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Hill
Associates Telecom Newsletter
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Greetings once again!
We are now well into 2008. January is behind us and we are moving forward with many new projects.
I wanted to personally thank each and every one of you who completed our survey about the newsletter. It is clear that you value what we are doing, but you want us to do more. You want more coverage on topics such as security, mobility/wireless, MPLS, and new optical services. For those of you who want more white papers, in the meantime, consult our wiki for in-depth information on many telecom topics.
We will continue to provide you the best objective views on the industry trends. Keep sending us your feedback and input. That’s what makes us better.
Paul
President & CEO
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the News
The votes are in
Subscribers and others to CTIA.org have voted for their top 10 wireless moments. CTIA.org will count them down monthly until October. Check out our ExperTech 2.0 and white paper on wireless.
Happy Anniversary PC Magazine
PC Magazine celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. (The year before, IBM’s personal computer celebrated its 25th.) In honor of its anniversary, the magazine now looks forward 25 years and asks some industry experts (Gates, Dvorak, Otellini, Cerf, Dell) for their thoughts about the future.
Is there an IT talent shortage?
According to Information Week, the answers are yes and no. CIO’s say that recruiting and retaining IT staff is a top priority for 2008. Is your organization finding this to be true? Let us know. |
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Industry
Analysis
The challenge of regulatory compliance
Different organizations will likely encounter different regulations, making the compliance game a tricky one. Use this guide to help you identify which regulations apply to your organization, and consult our white paper for insights on best practices around regulatory compliance.
What if there were suddenly no Internet?
The idea seems almost unthinkable, but it happened in late January in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, on the scale of being called a national disaster. Two underseas fiber-optic links were damaged, leaving many without Internet and phone service. Ironically, CIO Magazine had just published an interesting perspective on the possibility of such an event two weeks prior, as well as a related article about who owns the Internet.
FCC Universal Services Fund Ruling
During the last week of January, the FCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) about the high cost of supporting the current payments in the universal service fund (USF). The USF was created to fund the development of rural telephone service under the mandate of universal affordable service. Today, the USF has become a focal point as the boundaries between phone services and data services blur. From our perspective, the question is when will Internet access and mobile telephony become “basic needs” and thus be eligible for money from the USF. |
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Tech
Talk
Carrier Metro Ethernet
Many believe Carrier Metro Ethernet will solve some of the telecom industry’s challenges such as ongoing standards development, carrier certification programs, and removing layers from the network. Check out our Metro Ethernet ExperTech 2.0, as well as Tom Nolle’s advice on Provider Backbone Bridging (PBT), Using Ethernet as a Carrier Backbone, and Best Practices for Delivering Ethernet as a Service.
Sprint’s Xohm has potential, but will it sell on Main Street?
With its goal to blanket the U.S. with high-speed Internet access using WiMAX technology starting in April 2008, Sprint’s Xohm (rhymes with “home”) could reach as many as 100 million people by the end of the year. But there are many hurdles to jump and some competition. January’s IEEE Spectrum article has a good overview of the situation.
In related news, and noted in a Bloomberg Financial video, the on again/off again talks between Sprint and Clearwire appear to be back on again; only this time they seem to be including potential investment partners Google, Intel, and Best Buy. The first trials are slated for Chicago and the Washington, D.C. area.
Twenty-five years of TCP/IP
On January 1, 1983, the predecessor of today’s Internet—the ARPANET—switched over to TCP/IP. It all seemed a very simple concept then: bring all packet-switched networks together and enable seamless communications across them, regardless of any differences among them. The eventual powerful result is today’s Internet, credited to Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn. Check out NPR’s interview with Cerf. Even Google got in on the anniversary celebration. |
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| Hill Associates News
De-mystifying those technical terms
For the best telecom wiki around, with almost 1000 telecom articles, including five-minute PodSnacks that relate to 275 of those articles, come to us. We appreciate your continued requests for content, especially since our students are using the wiki to study! Please spread the word about our podcast series called the Hill Associates Week in Telecom (tHAWT) and our new video podcasts.
Hill Associates newsletter survey
Please click here and let us know how we can make the newsletter more valuable to you. There’s a prize in it for you, but you’ll have to open the survey for the details! The survey has just 12 questions and should take you only a few minutes to complete. If you have already completed it, you are already eligible for the prize.
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