YouTube's move to a partial pay-for-view model could help relieve a dearth of good new content but it could also complicate debates in many parts of the world over payment by content providers for delivery of their material to customers.
That's what Larry Page said on Google's earnings call, referring to the conjunction of mobile and the cloud. Well, let's chart it then! We need to be thinking about an Internet where 90% of our traffic goes to 70 destinations within 40 miles of us.
Software-defined networks, which deliver virtualization functions to enterprise networks, have the potential to dramatically change network design and significantly reduce costs and maintenance.
EU operators are considering joining up to create a pan-European network to reduce competitive overbuild and cost. This might lower costs and focus operators on higher-level, more interesting services.
Cisco's rumored sale of Linksys suggests we may have problem with innovation and profit at the edge of our Internet, and that could be critical to the evolution of many Internet-delivered services.
Many enterprises view high-speed broadband connections as ubiquitous. Yet in about 20 percent of the country, businesses and their employees do not have access to even DSL connections. This shortcoming diminishes enterprises' ability to support their employees.
Congress is considering a bill to extend a moratorium on Internet regulation changes for two years. But with issues like service quality, cloud performance, and privacy looming, we risk contaminating the Internet with fraud.
The risk of the ITU taking over the Internet is overblown. First, it's almost certain its goals are simply to create orderly interconnect and settlement. Second, how good a job has ICANN done anyway? If we don't like international control we should clean up our own processes in both governance and interconnect!
Businesses helped neighbors with Internet access and mobile device charge-ups during Sandra. Following that example, enterprises should consider preparing Internet disaster plans to help the public during disasters.
The new Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) initiative of operators is being run out of Europe's ETSI and not here in the United States, even though the issues have been here for five years. The US needs to step up; otherwise, it's surrendering leadership.
Internet evolution has been stagnating both conceptually and in business model terms, and what is likely to bring us out of that is the concept of software-defined networking, not as it is today but in the form it will become.
Google's Knowledge Graph concept of returning the "right answer" might change the Internet if it becomes a common practice, but it could also contaminate the answers with commericalism or hurt Google's own business. Can they navigate these choices?
The recent launch of the EchoStar XVII satellite has the potential to increase broadband satellite communications' top speed from megabits to gigabits of bandwidth. Hughes Network Systems plans to test its high-speed satellite broadband services this summer and roll them out this fall.
Facebook's IPO might change the way VCs look at funding fundamental Internet infrastructure research. If Facebook doesn't do well, VCs might move away from mindless flipping of social media startups and toward something serious. That could be good for everyone.
The amount of data traffic running over US wireless networks grew 123 percent from 2010 (388 billion MB) to 2011 (866.7 billion MB), according to the CTIA. Carriers have tried to prepare for the change by moving from 3G to 4G networks. But with data rates increasing so rapidly, will there be enough bandwidth to meet future demand? Doubtful!
There are reports out there that say LTE providers want to throttle their services to protect wireline broadband. This, with Verizon dropping naked DSL? This, with LTE requiring as much deep fiber as wireline? Think again!
Over time, demand forces will change the Internet. What will this mean at the technology level? Think a combination of cloud-address technologies, like the Donabe, Melange, and Quantum activity, and the OpenFlow switching architecture.
Disaster recovery is about restoring service to users, but when restoration times are protracted, companies should empower users so they have maximum flexibility for dealing with their situations.
The explosive growth in Internet traffic is forcing ISPs to increase their access investments without generating new revenue. They'll need to either raise prices or make the OTT players like Google or Netflix pay.
Worldwide broadband policy may be shaped by a war of wizards, with the "Wizard of Oz" in Australia pushing a nationalized broadband plan, and the "Wizard of Washington" in the FCC pushing a plan to declare broadband a telecommunications service. The default course, meanwhile, is usage pricing.
DSL has been bypassed by new higher-speed networking options. In response, Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei have devised techniques to give the technology a needed boost.
Because 25% to 45% of broadband cost is due to sales and marketing, we could reduce our broadband prices by eliminating advertising and promotional spending by providers.
Pew says that 53% of the US population doesn't think broadband policy is necessary. Other data shows that most consumers who don't have the Internet just don’t want it. Perhaps the Internet’s problem has more to do with content than policy. Hmmmmmm...
Our broadband futures aren't dependent on what's under our streets but rather on what's inside the heads of Wall Street. (Uh oh.) Without long-term investments in infrastructure, better broadband is merely a pipe dream.
Sites like Speedtest.net, which use data from users to construct a new picture of what the Net looks like, are making it harder and harder for service provider spin merchants to mislead the public about how much broadband capacity they are really getting.
Telecom operators say they are adding new high-speed broadband wireless technology to their networks to improve services for users, but they are also introducing tiered pricing which punishes us for taking advantage of the new speed. No fair, says Tom Nolle.
AT&T showed off lots of improvements to its IPTV service this week. The overall message: IP, Good! Cable, Bad! Phil predicts what it all means for the broadcast proletariat.
