BitTorrent blocking. I asked whether downloading up to 1 GB per day was considered excessive and they said no. So I am not excessively downloading too much content and I have the right by the copyright holder to download the material. Why is Comcast blocking BitTorrent?

Comcast believes that P2P consumes too much bandwidth and prevents other user from a satisfactory experience. By preventing BitTorrent traffic, they have crudely implemented traffic shaping on their Internet service. Personally I believe traffic shaping has its place in managing network performance. In private networks managing applications and setting QoS parameters are legitimate tools to tune the network for optimum performance. The use of traffic shaping and QoS on Internet services is a bit trickier.

Users of Internet access services expect that they can run any application that they desire over their connection, and they expect that they will always get adequate performance. The two expectations can be mutually exclusive at times. Whether you are on a DOCSIS or DSL connection, it is a shared medium. ISP oversubscribe their networks to maximize utilization of the resources and keep costs down. If everyone continuously floods the network with traffic doing anything they want, then everyone will not get the performance that they expect.

This situation is why ISP utilize traffic shaping. We cannot expect everyone on the Internet to behave as we expect so we need some policing to ensure that all users receive a consistent experience. Just like in society, it is a question of how much policing is necessary.

Comcast has chosen to take the heavy hand and block all BitTorrent traffic. Apparently they believe that any P2P traffic is too much. I disagree with their conclusion. I appreciate the fact that they are keeping my neighbors from running servers and excessively file sharing so I cannot stream decent video, but they do not need to block all legal P2P traffic. If managed correctly P2P, like BitTorrent, can actually decrease traffic on their network. P2P protocols have legitimate and practical uses.

Comcast should set their policies to limit the amount of bandwidth given to P2P protocols during times of congestion. The Sandvine system has very granular controls to prioritize and manage protocols and applications based on available bandwidth, time-of-day, user, individual usage, and other parameters. They can easily implement a policy that slows down the amount of available bandwidth for P2P traffic during peak times and let it fly at night when usage is low.

Most P2P applications are working in the background sharing a file while the user is doing something else. For instance, Miro could easily wait until network usage is low to start downloading the 700 MB "GigaOm Show." Most of the time I watch it a day or two after it is first released. Likewise, it could seed to other computers during quiet times at night. Comcast could easily set policies to achieve the benefits of P2P protocols like BitTorrent without negatively impacting other customers.

Comcast's situation gets at the heart of the Net Neutrality discussion, and gives ammunition to those that believe that the Internet should be free of any QoS or traffic shaping. When implemented appropriately, traffic shaping and QoS mechanisms should actually improve the performance of applications running on the network not impede it.

This situation is a public relations nightmare for Comcast, but it will not hurt them financially because of our duopoly in the U.S. The worst outcome will be some class action law suits and/or FCC fines. If users had more of a choice, such as what open-access municipal networks bring, then you would see customers leaving Comcast. Then again I would not be paying $44 per month for only 8 Mbit/s down and 768 kbit/s up. Hopefully Comcast will change their policy on P2P protocols and implement more sophisticated traffic shaping through the Sandvine equipment before any wild eyed Congressmen or more lawyers get involved.

Technorati tags: BitTorrent, Comcast (CMCSA), Sandvine

Verizon Wireless Punches Hole in Walled Garden

2007-11-28T18:53:00.001-07:00

Verizon Wireless (VZW) was all over the news yesterday with its announcement to open its network to third-party devices and applications. While the media was focused on the ability to unlock handsets and use other CDMA compatible phones from Sprint and global carriers, the real news was that they were punching a hole in the walled garden of the Verizon Wireless network by allowing third-party applications to run on their network. Previously only Verizon approved applications designed with Qualcomm's BREW ran on their phones. This situation allowed Verizon to charge and control the content that ran through their network. You could not listen to streaming audio from Pandora because it was not a Verizon approved BREW application. Coincidentally, Verizon and Qualcomm received a piece of the action for every approved BREW application. It worked out well for everyone except the consumer.

According to the VZW announcement, early in 2008 third party application developers will be able to submit their applications for approval to Verizon to ensure compatibility and security. Verizon is not being altruistic with this "Any Apps, Any Device" initiative. They read the writing on the wall from Apple, Google, and the FCC towards open access networks and phones. As Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T become part of the Open Handset Alliance, Verizon Wireless stood to be the only major U.S. wireless carrier with a completely closed network; not a good P.R. move. They are trying to give the impression that they are being forward thinking while in reality it is just another "me too" move. Remember that in September they filed a law suit against the FCC's decision to open up a third of the 700 MHz spectrum to be auctioned in January. Last month they chose to drop the law suit only to let the CTIA continue the pursuit.

