I’ve talked in past blogs about new network models, about operators’ attempts to control costs. I’ve also noted little progress in accepting anything useful. OK, what do the network operators, the telcos in particular, do now? They’ve struggled for decades to reverse the negative slide in profit per bit, they’ve refused to (or been unable … Continue reading If You’re a Network Operator, What Now?
Broadband change is in the wind, literally as well as figuratively. In the figurative sense, it’s clear that telcos and cablecos alike believe that they have no option but to make consumer broadband profitable in itself. For some, such as Verizon, that means literally taking broadband to the sky, with fixed wireless or millimeter-wave technology. … Continue reading The Broadband Explosion Could Create Collateral Impacts
Well, Happy New Year everyone. There are obviously positive and negative omens in play for the world, economic and otherwise. Still, I’m a network/cloud strategist and not a doctor or economist. I’m not going to attempt to address broader issues and events, other than to point out what a negative versus positive shift could mean … Continue reading Summing Up 2022 Expectations
The Net Neutrality issue has raised its head again, as reported in this Light Reading piece. This time, EU telecoms are pushing back against the big US-based web companies (not named, but the identities are obvious), who they say are exploiting telco investments in access infrastructure to reach their users and earn significant revenues and … Continue reading Net Neutrality…Again
It’s always interesting, and even useful, to look at how AT&T and Verizon are doing in the broadband/wireline space. Verizon has led in new home broadband technologies with its early Fios push and now with fixed wireless (FWA), and AT&T has been much more aggressive in pursuing a position as a content provider. It’s common … Continue reading The Dynamic of Two Tier Ones Show Wireline Directions
One size, we know both from lore and from experience, doesn’t fit all. The same is true for access technologies. We’re reading stories about the rise of fiber, like this one that quotes Consolidated Communications saying “There are some mobile or temporary use cases where FWA is best, he says, but for the majority of … Continue reading Geography, Demography, and Broadband Reality
What the heck is going on with fiber to the home? There seem to be a lot of announcements about new fiber deployments. Isn’t there a problem with fiber deployment costs in many areas? Are we headed to universal fiber broadband after all? The answers to these questions relate to the collision between demand and … Continue reading Is Fiber in Our Future After All?
How will shifts in technology, and new government programs, impact consumer broadband? We’re getting some hints on what the US infrastructure bill could do, and we’re also seeing competitive and technology shifts in commercial consumer broadband. There could be some major changes in the works, but through it all is the thread of a core … Continue reading Are We Bridging the Digital Divide or Deepening It?
Remember that old saying “Content is king?” Maybe we’re getting a lesson that it’s still true, and if it is, the truth it represents might reshape online service, service providers, and even vendors. First, AT&T announced a deal with Discovery to merge its Time Warner assets with Discovery’s assets to create a new company that … Continue reading Navigating the Increasingly Complex Content Space
In a single day last week, I saw six news items that demonstrate the market, business, and technology challenge that’s posed by 5G. None of this tumult means that 5G isn’t going to happen, but it seems to me to demonstrate that we’re not yet really sure how it’s going to happen. The who-wins and … Continue reading Six Data Points on O-RAN