Unique Communities Bonded by Broadband
You have seen one rural community and you haven’t seen them all. I have found that to be the case in my travels through rural America. Each locale has a unique story. So often one find things that are unexpected (like a town that is home to a company that has 70% worldwide market share for outdoor stadium lighting or a business in the middle of the plains that is a leader in sustainable reservoir water quality improvement with low energy or chemical use – quiz answers in the next issue of the Viodi View).
One take-away from this week’s WTA Fall Meeting in San Francisco that many people, particularly on the regulatory side of things, don’t understand the unique nature of the rural communities that comprise the heartland.
Click here to read more and view the exclusive video interview with leaders of the WTA.
Likely Strategic Goals for Next FCC Chairman; Obstacles Ahead by Alan Weissberger
One of the concerns raised by state association presidents at the aforementioned WTA conference is that FirstNet, the nascent nationwide first responder network, could end up competing with the private sector at some point. In part 2 of his three-part series on the Telecom Council’s 2013 TC3 Summit, Alan Weissberger reports that lawyer Steve Augustino indicates that it could be another 14 years before full-scale deployment of FirstNet.
Augustino provides insight on the challenges the incoming commissioner will face, including dealing with spectrum auctions, grappling with the extent the FCC can regulate broadband and the transition from the Public Switched Telephone Network to an IP-based architecture. Weissberger’s article also looks at the question of whether the FCC’s broadband plan has been a success.
2013 Telecom Council TC3 Part 1: Start-up Pitches and SPIFFY Award Winners by Alan Weissberger
Click here to read Weissberger’s report on the unique telecom start-ups showcased at this the TC2013 Summit in this article, 2013 Telecom Council TC3 Part 1: Start-up Pitches and SPIFFY Award Winners,
UNIFI Communications- An Interesting Global VoIP Network Provider by Alan Weissberger
UNIFI Communications is not a well-known telecom brand name. Yet the company handles one billion minutes of annual global traffic from over 100 million subscribers, through 22 peering locations or “points of presence.” That makes it one of the largest IP, international carriers in the world! The accomplishments, innovations, and future directions from this 13-year-old company were described in an interview during the second day of TC3.
Click here to read more.
Silicon Valley Legends Ted Hoff and Dave House Introduction by Alan Weissberger
Alan Weissberger introduces panelists and Silicon Valley legends, Ted Hoff and Dave House. As Weissberger points out, Hoff and House were instrumental players in helping build the foundation in the 1970s and 1980s for Intel to become an enduring brand and a symbol of Silicon Valley. In the videos that follow, Hoff and House share their inside stories on Intel, the process of invention that led to the microprocessor and the strategy that turned Intel from invisible to a consumer-demanded brand.
Click here to view.
Intel’s Role in the Telecom Transition to Digital
Ted Hoff is credited with and well -known in tech circles for the invention of the microprocessor. As Alan Weissberger points out, his contribution to telecom is somewhat unheralded in comparison. In this video, he talks about how the telecom group he led at Intel in the 1970s sparked the revolution in telecom by creating Integrated Circuits that allowed for low-cost analog to digital conversion and for digital switching.
Stay tuned for more video from the excellent panel discussion moderated by Alan Weissberger that featured Ted Hoff and Dave House. In the meantime, click here to hear Ted Hoff’s recollection of how Intel made a difference in telecom.
A Holistic Approach to Home Management
At the 2013 Smart Energy Summit, Kevin Meagher gave the scoop on Lowe’s home management system, Iris. In the above interview, Meagher talks about the motivation for Iris, what makes Iris unique and how they are using this cloud-platform to learn how people will interact with a managed home. As the first national retailer to offer this type of service, Lowes is a pioneer in the home management space.
Click here to read more and to view.
The Korner – Fiber to the Hunter’s Creek – Fiber to the Home Pioneer
One of the effects of the rapid pace of innovation is that history is also created faster than in centuries past. In trying to keep up with the present, it is easy to forget or downplay the relatively recent past. These thoughts were going through the back of my mind in a recent interview with a pioneer in the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) space, William Strickler.
In the mid-1980s, Strickler orchestrated, on behalf of a Orlando, FL-area developer and with Southern Bell, the world’s first FTTH deployment. In one sense, this was a proof-of-concept to test the outer reaches of technology at that time. As he alludes to in the above video, Strickler has a treasure trove of historical tidbits from this development and he was kind enough to allow us to include these in the above video to tell his story.
Click here to view.
