The result of the economic downturn will force cable industry and telephone companies to face some unsettling prospects in terms of customer growth and revenue increases, according to a forecast by research firm, Pike & Fischer. According to the report released today, Pike & Fischer anticipates approximately 5.7 million U.S. households to become new high-speed Internet customers this year, marking a 12% decline in subscriber growth compared to 2008. The report also suggests that the cable industry will capture about 75% of new broadband subscribers. more»
Phone and wireless service in portions of Silicon Valley were cut off Thursday after police say vandals cut several underground fiber optic cables in the area. The sabotage caused major disruption in residential affecting tens of thousands of people and preventing some from making 911 emergency calls... more»
A recent survey by Ofcom has found that one in five adults are not connected to the interent and have no plan to go online anytime soon. The resutls indicated 17 million Britons are currently offline -- that is 30% of the population. The BBC reports: "The Ofcom research identified two main groups of people without access to the net -- the self-excluded and those who are staying offline for financial reasons... This so-called self-excluded group tended to be older or retired, with 61% confessing to never having used a computer. For 30% of those currently offline the main reasons given for that choice was financial or lack of skills." more»
The Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) has announced a $12 million grant from the US National Science Foundation as part of a "massive project to redesign and rebuild the Internet from scratch," Anick Jesdanun of the Associated Press reports today. The organization has also received substantial dedicated bandwidth from two major research organizations, Internet2 and National LambdaRail. more»
I recently shared the idea that there is a new category of network architecture, the Network of Probabilities. This differs from classical circuits (Network of Promises) or best-effort packet data (Network of Possibilities). I personally believe it's the next revolution in telecoms. What's new is that it provides a trading space for allocating contention between flows, and does this with some novel applied mathematics. more»
The buzz from vendors and carriers about the broadband wireless technology called mobile WiMAX is heating up, fueled by new chipsets and radio products and fanned by some huge carrier investments, reports Network World. "Clearwire in the summer rounded up $900 million, including $600 million from WiMAX zealot Intel, to upgrade its growing wireless broadband net to support the IEEE's 802.16e mobile WiMAX standard. And Sprint Nextel in August became the first U.S. cellular provider to announce plans to deploy a nationwide mobile WiMAX net in the licensed 2.5GHz frequency band." more»
We continue to see consolidation in the broadband market and various games played by the cablecos and telcos to thwart competition or undermine network neutrality. Until regulators create true structural separation between infrastructure and service providers the chances of seeing genuine broadband competition are slim. It is interesting to note telecom regulators in North America have imposed structural separation in the past. more»
Communications minister Lord Carter has pledged to deliver 2mbps broadband to every UK home by 2012. The interim Digital Britain report, published last week, outlines a wide-ranging 22-point action plan that examines both broadcasting and the UK's digital infrastructure. "We are developing plans to move towards a historic universal service commitment for broadband and digital services to include options up to 2 Megabits per second, building on the approach to postal services and telephone services in centuries past," media secretary Andy Burnham told the House of Commons. more»
In general I think this was another good political speech from the President. However, as we have seen in the past, skilled rhetoric doesn't necessarily give rise to action. If Congress reflects the mood of the American people then the nation is not yet ready to change - or, as the President said, to embark on a new 'Sputnik' vision. The fact that the word 'Internet' was used several times (in absolutely the right context - and often teamed with 'innovation') clearly shows that the President understands the importance of the digital infrastructure. This has not changed since his original campaign in 2008. more»
Talk, conjecture and analysis have predicted a wireless spectrum crisis for years. The official word seems to project a culmination of dropped calls, slow loading of data, downright network access denials as impending by 2015. If so, then we should look at the current argument about how that additional spectrum can be disseminated to wireless carriers in a fair and balanced fashion. more»
Fiber to the home (FTTH) installations are expected to shoot up 30 percent annually over the next five years, according to a report released Thursday by Heavy Reading. Growing from 36 million households with fiber hookups last year, a record 130 million are likely to have fiber by 2013, according to a summary (PDF) of the report from Heavy Reading, the market research arm of Light Reading, an event company serving the worldwide communications market. more»
From will they ever learn department, we are once again seeing attempts by incumbent carriers to skirt rules around network neutrality. They tried and failed with UBB. Now they are at it again with "speed boost" technologies. The two technologies at question are Verizon's "Turbo" service and Roger's "SpeedBoost". more»
Time Warner Cable and Comcast's intent in creating TV Everywhere conjured up a cable TV presence on the Internet where customers could browse and view huge varieties of content by just being a customer. That seemed a fairly simple and innovative concept... It was unique 3 years ago and promised to be exclusive to their clientele. But in reality the concept is much different than the original vision cable operators promoted. more»
Broadband adoption among U.S. consumers seems to be slowing, with the three largest broadband providers in the U.S. posting the lowest subscriber increases in years during the second quarter of 2008.
AT&T and Verizon, in particular, reported increases in broadband subscribers that were a small fraction of numbers in past quarters, with growth in the tens of thousands instead of hundreds of thousands. Comcast reported a less dramatic drop-off. The three providers deliver service to more than half of the broadband subscribers in the U.S. more»
Communications will be one of the most critical areas during the London Olympic Games. The industry is working to establish shared access networks -- would it not be nice if they did this everywhere, all the time? They are also working very closely with British Olympic Association, London Transport, the broadcasters and content providers. Mobile coverage will be the biggest shared infrastructure in the world. more»