In general, opening up their network increases the value of the network because more devices can be connected through more applications. On the other hand, third-party applications could eat into some of Verizon's revenue for voice, music, and video. Content and service providers can offer VZW customers competing services. Voice over mobile allows subscribers to make voice calls over the flat-rate data network without using plan minutes. International calls can be made at a fraction of the cost VZW charges for them. Skype users now have their buddy lists to communicate with other Skype users or use SkypeOut. Wi-Fi enabled phones can jump between Wi-Fi hot-spots and the Verizon network minimizing the cost to the subscriber and improving coverage while inside buildings and the home. In the short-term there are significant opportunities for Skype and other similar companies to take advantage of mobile bypass to reduce international toll charges.

Video services are fairly costly through Verizon. Open source video streamers will quickly come on the scene that can play video podcasts and other programming. How long would it take before iTunes videos are available on Treos, Blackberrys, and J2ME capable devices? Video will be the test of how open the network is because of its extreme bandwidth requirements. Expect tiered pricing for different bandwidth levels.

In the short-term, the loss of revenue will drive down ARPU for VZW subscribers. Competition will cause subscribers to seek content from alternate providers, and VZW will have to respond by lowering prices of their content. New companies will sprout up around this new opportunity. The Net Neutrality argument will also arise just as it has on broadband access because the new content entrants will feel that they are being slighted. In the long-term as applications and devices proliferate, VZW will see greater usage of their network; therefore, driving up revenue overall. Also, it will drive them to develop unique and compelling content to woo customers back.

The complexion of the wireless market in the U.S. is beginning to change. The inertia to open mobile networks has begun which will have profound implications on we communicate and digest our content. When fully implemented, our mobile devices will be just another form factor for how we communicate. Applications will allow seamless movement of data and content between devices. Imagine watching a football game while on the train from work, pausing it to drive home. Picking it up on the HDTV in the living room and finishing it on the computer in the bedroom while finishing up some late e-mails. This is just one example of the new services we have in store via open-access networks. In the end, wireless service providers and consumers will be better off.

Note: There are several excellent articles that detail the VZW announcement.

Technorati tags: Verizon Wireless (VZW), wireless, open access

Consumers Fall for "Cyber Monday"

2007-11-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well, consumers were sucked into the marketing of "Cyber Monday" by retailers marketing arm Shop.org. It seems that a record of single day retail sales was set at $733 million up 21% from last year according to Comscore. It probably didn't hurt that Amazon, Apple, Buy.com, Dell, Overstock and many other on-line retailers offered pretty good deals on Monday. Once again the herd mentality proves accurate. Consumers flocked to the Internet to avoid the rush of the crowd. It seems that the crowd caught Yahoo! off guard when their merchant solution servers crashed for a while. Personally I saw some great deals, but I'll probably wait until the last minute to buy anything...after all I am a man.

Technorati tags: Cyber Monday, retail, shopping

80% of Americans Use the Web Daily

2007-11-22T14:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving readers.

A Harris Interactive poll finds that 80% of all adult US citizens regularly use the Internet. Almost 200 million Americans spend an average of 11 hours a week online. The demographics of online Americans are beginning to mirror our population in general. With broadband penetration nearing 50% of the population, a little over 30% are still using dial-up and mobile phones as a way to access the Internet.

This upward trend demonstrates the pervasiveness of the Internet in American life. As more people have access to the Internet from multiple rooms in their homes, office, and even on-the-go, this number will increase further; thereby, driving the need for greater bandwidth and innovative applications.

I am writing this article from my over 65 year old mother-in-laws home connected to FiOS. Nine percent of people in this age group are regular Internet users representing 16% of the total population.

Technorati tags: broadband, Internet

Bye, Bye Sprint Airave

2007-11-21T17:26:00.001-07:00

A month ago, I was excited to install Sprint's Airave to boost my signal strength in and around my house. I was excited about its potential to further eat into traditional POTS sales. This type of service is ideal for T-Mobile and Sprint to increase ARPU since their companies do not own any wireline networks in North America.

After a little over a month of using the Airave, I had to take it back. Once the unit was activated, it worked well except for the occasional dropped call. Airave technical support in Fort Worth, Orlando, and Overland Park diligently worked to determine why the unit kept dropping calls. They determined that the IPSec tunnel was restarting every several minutes which caused the unit to restart. This was the source of my problems. I was delighted that Sprint was actually securing my connection, but why was my VPN tunnel dropping? The technician confirmed with Samsung that my Netgear WGT-624v2 router was not handling the computation/translation of the IKE key correctly with NAT.

