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Hill
Associates Telecom Newsletter
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Hello!
This month’s newsletter follows election week, and what an exciting week it was! The democrats’ control of the House of Representatives could hold some interesting changes for the telecommunications industry. Democrat John Dingell, the new chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, has already stated that the FCC should delay any decisions concerning the AT&T/BellSouth merger until the new Congress meets in January. In addition, Dingell and democrat Ed Markey—fellow member on the committee and a member of the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee—are big proponents of regulation. What changes are in store in this arena? Will the Internet in North America eventually be regulated? See the article below about RFID regulation, which many states have vetoed. Will this change in the coming months, though?
We also explore other exciting changes in telecommunications, such as television programming becoming available on your cell phone, advances in computer gaming, and extensions to Web browsers. We even give you the opportunity to try your hand at a video game classic. Enjoy the articles as you take a break from preparing for the busy holiday season ahead.
Happy Thanksgiving, and see you next month!
Paul
President & CEO |
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| In
the News
TV comes to your cell phone
Our last newsletter discussed the demise of ESPN’s MVNO service. This month, USA TODAY reported that Comcast and Time Warner Cable will partner with Sprint/Nextel to offer cell phone coverage and expand their TV-Internet-home phone triple play. Comcast (the largest cable company in the U.S.) and Time Warner (the number two company) together with Cox and Advance/Newhouse signed a 20-year agreement with Sprint/Nextel in November of last year. Now begins the launch of the new services. Under consideration: the nature of bundles (customers will have to buy at least one other service) and a PVR (personal video recorder) capability, which will allow users to record programming directly to their phones.
Not to be outdone, Verizon and AT&T have also announced new IPTV offerings. Of course, we are still waiting for the FCC to approve AT&T’s acquisition of BellSouth.
How long is the long tail?
Chris Anderson created a tempest with his discussion of the “long tail” and how Internet companies can sell millions of single things and make a fortune. This CIO Insight article discusses how manufacturers and commodity providers are reacting to the long tail idea. Anderson has found supporters in places he never expected and says the world needs to change for many of today’s big suppliers. Perhaps the long tail is the view to the future. |
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| Industry
Analysis
Processor announcements everywhere! And old processors live on.
Intel has announced its quad processors; meanwhile the space shuttle software, operating on an Intel 386, might have a hiccup if in flight New Year’s Eve into New Year’s Day. Elsewhere, NVIDIA has introduced new graphics processors and Sony has a new cell chip being used in PlayStation 3. Computing advances in imaging and graphics programming have changed gaming dramatically over the years. Remember Pong, originally released in 1972? Care to play?
RFID regulation
Lawmakers in Georgia, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin have already enacted legislation regarding RFID. Rhode Island was the first state to veto RFID legislation. The process has also died an early death in Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, and Virginia. Now California governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed what many consider one of the most far reaching bills concerning RFID use in tracking people. Is RFID legislation necessary to control privacy violations, or is RFID just a misunderstood technology that needs more scrutiny?
America continues to go broadband
The numbers are in! AT&T and Verizon were impressive in the third quarter with big gains in several areas. One of the gains is in broadband access—DSL—where carriers gained over 1M new subscribers. However, a close look at the numbers shows that broadband was up in general, and the cable industry might be just as impressive. This article is probably the first of many that analyzes the race to broadband success between cable TV and telco. It also looks at the cable movement into the traditional telco land of voice. |
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| Tech
Talk
Firefox meets Mr. Binks
Mozilla has recently released Firefox 2.0, the latest version of its Web browser. Firefox is the second most popular browser behind Internet Explorer, but it is more likely to be the browser of choice for the entrenched Internet user. One reason is that it has had fewer security issues than IE. Another is its open nature—the many available extensions that make the browser very customizable. Take a look at Googlepedia, discussed in a recent tHAWT podcast; Zotero, an excellent way to collect and manage research information; and Jajah, “Web activated telephony.” Jajah allows you to make calls from the browser using your own mobile or fixed phone. You can set up your own phonebook and make free calls to other Jajah users. Jajah can also automatically detect phone numbers on Web pages, which you can then click to call. The service includes a free trial, but for most uses there will be a charge. |
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