Read full story: Wired News

First of all, this is not an 'us or them' issue between fixed and mobile broadband. As a matter of fact, the companies that are rolling out LTE are increasingly dependent on deep fibre rollouts as they need to handle massive amounts of data, to which the mobile infrastructure technology is not well-suited. So the quicker they can offload their mobile traffic onto a fixed network the better. As I've said before, one of the key drivers of fibre deployment will be the growth in mobile broadband.

A similar situation will occur in the home. More and more, people are using their mobile devices rather than PCs and laptops; and more people within the home are using more and different mobile devices, so this will significantly increase the need for capacity within the home. The reality of mobile broadband is that 60%-80% of capacity usage of smartphone and tablet use is in the home, and these devices are all connected to the fixed network through the WiFi modem. People are becoming accustomed to the quality of the LTE network, so they will want a similar quality of service over the fixed network; and over the next 3-5 years the current network will start to run out of steam. And, with at least one-third of all fixed broadband connections being of such an inferior quality, these households are already facing these quality problems now.

So, while access to the internet and broadband is moving quickly towards smartphones and tablets as the preferred access devices, at the same time the majority of broadband capacity required through these devices will still need to be provided by the fixed network.

While the capacity of the mobile network is greatly improved by LTE — as well as by the upcoming extra capacity through new spectrum allocation — the physics of mobile technology is such that it will be impossible to handle all the traffic of these mobile devices over the mobile network.

Obviously the mobile operators are not sitting still. They are improving their network infrastructure in order to capture as much of the traffic as possible, and increasingly they are looking at WiFi technologies as another alternative to off-load traffic and/or add extra access points for users in high traffic areas such as shopping centres, entertainment venues, transport stations, etc. But again these WiFi access points need to be connected to the fixed network, and in the case of WiFi access points you virtually need fibre-to-the premise/business to be of any use.

So, while LTE will greatly increase the use of broadband and broadband applications, this will at the same time put increased pressure on the fixed network.

On the end-user side of the fixed broadband market — we don't have the same dynamics as in the mobile market. Few, if any, fixed network devices capture the users' attention in the way the new smartphones do. Also, there is a clear lack of exciting fixed broadband applications. Entertainment is largely captured by content providers who want to protect their existing business models, and applications in healthcare, education, energy, etc are going to take a long time to reach maturity and mass market penetration levels. So all attention is clearly on mobile and this is creating a skewed perspective on what is needed overall to ensure that these mobile developments can be used to their full potential.

The developments in mobile and LTE will generally stimulate the need for better fixed networks, but at the same time there will be a significant group of users who — at this point in time — do not have high capacity requirements, and for whom a $30 or $40 monthly mobile connection will cater for all their comms needs. This group will actually lead to stagnation, and even a decline, in fixed broadband connections. We already see this happening in the Hong Kong market. The situation will only be exacerbated if LTE becomes available in areas that have very poor fixed broadband coverage. BuddeComm estimates that up to 25% of users could simply abandon their unsatisfactory fixed broadband connection in favour of LTE. Most will eventually re-connect in 3-5 years' time, but only when important applications are becoming available over the fixed network.

These short-term developments could be interpreted by some who don't have a good understanding of the total picture as an indication that fixed broadband is not needed, and this could potentially undermine the build-out of the fixed broadband networks that are so desperately needed for the longer-term social and economic developments in the country.

If we look at the very latest smartphone devices (e.g. GalaxyS4) we see an increase in what is called machine-to-machine (M2M) or Internet of Things (IoT) applications, often linked to location-based services (LBS). What happens behind the scenes of these applications is that they gather data often from a variety of sources and process that information in real time, giving users interesting services in relation to healthcare, sport achievement, calorie intake, weather transport and traffic information and so on.

It is these M2M and IoT applications that are finally going to stimulate the sort of killer apps that are needed to drag some of the lagging sectors into the digital age — such as healthcare, education, utilities, government and business, who are at present trying to limit the impact of the digital economy, rather than embracing it. This, in turn, will start stimulating the sort of applications that require the capacity, robustness and security that can only be delivered by fibre optic networks.

All of this will come together in 5 to 10 years' time when the requirements from the mobile-based developments, the rapid growth of M2M applications, and the somewhat slower growth from the requirements following the industry and sector transformations, combined, make the need for a fibre-based infrastructure essential for the economic development and social wellbeing of any developed economy.

