Blogs :: TelecomWeb policyWednesday, November 7, 2007
The User Bill of Rights is something that’s needed by everyone involved in combining data and voice (and with increasing frequency video and presence) on IP networks to deliver the benefits of unified communications, including the end customer who is... [read more]
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Back in the bad old days, there was a phone company un-affectionately dubbed by some as “USWorst,” with customer disservice derided as “Mountain Bull” – but that was before the CEO from a lot of those bad old days was convicted... [read more]
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Decision makers in all sizes of companies are considering using professional services between 2008 and 2010 to help them adopt the right Voice over IP (VoIP) and convergence assets. This increased interest in professional services is most likely the result of... [read more]
Sunday, September 9, 2007
There’s nothing like a nice lightning storm to destroy what must have been tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of modems and other electronic goodies around the neighborhood where I live, a situation that, of course, creates an instant... [read more]
Thursday, August 30, 2007
This is one of the most predictable times of the year here in Washington. Most of the decision-makers are gone, the staffs are trying to catch up on the various piles of work that have accumulated over the past few months while still leaving early and taking... [read more]
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
I’m about to risk the life of my computers by plugging their Ethernet ports into the electric power outlets in my house. Let me explain. I’ve been writing about broadband over powerline (BPL) extensively for almost three years now. In general, my... [read more]
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Somebody is not online. Actually, lots of somebodies are not online. And therein lays the failure so far of PC-based instant messaging (IM) and VoIP to supplant traditional time division multiplex (TDM) plain old telephone service (POTS). To be more... [read more]
Monday, July 30, 2007
So here’s a challenge: How do you market a “new” product that has been around for more than a hundred years and that almost every household in the United States already has? It’s just as difficult as creating the next must-see TV... [read more]
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
It didn’t take more than a matter of hours for the flow of offers from various “pure play” VoIP providers to start, following the untimely death of “pure play” VoIP provider SunRocket, as everyone in the business started... [read more]
Friday, June 29, 2007
Yes, if I walk out in the driveway (I only live about 35 minutes outside of Washington, D.C.) and hold my phone high in the air, I may be able to get one or two bars, but that’s it. Get close to the house, and it’s gone. Same is true for most of... [read more]
Thursday, June 7, 2007
A good friend of mine is just about ready to enter the dream retirement after 30 years with a major car manufacturer, building a sizable 401(k) and putting both daughters through college. And he still hasn’t hit 55 (and that’s SO galling)... [read more]
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Gosh, I’m all Joost up – I just watched my first, fully commercial (not beta) IPTV shows delivered over the Internet. Joost (pronounced “juiced”) is the brainchild of the same techno whizzes that gave us Skype – which I in... [read more]
Thursday, April 12, 2007
I still find it amazing how easily some folks knuckle under to terrorism and hate – like the DSL Forum, for instance. Or perhaps it’s just a case of uncaring ignorance. I just got a press release from the Forum trumpeting “DSL Forum... [read more]
Friday, March 30, 2007
The Federal Corporation Commission took a shocking step when they decided to actually gather information about a topic before they make a rule saying how they are going to regulate it. They approved an inquiry exploring how companies that provide high-speed... [read more]
Thursday, March 8, 2007
I have a feeling it may be weeks before the industry discovers whether it has survived the new earlier March 11 date for daylight savings time or whether the Congress and the president have foisted on us a "Daylight Savings Crime." ... [read more]
Thursday, February 15, 2007
The FCC is now catching on to what everyone in this business already knows: the country needs a national broadband plan. To be fair, FCC insiders have been well-aware of this for several years now, though the in-house experts have not received much guidance... [read more]
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
My partner sent me a recent article from The New York Times, "Want an iPhone? Beware the iHandcuffs," written by Randall Stross. The essence of the article is that Apple (Computer) Corporation has behaved insensitively and arrogantly in its design... [read more]
Monday, February 5, 2007
The Internet, it seems, is making it harder these days for folks to get a fair trial – and not simply because of the instant transmission of news. To explain, I just finished a couple of days of fulfilling my obligation as a U.S. citizen to serve... [read more]
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
A reader wrote this morning with a question about the role of communications technology in our global competitiveness: “I have a question for you concerning the future of broadband in the U.S. With Verizon and AT&T rolling out FiOS and u-verse... [read more]
Monday, January 22, 2007
Well, well … it looks like the FCC, in cahoots with both the nation’s telcos and cablecos, doesn’t want the hoi poloi (that’s us guys, the great unwashed public) to know where broadband really is available. The Center for... [read more]
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
OK, they won. Can we go home now? The “net neutrality” enthusiasts are proclaiming a major victory regarding the imposition of rules that will allegedly protect the Internet from feared destruction caused by rapacious ISPs. The victory came in the... [read more]
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
The AT&T/BellSouth merger represents changing times. One can regard it as a triumph of palliative reform by extracting service, price and employment concessions, and guarantees from AT&T. One can admire it as masterful brinksmanship for AT&T and... [read more]
Friday, December 29, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
The nearly stalled AT&T/BellSouth merger late today received a unanimous Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval - about 24 hours after the companies apparently caved into Democratic pressure and anti-consolidation critics in order to secure the... [read more]
Sunday, December 3, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
In a federal capital increasingly working off borrowed money and borrowed time, it’s difficult to imagine Washington, D.C.’s, spin makers resisting both the symbolic and real monetary value of lucrative spectrum auctions. The Federal... [read more]