During the course of troubleshooting, I could no longer receive any incoming any calls or text messages. I could still make outgoing calls though. Sprint could not explained what changed to make my unit worthless. My solution was to buy a new router or take the Airave back. I am perfectly happy with my router and do not plan on replacing it for another couple of years. I suppose that I could put a Ethernet switch on my cable modem as long as I could get another IP address from Comcast, but I really do not want to keep troubleshooting the problem.

In the mean time, I received my second bill since activating the Airave. The charges were almost incomprehensible. I was charged a $26 activation fee that was supposed to be waved plus double charged for a month of service. I took back the unit last weekend and tried to have the retail store give me credit. They pushed me off to Customer Service. My first call to customer service was a failure and the second was not much better. I still have not been completely credited for my one month plus experiment with Airave. It is not hard to see why 337,000 customers fled Sprint last quarter.

Sprint's Airave initiative is a bold move to capitalize on the trend for younger people to exclusively use their cell phones whether at home or on the go. At the moment it is superior to T-Mobile's service because users do not need a new cell phone. Once again their execution of the service is lacking and customer service makes the experience a nightmare. I know that the purpose of the limited introduction is to work out the kinks. I just hope that they can work out all of them before the mass market launch.

Technorati tags: Airave, Sprint (S), wireless

IEEE Denver Section Awards Banquet

2007-10-26T20:39:00.001-06:00

Earlier this evening, the Denver Section of the IEEE held its annual awards banquet at the Boulder Marriott. The picture is of the evening's speaker Howard Lieberman, Chairman and CEO of the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute. I had the pleasure of sitting next to him during the dinner for a lively discussion of the IEEE and state of Electrical Engineering.

Howard has a very accomplished career in the audio and computer industries, and now he leads the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute. In his current role he tries to help companies learn how to innovate. A real challenge in a company where they do not already have a culture of innovation. Innovation is not something that can be institutionalized.

The discussion at our table centered around the state of Electrical Engineering and the IEEE. Electrical Engineers since WWII had always felt a sense of security in their careers until the bubble burst in 2001. Now we are generally a depressed lot because many career tracks have been derailed and job security is a thing of the past. Outsourcing has also impacted our sense of well being.

The EE that have survived and even thrived have realized that they are essentially free agents. They know that there is no such thing as job security whether in a big or small company. The only security that they know is what they can create for themselves. We constantly must assess our career to protect ourselves and our families. As Engineers we still have an ethical obligation to our employers to continually produce value.

The IEEE at a juncture. It is struggling to be relevant to mid-career electrical engineers. Membership numbers indicate that they loose graduates after a few years into their careers. This is the group most affected by the current shifting career market. The Institute is not doing an adequate job meeting the needs of these members. Sure it has career workshops, webinars, seminars, on-line forums, career site, and lobbying by the IEEE USA. These are all valuable services, but they are missing the most valuable service of all: the redefinition of what it means to be an Electrical Engineer and assisting these members through the transition.

The IEEE has as many members as the AMA, but the average person cannot tell you what an EE contributes to society; they sure can for doctors. The reason is that the IEEE is filled full of academicians and institutionalized employees. Although the are a valuable resource to the Institute, they do not fully represent the membership at large. There should be more entrepreneurs, small and mid-size company employees, consultants, and the self-employed. They should be elected to office, placed on committees, and used as volunteers to shape the future of our profession. Headquarters should utilize them to understand what education, services, and legislative positions are important. These actions would not only build a stronger Institute, but make membership of the IEEE a life-long endeavor.

Technorati tags: IEEE, electrical engineer

The Future of User Generated Content

2007-10-10T14:35:00.000-06:00

On October 10, Silicon Flatirons held a forum entitled "The Future of User Generated Content." The three panels contained some very intelligent speakers from mostly traditional media outlets. There were a couple of "new" media representatives like ManiaTV. As expected issues such as copyright law, fair use, DRM, network neutrality, and business models were discussed. Although I was hoping for a lively discussions about how "new" media was going to disrupt "traditional" media, the panelists focused on how their company understood "new" media and would capitalize on it.

I would have preferred to hear a more lively discussion on where the future of user generated content is going and how it would change the models for content creation, distribution, and revenue generation. How would "traditional" media be impacted by this disruption? They really needed some panelists like Jeff Pulver, Adam Curry, or Mark Zuckerberg to stir up the pot.