What is required from business leaders and politicians is that they recognise this need and start planning for it from the earliest possible opportunity. Doing this on the run is not the ideal way to make infrastructure investments that will have to last for 25-50 years.

Written by Paul Budde, Managing Director of Paul Budde Communication

In most cases these are annoyances that we have started to take for granted. This is rather odd, as people do not have the same level of tolerance in relation to their supply of landline communication or, for example, electricity.

At the same time, in almost ever disaster situation the mobile network collapses, simply because it can't handle the enormous increase in traffic. The latest example was the collapse of the mobile services in Boston shortly after the bombing.

The trouble is that in such events this is not simply an annoyance. At these times communications are critical, and sometimes a matter of life and death. The fact that we now have many examples of network meltdowns indicates that so far mobile operators have been unable to create the level of robustness needed to cope with catastrophic events.

Then there are the natural disasters, when it is more likely that infrastructure will be extensively damaged or totally destroyed. However, as we saw during the Brisbane floods two years ago, essential infrastructure has been built in areas that are known to be flood-prone. Infrastructure like mobile towers may not necessarily be physically affected but if the electricity substations are positioned in those areas mobile service operation will be affected.

There are also very few official emergency arrangements between electricity utilities and mobile operators, or for that matter local authorities.

Bucketty in the Hunter Valley, where my office is based, is in a bushfire-prone area and we have been working with Optus — the local, and only, provider of mobile services in the area — to prepare ourselves for bushfire emergencies, to date with limited result. Our idea was to work with the local fire brigade to get access to the mobile tower in emergency situations so that we could install a mobile back-up generator in case the power is cut off.

We were unable to get that organised as Optus insists it can provide these extra emergency services itself. Based on our experience, however, roads are closed in times of emergency and it would be impossible for anyone from the outside to come into the area to assist. This has to be organised on a local level, but large organisations don't work that way.

All of these examples show that the utility and emergency functions of mobile services have not yet been taken seriously enough, and so these problems will continue unless a more critical approach is taken towards guaranteeing a much higher level of robustness to our mobile services. The mobile communication meltdowns during disasters that we have witnessed over the last few years were largely preventable if mobile operators had prepared their network for such events, and if better emergency plans had been developed between various authorities involved in such emergencies, together with policies and procedures to address these issues.

With an increased coverage of WiFi — linked to fixed networks — we see that, particularly in cities, such services are proving to be more reliable, especially for the data services that are required almost immediately to locate people and provide emergency communication services. The social media play a key role in this. In Boston Google responded instantly with a location finder for those affected and their friends and family, and access was largely provided through hotspots.

With an increase of total reliance on mobile networks, especially in emergency situations, it is obvious that far greater attention will need to be given to the construction of mobile networks with disaster events in mind. So far the industry on its own has failed to do this and it will be only a matter of time for government authorities to step in and try to fix these problems.

Other problems — based in particular on experience in the USA — that will need to be addressed include the unfamiliarity with SMS, especially among older people. During a network meltdown it often is still possible to send SMSs and they are the best method of communication. Also, with the increase of smartphones people tend to no longer remember telephone numbers, and often in those emergency situations the batteries of smartphones quickly run to empty.

Smartphone manufacturers, as well as the society at large, will have to think of solutions to these problems.

This is a good interview with my American colleague Brough Turner on why cell phone (and other phone) networks get congested in time of crisis.

Written by Paul Budde, Managing Director of Paul Budde Communication

I suspect at the end of the day the US government will approve the pipeline as GDP growth and potential job losses will always trump concerns over the environment.

However, the US government has been putting on a lot pressure on Alberta to improve its environmental standards as a quid pro quo for approving the pipeline. In response Alberta is exploring expanding their current CO2 emissions program to a $40/tonne carbon levy. In the past, all of the funds raised by Alberta's carbon emissions program was returned to industry to invest in dubious energy efficiency programs. But Alberta could really have a much more meaningful impact in terms of reducing CO2 emissions, that would more than compensate the emissions from the oil carried in the Keystone XL pipeline, if it invested some of this money into its local universities and R&E network — Cybera.

Although on the production side the tar sands are one of the biggest sources of CO2 emissions, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industry, globally is the fastest growing and soon will be the largest source of CO2 emissions on the consumption side of the equation. ICT emissions are produced indirectly from the coal generated electricity that is used to power all of our devices. Currently it is estimated that ICT consumes around 10% all electrical power growing at about 6-10% per year. According to the OECD and other studies ICT equipment in our home now consumes more energy than traditional appliances.

