BellSouth and WiMax

Om Malik reported this item on his blog today. So, the WiMax rollout is beginning.

Is WiMax a viable technology for the "third pipe"? Does a "third pipe" like this make a difference if it owned by one of the companies that provides the other pipe?

Technorati Tags:
Telecommunications, WiMax, BellSouth, AT&T

Report on telecom SE Europe (Balkans and more) for EU

This report showed up on my radar screen today. These countries are all interested in joining the EU, and part of that process is "harmonization" of regulations, taxes, etc. This report documents the state of telecommunications in these countries in connection with their accession process. In any case, this report provides some data on the state of telecommunications in these countries.

Technorati Tags:
Telecommunications, EU, Balkans, Turkey

Siemens and Nokia

The merger of Siemens' and Nokia's mobile phone divisions is all over the news today (see, for example, this). As this BusinessWeek article points out, this isn't the first merger in the telecom equipment sector.

Do you think that this merger will provide benefits for innovation? Who do you think benefits the most from this merger? Do you think that this is significant in changing the competitive dynamics of the telecom equipment industry?

Update: This article adds a bit more dimension to the industry environment ...

Technorati Tags:
Telecommunications, mergers, Lucent, Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens, Motorola, Nortel

Costs for Verizon's optical fiber upgrade

While stories on the optical network that Verizon is building (and its relationship to competitors) have become commonplace, I found this article useful in that it includes cost figures that aren't usually published. It is exactly this kind of facilities-based competition between telephone companies, cable companies, and other providers that was envisioned in the mid-1990s when the Telecom Act of 1996 was passed into law. It took about 10 years longer to develop than was envisioned at the time. For me, the lesson is that these costly, technically complex vetures take longer than we imagine to play out.

Technorati Tags:
Verizon, FIOS, Fiber Optics, cable, Internet

Telecom legislation update

In case you missed it, the US House of Representatives approved a bill on telecom reform. The next action will be getting a companion bill passed in the US Senate. Then, a conference committee has to reconcile the differences. Then, each chamber must approve the revised bill. Then, the President has to sign it for it to become law. All of this in an election year ... we'll see (excuse my skepticism ...).

Read the article (or better yet, the bill). Do you think this Bill addresses the current problems in telecom in the US? Is it adequate? Does it fall short?

Technorati Tags:
Telecommunications, legislation, network neutrality

Broadband in the US redux

Talk that the US is a laggard in broadband adoption has become commonplace (see, for example, this, this, and this). Furthermore, this report has given observers some cause to be concerned about the future of the US, with some calls for policy intervention. In light of that, I find this article and this report to cast a different (and more hopeful) light on this topic.

Do you think that a policy intervention is called for? Is the current US "hands off" policy the right one?

Technorati Tags:
Internet, broadband, access

Earthlink and Municipal Networks, again

I have pointed out the importance of municipal networks to Earthlink's future earlier on this blog. This article in BusinessWeek adds more weight to this. There is also this article that appeared a few months ago that discusses this topic as well.

Do you see any problems with Earthlink's strategy?

Technorati Tags:
Earthlink, municipal networks