I like Silicon Flatiron functions, but they often reinforce the status quo instead of introducing innovation or dealing with controversy. How about a panel between Comcast and the EFF for the next one?

Technorati tags: Silicon Flatirons, user generated content

Know Your Presidential Candidates

2007-09-29T01:36:00.000-06:00

Although the purpose of this blog is discuss communications industry issues, I am going to deviate this one article to the presidential election. Americans should have as many facts as possible so they can choose a candidate that they feel will be best for the job. Too often we rely on sound bites provided by the media to form our opinions instead of taking the time to research the candidates. As the government increasingly permeates every facet of our lives, we should devote sufficient time to choosing the candidates that we will feel will reflect our beliefs and mores. People spend more time choosing a cell phone and carrier than they to a presidential candidate. No wonder why the presidential race has turned into a popularity contest and we have one of the lowest voter turnouts than most other democracies. Our government is not truly representative since less than half of Americans vote. Enough lecturing for the evening.

Minnesota Public Radio created a quiz that scores answers against presidential candidates stances on many of the vital issues of the day. It is far from scientific, but it is a good way to see how your beliefs and opinions stack up against the candidates. Some of the questions are worded to narrowly for me which I knew would skew my results. I was still surprised at the outcome. The candidate I thought was closest to me ranked forth. I had no idea that the three above him had views closer to me. The quiz prompted me to look deeper at a few candidates and their positions. The result of my research changed my candidate choice for the primary.

Take the quiz below and spend some time researching the candidates. You may be as surprised as I was at the result. You owe it to a country that has given you so much.

Quiz: Select a Candidate 2008

Technorati tags: politics, president, candidate, election 2008

Why Don't You Have an OpenID?

2007-09-25T12:06:00.001-06:00

The OpenID initiative took a big step forward this week at the Digital ID World Conference in San Francisco when France Telecom's Orange announced that it will adopt the OpenID standard for user authentication. Orange will provide an OpenID for all of its 40 million subscribers, and they are the first major telecom service provider to implement OpenID. Above and beyond significantly adding to the 200 million of current OpenID users, every Orange subscriber that uses their OpenID will have their identity validated by Orange as a result of their business relationship. Merchants, financial institutions, and government entities that require an authenticated identity can rely on OpenID from Orange to authenticate and verify their customers for access to information and transactions.

For those of you unfamiliar with OpenID, probably most of you, OpenID was created to provide a single login mechanism for all of those web sites you login to use. If you are like me, you have almost a hundred different accounts on various web sites. You create a user ID and most likely use the same password for all of them. That is not very secure, but are you going to generate and remember a 12 character password like 8D[xr#pm5UW>a for each web site? I didn't think so. OpenID users can create different personas to use when registering with web sites. Who wants to take the time to fill out those darn registration forms just to occasionally read an article? Besides I don't like giving out my personal information all over the place. I have an OpenID persona with minimal information that I am willing to provide sites like the Washington Post.

Users can obtain an OpenID from several different identity providers so there is not a dependence on a single company to store all of your identity information like Microsoft with Passport. If you don't like your provider, just terminate your account and move to a different provider. You can even use the delegate feature to create OpenID URL that does not change if you change identity providers. For instance I use http://blog.inphotonicsresearch.com/ as my OpenID instead of http://milliman.myOpenID.com/. That way if I change providers, I don't have to update sites where I may share my OpenID.

Companies like SignOn.com and myOpenID.com are just two of many OpenID providers. Larger companies like VeriSign, Yahoo!, and Microsoft support OpenID. Microsoft has incorporated OpenID support into its CardSpace initiative. CardSpace's goal is to authenticate a user's identity and information to CardSpace enabled web sites and applications. A site supporting CardSpace will pop up the CardSpace application so the user can select an identity. The application will send a token and information to the requesting web site or application. Once OpenID enabled, CardSpace will provide the same function to OpenID enabled web sites.

I would like to see financial institutions and Internet service providers be identity providers. That way a user's identity can be verified and validated for important applications. Users can still remain anonymous when they want by creating another OpenID account. For instance I could use my validated Chase OpenID to purchase books from Amazon or music from iTunes or select a different persona with limited information while reading articles on USA Today. I can create an entirely new OpenID from myOpenID if I want to be completely anonymous on MySpace.