New studies suggest that the growth in wireless networks could be the single largest component of that growth in CO2 emissions from the ICT sector. In a recent report by the Centre for Energy-Efficient Communications, at the University of Melbourne-based research centre claimed that by 2015, the energy used to run data centres will be a "drop in the ocean", compared to the wireless networks used to access cloud services. The report predicts that by 2015 energy consumption associated with 'wireless cloud' will reach 43 terawatt-hours, compared to 9.2 terawatt-hours in 2012. This is an increase in carbon footprint from 6 megatonnes of CO2 in 2012, up to 30 megatonnes of CO2 in 2015, which is the equivalent of an additional 4.9 million cars on the road, the report states.

More worrisome is another report from Sweden KTH that predicts will need to increase the density of wireless base stations by 1000 times to meet the insatiable demand for the "wireless cloud". If this came to fruition, it would be incredibly huge jump in the demand of electricity by the ICT sector.

The wireless industry in particular is an ideal sector to be powered by local renewable energy sources such as solar panels and windmills. Already many wireless towers in the developing world are powered by renewable energy (but unfortunately often with diesel backup). Because of it is inherently distributed, lower power architecture the wireless industry is ideally suited to be powered by local renewable energy.

I have long advocated that universities and R&E networks are the ideal environment for deploying wireless networks that are powered solely by local renewable power sources. By integrating WIfI and 4G networks with multiple over lapping cells it would be possible to provide seamless service zero carbon wireless services.

For more details see:

High Level Architecture for Building Zero Carbon Internet Networks , ICT products and services

Alberta could be a world leader in deploying such zero carbon networks starting first at universities in partnership with Cybera. The global CO2 impact of developing such technology in terms of removing additional 4.9 million cars from the road would be much greater than expected emissions from the oil to be carried in the proposed Keystone XL pipeline

Additional pointers:

Cloud's real ecological timebomb: Wireless, not data centres

Thousand times greater density of base stations
J. Zander, P. Mähönen, "Riding the Data Tsunami in the Cloud – Myths and Challenges in Future Wireless Access", IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol 51, Issue: 3 (March 2013), pages 145-151 http://theunwiredpeople.com/author/jenz/

Solar powered WiFi allows control of bugs instead of using pesticides

ICT industry on track to be largest sector for CO 2 emissions

Solar Powered DIY Portable HotSpot

More on revenue opportunities for R&E and open access networks – building next generation "5G" wireless network

Written by Bill St. Arnaud , Green IT Networking Consultant

Certainly, in the US's disjointed broadband sector there are considerable challenges ahead: telcos and broadcasters have lobbying clout to influence policy makers, and have weighed in against unlicensed spectrum. Any progress in the FCC's proposals could be many years away. Regulatory amendments and new legislation will take time, while technologies which can fully exploit WiFi's potential in these bands are either nascent or not yet developed.

Greater consumer use of wireless broadband in recent years has heightened the call for wider spectrum availability. An increasing number of connections in public hotspots are via handheld devices (smartphones, tablets etc), whereas only a few years ago access was almost exclusively via laptops.

In common with this growing demand, municipalities are increasingly promoting broadband as an essential service along the lines of infrastructure such as water and power, which are now taken for granted. Although there are numerous cities with WiFi networks accessible to the public, citywide or near citywide coverage tends to be restricted to government use, such as for public safety and to improve efficiency within government departments.

Though cities and towns across the US have been exploring ways to fund and build WiFi infrastructure it has not been easy, given the financial challenges and the blocking strategies employed by the powerful telecoms industry which has in at least 19 states pushed for laws blocking or preventing municipalities from offering WiFi or broadband services.

There is some reason for encouragement, though. Following the FCC's approval of the use of white space spectrum at the end of 2011, the first public 'WhiteFi' network went live in North Carolina early in 2012. The service was initially deployed for municipal functions (such as surveillance cameras and transmitting water quality data), and made use of several frequencies.

Yet this has been a rare success. In contrast, Seattle in mid-2012 aborted its plan for a citywide WiFi network after a decade of feasibility studies. The network was intended to offset the near monopoly of Comcast for internet services in the area. The city authorities subsequently reached an agreement with Gigabit Squared to develop and operate an FttH broadband network, dubbed Gigabit Seattle, initially in 12 areas.

