Hill Associates - Living in a connected world

Google's Broadband Plans are 100 times faster

2010-02-10T20:23:00Z

Google announced on its blog today that it plans to build out a series of experimental high-speed networks in select locations that will provide connectivity at speeds 100 times faster than today's typical user connectivity. This rapidly hit the blogsphere with follow up articles in the New York Times, Information Week, CNET, Reuters and others.

Will Google be able to accomplish what the Fed and other major carriers have not? Perhaps, as Eric Schmidt, Google's Chairman and CEO noted in a Washington Post Op-Ed piece. This could be part of the the answer to the United States' "innovation deficit." Could be. It certainly can't hurt. In the latest report, the US is placing 18th on the worldwide broadband list... at an average 3.9Mbps!

May the new ultra-fast broadband connectivity reach you soon.

UPDATE (FEB 12 2010): What might Google be up to? Here are Five Possibilities.

WiMAX 2.0 is coming

2010-01-29T15:01:00Z

For those that have been waiting patiently for ISP Clearwire to roll out WiMAX, aka 802.16e to your neighborhood, you may want to wait a tad longer. It looks like there is an upgrade about to be approved by the IEEE this year, with product trials in 2011.

Seems like 2010 is definitely going to be the year of wireless. Is WiMAX in your backyard?

UPDATE FEB 3 2010: Is Spring about to annouce the first WiMAX smartdrive? And it's Android-based....

The Future of Mobile Computing

2010-01-28T15:39:00Z

There was a fascinating article in Business Week on how the battle between Apple and Google is shaping up. Here are two companies that together have won the hearts and minds of users in recent years. They have recently imitated each other, and were so close that the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, sat on Apple's board at the request of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. But now things are different. Both seem to be set on a collision course to gain dominance in the growing market of mobile computing.

Google's Android-based Nexus One has not yet set the world on fire, but it is gaining ground. And Apple's new announcement of the iPad is clearly focused on rocking the mobile computing world like the iPhone and iTouch have over the past three years. But is it just a larger i-Device?

An interesting prediction in the BW article is that "within five years more users will tap in to the Internet via mobile devices than PC's." The trend certainly seems to be headed in that direction. So what happens when more people want more data over their wireless networks? It requires more bandwidth. Let's hope that LTE is deployed sooner rather than later, and folks get to spread out their usage over several providers.

How much are you willing to spend on these devices? And how much more for your "unlimited" data plan?

(For those looking for early iPad reviews, here are some that are just now coming out from eWeek and David Pogue of the New York Times.)

Cox ends a successful LTE Trial

2010-01-27T00:09:00Z

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Cox Communications has announced that it has successfully completed another 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial in the Phoenix and San Diego areas. The tests were focused on delivering voice and high-def video streaming capabilities. According to this report, Cox seems close to launching LTE in several markets, although no specific dates were given.

We've heard that Verizon is looking to launch LTE this year, and AT&T in 2011.

Sounds like everyone is gearing up for 2010 to be the year of LTE. What are you hearing from customers about their desired to try out LTE?

Are the rules of Net Neutrality about to be rewritten?

2010-01-19T03:05:00Z

In a recent Washington Post article, that suggests we may be at a critical turning point with regard to just how far we may see the FCC extend its reach in to the often contentious net neutrality debate. This stems from a hearing by an appeals court regarding a 2008 case of Comcast cable's blocking consumer access to web content. We have talked about this previously, but this is more about whether the FCC even has the authority to regulate the likes of Comcast - and other ISPs.

This will be fascinating to watch. What's your thought on the subject?

What's over the tech horizon?

2010-01-04T02:10:00Z

"It’s hard to believe that a decade ago, there was no Facebook, iPhone, Wikipedia or YouTube."

That's the opening line from a New York Times Tech post on New Year's Day. It's that time of year for looking back as well as looking forward. Often times, adversity is the engine of creativity. No question, the past year has been a tough year for many reasons. And one can reflect on the "aughts" as the "decade of zero" for many reasons - not the least of which is financial growth.