OpenID has many other interesting features relating to social networking. For instance I can share one of my OpenID personas with work colleagues so they can see the publications I read or subscribe. Technorati, Plaxo and Basecamp are the two sites I use most frequently that support OpenID. I go in and out of Basecamp several times a day and I only have to authenticate with them once in the morning if I haven't already logged into another OpenID site. Now if only Google, Sprint, Chase, E*Trade, Comcast, Pandora, and other sites I use would utilize it. Expect to see greater adoption over the rest of the year as more people buy, trade, seek healthcare, and live over the Internet. Identity will increasingly be in the spotlight as it was this week at the Digital ID World conference.

Technorati tags: OpenID, Orange, France Telecom

When Net Neutrality Goes Away

2007-09-23T15:03:00.001-06:00

David Isenberg posted a rather humorous picture on his blog portraying a possible pricing plan of a tiered Internet. Although I find the graphic humorous, it is inaccurate. More over it creates more FUD about Net Neutrality.

Click on the link and have a chuckle, as I did, remembering that access to any and every non-malicious web site should be a basic tenant of every Internet service. It does not preclude the ability to prioritize real-time and near real-time traffic for the delivery of voice, audio, and video services that can provide true competition to out-of-band competing services provided by the incumbent suppliers.

Supporting municipal open access broadband networks is another way to guarantee Net Neutrality.

Technorati tags: Isenberg, net neutrality

Sprint's Airave: A VoIP Alternative

2007-09-22T15:27:00.000-06:00

Being on the bleeding edge is not all that it is cracked up to be. Monday I wrote about Sprint's Airave femtocell where they provide unlimited calling to and from the same CDMA phone as long as callers are in range of the cell. My personal attraction to the device was to cover the poor reception that I receive around my home. The Sprint Customer Retention department suggested solving the problem by roaming since Verizon's coverage is much better. Although their remedy would have solved my voice reception problems, I would still have limited to no EV-DO access. My response back to the representative was, "Why would I maintain an account with Sprint for a crippled service when I could switch to Verizon and have it all?" They were dumbfounded, and I gave up.

A picture of my fully functional Airave taken by my Sprint phone and posted directly to my blog through the femtocell.

Moments later Sprint's Technical Support group (Tier 1) called back and was appalled at Customer Retention's suggestion to roam on the Verizon network. "What kind of retention plan is that?" the technician muttered. She recommended picking up an Airave at my local Sprint retail outlet. A few hours later, I drove to the Longmont Sprint store to pick up a free Airave adapter. The store manager and a salesman struggled for 30 minutes to just scan the ESN and add the service to my account. Finally they gave up and just handed me the box with the instructions to dial *2.

I thought I would activate the product during my drive to Denver Wednesday evening. Of course the activation representative had no clue about the Airave, so they transferred me to EMBARQ's customer service line. Fortunately, I knew how to reach the only group in Sprint currently supporting Airave from my previous adventures with them. After almost an hour on the phone with an advanced technician, she admitted that she could not activate the device. She escalated a trouble ticket to the project manager that would get back to me within 53 hours. Does anyone know why they always say 53 hours?

Finally Friday, after many calls and hours spent with Sprint, my Airave was should start working around 3 P.M. I waited...and waited...and waited for the 4 blue lights to illuminate. I was about to put the device back in its box when shortly after 5 P.M. the GPS light turned blue followed by the System light turning blue. They stayed illuminated for a few minutes before reverting to their typical red state. I powered down my phone and powered it up again. The lights all turned blue and I could actually make calls through it. Valhalla!

For the next hour, I wandered around the house making calls, receiving calls, and testing the 1xRTT data service. I must say that the device works as advertised. My calls are clear and steady as I roam through half of my house. I can send and receive text messages plus roam the web. Sprint calls directed through the Airave remain of toll quality even when I load down my Internet connection. I wish I could say the same for my VoIP service. Funny too since the Airave is at the end of a chain of devices from cable modem, ATA, router, then Airave. My biggest complaint is that the signal falls off quicker than my Wi-Fi router. Sprint advertises an approximate coverage area of 5,000 square feet that equates to a 40 feet radius around the Airave in free space. Forty feet reaches just to the edge of our living room; not enough to cover the whole house unless I can figure a way to install it in the middle of my house. The supervisor that activated my device and set up my account informed me that they are considering increasing power levels to increase coverage.

After a few days playing with Airave, it really has the potential of replacing land lines especially for twentysomethings that have never purchased a POTS line. It offers the simplicity of a single number per person on a single device, and the cost is comparable to most VoIP or digital phone services. Families will benefit because they can each be on their phone simultaneously. No more shouting, "I'm on the phone," or purchasing multiple lines. Around our house we are always looking for the cordless phone that is ringing in the sofa cushions. E911 is supported through the built-in GPS receiver. The only reason I see why I should keep my VoIP service is the inexpensive international calling and slightly higher voice quality . I will be curious to note how our calling patterns shift over the next couple of months. Kudos to Sprint for embracing this technology instead of resisting it.