The project, with immense potential to stimulate business opportunities and employment, as well as a range of related advancements in health care, education and public services, fits well with the FCC's recent 'Gigabit City Challenge', aimed at encouraging broadband providers and state and municipal officials to cooperate in developing faster networks to drive innovation, economic growth and competitiveness.

At present the challenge calls for one community in each state to offer a 1Gb/s service by 2015. Given sufficient traction and favourable economic and regulatory conditions, gigabit cities should become commonplace, building on pioneering deployments such as Kansas City and Chattanooga.

Regarding both FttH and WiFi, the US needs greater regulatory control and government involvement if schemes beneficial to the nation are not to wither on the vine of corporate interest.

Written by Henry Lancaster, Senior Analysts at Paul Budde Communication

"The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce lobbying effort to persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea, analysts say. That has been countered by an equally intense campaign from Google, Microsoft and other tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark an explosion of innovations and devices that would benefit most Americans, especially the poor."

Also read Karl Bode's take on the story in DSLReports: "New FCC 'Super Wi-Fi' Initative Not Really New White Space Broadband Still Running Political Gauntlet”

Other sources: (UPDATED Feb 05, 2013 9:02 AM PDT)
The Real Story Behind 'Super WiFi' And The Fight Over Spectrum; It's Not What You Read Yesterday Techdirt, Feb.2.2012

Although most people have forgotten, Sandy is the second hurricane to hit New York in as many years with Irene last August and a third tropical depression headed to New York at the time of this writing. Two, supposedly once in a hundred year storms, within such a short time frame should even make the most die-hard denialist that something's afoot.

Although the networks and data centers in New York and New Jersey survived relatively unscathed, with only a handful suffering significant outages, most of the data centers and network facilities in and around New York had to be powered by diesel backup generators for several days. Fortunately none of the nearby refineries were seriously affected by the storm so fuel deliveries for the generators were not seriously delayed. It is expected that some data centers, especially in lower Manhattan may have to be powered by their diesel generators for sometime as it will take the electrical utility days if not weeks to replace much of the flooded electrical infrastructure. But imagine the consequences if those refineries were also seriously damaged and there was no fuel to power the backup generators for the data centers and networks.

Flooding from storms like Sandy, and droughts, are forecast to increase significantly in the coming decade. As Jim Hansen, the famous NASA climate scientist has pointed out, simple statistics show that the probability of severe weather is going to increase exponentially with increasing global temperatures.

Unfortunately most research and development efforts with respect to the Internet, or any other aspect of climate change, are still focused on energy efficiency or measuring energy consumption. People still don't realize that we have already lost the battle to prevent the planet from getting warmer. We now need to focus on how we will survive climate change.

Hurricane Sandy has shown us the consequences of severe weather as a result of climate change. Energy efficiency, or measuring energy consumption is irrelevant if you are sitting in the dark without power. By now most of us have seen the pictures of citizens of New York scrambling to find sites where they can re-charge their cell phones, or struggling to find a cell phone signal.

As I have written many times in the past, the Internet and cyber-infrastructure are going to be critical for society to survive future severe weather patterns. Rather than focusing on energy efficiency, in the vain and forlorn hope that making the Internet more energy efficient will somehow change the direction we are headed, we need to focus on how to build an Internet and cyber-infrastructure eco-system that can survive climate change. Solar powered Wifi sites, open access wifi, ad hoc wireless networks, solar powered optical networks, building highly distributed clouds with renewable power (and low cost) computational devices like the Raspberry Pi built on the Greenstar network architecture are examples of such approaches.

Written by Bill St. Arnaud , Green IT Networking Consultant

Stories such as this generally results in a flurry of phobic posts by friends warning each other to lock down their access points. This is not necessarily the right solution. There are lots of legitimate reasons for having an open access points — and the technology was specifically designed to permit open access points. The right solution would be for the legal community to mature in its comprehension that what transpires on an open access point cannot be ascribed to anyone.

A federal court in California recently considered the question of whether the owner of an access point has a duty to secure it. In AF HOLDINGS, LLC v. Doe, NDCA 2012, plaintiff sued John Doe for illegally downloading plaintiff's copyright protected video, and sued Defendant Hatfield for Defendant's negligent failure to secure the access point.

