Improve Data Collection on Special Access Market August 27th, 2010

A new government report advises the Federal Communications Commission to improve the data it collects on the special access services market so it can measure the state of competition in the wireless industry. More detailed data and analysis of prices, special access rates and capital expenditures would help the commission oversee the market, the Government Accountability Office said. We support that recommendation.

Special access services are high capacity dedicated transmission links used to distribute voice and data traffic. The services are sold by wireline, cable and fixed wireless companies. Multiple providers compete in this market. Surveys show there are as many as 65 national and regional providers of competitive special access services. These providers include traditional CLECs, cable companies, and wireless broadband providers.

Prices for wireless services have continued to fall even as services are improving, GAO observed. The study also noted a trend toward consolidation in the industry. But a “high concentration of firms in an industry does not necessarily mean that the interest of consumers are poorly served,” the report said.

GAO’s conclusions that wireless prices are falling supports the evidence we have provided to the commission demonstrating that special access prices have also declined since the FCC implemented pricing flexibility. As GAO points out, many wireless companies either provide their own alternatives to special access or rely upon competitive alternatives from cable, micro-wave and CLEC providers. The GAO report makes it clear that providing these services to wireless companies is a complex market with a broad range of competitors. For that reason we have been supportive of the FCC’s plans to gather detailed data about the extent of all competitive offerings, as GAO recommends.

Storage is the Next Internet “Land-Grab” August 27th, 2010

The recent bidding war between HP and Dell for storage leader 3Par is a clear example of where these IT giants see the opportunities of the future. And they are not alone. Cisco, Google, Apple, EMC and other Fortune 500-IT companies are making sizable investments in virtual and/or cloud-based storage technologies in preparation for what looks to become a very lucrative business in the coming years. They are anticipating meeting the growing demand for the storage and archiving of data generated from: Monitoring devices, medical records, RFI transmitters, SmartGrid energy data, legal documents, text, voice, photos and video content that is exploding everywhere. This content will need to be saved and archived for various periods of time, thus requiring massive electronic storage resources.

Storage demand is already growing from all levels of IT, from consumers like us backing up our home computers that hold our photos and songs to the various branches of the government, to the insurance, legal, medical, energy, and scientific communities.  As storage costs come down, people and companies are also backing up their back-ups with redundant storage systems, thus adding to the demand for storage resources. Where will this trend end? Or will it end at all?

Fast and Happy August 19th, 2010

A new Federal Communications Commission report on broadband performance raises questions about whether Americans are getting the speeds promised in broadband service packages. The report says there’s a gap between advertised speeds and download and upload speeds. Advertised speed is the maximum available, a commonly used metric which allows consumers to more easily compare service.

Most of us have experienced occasions when computers freeze in the midst of web browsing or shopping. But usually the problem is solved by rebooting or resetting routers. Broadband speed isn’t the problem. And as the report points out, download speeds are only one measure of broadband performance. Other factors, outside of the Internet service provider’s control, can affect speeds consumers experience. These include the congestion or degradation of service that may take place over the connection line, and performance degradation due to user devices, such as slow computers, under-functioning wire and wireless routers or the performance of websites and applications.

Overall consumers are enjoying much faster speeds every year, with connections doubling roughly every four years, the report said. Only a small percentage of consumers are buying top tier broadband speed service, the FCC report said. Of the 90 percent of people who bought broadband connections providing more than 1 Mbps, only a small subset of users, 6 percent, purchased broadband with actual download speeds greater than 10 Mbps.

This must be why there is no widespread public outcry over the difference between advertised speeds and actual speed. The FCC’s own research supports this. According to its recent study on consumer satisfaction, the overwhelming majority – 91 percent – of Americans are either satisfied or very satisfied with their broadband provider’s performance.

Long Live the Web August 19th, 2010

Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine, recently made waves with a cover story titled, “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.”, which claims that the web is dying, replaced by apps that run on semi-proprietary platforms instead.  Not surprisingly, the story has generated considerable reaction and commentary, much of it critical of Anderson’s basic premise.

