SIP is being pushed into the Web with RTCWeb and the rich media opportunities that provides. Texting and videos to 911 are assumed even though no process is in place to accept them.
I should also mention that the kids at the lab have done a lot thanks to corporations using the lab as a resource. Carol Davids is looking to support corporations with lab work performed by IIT students. If you want to see what a millennial will do with your product, you might want to put it in their hands at IIT.
As you are aware the role of the FCC and the goal of providing a National Broadband Policy is very much in question and requires you guidance. We believe the old models need to be rethought and we have addressed the discussion in something we call Regulatory 2.0. http://4g-wirelessevolution.tmcnet.com/conference/east-11/regu.aspx
We are holding a conference that is available to you and your staff just by registering at http://www.4gwe.mobi. Please join us on February 4th from 9 AM EST to 1PM EST. If you would like a formal briefing on what was said we can arrange that as well.
Kind Regards,
Carl Ford
VP Conference Content & Community Developer
4GWE
carl@crossfiremedia.com
]]>In a few weeks, I am running a webinar with Ceragon.
I received a press release from our friends at Ceragon, that mentioned the following...Ceragon Networks Signs Multi-Million Dollar Contract with mcel. Largest Mobile Operator in Mozambique to Install 1000 km Microwave Backbone Network
PARAMUS, N.J., Nov. 3, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ceragon Networks (Nasdaq: CRNT), the provider of high-capacity, 4G/LTE-ready wireless backhaul networks, announced a multi-million dollar contract with Mobile Cellular (mcel), the largest mobile telephone operator in Mozambique, reaching all 128 districts of the country. …
You can read the rest of it here.
I asked a few questions and here are the answers from Ceragon.
Question 1) Is this a greenfield for the deployment or are you being added to existing towers?
Answer. Most of the network is upgrading existing infrastructure, some is Greenfield. BTW – our radios enable mcel to use less equipment (and towers) because of better system gain (stonger signal, loger distances etc.)
Question 3. What demand expectations are there for the 4G/LTE user base? Is this a consumer prepaid market? What are the drivers for the deployment?
Answer. Currently main mobile app is voice. However, this wireless backbone will also deliver traffic from and to the underwater cable that reaches Maputo enabling broadband at large.
Question 4. How long will the roll out take place and when will LTE be delivered?
Answer. The network should be operational early next year (2011). I don’t know what mcel’s next-gen network plans are
Question 5). Will mcel be totally fiber free in its backhaul, or will it be part of the plan to migrate away from Fiber? Do they have issues with weather and other problems that make fiber a poor choice or is strictly a cost model?
Answer mcel has some fiber plants, but they will not dig 1000km of fiber any time soon. There are no major climatic issues
"Ceragon's microwave systems are practical and economical alternatives to fiber optic lines and are highly reliable point-to-point backbone transmission systems," said Ira Palti, President and CEO of Ceragon. "Our solutions are ideal for fast-growing mobile networks such as mcel's, scaling to meet future needs, and offering high reliability to customers in developing countries."
I plan to bring in three industry visionaries to discuss this bold and very interesting strategy. The discussion, in the form of an audiocast, will take place on June 15th at 11:00 a.m. and you can register here. The audio cast will be a panel discussion, moderated by myself and three very astute industry visionaries see their bios below.
The mobile satellite business plan is the Holy Grail for those with the vision that satellites can provide "universal" 4G mobile service to the typical consumer. The MSS strategy has been unsuccessfully attempted in the past. But now, better chips, better phones, and bigger satellite dishes are pushing more power than ever to smaller handsets - making the business case for MSS more likely.
The satellite plan is of great interest in both urban and rural areas as the network could deliver the ubiquitous and redundant mobile service for public safety and first responders. The SkyTerra business model became newsworthy when on March 26, 2010, the FCC issued an order approving the merger of SkyTerra Communications and Harbinger Capital Partners. The Commission included controversial requirements and conditions that would potentially limit the use of Verizon Wireless and AT&T wireless networks by SkyTerra.
Aside from the contentious issues imposed in the merger order, there are other matters which are of interest for industry vendors, regulators and mobile users. The SkyTerra business plan, filed shortly after the March 2010 merger order, would give public safety much of what was sought in the D-Block 700Mhz auction - that is a provider of a single, nationwide, redundant mobile network using a low cost handset. SkyTerra is potentially in a much better position than FrontLine Wireless was to build out a nationwide network that would allow public safety to communicate from across departments. The loss of cell towers would not limit public safety from communicating. Also, the ability to deliver broadband mobile capacity to rural areas would provide an alternative to expensive special access.
Some issues that we will discuss on this call include:
1. Will the SkyTerra project change the FCC's position on the 700Mhz D-Block?
2. What is the FCC's current D-Block plan?
3. Has the Commission initiated a policy of supporting more wireless competition by limiting the largest providers from participating in future spectrum auctions?
4. Will the Commission conduct such thorough competitive reviews with stringent conditions of future mobile mergers as it did with SkyTerra and Harbinger?
5. Could such future Commission orders increase mobile competition in the U.S. but further erode slowing user growth and ARPU for the largest mobile providers?
