Mark's Musings on the Telecommunications Industry

The FCC’s Still Attempts Interoperability Standards for Public Safety

2009-12-11T13:38:00.001-07:00

Wednesday Silicon Flatirons sponsored its latest presentation in the Center’s Policymaker Series. Retired Rear Admiral James Arden Barnett, Chief of Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau FCC, outlined his bureau’s role in specifying public safety interoperability requirements in the National Broadband Policy that we anxiously await for release next February. The Chief shared with the

Comcast Cranks Up DOCSIS 3.0

2009-12-01T23:32:00.001-07:00

A month ago Comcast upgraded my head-end for DOCSIS 3.0. I had some backwards compatibility problems so Comcast gave me a new DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem. My problems went away and my bandwidth increased dramatically. I must say that I am getting quite use to the extra bandwidth. Windows 7 download in only a few minutes, and I enjoy the quicker upload speeds for posting pictures and blog posts.

Taking Ownership of the Rural Network

2009-11-24T12:02:00.001-07:00

I read two stories today that affirm my commitment that local governments should build their own network infrastructure and sell access to private service providers. The first article from TelecomTV discusses how the two largest LEC in the U.S., AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ), are reducing investment and even neglecting their rural networks. Verizon’s sale of their land-line assets in rural areas to

It’s All In How You Market It: Loosing the Case for Competition

2009-11-04T13:05:00.001-07:00

A few years back, I was working with Longmont Power and Communications (LPC) to take advantage of the fiber ring and FTTH capabilities that they have. Longmont, Colorado is a city with a population of 100,000 just north of Boulder. They are in an economic transition into a knowledge-based community. Their tax base is eroding as retail shops close up to make way for the big-box stores.

I’m Back

2009-11-04T12:21:00.001-07:00

Okay, so it has been quite a while since I have last written anything on my blog. I have lost most of my followers, but I was immersed in a start-up venture and did not have much free time to write. It was another learning lesson where I gained some valuable experience that I will transfer into the next venture. As many of you know, I have been intimately involved in driving fiber-based

Lijit at Entrepreneurs Unplugged

2008-10-23T21:16:00.000-06:00

The War on Piracy

2008-04-09T11:21:00.000-06:00

Tonight's program of the Silicon Flatiron Partners pitted the RIAA against the EFF.

Are We Done With Broadband Service Growth...Is That All There Is?

2008-02-08T10:48:00.001-07:00

A rosy report released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) confidently states that the U.S. is doing great in broadband penetration because the current administration has increased penetration more than 1100 percent and 91.5 percent of zip codes have three or more competing service providers. I must only be familiar with the 8.5 percent of zip codes,

AT&T Needs More Money

2008-02-06T16:24:00.001-07:00

AT&T decided yesterday to increase the price of DSL service by $5 per month for subscribers that do not purchase U-verse (AT&T jacks up DSL price $5 per month | Tech news blog - CNET News.com) except in the old BellSouth territory where they promised the FCC and regulators that they would not raise prices for a certain period of time. Apparently revenues are not increasing enough for them in

Cable Cuts a Coincidence?

2008-02-05T14:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I wrote an analysis for a consulting service stating that three cable cuts in three days is most likely not an accident. Today, news outlets (TelecomTV) announced a fourth undersea cable cut that occurred late Sunday, presumably to FLAG's FALCON cable. One does not have to be an Oliver Stone devotee to realize that these incidents were most likely an act of sabotage. Conspirorists

NFL Gone Wild

2008-02-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Funny that my second post of the year is more of a rant than something significant, but the situation is indicative of our desire to make money by copyrighting and patenting everything in sight. Once again this year, the NFL is stopping churches with TV larger than 56" from showing the Super Bowl (Techdirt: Super Bowl Intellectual Property Insanity: No Big Screen Super Bowl Parties,

AMD: Is a Dog Chasing Its Tail

2008-02-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

AMD (AMD)continues to disappoint investors in the forth quarter (AMD: Is The Worst Over? - Seeking Alpha) losing $1.77 billion in that single quarter. AMD's problem stems from its management team in ability to differentiate the company in the microprocessor marketplace both mainstream and embedded microprocessors. Their inability to forecast and manage product run rates will plaque the company

50 Mbit/s Internet on UTOPIA

2007-12-01T11:40:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Mstar announced their 50 Mbit/s symmetrical Internet access service for $39.95 per month over the UTOPIA network. Although I e-mailed the press release all around, I did not discuss the service here. There is not really much to say about it because the press release speaks for itself. Service provider competition provides better services at a better price for consumers.