Even the accompanying chart in the story– characterizing web use in sharp decline, and depicting video as a separate category that has spiked in recent years — is being challenged.  As many critics of the article point out, video has ascended quickly, but it is websites like YouTube and Hulu that support much of this traffic.  Also, in most cases, apps rely on the Internet to operate – and are thus inextricably intertwined.  So the data in the Wired chart is misrepresented, showing web traffic as a declining portion of overall Internet traffic in the United States.  In reality, the data shows rapid growth of online traffic across the spectrum over the past two decades, including the Web.

As with the evolution of other industries, the Internet and its many functions and applications are becoming increasingly specialized.  Need a map?  You can check a website on your laptop or use an app designed for the purpose that connects to the Internet to deliver directions to your destination.  Want to read a book or catch up on the news?  There are specialized devices today that can help with that, downloading those resources from the Internet.

So in essence innovators have cast a wider web, one that is connecting to the Internet in new and different ways.  That certainly doesn’t mean the web is going away.  Rather, it’s evolving in leaps and bounds.

Smart Grid Utilities Need to Prepare for Data Onslaught August 13th, 2010

In a recent interview with Forbes magazine, Gary Bloom, CEO of eMeter, a company providing Smart Grid software, explained that Smart Grid utilities could see as much as 200 times more data collected from customers than is collected today.

Smart Grid utilities will be undergoing a massive transformation from legacy systems to next generation control and billing systems, much like the telecom industry underwent when phone service was transitioning from circuit-switched to voice over IP.  Bloom believes that 100% of today’s utility companies are discussing Smart Grid implementations, but about 5-10% of these companies are actually installing new smart-meters. Most utilities will run pilot programs first, before initiating a full-scale deployment.

Bloom also believes that reading meters every 15 minutes, as opposed to once a month, will empower both the utility and the consumer. When people make changes to conserve energy they cannot tell if it saves them 3% or 20% on their bill. With more frequently collected usage data and a web portal that displays energy usage vs. the cost, both utilities and consumers can make informed decisions about their future energy consumption.

Illinois Urges Smart Grid Collaboration June 23rd, 2010

The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) is urging power companies and communications service providers to work together to write network proposals before any public utility sends the ICC a smart grid cost recovery filing, according to a recent story in Smart Grid Today. While at the DOE’s headquarters in Washington, DC, Illinois Commissioner Sherman Elliott said that regulators prefer a menu of communications options, rather than a summary of how much it would cost a utility to build a smart grid communications network on its own.

“Determining the “least-cost option” for a smart grid rollout often proves difficult if a regulator is not given sufficient data,” he said.  A regulator’s job is made much easier in these types of rate proceedings when telecom firms join with a utility to provide information on how they could install a smart grid communications network and at what cost, he asserted.  “This type of dialogue and information is extremely important for regulators,” he added.

DOE General Counsel Scott Harris said he often hears that power utilities need to build their own networks because of their need for reliability and security.  However, when he talks to telecom firms, they argue that commercial networks, both wired and wireless, are the most cost-effective means for utilities to gather and use data for consumers, he said. DOE published a request for information on utilities’ smart-grid related communications requirements last month and set a July 12 deadline for interested parties to submit comments.

Black Market For IP Addresses May 13th, 2010

It appears that the depletion of IPv4 addresses has accelerated much faster than predicted. As with many other resources that are in high demand, the possibility of a ‘Black Market’ is of growing concern to several Internet notables. Kevin Oberman, a well-known Internet Engineering and economic subject matter expert, believes the black market already exists in a small form, but could get much worse very quickly.  “If you have a commodity that has value and is required for commerce, the price will rise to whatever buyers are willing to pay”. “ If people have legitimate rules that permit (IP) address transfers, they’ll use them instead of a black market” stated Oberman.

The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) predicts that, at the current rate of IPv4 assignments, these addresses will be exhausted by the end of 2010, almost a full year ahead of earlier predictions. Richard Jimmerson, the CIO of ARIN notes that the ARIN community has adopted policies that permit address transfer from an IPv4 registrant to another party, through ARIN.  Jimmerson is hopeful that this will mitigate the likelihood of a growing black market for IPv4 addresses.