But - let's be positive here. What do you think the next few years will bring in technology revolution? Do you think the Times is on target here? Let us know your thoughts on the matter.

Is the PC dead?

2009-12-31T15:58:00Z

Several of us at Hill will be getting new PC's in the upcoming weeks. (It will be interesting to also report on Windows 7 from a personal perspective.) However, it is also worth noting that with the proliferation of virtualization expanding to the desktop, it begs the question of whether one really needs a stand-alone PC. (Okay sure, some of us actually work in environments that are not connected to a network, and need the applications and documents in hand as opposed to the network.)

It is clear that several large organizations are taking a serious look at replacing their PC's with thin-client computing as reported in the recent issue of Forbes. The Total Cost of Ownership is proven to be lower (support costs, administrative costs, software licensing, security, backup, etc are all lower) for thin clients over PC's. And it's greener!

So, have we come full circle? We are reminded of the early days of computing with "intelligently deficient machines" (aka 'dumb terminals') moving to a model of desktop computing ('power to the people') and now are we back to centralized computing?

What's your take? And what are finding both in your client base, as well as within your own organization?

tHAWT Episode #173: Net neutrality rules

2009-10-03T20:43:00Z

In this episode of the Hill Associates Week in Telecom (tHAWT), Dave and I made sure we would not lose one side of the conversation by having our discussion in the conference room. That wasn't the main reason but it makes for a good opening :-)

So to catch up on last week's news--Chairmain of the FCC Julius Genachowski outlined the "Actions to preserve the free and open Internet." We discussed the last two "principles," how they may impact an ISP, and how they may be challenged. Other topics covered are included in the links below.

Who will enforce the net neutrality rules
Comcast fires back over net neutrality rules
Cisco buys Tandberg
Metered bandwidth on the horizon (here for some already)
Iridium in comeback mode (satellite phones on their way back?)
Comcast buying NBCU
AT&T upset with Google Voice not playing by the rules
The 3G femtocell, what's the point?

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_100209.mp3[/mp3]

You can visit our tHAWT archive here. You can register for our tHAWT podcast series via RSS feed by adding this link to your podcast aggregater:http://feeds.feedburner.com/HillAssociates-LivingInAConnectedWorldThawt

You can visit our SnackBox where all of our podsnacks are listed in alphabetical order

And if you want to participate in identifying items for our discussion use the key word tHAWT or Podsnack to tag them in del.icio.us You can look at what has been tagged by going to del.icio.us/tag/thawt

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tHAWT Episode Technical Difficulties

2009-09-27T15:38:00Z

Unfortunately we had difficulties with the recording this week, so there will be no episode. Our apologies.

[mp3] http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/thawt_bad.mp3 [/mp3]

tHAWT Episode #172: Provider bridging

2009-09-20T15:56:00Z

In this week's episode, Dave keeps up his stellar solo effort. In addition to covering a number of new items identified below, he continues the theme he started last week on carrier Ethernet and raps up this week with a podsnack on provider bridging.

4G World conference held in Chicago this week
Ivan, Randall, Dan, and Ed (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Qwest) see stability
Net neutrality, more from the FCC
Frontier raising money and buying "really rural" customers from Verizon
Telcos see growth in video (no kidding)

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_091809.mp3[/mp3]

You can visit our SnackBox where all of our podsnacks are listed in alphabetical order

To leave a comment on our blog you do have to sign up; this is to help us prevent the spam posts, which I am sure have a name.

tHAWT Episode #171: Carrier Ethernet

2009-09-13T21:45:00Z

In this episode of the Hill Associates Week in Telecom (tHAWT) Dave is running solo. As usual he covers a number of the items within the telecom world that have caught our collective eye and are tagged on Delicious. This week we are also continuing with the addition of a Podsnack as part of our episode; the topic is Carrier Ethernet, a fast growing and popular service category in the industry. Dave does an excellent job of introducing this subject, which leads to a range of related technology discussions. The specific news items Dave discussed are listed below.