Okay first year law students, what are the elements of negligence? Duty, breach, cause, and damage. Does Defendant have a duty to Plaintiff? 

Plaintiff is arguing that Defendant failed to act — failed to secure his network. A failure to act is called "non-feasance." To have a duty that is breached by inaction, says the court, requires Defendant to have a special relationship to Plaintiff. Or, to say it another way, you are not required to be a Good Samaritan — you are not required to act — unless there is a special relationship. The court states:

Plaintiff has not articulated any basis for imposing on Defendant a legal duty to prevent the infringement of Plaintiff's copyrighted works, and the court is aware of none. Defendant is not alleged to have any special relationship with Plaintiff that would give rise to a duty to protect Plaintiff's copyrights, and is also not alleged to have engaged in any misfeasance by which he created a risk of peril.

The allegations in the complaint are general assertions that in failing to take action to "secure" access to his Internet connection, Defendant failed to protect Plaintiffs from harm. Thus, the complaint plainly alleges that Defendant's supposed liability is based on his failure to take particular actions, and not on the taking of any affirmative actions. This allegation of non-feasance cannot support a claim of negligence in the absence of facts showing the existence of a special relationship.

It ain't Defendant's job (or anyone else for that matter) to protect Plaintiff's copyrights.

The court further notes that Plaintiff has attempted to re-characterize a copyright claim as a negligence claim. Such attempts to re-characterize copyright claims are preempted by the copyright act. Either someone is liable under the copyright act or not; re-characterizing such a claim as negligence doesn't work.

Finally, Defendant argues that he is immune from liability pursuant to 47 USC 230, the Good Samaritan Provision of the Communications Decency Act, which states that no provider of an interactive computer service shall be liable for the actions of a third party. In this case, Defendant arguably was a provider of Internet service to John Doe — the alleged downloader — and is not liable for whatever John Doe might have done. The court appeared persuaded by this argument, but concluded that since there was no negligence cause of action, and since the negligence cause of action was preempted, it was unnecessary to rule on the question of Sec. 230 immunity.

In short, according to this court:

• No duty to secure a WiFi access point;
• Any claim of breach of such duty resulting in copyright infringement would be preempted by copyright law; and
• Any attempt to impose liability on the WiFi access point owner would likely be defeated by Sec. 230 immunity.

Of course, there are good reasons to secure your WiFi access point. For one thing, it encrypts your communications from your computer to your WiFi access point, protecting against main-in-the-middle attacks or someone intercepting your communications. The Federal Trade Commission's Onguard Online project provides some helpful advice.

Written by Robert Cannon, Cybertelecom

The capacity required for the burgeoning wireless broadband market will need to be addressed in completely different ways. Whatever happens with spectrum allocations, now or in the future, there simply will not be enough of it. Different and innovative solutions will need to be applied — probably involving a combination of solutions and technologies, plus a much higher level of collaboration within the broader industry.

The 30-year-old MIMO technology is also being revisited. This technology basically adds a range of antennas to both the transmitter side and the receiver side of the network. It is applied in many industry standards but further developments could assist in increasing the number of antennas, thus increasing the data throughput within the available spectrum. However this theoretical physical solution still needs to be developed into a technological reality.

Fixed Mobile Conversion

Fixed mobile conversion (FMC) is another important development. Eventually the backbone network needs to be fibre-based — perhaps as little as one-third of the network has been upgraded to fibre so far. While microwave technology has proved to be extremely resilient, with more and more cells now added to the network the direct line of sight for smaller cells becomes an issue, and this means that fibre is needed very deep into the cities. Some companies, such as Vodafone, are already actively pursuing options to become involved in fibre optic networks (national broadband networks).

The difference between the fixed and the mobile network will become increasingly blurred, with mobile handsets simply being devices wirelessly connected to the fixed network.

All of this will stimulate FMC. Many incumbents already have the option to provide more integrated services but they deploy this in a limited way so as to avoid cannibalisation and maximise their profits.

As has predicted previously, all these developments will eventually lead to a structural separation between the infrastructure and the services. Once operators start to think along these structurally separated business models, solutions to the mobile infrastructure crisis will become much easier to realise.