Technorati tags: Sprint (S), Airave

Sprint Releases AIRAVE to Enhance In-Home Coverage

2007-09-17T21:10:00.001-06:00

Sprint announced today that it is releasing AIRAVE to select customers in the Denver and Indianapolis markets. The device is intended to replace a customer's landline by offering unlimited incoming, outgoing, and long distance calls with enhanced coverage inside the home. Sprint customers can use the same CDMA phone that they currently use on the Sprint network. The AIRAVE is a femtocell that utilizes customers' broadband service to communicate with the Sprint network.

The Samsung manufactured device covers approximately 5,000 square feet overlaying coverage of the CDMA network. Up to three Sprint subscribers can use the AIRAVE simultaneously as long as they are registered with the device. If users are within the reach of the device, calls are initiated and received through it without utilizing any of the subscriber's plan minutes. A subscriber can initiate a call on the femtocell then continue it outside its range on the Sprint network. They will be charged for the time on the Sprint Nationwide network. If they originate the call outside the femtocell, then come within range, they will have to re-establish the call to stop being charged for it.

The AIRAVE is available in Sprint stores today (my local store had 8 of them) for $49.99. A single line costs $15 per month for unlimited calling, and $30 per month for a family plan. AIRAVE does not work with the iDEN system or EV-DO as far as I can tell. AIRAVE is only available in Denver and Indianapolis for the moment with Nashville later this year. Nationwide rollout is planned for 2008.

AIRAVE is Sprint's answer to T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home without requiring a new phone. T-Mobile utilizes Wi-Fi for its in home wireless coverage while Sprint relies on the CDMA standard which is superior because customers can keep their same devices. Both systems require a broadband connection.

Every six months Sprint adjusts my local cell site to move a minor null away from U.S. 36 west of my house. Sprint ends up moving the null to our development preventing adequate coverage in my neighborhood (outside buildings). They do not really have a choice since the antennas are fixed to a building. The phone registers with the HLR, but calls go to voicemail. I open trouble tickets and eventually service is restored. Sprint's coverage maps show great coverage in my neighborhood if you think that receiving voicemail notifications qualifies as great coverage.

AIRAVE would be an answer to my voice service problems if only Sprint would waive the charges for the device and service. So far they refuse to do anything about it. I hoped that they would at least offer to split the bill with me. What I really want is a repeater to boost voice and data signals. Too bad I cannot find anyone in Sprint that knows that they offer one for such situations. My next step is to call customer retention to see if they can help live up to their advertising that they have coverage in my neighborhood. I am going to call customer retention tomorrow to see if they will offer an AIRAVE to augment their poor coverage in my neighborhood.

Time will tell if AIRAVE will actually accelerate the replacement of the landline. At $30 per month, it is a cost-effective replacement to a landline with unlimited long distance. The femtocell will certainly boost the performance and use of cell phones in home and probably reduce calls to customer service complaining about coverage. Hopefully a future version will support EV-DO. This service may actually reduce churn from the Sprint network.

AIRAVE Web Site

Additional articles: Engadget, Phone Scoop, Washington Post

Technorati tags: Sprint (S), AIRAVE, Samsung, femtocell

Save the Cradle of Radio Astronomy

2007-09-15T11:40:00.001-06:00

Several weeks ago I wrote about the passing of an era with closing of the Bell Labs' Holmdel facility. While I highlighted the innovation and invention that I was exposed, I failed to mention many of the historically significant events that occurred in and around the facility. One of those events was the birth of radio astronomy.

The striking mirrored glass building with its cooling pond and transistor shaped water tower sits on 472 acres of land required at the time to meet occupancy density requirements. The land was put to good use beyond the soccer field and baseball diamonds. In 1931, before the land was developed, Karl Guthe Jansky set up the world's first radio telescope to measure and characterize the noise from space that may interfere with microwave communications signals that transported long-distance phone calls. The spot where Jansky set up the antennas is considered to be the cradle of radio astronomy. The exact site is commemorated with a sculpture and plaque. His pioneering work let to the discovery of quasars, pulsars, and black holes, as well as the formulation of the big bang theory (at a site just up the street).

