CableLabs has issued a set of “safe harbor” specs that will help cable operators assist law enforcement agencies perform court-authorized surveillance of high-speed broadband connections, down to the level of which Websites individuals are visiting and what kind of files they are downloading.
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=126410&site=cdn
A new study of 25 top tier service providers in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific provides further evidence that Ethernet continues to go mainstream and will eventually dominate the metro space, as SONET/SDH slowly but surely declines over the next 10 to 20 years, contends Infonetics Research (search Infonetics Research), conductor of the study.
Dubbed, “Service provider plans for metro optical and Ethernet,” the study reveals that the percentage of access or collector rings/mesh that are Ethernet will jump from 32% in 2005 or earlier to 60% in 2007 and beyond.
My only question is - “Why has this taken so long?” I knew 5-6 years ago that Ethernet provided a better access solution, better bandwidth, etc. Yet companies still though that paying 10X the price for a T1 or DS3 was the better way to go. Sure, voice networks were not ready for the switch, but why not pay less for more bandwidth on your data network if it’s available? Probably because Telecom providers scared their customers into thinking the reliability sucked and they were better off paying more for the traditional service - thus increasing the companies revenue and delaying (yet again) the introduction of better technology for consumers.
Looks like someone at the FCC finally found some common sense. I was against this merger from day one (being a Bellsouth customer myself). My rates are high enough as it is. Throw in AT&T, and prices will continue to soar - unless of course you buy their “package” deals. Just another way to pressure customers into spending more money with one provider instead of offering a reasonably priced alternative for each option (Voice, Video, Wireless, and Internet).
Read the full story in Lightwave here.
On Friday the 13th, the day of the big vote at the Federal Communications Commission on the merger of AT&T and BellSouth, three of the voting commissioners have apparently gotten spooked. Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps issued statements Friday asking that the vote be postponed, and for the issue to be re-opened to public comment. Another commissioner, Commissioner Robert McDowell, has asked that he be recused from the vote because he was once a member of the CLEC association Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) . An FCC spokesman says McDowell still “considers himself recused” today.
A source inside the Commission said he would be “very surprised” if the vote took place Friday. He noted that he wasn’t privy to conversations going on now among the chairman and the commissioners.
Specifically, Copps and Adelstein ask that the Commission take fresh proposals from AT&T and BellSouth, and to open a new round of public comment on the matter.
“Such an approach is even more important because the Department of Justice approved this combination with very little substantive analysis and only a day before we were scheduled to vote, making our task much harder,” the letter reads.
The commissioners are concerned that the current structure of the AT&T/BellSouth merger might create an environment of anti-trust in the telecom market.
“Given the limited analysis from our leading anti-trust authorities, it is now imperative that we employ an open process to involve all affected parties, including the applicants, in order to get the public and expert view that is otherwise lacking,” the letter reads.
The delay on the vote would be the second in two days. The FCC late Wednesday postponed the vote, and a related network neutrality item, until today.
This morning’s letter comes one day after the Commission’s announcement Thursday that it would prepare a new study on the current state of video competition in the U.S. The FCC wants fresh data on the effect IPTV and broadband video will have on existing video pricing.
That issue has everything to do with the merger, according to AT&T. AT&T says BellSouth does not have the resources by itself to roll out video services that would keep cable prices in check. Only with the merger, AT&T says, can competitive video be offered within Bellsouth’s footprint.