Small cell networks

The mobile cells have to be dramatically reduced in size — as small as to cover single rooms, buildings, bus stops, high traffic junctions and so on. This will be a challenge, especially in relation to interconnections (line of sight) interference. An architecture based on smaller cells will also require a high level of intelligence within these cells, as some people will be rapidly changing from one small cell to another. There have been several false starts and so far the results of small cell networks in the USA have not been encouraging. Costs are still too high and there are technical problems still to be overcome — for example, getting bandwidth capacity to these cells in a cost-effective way is already a major issue, and in a booming mobile broadband market the need for more capacity is only going to increase.

Because of its complexity, small cells on their own are not going to solve the capacity problems the industry is facing.

Heterogeneous networks

Another unavoidable development is that a range of technologies, frequencies and protocols will be needed to overcome the problems. White Space technology, initially developed as a data casting technology using TV spectrum has since moved into the backhaul network; whatever backhaul technology is available, and makes sense, will need to become a part of such a heterogeneous structure. White space technology does causes problems at the mobile phone level and is therefore not well-suited as a user access technology, but it can be used for backhaul operations.

We already mentioned fibre but WiFi and WiMAX are also already deployed. One solution that operators are using is that mobile broadband traffic is offloaded from the mobile network ASAP. It is estimated that 80% of mobile broadband usage takes place via WiFi connections back into the fixed networks. Over 60% of tablets don't even have a mobile connection. They rely solely on WiFi connections. As we have mentioned before, the enormous growth in demand for mobile and wireless broadband will also lead to a further explosion in WiFi. A more seamless integration of WiFi and cellular technologies was another issue that was discussed at the conference.

Muddling along

With no clear future direction the existing technologies and tools will have to suffice in the meantime, which means a mobile broadband infrastructure shortage for at least the next five years. A side effect of all of this is that all mobile networks have to work with data caps in order to manage the capacity shortage and this makes mobile broadband very expensive compared to fixed broadband. On average, capacity on a mobile network is 5 to 10 times more expensive than capacity on a fixed network.

It is worrying that there is no clear road map or any clear-cut solutions to the problem of mobile infrastructure. Even under the most optimistic scenarios, with more spectrum, more efficient use of the spectrum and new technologies, such as small cells, this will not be sufficient to get ahead of the issue any time soon. What the most likely solution will be also remained unclear and this makes it all the more difficult for network operators to make appropriate investment decisions.

Written by Paul Budde, Managing Director of Paul Budde Communication

People have discovered for themselves that they need both, and they have intuitively worked out what they use, where and when. The same applies to the various communications applications. Again intuitively, people are using SMS, chat, social media, email, telephone messages and voice-based telephony.

There is no reason to suppose that this will change. Using transport as an example, one method does not replace the other. We walk, use a bike, car, bus, train, boat or plane, without too much discussion and confusion.

And so wireless broadband and FttH will develop, in a complementary and harmonious way. There are several reasons for this:

• Advanced economies and societies will see an increase in the demand for quality and sophistication of applications (digital nations, digital economies, smart buildings, smart cities) and this will have its impact on the quality of the digital infrastructure that is needed to support these developments.
• Wireless is a shared infrastructure — in the absence of FttH-like applications this technology already demands a significant increase in the number of mobile towers. More of these base stations are needed as the demand for mobile capacity (broadband) increases, and this creates its own environmental and societal problems.
• Most people will have experienced mobile quality problems — blackspots, dropouts, loss of quality. How tolerant will people be of these problems in relation to TV, healthcare, HD education and other essential services?
• The level of reliability, security, privacy and quality required will be impossible to achieve without very significant investment in mobile infrastructure. However such investments will make the delivery of FttH-like mobile services economically unviable.
• Antenna-based systems will always be more expensive to maintain than fixed FttH networks. In the long term FttH is a more cost-effective solution in nearly all broadband deployments.
• Wireless broadband will be an integral and essential part of any advanced digital infrastructure. There will be some overlap but the major usages are complementary. Seamless integration between FttH and 5G will occur later on in this decade.
• In low-density areas in developed economies there is room for fixed wireless infrastructure (instead of FttH), fixed-LTE and WiMAX are some of the technologies used here. Low density means less sharing, which means better quality. The relatively small population size of the areas where such infrastructure will be deployed, and the fact that this will be mainly government-funded rural/regional infrastructure, will allow for the over-engineering necessary for the delivery of comparable user experiences to people in these areas. Nevertheless, because of its superior quality, advances in the FttH technology will see an ongoing increase of its reach into regional areas.

