November 20, 2006
COVER STORY
Rooted in controversy
If it hadn't been for all the uproar about how top-level domain names were assigned, the international community might never have taken much interest...
FORWARD MOTION
MPEG-4 muscles into the market
Following months of anticipation, video set-top boxes using MPEG-4 compression are finally finding their way into the hands of North American telcos....
Sonus GETS priority at GMI 2006
Most of the companies involved in the Multiservice Switching Forum's GMI 2006 Interoperability event in October toiled to demonstrate global interoperability...
YouTube effect changes IPTV plans
A few thousand carriers and vendors graced the TelcoTV conference and expo earlier this month, and although YouTube wasn't among them, the online network...
Push e-mail competition heats up
The consolidation wave among mobile e-mail providers is late, but it's finally made its way to shore. Last year, Nokia bought Intellisync, which many...
The next small thing in wireless
The success of Wi-Fi, the potential of fixed/mobile convergence, the reality of the mobile substitution trend, the evolution of home networking and the...
Symbian sheds UIQ
With Sony Ericsson's purchase of UIQ from Symbian, the wireless user interface, or UI, market got a lot clearer. Symbian was in the odd position of developing...
A tale of two independents
They are two Tier 1 independent wireline phone companies 400 miles apart in the heart of the Midwest. Both were spun off from their wireless parents in...
Democrats likely to change reform direction
The reassertion of Democratic control in Congress will impact key telecom issues currently under debate in Washington, including Net neutrality, universal...
The IPTV battle enters the home
The battle of in-home distribution technologies for IPTV continued unabated at this month's Telco TV conference and expo in Dallas. The industry may be...
BPL freedom from unbundling no panacea
The FCC moved to level the regulatory playing field between broadband over powerline, or BPL, and other forms of broadband this month, though BPL is not...
OPINION
Giggling over free mobile phones
Google CEO Eric Schmidt caused a stir last week with a public suggestion that mobile phones should be free, supported by ad revenue. Funny, but even when...
A modest look at WiMAX
The non-stop drumbeat of WiMAX hype is promising some pretty unreasonable things, at least unreasonable in the near future. From promises of a DSL connection...
The customer experience
The telecom industry no longer talks only about customer service instead, it is addressing the broader topic of the customer experience, which includes...
INNOVATION
It's the desktop, stupid
Everyone knows customer service is bad, but not many know why it's so complicated David Holmes, executive vice president of global marketing for Jacada...
ETHERNET
SLA subtleties drive Ethernet
The generic service level agreement has been a dietary staple for consumers of network service for years. But being generic is no longer sufficient for...
WIRELESS
Waiting on mobile TV
Six weeks before year-end, the mobile broadcast TV services we were promised for 2006 are nowhere to be seen. Qualcomm made a big splash with the citywide...
WHAT'S NEXT
Momentum for IMS
Over the past several months, I have detected a palpable sense of momentum on IMS. Operators are making specific IMS plans, and questions from audiences...