Now that the building and land have been sold to a real estate developer, the fate of the Jansky Memorial remains unknown. The developer plans to demolish the building and erect office buildings and homes. Holmdel is a very upscale township in Monmouth county were office space and homes are sold at a premium. I am sure that the developers plan on developing that land to its fullest potential. The developer and current owner of the property realizes the significance of the site and Jansky Monument, but there are no guarantees what may happen to it once the property is developed and sold.

Three former Bell Labs astrophysics researchers are trying to preserve the site and have it designated a historical landmark. Their web site, Save the Cradle of Radio Astronomy, is devoted to the task of obtaining that historical designation. For more information on Jansky or the effort to preserve the monument read the excellent article in "The Institute" of the IEEE that Willie D. Jones wrote. If you are interested in preserving this historical landmark, visit the site to see what you can do.

Engadget Story Link

Technorati tags: Bell Labs, Holmdel, Jansky, radio astronomy

TerraNet Wireless P2P Is Disruptive

2007-09-14T13:38:00.001-06:00

From the land of Skype, Kazaa, and other innovations come another potential market disrupting technology: peer-to-peer wireless networks. TerraNet in Lund, Sweden built a system for free local wireless calls, free texting, and long distance VoIP calls. The disruptive part is that the system does not rely on relaying each call through a carrier's base station. They utilize a peer-to-peer protocol over a wireless medium to communicate directly with another phone up to two kilometers away. We use to call these systems walkie-talkies.

The difference with the TerraNet system is that they can use other phones as relay stations to reach their destination without going through a base station. Each call can travel up to 7 hops to reach its destination giving a maximum reach of about 20 kilometers. If there is a TerraNet USB dongle within that 20 km diameter, callers can make phone calls to phones on the PSTN. The dongle plugs into a computer or router that has Internet access creating a self-organizing mesh network with wireline connectivity.

The fact that users do not rely on a carrier's radio access network is a disruptive concept that traditional carriers will likely have a hard time embracing. Traditional wireless carriers typically have every call or datagram travel through one of their base stations so they can charge for the service. Peer-to-peer calls would be free, but that is not different than the plans that Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile offer now for calling phones on their network. My plan with Sprint includes unlimited calling to other Sprint users.

I recently took a road trip in two cars with my family. My wife and I brought our cell phones and two-way radios to handle our drive through that wireless wasteland in western Nebraska. We made extensive use of the two-way radios the whole trip because of the reliability and convenience. We had a range of about 2 km just like the TerraNet system. With wireless peer-to-peer built into our cell phones, we would have not needed the walkie-talkies especially with at PTT feature. If there were other users in range maybe we could have reached the PSTN on occasion; thereby, generating revenue for Sprint. I see great value to traditional and non-traditional wireless carriers with this technology.

The benefit to a traditional wireless carrier is increased coverage in areas with marginal signal strength. The big 4 wireless carriers all show excellent coverage at my home, but the reality is marginal coverage at best. I frequently miss and drop calls while receiving text messages and voicemail notifications. I always return them by land line because I cannot rely on sufficient call quality or even a connection. Just think if I could leverage the better coverage of other nearby Sprint customers. My cell phone would almost always work at home. If they allowed me to install a dongle in my home network, then I would always have excellent coverage. T-Mobile is already doing this for their customers.

Bidders in the 700 MHz C-block of spectrum could differentiate their service with this technology and get a deployment boost. First it would allow them to quickly increase coverage without a massive radio access network deployment. They could offer customers a phone and USB dongle to augment their radio access network. Secondly they could reduce the cost of operating the network by relying on customer's Internet connections for completing calls to the PSTN or distant users. Finally, Apple could include the technology in their iPhones to share chat sessions, music and video between other iPhones without relying on Wi-Fi connectivity. My guess is that integrating iChat with iTunes would go over better than Zune's implementation. Imagine distributing movies to Apple TV users by copying pieces from your neighbors' boxes. Multi-player role playing games can be organized into teams from only point-to-point connections. The applications are endless.

TerraNet has not announced any partners or customers yet, so their traction remains to be seen. As long as wireless carriers are open-minded about the peer-to-peer aspect of the technology, this company has an extremely bright future. In Europe and other places where handsets are unlocked, TerraNet does not need to rely on the carriers just the handset manufacturers. In the U.S. market, carrier acceptance is a must. There is still the opportunity to work with bidders of the 700 MHz spectrum to provide a truly disruptive wireless service. Let's see who has the vision.