3G expansion in six cities for AT&T
Sprint being aggressive for pricing in wireless
TWC reading 4G rollout
Comcast introduces 100 Mbps Internet for business only
Windstream pushing into rural markets with Ethernet services

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_091109.mp3[/mp3]

You can visit our SnackBox where all of our podsnacks are listed in alphabetical order

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tHAWT Episode #170: Wireless evolution requires handset evolution

2009-09-06T14:50:00Z

In this episode of the Hill Associates Week in Telecom (tHAWT), Dave and Mark are your hosts. The items they discuss at the start of the episode are linked below. These items seem to have a wireless theme. We have been talking about the evolution to 4G in previous episodes, so to complete this episode (although it is not an official podsnack), Dave and Mark wade through the abundance of acronyms in this space (HSPA, UMTS, CDMA, EV-DO...) and observe that there are two forms of evolution going on, one in the network and another at the handset.

WIMP video of a card and pin theft
PSA video:- texting while driving (warning this is graphic)
Customers frustrated with iPhone performance on AT&T
AT&T boosts NYC coverage with 850 MHz
Who will provide Wi-Fi on the NYC rail

For some more details on wireless mobility and signaling in mobile networks the white papers written by Paul are worth a read.

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_090409.mp3[/mp3]

You can visit our SnackBox where all of our podsnacks are listed in alphabetical order

To leave a comment on our blog you do have to sign up; this is to help us prevent the spam posts, which I am sure have a name.

tHAWT Episode #169: Long term evolution

2009-08-30T21:58:00Z

In case you haven't noticed, we are combining our tHAWT episodes and podsnacks, trying to add a little extra to the news each week. For this week's episode of the Hill Associates Week in Telecom (tHAWT), Mark takes us through some of the news items tagged in Delicious and then follows up with a podsnack on long term evolution (LTE). LTE has been in the news lately, as there is a battle a brewin' over wireless 4G between LTE and WiMAX.

The links to the articles covered are listed below.

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_082809.mp3[/mp3]

You can visit our SnackBox where all of our podsnacks are listed in alphabetical order

To leave a comment on our blog you do have to sign up; this is to help us prevent the spam posts, which I am sure have a name.

tHAWT Episode #168: Digital signatures

2009-08-23T20:04:00Z

In this episode of the Hill Associates Week in Telecom (tHAWT), Mark and I are your hosts. The podsnack the episode ends with on the subject of digital signatures. This ties in with the last two episodes that covered certificates, certificate authorities, and root certificates installed on your computer. The news items covered are listed below.

Phone turns on an oven (literally)
Indictment of the individuals that stole millions of credit card details
Chronology of data breaches at Privacyrights.org
Succesful tests of LTE handset by Verizon

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_082109.mp3[/mp3]

You can visit our SnackBox where all of our podsnacks are listed in alphabetical order

To leave a comment on our blog you do have to sign up; this is to help us prevent the spam posts, which I am sure have a name.

tHAWT Episode #167: Certificate authority and root certificates

2009-08-15T18:23:00Z

In this episode of the Hill Associates Week in Telecom (tHAWT), Mark and I run through some news of the week, which was mainly what was happening with a few of the telcos--Sprint/Clearwire, Telstra, FairPoint, etc. The links are below. We also capped this off with a podsnack on certificate authorities and their root certificates, which are installed on your computer courtesy of Microsoft (or whomever your OS vendor is). After this you will be able to know where to find them yourself; you may also be surprised how many authorities you trust.

Sprint expanding WiMAX to 17 metros
Money may be short though
Telstra profits up
Fairpoint facing challenges
Phone attacks coming
Certificate authorities

To play the podcast, you can click here or use the Flash player below.

[mp3]http://hill-vt.com/podcast/tHAWT/tHAWT_081409.mp3[/mp3]

You can visit our SnackBox where all of our podsnacks are listed in alphabetical order

To leave a comment on our blog you do have to sign up; this is to help us prevent the spam posts, which I am sure have a name.