Monday, October 30, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
Last year at this time, the telecom community was tricked by the Federal Communications Commission, which finally treated SBC Communications and Verizon Communications to "mega mergers" with AT&T and MCI, respectively. It soon will be slightly... [read more]
Thursday, September 28, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
Paranoia strikes deep. Like the gifted kid from the book-based movie "The Sixth Sense," the Hewlett-Packard effort to probe board director leaks to major news organizations about sensitive corporate developments and directions might make members of... [read more]
Thursday, September 7, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
It’s always amazing to see how global regulatory regimes emulate each other and how their major constituents – like incumbent and competitive carriers – behave similarly from one country to the other. Like the Federal Communications... [read more]
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
We hear almost half (nearly 47 percent) of all American food dollars are spent away from home; apparently the marketeers at Verizon Communications have heard this, too. A recent promotion campaign for its emerging FiOS network television services in... [read more]
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
"There are too many small men of envy and ambition who try to disrupt the government of Rome," says Pontius Pilate in the movie Ben-Hur. Well, if you were to read many of the pro-network neutrality and anti-merger blogs, emails and web sites these... [read more]
Thursday, August 3, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
We hear the federal government as well as telecom and information technology companies are more aggressively advocating that the medical community - especially doctors and clinics – make more use of online communications, including Internet email for... [read more]
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
Verizon Communications appears to be having its up and downs in divesting Caribbean and Latin American telecom interests to Mexico’s America Movil SA in three separate deals valued at a total of more than $3.6 billion in cash. Sources, however, say the... [read more]
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
Is it a new low, simply poor taste or merely harmless political humor? Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has become the top whipping boy for pro-network neutrality advocates on the Web because of the estimated 10-minute speech he made to put down a net neutrality... [read more]
Thursday, July 6, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
Verizon Communications workers installing the company’s Fios fiber optic network facilities reportedly have improved their accident and damage rates significantly since first starting the massive multi-billion buildout in mid 2004, but they are still... [read more]
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
Reports are circulating around Capitol Hill than more than 200 amendments have already surfaced or been formally submitted on the revised substitute draft of the Senate’s sweeping Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband... [read more]
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
There’s a lot of lobby group and industry association pressure to make sure Congress supports advanced telecom services such as ”triple play” and broadband access to rural subscribers via universal service and other programs, but one of the... [read more]
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
We’re waiting on a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to decide to what extent as well as whether the Federal Communications Commission can write new rules on unbundled network elements... [read more]
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta:
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation gave legislators and staffers over the holiday break a little more light reading to digest with a 16-page paper that proposes a "third way'" solution to the heated and increasingly polarized... [read more]
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
The Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) says a poll it sponsored shows that public confidence is waning on the security of the nation's digital infrastructure, meaning the Internet. The nationwide survey of 1,150 adults conducted by Pineda... [read more]
Friday, May 19, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
The industry is anxiously waiting for more details to emerge from the Federal Communications Commission on its mandate that all broadband/Voice over Internet (VoIP) service providers connected with the public switched telephone network (PSTN) comply with... [read more]
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
Telecom technology, economy and policy gurus are getting together next week at the Columbia University Club of New York to discuss the currently hot topic of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) peering - network interconnection akin to current peer... [read more]
Friday, May 12, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
So because of the fierce reaction to the National Security Agency (NSA) collecting millions of U.S. subscriber call data records, we may be treated to the spectacle of Senate and House hearings that haul in witnesses to testify from the telecom... [read more]
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
New Yorkers are up in arms! Well that’s nothing new, you say, but some folks in the Big Apple are mad at the U.S. House of Representatives about the Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act (H.R5252) introduced last month by... [read more]
Monday, May 8, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
Just heard from yet another group that wants to fight regulation of the Internet and oppose network neutrality advocates on Capitol Hill. The Internet Freedom Coalition (IFC) claims to represent 24 “grassroots conservative organizations” with more... [read more]
Friday, May 5, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
Activist groups and politicians keep attacking AOL and other online business plans that charge bulk e-mailers different fees for sending volume messages - after they are stamped as bona fide by a third party - but... [read more]
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
The network neutrality brouhaha embraces lots of rhetoric about Internet rights, individual freedoms, the freedom to connect, free speech, freedom of information, etc. And if I’ve heard it... [read more]
Monday, May 1, 2006
By: TPR's Frank Barbetta
A public balancing act between law enforcement/national security interests, communications service provider trust and individual privacy rights has always been a tricky one, but the conflicts these days appear to be coming out of the network. Concerns about... [read more]
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