Comcast Does Block BitTorrent

2007-11-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

I have attempted to stay out of the discussion of whether Comcast blocks BitTorrent because it has been thoroughly discussed in many other forums. This blog is about insight into the industry not jumping onto the bandwagon slamming Comcast for disrupting BitTorrent traffic. This evening I have chosen to reverse my decision because I believe that Comcast has overreacted in restricting

Verizon Wireless Punches Hole in Walled Garden

2007-11-28T18:53:00.001-07:00

Verizon Wireless (VZW) was all over the news yesterday with its announcement to open its network to third-party devices and applications. While the media was focused on the ability to unlock handsets and use other CDMA compatible phones from Sprint and global carriers, the real news was that they were punching a hole in the walled garden of the Verizon Wireless network by allowing third-party

Consumers Fall for "Cyber Monday"

2007-11-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well, consumers were sucked into the marketing of "Cyber Monday" by retailers marketing arm Shop.org. It seems that a record of single day retail sales was set at $733 million up 21% from last year according to Comscore. It probably didn't hurt that Amazon, Apple, Buy.com, Dell, Overstock and many other on-line retailers offered pretty good deals on Monday. Once again the herd mentality proves

80% of Americans Use the Web Daily

2007-11-22T14:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving readers. A Harris Interactive poll finds that 80% of all adult US citizens regularly use the Internet. Almost 200 million Americans spend an average of 11 hours a week online. The demographics of online Americans are beginning to mirror our population in general. With broadband penetration nearing 50% of the population, a little over 30% are still using dial-up and mobile

Bye, Bye Sprint Airave

2007-11-21T17:26:00.001-07:00

A month ago, I was excited to install Sprint's Airave to boost my signal strength in and around my house. I was excited about its potential to further eat into traditional POTS sales. This type of service is ideal for T-Mobile and Sprint to increase ARPU since their companies do not own any wireline networks in North America. After a little over a month of using the Airave, I had to take it

IEEE Denver Section Awards Banquet

2007-10-26T20:39:00.001-06:00

Earlier this evening, the Denver Section of the IEEE held its annual awards banquet at the Boulder Marriott. The picture is of the evening's speaker Howard Lieberman, Chairman and CEO of the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute. I had the pleasure of sitting next to him during the dinner for a lively discussion of the IEEE and state of Electrical Engineering. Howard has a very accomplished

The Future of User Generated Content

2007-10-10T14:35:00.000-06:00

On October 10, Silicon Flatirons held a forum entitled "The Future of User Generated Content." The three panels contained some very intelligent speakers from mostly traditional media outlets. There were a couple of "new" media representatives like ManiaTV. As expected issues such as copyright law, fair use, DRM, network neutrality, and business models were discussed. Although I was hoping

Know Your Presidential Candidates

2007-09-29T01:36:00.000-06:00

Although the purpose of this blog is discuss communications industry issues, I am going to deviate this one article to the presidential election. Americans should have as many facts as possible so they can choose a candidate that they feel will be best for the job. Too often we rely on sound bites provided by the media to form our opinions instead of taking the time to research the candidates.

Why Don't You Have an OpenID?

2007-09-25T12:06:00.001-06:00

The OpenID initiative took a big step forward this week at the Digital ID World Conference in San Francisco when France Telecom's Orange announced that it will adopt the OpenID standard for user authentication. Orange will provide an OpenID for all of its 40 million subscribers, and they are the first major telecom service provider to implement OpenID. Above and beyond significantly adding to

When Net Neutrality Goes Away

2007-09-23T15:03:00.001-06:00

David Isenberg posted a rather humorous picture on his blog portraying a possible pricing plan of a tiered Internet. Although I find the graphic humorous, it is inaccurate. More over it creates more FUD about Net Neutrality. Click on the link and have a chuckle, as I did, remembering that access to any and every non-malicious web site should be a basic tenant of every Internet service. It does

Sprint's Airave: A VoIP Alternative

2007-09-22T15:27:00.000-06:00

Being on the bleeding edge is not all that it is cracked up to be. Monday I wrote about Sprint's Airave femtocell where they provide unlimited calling to and from the same CDMA phone as long as callers are in range of the cell. My personal attraction to the device was to cover the poor reception that I receive around my home. The Sprint Customer Retention department suggested solving the

Sprint Releases AIRAVE to Enhance In-Home Coverage

2007-09-17T21:10:00.001-06:00

Sprint announced today that it is releasing AIRAVE to select customers in the Denver and Indianapolis markets. The device is intended to replace a customer's landline by offering unlimited incoming, outgoing, and long distance calls with enhanced coverage inside the home. Sprint customers can use the same CDMA phone that they currently use on the Sprint network. The AIRAVE is a femtocell that