Thanks to Jari Aho for pointing out an excellent article/interview with Viodi View friend, Frank Bulk of Premier Communications, an independent telco in Iowa. Bulk provides a thoughtful and insightful analysis of the challenges of IPTV, especially as it relates to independent telcos.  He discusses the current state of the IPTV market, including missed promises, as [...]

Popularity: 15% [?]

Monday, April 14, 2008, marked the launch of the largest commercial satellite.  ICO will be using this satellite to serve the growing mobile video market.  ICO will use frequencies in the 2 GHz range to provide video and emergency services to mobile handsets and car-based terminals.  They are building a hybrid satellite-terrestrial network.  The [...]

Popularity: 12% [?]

Two recent acquisitions that did not make the headlines of the New York Times or even any of the traditional telecom industry publications. The Telephone Acquisition Company, LLC’s pending purchase of Iowa’s Swisher Telephone and American Broadband’s purchase of TelAlaska may be small in terms of the number of subscribers involved, but these acquisitions are extremely [...]

Popularity: 14% [?]

NTCA’s Education Group produces seminars that cover areas of critical importance to independent telcos’ on-going business operations.  The topics may sometimes sound dry, but the speakers that NTCA employs always manage to make the subject matter lively and entertaining. Definitely check out their latest offering, which is the NTCA OSHA 10-Hour General Industry Compliance [...]

Popularity: 8% [?]

 
The problem with conferences is the sterile hotel environment that they typically occupy. Speakers talk about the networked-home at these confabs, but the discussions are somewhat theoretical as slide-ware, videos and exhibits are used to convey information. Rarely are these type of meetings held in the real world (Viodi’s Local Content Workshops being an exception, of course, [...]

Popularity: 9% [?]

WSJ:  Cisco Changes Tack In Takeover Game
 
Cisco is now buying companies and giving them much more autonomy.  For example, Cisco bought email security start-up IronPort, but let it operate as a stand-alone unit, with its own managers, brand name, engineers and salespeople.
 
Cisco’s strategy shift is particularly striking because the company, the country’s third-largest tech firm by market [...]

Popularity: 22% [?]

Roger and I are at NAB this week and we will have many interesting reports from this confab, particularly as it relates to telecom. If you are at NAB, stop by the Content Production Potpourri, as we will have approximately 12 demonstrations from companies that are making tools for low-cost, high quality local content productions.
 

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Popularity: 8% [?]

Abstract:
 
We have previously opined that the highly touted 700 MHz auction was a win for the U.S. government (almost $20B was raised) and Google (open access rules for C block w/o spending a dime).  Yet it was a big loss for public safety. 
 
Based on a post auction spectrum analysis from a well placed source, we [...]

Popularity: 38% [?]

Martin Taylor, Vice President of Product Management and Technology for MetaSwitch, gave an excellent overview of XML and its ascent as the standard for machine-to-machine interface in the telephony world. XML allows for a mash-up of applications, such as the obligatory caller ID on television. Combining XML data with Asynchronous JavaScript is AJAX, which allows updating of [...]

Popularity: 19% [?]

The WTA Spring 2008 Meeting featured a upbeat panel on the distribution of video by independent telcos. Gerald Duffy of Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy & Prendergast moderated a panel that provided both the big and detailed picture of the video business. 
Ben Foster, VP of Sales and Marketing for Twin Valley Telephone, an early adopter of franchised [...]

Popularity: 18% [?]