Recently in IP Based Category

As much as the folks at OLN... err... Versus would like us to believe, the Tour de France isn't a race as much as it chess match. The old USPS team and Lance Armstrong proved that it is more about strategy, team and positioning than it is about one person ( ... note - i love armstrong and postal team. however, it was strategy and the great 'blue booster rocket' that won lance some of those titles... not just himself... ).

A similar experience kicked off Thursday with the start of the 700 MHz spectrum auction. Andy Vuong's article shows exactly how many different companies just in Colorado are looking to expand with the FCC auction. In fact, the only thing that might be greater than the number of participants is the number of business plans that might find a foothold with this new wireless spectrum.

Rather than this being one of those "fun" Sotheby's auctions, the FCC auction will take its own time and pace. In this it's much like the Tour de France. The process will take weeks to complete and even longer to see the fallout... It won't be about who has the most $$ ( ie Google ), but who has the best long-term vision plan ( ie who owns the current spectrum... ) and action plan associated with that vision.

NOTE - Armstrong did an amazing job in his early Tours until USPS became the "Postal Team". So, there is something to be said about having the most $$ in the FCC auctions.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, FCC Auction, 700MHz, Andy Vuong, Wireless Spectrum, Lance Armstrong, Business Strategy

In the world of business, if Walmart exits a market; most people would say that that there are issues with that market. Then again, if Apple enters a market; most would say that there is "gold in dem dar hills..." And, last week both are rumored to have happened and for the same approximate market... Video Downloads.

I'll leave alone the oblivious issues with bandwidth and digital rights management (DRM) and instead focus on the target audience for this product/service. It is interesting that America's bargin product outlet, Walmart, appears to have decided to leave the video download business just as America's premium intellectual property vendor, Apple, appears to be entering.

Could it be that the video download is one where you have to have a particular demographic and/or broadband connection to be a viable customer?

I would say that this exemplifies the "digital divide" that may exist between the early adopter and the mainstream consumer in the US. And the short-term limits on certain IP-based telecom products/services.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Video Download, Walmart, Apple, Digital Divide, Early Adopter, Mainstream Consumer

I'm not a huge fan of SIP or IMS, but I found David Strom's podcast with Mark Damphousse to be very interesting.

In a time where it is increasingly important to reduce to amount of latency between when a discprepant event happens and when it can be resolved; this use of SIP to initiate resolutions using telecommunications resources is particularly useful.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, BAM, Business Activity Monitoring, SIP, Reduced Latency, David Strom, Mark Damphousse

If you protect the content of your "walled garden" partners, do you infringe on the privacy of your users?

AT&T may be heading down a path to determine exactly where protecting content ends and the boundary of privacy begins. Peter Burrows looks at how AT&T may start monitoring the content passed over its networks. This sounds a lot like the discussions taking place in regards to revisions to the FISA ACT.

In fact a common link between the two topics is the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and their Net Neutrality efforts. The EFF is mentioned in both articles and I find myself strangely agreeing with them on this ( ... i know, i know... strange bedfellows... ).

To protect the "open-ness" of the garden (ie network, applications, etc), I am willing to place a "stop" on protecting the intellectual property of various content providers. However, I am not willing to eliminate the existence of this information should some controlling legal authority want to subpoena those records to make a pirating case.

Where is the line?

You can comment to the blog below or you can send me an email at John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Peter Burrows, Net Neutrality, Electronic Frontier Foundation, ATT

Comcast appears to be heading down the path of Madison River. A collection of Net Neutrality groups and legal scholars have filed a complaint against Comcast for blocking IP traffic on their broadband networks.

It will be quite some time before we determine if Comcast finds itself in the same position as the North Carolina firm who "cut a plea deal" with FCC on VoIP traffic blocking. However, this case could have large ramifications if it is determined that Comcast's "reasonable network management" policies are tilted against services that they do not generate revenue from or if these policies merely "throttle" everyone's usage of the network...

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Net Neutrality, Comcast, FCC, Madison River