Of course, as the entire Internet engineering community has been touting since 2004, the networks that make up the Internet will need to migrate fully to IPv6 addressing in order to keep up and serve the explosive growth of the Internet as a whole. Both Oberman and Jimmerson agree that there is very little time left for IPv4 users to fully migrate to IPv6, and that most new computing servers will soon be shipped as IPv6-only machines, thus isolating any holdover IPv4-only Internet users.

When is a Cloud Not a Cloud? May 4th, 2010

Now that the term “cloud computing” has taken over the telecom and IT industries as the latest trend in service delivery, we are seeing quite a bit of license taken in applying this term to marketing vocabularies. There are numerous definitions floating around tech circles, describing what cloud-computing really is.

However it all comes down to this:  Is a service provider delivering its services from multiple diverse locations, using virtualized servers?  Or are they just using virtualized servers in a single massive data center and calling it a “cloud”? This minor detail separates the real cloud providers from the “wanna-be” cloud providers.

So before you purchase, lease, or subscribe to a service provider that claims that they offer a cloud-based solution, ask them two questions: How many data centers do they operate out of?  And how many cities do their data centers reside in?  You may be surprised to find how many of today’s so-called cloud providers give you an answer of “one.”

To learn more about Cloud Computing, keep an eye out for the Summer edition of USTelecom’s Communications Crossroads magazine, where we discuss current trends, advantages and vulnerabilities of working in the cloud. The summer edition mails at the end of May, and will be viewable online via our website soon thereafter.

Computer Slang Hinders Computer Security March 25th, 2010

Computer slang terms and confusing jargon are discouraging Internet users from learning how to protect themselves online. A large proportion of the world’s 2 billion Internet users have the impression that security is for “experts” and fail to take necessary actions for the security of their own computers and security of their access to the Internet.  This naivety has cyber security experts concerned that Internet users are exposing themselves to a rapidly growing problem of online theft, fraud, vandalism, and abuse.

“If you don’t demystify security, people become anxious about it and don’t want to do it,” former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated at the East-West Institute security meeting held in Brussels earlier this year. “In an ideal world you would change your password every day. You would have 14 characters and no more than two would repeat themselves. No one can live with that,” said Chertoff.

You can learn more about this event and the discussions on cyber security at http://www.ewi.info/wsc7.

That’s Entertainment! The Oscars Online March 8th, 2010

How do televised events like the Oscars draw both a broader and younger audience?  This year, in addition to doubling the number of best picture-nominated films, the 82nd Annual Academy Awards launched a social media campaign replete with smartphone apps, a trivia competition, and live Twitter feeds from the award ceremony.

To kick off Oscar’s social media makeover, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences streamed the nominations announcement live on Facebook – encouraging fans to watch and share their reactions with friends.  The free Oscar smartphone app, downloaded approximately 25,000 times, shared trailers of nominated films and encouraged users to make their own winner predictions.  And Oscar.com captured viewer data for its marketing efforts by encouraging consumers to register to receive mobile alerts, participate in the site’s “Live Challenge” trivia game, and receive email updates and other communications.

Social media even helped catapult a relatively unknown film to “Best Animated Feature” status.  With a limited budget, the company promoting “The Secret of Kells” chose to market the movie via social media.  The filmmaker’s blog, which chronicled the movie’s production since 2005, helped promote “The Secret of Kells” Edinburgh Film Festival win.  Screenings were scheduled at animation schools, and a viral word-of-mouth campaign on Facebook and Twitter propelled the fan base from there.  Animator and “super-fan” Jamie Bolio served as a citizen publicist, promoting the film and sharing DVDs of the production with the Los Angeles cartooning industry.  While the film didn’t take the top award on Oscar night– it’s widely agreed the picture would never have been in contention without this creative online effort.

For those who find the red carpet more fascinating than the awards, ABC streamed its live red carpet show at Oscar.com for two hours prior to the show, and attached it to a Facebook discussion engine.  There was even a designated spot on the red carpet for celebrities to answer fan questions posted on the Academy’s Facebook page.  And if you missed acceptance speeches or want to see the extended, backstage version, Oscar.com has all of these clips and more ready to view at a click of a button.  Now that’s entertainment your way brought to you by broadband.