With the holidays now behind us, it is time for International CES and for retailers to begin planning for the 2013 holiday season. And next week’s CES promises to provide an entertaining look at what will be hot. Based on the announcements thus far, it looks like there will be no end to the advancements and refinements of consumer electronics; particularly as consumer electronics continues to literally become part of the consumer (as seen in this 2012 CES video highlighting some bionic technology).

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Big Data is a topic that is sure to be part of the buzz at the 2013 CES. Kshitij Kumar has published the first two-parts of a three-part series on this topic, particularly as it relates to Broadband Service Providers. It is an honor to have Kumar’s contribution to the Viodi View, as he brings the perspective of an entrepreneur who brings a broad vision to the telecommunications and media distribution business, while understanding technology, such as “Big Data”, and how it can be used to make these businesses more efficient.

Big Data for Small Providers – Part 1 by Kshitij Kumar

Big Data is all the buzz today. There is no dearth of articles about Big Data, Data in the Cloud, Data Mining, Analytics, etc. But what exactly do these terms mean? This series of articles will explain Big Data and how it applies to Broadband Service Providers. It will explain what they can do with it, why they should do it, and show how Big Data techniques may be implemented by Broadband Service Providers to benefit their business. Click here to read more.

Actionable Insights from Good Data – Part 2 by Kshitij Kumar

The aim of any Data Analysis effort should be to provide “actionable insights”. An actionable insight is an understanding (an “insight” obtained by professional analysis of data) that points to a course of action. Insights that help in understanding network status or customer behavior may be interesting, but are not useful to the Broadband Service Provider unless they are actionable. Click here to read more.

Global Telco Capex May Surprise on the Upside in 2013! by Alan Weissberger

After several years of disappointments, global telco capital expenditures (capex) might increase stronger than expected next year. That might breath new life into the struggling telecom equipment and module market, which has been in the doldrums since at least 2001 with ever shrinking profit margins for telecom infrastructure gear makers. Click here to read Alan’s unique look at 2013 telco capital expenditures.

Will Speedier Rivals Impact Cable Operators?

Are cable operators doomed by the limitations of the very same infrastructure that has given them the competitive edge in many urban markets? This question was posed in a recent Wall Street Journal  article, Speedier Internet Rivals Push Past Cable. This article highlighted operators that have fiber networks that can deliver more bandwidth than the traditional cable architecture.

Many of these cutting-edge companies referenced in the article have been interviewed by ViodiTV over the past few years and can be found in the video playlist at this link.

Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:

• 3 college credits in 2 weeks accepted at accredited universities for <$100 -must remember when kids in college
• “As IoT (Internet of Things) starts its path to maturity, albeit a very early one, I feel that there will be a beginning of its market fragmentation -it is too huge to broad-brushed under one roof for its use cases, business models and product implementation.”

The Korner – Community at the Broadband Communities 2012 #

A 60 to 1 compression is what achieved in the following video. That is, more than 3 hours of videos are reduced to about three and a half minutes of soundbites (the MPEG-4 compression is pretty amazing as well). It is clear from those who are leading  the way, that broadband is more than a high-speed connection; community is the recurring theme heard in those soundbites.

The video at this link provides highlights from a sample of the dozens of speakers at the 2012 Broadband Communities Summit. These speakers discussed creative ways to fund broadband and some of the ways broadband has sparked economic development in rural and urban locales. Click here to view.