What's Next in Telecommunications?

CNet is reporting that with the telecommunication industry's annual powwow coming up the hot button seems to be television rather than phones. From the article: "Judging from the diverse list of keynote speakers, it's easy to see that the phone business is readying itself for cataclysmic change. The traditional telecommunications market has already begun consolidating in anticipation. [...] Putting itself back together two decades after being broken apart, the new AT&T faces an entirely different competitive environment. Phone companies and cable companies will soon be competing directly with each other not just for broadband customers, but also for TV and phone customers."

Comments

Telecom irrelevance?

[Doubting Maxwell]

"Across the board, there's going to be very little talk of traditional wireline phone services, which is kind of funny since that's been the phone companies' bread and butter for a hundred years," said Laszlo. "But it just goes to show how the industry is changing."

Sounds like even the telecom industry is catching on to the fact that the Internet has made such service (e.g., tiered landline service) nearly irrelevant! Or at least, we'd hope so.

I'd like to see the day where one pays for Data in and out -- nothing more. You get all of your services (TV, phone, internet, etc.) over one line. Heh. Like that'll ever happen.

who needs a provider for wireless?

[troll -1]

And then there's wireless, with companies such as Ruckus Wireless adapting Wi-Fi for broadband video.

I wish the FCC would assign more useful shortwave parts of the spectrum to the ISM band for 802.x so we could start experimenting with meshing and maybe be like amateur radio where you buy your equiment and get online using an open standard with no company involded.

Who needs a provider when the airways are a zero cost medium?

Duopoloy on the pipes...

[PornMaster]

We're headed to a duopoly on the pipes to the home, cable and ILEC. Of course, with FiOS, Verizon's figured out the way to block out alternate DSL providers... once the phone companies don't have to share IP access, and the cable companies don't (see NCTA v. Brand X), they'll have control of both pipes into the home.

WiMax might have a place out in the burbs, but in New York, I can't see how it can possibly serve the populace without interfering with its competition.

With QoS, Vonage is going to slowly go down the tubes, as Time Warner, Cablevision, Comcast, AT&T, et al provide themselves better IP service than their competitors. (We know what Ed Whitacre, AT&T CEO thinks about this... http://www.businessweek.com/@@n34h*IUQu7KtOwgA/mag azine/content/05_45/b3958092.htm

Oh, well. Squeeze your buttcheeks together.

Re:Buy Recommendation

[the eric conspiracy]

The CIA has bought up all the supplies of genuine tin and replaced them with aluminum. Aluminum unfortunately merely concentrates mind control rays - this is why it is available so cheaply at your local grocer.