With the divisiveness of a political year in full force, it is refreshing to find topics where almost everyone can find common ground. A few weeks back at the IP Vision Conference and Expo, David Howe, CEO of SubscriberWise and MCTV credit manager, described a problem and solution that would seemingly be able to engender a bipartisan solution.
Common Sense Approach to End Child Identity Theft
With over 20 years in credit collection, Howe has been involved in over 1,000 cases where an adult will open an account using a minor’s Social Security number. The adult’s subsequent non-payment then ruin’s the child’s credit. Unfortunately, this identity theft is often undetected until years later when the minor is an adult. It is doubly devastating when the thief is the parent, as the victim not only has to undertake the hassle of cleaning up her credit, she must deal with the emotional toll caused by the betrayal of someone who is supposed to be her protector.
From Broadband to Affordable Housing to Attract Teachers
“There isn’t one cookie-cutter approach,” says Chris Kyle, Vice President, Industry Relations and Regulatory for Shentel. Kyle was referring to rural economic development and how each community has unique needs. In the above interview, Kyle talks about the important role that broadband providers and their local employees have in connecting with and providing ideas to various civic, educational and business organizations interested in economic development. As an example, Kyle discusses Shentel’s role in bolstering long-term economic development for rural McDowell County, West Virginia.
Why IP Matters
Reliability is the hallmark of the traditional public switched telephone network. Steve Angerhofer, Partner at FARR Technologies, describes how they are working with NetBoss to help smaller rural carriers maintain a similar reliability with their broadband networks. By actively monitoring networks, Angerhofer explains how smaller carriers can assure compliance with Service Level Agreements, as well as target investment in new and expanded plant, based on real-time data.
Level the Playing Field
Ensuring a common set of regulatory rules, regardless of whether telecommunications provider is an ILEC or CLEC, is the aim of proposed legislation (HF1066/SF736) that recently passed from committee to the respective floors of the Minnesota House and Senate. In this video interview, Kristi Westbrock reflects on a recent article she wrote that explains that this legislation is not deregulation and does not remove existing consumer protections. She also discusses changes to the Minnesota Border-to-Border grant program that could potentially end up diluting funding and delaying the time it takes to bring broadband to all rural parts of the Land of 10,000 lakes.
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:
- Ajit Pai @AjitPaiFCC “@RepScottPeters to @politico: FCC Chair said he wouldn’t regulate broadband rates; bill barring such regs ‘simply puts that into law.'”
- @MattAtACA: “@tivo @publicknowledge Recognize Smaller #MVPDs Warrant Relief From @FCC #SetTopBox Regs“
- With over 300 co-sponsors, there is bipartisan support to amend the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to require a warrant, based on a showing of probable cause, before the government would be able to compel a cloud computing provider to release a user’s private electronic communications.
- Love the renderings in this report [PDF] that paint a vision of how the built-environment could improve with the rollout of autonomous vehicles. Some of the language even suggest parallels to broadband networks. Paul Godsmark had a similar vision a couple years before as seen in this article.
The Korner – Internet of Baseball Bats
Regarding level playing fields, it was fun and educational to catch up with Donovan Prostrollo of Blast Motion where he discussed their technology that is bringing the Internet of Things concept to sports. Many Viodi View readers will probably recognize Donovan from his many years in the independent telecommunications industry.
The Easton Power Sensor attaches to the end of any bat and communicates via Bluetooth to an iOS app that captures video of a given swing and provides associated analytics for the various elements that make up a swing. Prostrollo likens it to having a coach in your pocket. Blast Motion is more than baseball, as they have applied their technology to other sports, including golf, basketball and track and field.