TelecomTV article

Technorati tags: TerraNet, wireless, peer-to-peer

ITU-T Recommendations Free On-Line

2007-09-11T09:36:00.001-06:00

The International Telecommunications Union Telecommunications Standardization Sector (ITU-T) has decided to offer over 3,000 of its standards for free in PDF version only. The ITU came to its senses when it realized that they can better serve their mission when they offer the standards to people for free instead of charging moderate fees. Beginning in January of this year, they allowed web site visitors to download standards free of charge. Over 300,000 standards were downloaded during the first three quarters of this year compared to 500 purchased last year. I guess that they realized that selling standards is not a money making proposition. It is better to make them freely available to anyone who wants them so they can be widely implemented; otherwise, they are not of much value to the industry.

Let's hope that other standards organizations catch on to this move and begin providing their standards free on-line. With the exception of IEEE, Telcordia and CableLabs, most standards organizations worldwide are supported by governments, and the standards are created and edited by industry volunteers. The cost of providing free on-line copies is negligible. If the purpose of a standard is to promote multi-vendor interoperability and safety, shouldn't they be widely available? The ITU has made a great step in promoting the use of their standards globally and spurring innovation.

Technorati tags: International Telecommunications Union, ITU, standards, telecommunications

Is Apple Going to Become a Wireless Carrier?

2007-09-10T20:49:00.000-06:00

Rumors were abound all day about the possibility of Apple bidding on the 700 MHz C block spectrum that the FCC will auction off on January 16th of next year. Articles appeared in BusinessWeek, Wired, C|Net, and TelecomTV about a possible bid by Apple. Up to now, all of the rumors and discussion have been about Google bidding on this spectrum. Google's successful play to have some of the spectrum open to any device or application opens up the rumor mill beyond the usual suspects of carriers. With the launch of the iPhone and complaints about the AT&T network it was only time before Apple was identified as having ambitions in acquiring this chunk of coveted spectrum. Although the rumor is plausible, does it have any legs to it or is it just hopeful speculation?

Apple can certainly afford the minimum bid of $4.6 billion required to participate, but does it make business sense for them? The short answer is yes and no. The obvious application is to use this spectrum for access to the iTunes Store to sell music, TV programs, and movies without sharing revenue with wireless carriers. Also, Apple can retain control over the complete user experience which is why the iPod has been so successful. Breaking the connection to the PC will allow the Apple to create an iPod Touch and iPhone that can access content over-the-air without depending on cutting in another carrier to use their network. Even iTV could benefit from access at 700 MHz.

What does not make sense is for them to get into the business of operating a voice network. Creating a voice network is an expensive proposition beyond building a radio access network. Voice services are best left to the ones that already have a network.

Remember that the C block is a 22 MHz slice of spectrum that is to be open to devices and applications. This means that Apple could invite a selection of voice and application providers to resell their services over the network. Apple could partner with a carrier like T-Mobile or Sprint to provide voice service in this or another frequency block. Sprint is very comfortable selling capacity to MVNO, and they could certainly use a boost.

Another option would be for Apple to partner with Google to provide a collection of applications. Google could provide Internet and voice services to the iPhone while Apple retains control of the entertainment services. Apple could even create a version of iTunes to run on the Google phone. I am sure that Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs have had discussions on the topic since Schmidt sits on Apple's board.

The wildest option would be for Apple to work with eBay to provide Skype's voice service over this network. Skype has the user base and network to deliver a quality voice service.

The most likely scenario appears to be a consortium with Apple, Google, and eBay to bid on the spectrum block with an experienced network operator not already in the business; maybe DirectTV or Echo Star. The satellite provider will not only run the network but offer services to their customers over it. Skype/eBay can sell voice services to the other partners while Apple sells devices, music, and video and Google sells ads through all outlets. It is much easier to share the cost of this multibillion dollar network across four or more partners than go it alone.

I am sure that in the months to come that many more rumors will surface as the bidding gets closer. I like the idea of these companies getting together to create new and exciting mobility opportunities. Their success could open even more spectrum to innovators.

Note to Steve Jobs or Eric Schmidt: Feel free to call me if you need leadership with this venture.

Technorati tags: Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), eBay (EBAY), 700 MHz, wireless

The Truth About PowerBoost

2007-08-27T21:21:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Tim Sprinkle of The Bridge for an article on high-speed Internet access marketing techniques. The author wanted to know if there was any value to the cable companies' on-demand bandwidth services. I provided some rather blunt quotes about how the telcos and cablecos market only bandwidth. It is like buying video services and getting a snowy picture with the cable company saying that they did their part by providing you any picture.

Technorati tags: Cable modem, DSL, Comcast (CMCSA)