At The Cable Show in LA, Phil concludes that it doesn't matter how cable companies label mobility – if they don't have it in their DNA, consumers will eventually leave them. Eyes on the road, Phil!
A Verizon/Google tablet deal not only shows that tablets are now driving the hardware/software bus, they're also capable of building new alliances between old foes.
Just when it looked as if everyone was agreeing on net neutrality rules, the DC Court of Appeals has said the FCC has no authority to enforce them. We're now in for a period of regulatory chaos where everyone will have to try hard to follow, and influence, the issue.
Mainframes are a major driver of "behind-the-scenes" Internet e-commerce because of their fast and reliable transaction processing, a rich heritage of business applications that continue to deliver value, and a new ability to host operating systems like Linux, which allows sites to free up floorspace and reduce energy consumption.
When it comes to the high-volume transaction processing of e-commerce, many are surprised to learn that much of this processing is being done on mainframes. The fact is, 70 percent of worldwide enterprise applications that are mission-critical reside on mainframes – and mainframes are major e-commerce processors.
We all know wireline networks will need more bandwidth in the future. But deciding how much more is an exceptionally difficult question for planners to answer.
Why does everyone claim their products are transformative? Cisco said its announcement of March 9th would transform the Internet. But it was just a big box. Apple transformed the Internet with a little box, the iPhone, and didn't say they were doing it. Now it's up to Verizon to bring it all together with LTE and broadband mobility.
All the 4G operators are hot for femtocells, which are kind of like a 4G version of a WiFi hotspot, but they want us to pay for the femtocell devices and also continue to pay airtime when the traffic isn't even on the network!
Comcast and other broadband providers just might exempt content they own from counting against consumer Internet usage caps. Would that make their broadband services more desirable?
Google is feverishly trying to expand beyond its traditional search niche in order to please Wall Street. However, the company's recent moves could backfire.
A recent scandal involving a school's use of remotely activated Webcams to locate lost or stolen laptops may portend, not only legal action against the school, but also a loss of trust in video that is critical to developing video collaboration over the Internet.
Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs Green Touch initiative could totally revolutionize the Internet and enterprise communications, but we won't know if it really works for about five years.
New gateways are allowing service providers to sell a set of services (an experience) over any broadband connection – even those outside their physical broadband networks.
The iPhone has created a new form of the 80/20 rule, according to AT&T, which claims only 3% of iPhone users generate 40% of wireless traffic. But is that really a justification for usage caps and pricing tiers? What did AT&T think was going to happen with the iPhone pricing plan, and are they shoveling something else at us now that we're hooked?
Cloud computing is a challenge because it demands executives assess it at the right level of detail. Fusty old Verizon may be doing a better job of that than the Internet community.
With the number of mobile broadband users more than doubling in 2009, and soon to exceed fixed broadband, the Internet saw a historic transition this year – and the long-term effects are incalculable.
Comparing Internet services is tough because service providers price and market their services based on a best-case scenario connection that most consumers will never enjoy.
In 2010, telecom executives should put their words into action when it comes to their Internet development strategies and, um... hire a bunch of children. Or so says our European correspondent.
The programmable Web, open APIs, and cloud-based services will fundamentally change orthodox telcos, and they need to decide what they are really good for in this new world: It's not necessarily what you might think, according to one of the world's biggest telcos.
In theory it’s now possible to build a monitoring network that can listen to every conversation on the Internet simultaneously. In practice, there aren’t enough people on the planet to make sense of the data. But that’s about to change.
The state of the art in network monitoring has advanced to the point that there are devices available that tap into Internet communications and listen in to the traffic via ultra-high-speed packet capture at full 10-Gbit/s line rate – which was inconceivable even a few years ago. What does this mean for Internet users?
The government secrets of UFOs are hidden in Area 51, so where are the secrets of net neutrality hidden, Area 52? Nope, they're hidden in Paragraph 148 – and they're a lot more substantive than UFOs!
Net neutrality is pitting fuddy-duddy telco types against the hipster-doofus Web developer brigade. What are telcos going to do with all the DPI and policy gear they've been so busy deploying over the past year? And whose side should Internet users be on?
The FCC is throwing money at rural broadband empowerment, but it's dealing with the wrong problem. The real issue is how we get users who could get broadband but choose to reject it to change their minds. The answer lies with mobile technology – but it may surprise you!
How do you recognize an Internet bubble when you see one? Saunders explains how all bubbles have four symptoms in common – and takes a swipe at Google and Twitter into the bargain.
The sky is falling! And in other news, Saunders explains why he’s predicting a second Internet bubble – this one based around the current craze for social media.
China is investing heavily in fiber to the premises to propel itself into the world broadband Internet first division. What's it deploying, and what's it going to do with all that bandwidth?
Saunders predicts the decline and fall of America’s Internet empire, and explains how the Internet of the future will be multi-lingual as well as multi-national.
Saunders explains how Internet users in North America are already vastly outnumbered by those in the rest of the world – a situation which is only set to accelerate.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
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