http://www.telecomweb.com TelecomWeb.com en-us 2008 Mon, 12 May 2008 20:15:38 EDT 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 adopting the infrastructure that gives them new... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/25656.html Wed, 7 Nov 2007 0:00:00 EST My wife is calling me on my Motorola cellphone, but I can’t hear it ringing. That’s because the phone, for reasons known only to itself, has decided to set itself to silent ringing. I had set the phone on “Vibe and Ring.”   But my phone started randomly changing its ring pattern... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/25555.html Tue, 23 Oct 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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.   That guy may still get off on appeal, or... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/25492.html Tue, 16 Oct 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 the speed of change in the voice systems and... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/25390.html Wed, 3 Oct 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 customer-service crisis for the local carriers – in my... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/25188.html Sun, 9 Sep 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 Fridays (and sometimes Mondays) off.   And... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/25068.html Thu, 30 Aug 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 coverage has been supportive of the theory behind... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/24724.html Wed, 15 Aug 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 precise, among others, I have Skype, Google Talk and... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/24587.html Thu, 2 Aug 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 program or the next big Web site.   The question... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/24444.html Mon, 30 Jul 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 scrambling for the scraps – i.e., more customers... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/24302.html Wed, 18 Jul 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 my neighbors. So we don’t give out our... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/24046.html Fri, 29 Jun 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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). He’s looking forward to making what has been a... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/23653.html Thu, 7 Jun 2007 0:00:00 EDT Boy oh boy, they don’t make electronics the way they used to. To hell with Moore’s Law (I used to know Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, by the way, very slightly). Forget about all the “advances” of the last quarter-century.   What I’m raving about is a talking clock that... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/23323.html Thu, 17 May 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 fact use incessantly to chat with my kids... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/23041.html Wed, 2 May 2007 0:00:00 EDT The hot-diggity-dog buzzword right now is "convergence," particularly of VoIP and conventional wireless telephony. Well, we ain’t really there yet but, for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been having fun testing one of the raft of emerging semi-convergence (or pre-convergence, if you... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/22851.html Thu, 19 Apr 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 Acclaims Middle East And Africa Broadband Growing... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/22663.html Thu, 12 Apr 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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 Internet service manage Web traffic, and whether... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/22457.html Fri, 30 Mar 2007 0:00:00 EDT The latest figures show that just about every type of broadband backhaul known to man is now booming, with only one exception – free space optics (FSO). How sad.   After years of struggling, the technology, which consists of a pair of transmitter/receivers shooting laser beams at each other, had... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/22221.html Thu, 15 Mar 2007 0:00:00 EDT 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."   There’s no end to the commentary on how this one snuck... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/22114.html Thu, 8 Mar 2007 0:00:00 EST Boy, it’s a good thing we’re not fighting a war with terrorists in our own territory right now. Like in Washington, D.C,. where, if memory serves me, on 9/11 a plane flew into the Pentagon and another was to be aimed at the White House.   And all of the emergency-response agencies in the... http://www.telecomweb.com/news/broadband/blogs/21991.html Thu, 1 Mar 2007 0:00:00 EST