Mobile broadband will be the only way to advance telecoms developments in developing economies with little or no fixed infrastructure in place; and not just for telecoms — even more importantly, for economic and social developments (e-commerce, m-payments, e-health, education and so on). The UN has already earmarked broadband as an essential element in the Millennium Development Goals.

However, even here, over time (20-25 years, perhaps less) this will predictably lead to higher FttH penetration in these countries as well, for exactly the same reasons that are mentioned above.

But once again these developments go hand in hand with the development of mobile broadband, the convenience of mobile communication and the fact that it is personal, will see an ongoing increase of its use.

Written by Paul Budde, Managing Director of Paul Budde Communication

Nominum to Support London Underground WiFi – Virgin Media will offer WiFi in around 120 London Underground stations this year and has begun its roll-out ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

In line with the established industry approach to adult content on cell phones, Nominum's Content Filtering application was chosen to prevent access to such content on the public WiFi service. Ahead of the roll-out, Nominum ran a pilot program utilizing pre-existing software and hardware components in the Virgin Media network. The speed with which the deployment proceeded was unprecedented, and the power of integration with Virgin Media's pre-existing architecture was evident from the start.

"Nominum met our ambitious and demanding timeline requirements and is delivering a high quality solution for our new WiFi service," said Jon James, Executive Director of Broadband at Virgin Media. "After carefully considering our options, we decided that Nominum's solution woven into our existing technology would be a successful implementation and help set us up for future applications and services. We are pleased to work with Nominum to ensure an outstanding WiFi experience for the millions of Londoners and visitors traveling on London Underground this summer."

"Our new integrated DNS architecture with layered platforms and applications enables Nominum to provide a comprehensive suite of subscriber services efficiently and quickly," said Brian McElroy, Vice President of Business Development at Nominum. "We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Virgin Media and assist them in improving the WiFi user experience during this exciting time."

Wireless devices that operate on MBAN spectrum can be used to actively monitor a patient’s health, including blood glucose and pressure monitoring, delivery of electrocardiogram readings, and neonatal monitoring systems. MBAN devices will be designed to be deployed widely within a hospital setting and will make use of inexpensive disposable body-worn sensors. MBAN technology will also make it easier to move patients to different parts of the health care facility for treatment and can improve the quality of patient care by giving health care providers the chance to identify life-threatening problems or events before they reach critical levels.

The Commission allocates 40 MHz of spectrum at 2360-2400 MHz for MBAN use on a secondary basis. It will accommodate MBAN use through an expansion of the existing Medical Device Radio communication (MedRadio) Service. This structure, which will permit MBAN devices to operate on a ‘license-by-rule’ basis in which users will not have to apply for and receive individual station licenses, will lead to the rapid and widespread development of innovative new MBAN applications.

The 2010 National Broadband Plan recognized that the use of spectrum-agile radios and other techniques can significantly increase the efficient use of radio spectrum to meet growing demand for this valuable resource. The development of the MBAN concept illustrates how advanced technology can enable the more efficient use of spectrum to deliver innovative new services. Because MBAN devices will share the spectrum with existing primary users, the rules contain registration and coordination provisions to protect vital flight testing operations conducted by aeronautical mobile telemetry (AMT) licensees.

Written by Paul Budde, Managing Director of Paul Budde Communication

Presented by Doug Miller – Nominum's General Manager of Mobile Solutions

Once thought to be a safe haven for data activity and an afterthought for criminals, mobile networks have become the new market for hackers and thieves.

Mobile is the growth market of the future. Let’s make sure it’s not just a growth market for illegal activity.

Presented by Doug Miller
Nominum's General Manager of Mobile Solutions

Doug is responsible for building and delivering products and solutions designed to meet the unique needs of Mobile Service Providers. As carriers build their 3G infrastructure or transition to 4G, he and his team are creating the DNS platform and applications needed to support the anticipated growth while considering network proficiency, latency, security, and a variety of other value-added services.

During the webinar, we will talk about how attacks are moving from fixed to mobile networks and what mobile operators can do to address this very real issue before it has potentially disastrous side effects impacting the availability of vital network resources, end user security, and more. Highlights include:

• How the Mobile landscape is changing
• Today’s top threats to Mobile network security
• Lessons learned from the evolution of Broadband networks
• The advantage of protecting DNS assets
• The advantage of protecting caching data
• How to secure the network
• How to protect the end user

When:

Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Session I: 10am New York ET / 3pm London GMT
Session II: 4pm San Francisco PT / 9am Sydney (next day)

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Readers over the age of 40 may recall that there was a time when the wireline telephone company totally controlled what devices could connect to the network. The Bell System had a monopoly on "authorized" handsets and prevented even a used, secondary market for Bell telephones. Subscribers feared that the Bell System would know whether a non-Bell vintage telephone was in use, when more than one phone was attached. Carterfone liberated the marketplace for both new and used handsets.