6. Is 4G mobile satellite a reality or just a long shot?
June 15th audiocast participants:
Barlow Keener, Attorney, Keener Law Group
Barlow Keener has been specializing in communications law and development for over 15 years and is an authority on wireless and wired matters related to telecommunications, CALEA, femtocells, WiFi mesh networks, and fiber optic networks. He represents telecommunications providers in state and federal regulatory matters. He has served as lead telecom regulatory counsel in connection with numerous RBOC, VoIP, CLEC, conference calling, voicemail, and collocation projects. Barlow delivers guidance to communications providers and systems integrators related to defining telecommunications and non-telecommunications services. He also provides strategic and policy advice to telecommunications, information technology and media firms in the United States, Asia and Europe.
Brough Turner, Founder and CTO, Ashtonbrooke Corporation, soon to be doing business as BigBroadband.Net
Brough Turner is an engineer and entrepreneur focused on communications in the broadest sense. Previous to Ashtonbrooke, Brough was co-founder of Natural MicroSystems and co-founder and CTO of its successor, NMS Communications, where he focused on business strategy, product architecture and new market development. He speaks and writes widely on communications topics and gives tutorials on 3G and 4G wireless technology and markets. In addition, he serves on advisory boards for several startup companies in telecom and Internet markets and occasionally consults on related topics. More at http://broughturner.com
Lyman Chapin is co-founder and partner at Interisle Consulting Group,
Lyman advises companies, non-profit organizations, and government agencies on Internet technology, policy, and governance; telecommunications network security and resilience; and critical infrastructure protection. Before starting Interisle in 2002 he was Chief Scientist at BBN Technologies. Mr. Chapin is a Fellow of the IEEE, and was a founding trustee of the Internet Society. He has served as a Director of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), where he currently chairs the Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel and the DNS Stability Panel, and as chairman of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM), and the ANSI and ISO standards groups responsible for Network and Transport layer networking standards. Mr. Chapin was a principal architect of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model and protocols, and is the co-author of Open Systems Networking--TCP/IP and OSI. He currently serves as the USA/ACM representative to the International Federation for Information Processing Technical Committee on Communication Systems (IFIP TC6) and recently completed a five-year term as the USA representative to the NATO Science Committee networking panel.
Please remember to pre-register for this call here: http://www.zipdx.com/event/
If you are a carrier, your bed fellows are not staying the night! Google with the Nexus One announcement that is all about the Android operating system and not a carrier. And strangely enough the Apple iTablet maybe the same thing. The rumors on the iTablet seem to indicate it may be devoid of 3G / 4G wireless interfaces and only support WiFi. While that will be a major plus for ATT who has already worked with Apple on the dual mode functionality of the iPhone, I should point out that Verizon has been the better company at supporting the use of USB 'sticks' (dongels?). It will be interesting to see if a bundle comes from either of the two carriers with the iTablet.
]]>In the last thirty years, the computing world has changed so much, that it is hard to remember the logic of roles and rules that existed and still drive the basis of law and leadership when it comes to telecommunication. Telecom has always been a service that has made a distinction between service and use. Telecom services were deliberately limited to enable the maximum amount of people to use the services for whatever activities they choose.
Enabling the network to be ubiquitous was accomplished by aggregating the costs of service between local services and long distance services. The cost of providing the connection (the local loop) was harmonized as much as possible with statewide loop costs and subsidization from the long distance market. However with the ubiquity achieved the opportunity to support specialized services enabled for the early focus of the Internet to be about the signaling on top of the phone network and not inside it.
A primary reason why the issues of the phone network were of no concern was that IP was distance insensitive, and connecting at the closest point on the phone network through dial up or private line was pretty efficient.
Now the technology and cost models of access are intertwined and efficiency in the network is not represented in any particular type of fee structure. Nor is there a clear distinction between accessing a service via the phone network, or an "Internet" service that replaces the phone network.
However, certain principles of the phone service have been considered primary and certain have been considered secondary. Primary services are your origination point for phone calls and have the responsibility for delivering calls to the 911 network.
Until the Internet, the primary way to innovate on the phone network was to use the network for secondary services; the phone company did this themselves with solutions such as Wide Area Telephone Services [WATS] and 800 numbers. However the place where people were doing more than just talking was with computer networks, ring back services, and call centers. These connections all managed the call after the handoff from the phone network and continued routing the call for innovative services.
With the Internet's inter networking ability to support connectivity on the network without a usage charge these solutions rapidly to advantage to stay connected to provide unique synergies that added value without being a primary service.
Today with many people using wireless as their primary service, and the ability to provide smart computing devices to the user we again stand at a point where the basis of the regulation of the past no longer matches to the realities of technology. Today a smart phone can have an application as a result of being part of the Internet or an app store, before there was an app store many companies provided services via these secondary lines.
If you treat all phone numbers as a primary service solution, the result is that the innovation fostered by the ability to connect via the telecom network will never be offered to the telecom network. On the Internet side the ability to innovate will not be associated with the network connectivity when accessing the Internet but only to the applications.
Services that do not support primary line functions of origination, or are "free" services should not be driven by the same rules as primary line solutions.
Many people speak about the issues of Net Neutrality without real market drivers behind their rationale. The principles discussed by FCC Chairman Genachowski assume a controlling factor by the access provider.
However at the core of the discussion should be relationship of ubiquity and usage. Service levels and performance
Viewing any service with a phone number from the perspective of telephonic service is as antiquated as the term, which was used to distinguish telephones from telegraphs.
The goal should not be on extending the regulation that tried to curtail monopolies, but to encourage the innovation, which will bring new types of services even to the plain old telephone services.
GoogleVoice is one such service as are many other innovative companies. Via GoogleVoice you can route calls you can initiate signals to originate calls to your primary service number. It combines the web, video and phone services.
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