It is a remarkable time that the Carterfone policy somehow can be converted into "job killing government regulation." The policy promotes consumer sovereignty, but in this bizarre time it gets framed as something bad because it requires government to do something. And what does government do? It removes the ability of companies to establish bogus regulations designed to preserve a monopoly and maximize profits. In retrospect it appears crazy that Bell System managers could argue that anytnon-Western Electric telephone could harm the network (and something they called "systemic integrity") as well as risk the lives of telephone company personnel. But that strategy lasted for years and preserved incredible profit margins for AT&T.

History repeats itself. Verizon surely cannot make a credible argument that allowing multiple devices to share a download basket of capacity triggers greater costs for the company. Bear in mind that every wireless carrier provides shared access to a basket of voice minutes. So how is data any different? It isn't.

The lack of Carterfone enforcement means that wireless carriers can create a bogus, new "cost element." Because these carriers copy each other (some would say collude), expect every wireless carrier to create a new billing line item for that second, third and fourth device sharing a single monthly throughput allowance.

Written by Rob Frieden, Pioneers Chair and Professor of Telecommunications and Law

Purely Economics

A fact underlying HBO GO's delivery system is the business model that made it a household name, the cable industry. Without the enormous viewer pipeline that cable, and satellite TV delivery systems currently offer, HBO would be hard-press to generate the revenues and advertising dollars from a 20 million subscriber base, which enables it create the edgy and award-winning content, making it the #1 Pay TV Programmer. With that economic juggernaut those wishing to see a stand-alone HBO service delivered over the Internet are highly unlikely, at least in the short term. A recent survey by TechCrunch indicated that consumers would pay about $12.00 per month for an HBO GO standalone service.

Music Industry Eventually Succumbed to Hackers

We are well aware what happened to the music industry as a result of market forces that turned the music industry upside down. Since music DVD's were about $15.00 a pop, hackers began a campaign to illegally share music over the Internet, eventually forcing the Music Industry to sell its content for $1.00 a pop via iTunes. It was unprecedented but broke a strangle hold on music pricing. The same scenario is appearing with HBO's "Game of Thrones”, which is the most hacked program of the season, appealing to a younger audience familiar with the ins and outs of illegally sharing content via the Internet, following their predecessors of music fanaticism.

Generational Change Fueling Demand

The delivery of video is changing and more rapidly than most would have you think. As demand grows for content delivered by OTT (Over-The-Top) models continues to grow, especially with a generation which grew up on the Internet, market dynamics will be forced to adjust accordingly. That means, paying $100.00 per month for a video package via traditional delivery methods will be replaced by smaller and more price sensitive stand-alone services. Both Cable and Satellite industry executives should be heeding the hackers of the world. Change your pricing structure, or we will change it for you.

Current Pricing Models Jeopardize Future Economics

Subscribing to HBO via current Cable/Satellite delivered models is expensive. To get the full benefits of an HBO GO, customers must subscribe to a bundle for about $200.00 per month. That includes broadband, IP Phone, Digital Video Package, with related DVR subscriptions for multi-room consumption. Yes, a discount is available for a limited time, but then after the hook is in, subscribers are paying a car-note equivalent for their service. That model is not sustainable for the masses, and with current economic and job loss lethargy continuing, the model becomes more precarious to maintain. Gabriel Rossman puts the economics of content delivery eloquently by highlighting the current economics of an HBO GO standalone service.

Rethinking Delivery Method

With content delivery being the wheel that drives the economics, it must be redesigned to fit a changing consumer, one that is savvy and innovative enough to create disruptive technologies where pricing models are a victim of an inevitable paradigm shift. Truly customer convenience is the key to the wheel's redesign; it has to be both economical and easy to access. How soon will content delivery and pricing change be both acceptable and disruptive to current pricing bundles? HBO is being forced to rethink its current method, which will happen sooner rather than later, maybe within one to two years.

Written by Leonard Grace, Founder & Editor - Broadband Convergent