ADTRAN for Carriers

• Broadband

by ADTRAN

January 18, 2012

Let’s face it, when something goes wrong, people tend to focus on it, in some cases clouding over the bigger, better picture. I was happy to discover that is exactly what seems to be the case in terms of the federal government’s stimulus program, which by and large looks like a success.

A USA Today story this week notes that while Solyndra has become a center of controversy in Washington and beyond, the stimulus as a whole enabled important new solutions to come to market, significantly pumped up stocks of many fund awardees, and created jobs in the tech arena.

“The stimulus has helped spark an 82 percent gain in the stocks of 11 health care technology companies since President Obama took office and a 263 percent gain in the three public companies that took $7.8 billion of federal financing to build next-generation vehicle factories,” according to USA Today, which partnered with International Data Corp. to conduct a study on the outcomes of the stimulus program. “It contributed to a 79 percent jump in stocks of the four leading energy-efficiency companies identified by IDC, including diversified companies such as Johnson Controls and Honeywell. Companies involved in developing smart electric grids, nine big tech firms that are also in many other businesses, have risen 54 percent.

“All these match or exceed the 51 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, and beat the 4.9 percent average annual gain in venture funds raised in 2008, according to Cambridge Associates,” USA Today added in a Nov. 21, 2011 piece.

The stimulus effort also had a positive impact on jobs, according to the USA Today piece.

“The number of permanent jobs created or saved in the government’s loan guarantee programs is about 40,000, plus several thousand more construction jobs,” USA Today said. “More than three-fourths of the permanent jobs are at Ford.”

The article goes on to say that the stimulus legislation “has sparked adoption of electronic medical-records software and nurtured an electric-car industry that will sell at least 20,000 cars this year. At least 19 companies have gone public or filed for IPOs after getting stimulus money, from Solazyme’s $21.8 million grant to build a pilot biofuels refinery to a $1.6 billion loan guarantee letting BrightSource Energy build the world’s biggest solar-generation plant of its kind, according to securities-disclosure filings.”

Noting that “government bridged a bond market gap that has lingered since the 2008 financial panic,” Scott Sandell, a partner at New Enterprise Associates, the nation’s largest venture firm, was quoted in the USA Today as saying: “Across all the clean-tech sectors we invest in, there has been a tremendous paucity of capital at any stage of a company’s development where there’s any risk. Trust me, it’s been a barren landscape.”

The federal government helped things along by earmarking about $100 billion for tech spending of this sort – two thirds for energy technology and most of the balance to support the move to electronic medical records.

And to gauge the success of this program, USA Today tapped IDC, which analyzed more than 45 companies involved in the stimulus effort that are public or have registered for IPOs; USA separately reviewed recipients (including Ford) of the 38 completed or pending Energy Department loan guarantee programs.

Tags: Broadband, broadband stimulus, Paula Bernier

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• Broadband

by Paula Bernier

January 13, 2012

Everybody agrees that TDM is the past and that IP is the present and the future. Even the big incumbent telcos like AT&T and Verizon, which helped architect the very beginnings of the telephone network, are pushing for the end of the PSTN. Yet for some reason there’s apparently still disagreement, and a far amount of discourse, over the issue of IP-to-IP interconnection and whether it should be a requirement. That’s just nutty.

The Federal Communications Commission needs to put an end to the madness.

The commission’s Nov. 18 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Universal Service Fund intercarrier compensation reform asks for comment on how the FCC can encourage IP-to-IP interconnection.

“This far-reaching proceeding will be significant to VoIP providers and others that operate IP networks,” note William B. Wilhelm and Jeffrey R. Strenkowski of law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP. “Through this proceeding the FCC may significantly alter the regulatory and financial obligations of IP network providers and users for years to come.”

The obvious answer to the above inquiry is that the FCC can encourage IP-to-IP interconnection by reiterating that incumbent providers must offer direct IP-to-IP interconnection with other providers when requested. Instead, some still require IP to TDM conversion.

As one speaker at an ITEXPO panel I attended on this topic suggested, the FCC needs to set a date certain for the transition IP to push everybody to transition completely from TDM to IP. Then, of course, the whole IP-to-IP interconnection would be moot.

The time for setting the path to a wholesale move to IP is now. It’s what the ILECs want, it’s what the CLECs want, and it’ll be a good for the country as a whole given the cost and convergence benefits of IP and the new infrastructure investment it would help drive.

Years ago Vinton Cerf famously wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the message IP on Everything. Let’s do it. It’s not healthy to hold it back.

Tags: Broadband, Paula Bernier

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• Broadband

by Paula Bernier

January 5, 2012

I’ve been writing all day about mobile wallet stuff. And since that seems to be what everybody is talking about these days, I thought I’d keep the discussion going on this front.

With smartphones in such wide use these days, and online shopping already a mass market phenomenon (nearly $32 billion was spent online during the last two months of 2011, according to comScore), a lot of pretty important folks are getting pretty excited about what’s being referred to as mobile wallet.

Mobile wallet is what you get when you enable a smartphone to serve as a payment mechanism – storing secure virtual credit cards, prepaid cards and even loyalty points, special offers and money management tools.

As you’re probably already aware, Google, the big payments companies and banks, and the large telcos have all moved to stake a claim to the mobile wallet.

Google Wallet is being delivered in partnership with Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint, and a variety of retailers and other businesses. Meanwhile, ISIS, a venture of AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, reportedly expects to launch in two cities toward the middle of this year. American Express and VISA also have announced their own, separate, mobile wallet initiatives. And others, including potentially Apple (at least according to reported rumors), are likely to follow.

So I asked my buddy Rich Nespola, chairman and CEO of TMNG Global, which provides consulting and advisory services, for his thoughts on how wireless network operators and others fit into the mobile wallet ecosystem and stand to benefit from all of this.

In terms of cellular service providers, he said they would seem to hold significant power in deciding which mobile wallet standard becomes widely accepted given their ownership of the distribution channel and customer relationships.

“In addition, there are opportunities for wireless carriers to capture revenue all along the mobile payments value chain,” he said.

Of course, Google would also seem to hold a lot of sway in sway in all this. They have first mover advantage, given their solution is already out there. And Google has some noteworthy partners for Google Wallet. Plus, as Nespola noted: “Google is uniquely positioned to appeal to retailers because of its no-fee model.”

Then you have the banks and payment companies, advertising firms and big retail brands, and others like Amazon, Apple, eBay and who knows who else, which could impact where mobile wallet is heading and how successful or unsuccessful it will be in the U.S.

That said, clearly, hopes are high for mobile wallet in the U.S. the year ahead.

“True mobile wallet functionality is currently only available to owners of Google Wallet-enabled Samsung Nexus S, although readers are available at more than 150,000 retailers,” Nespola said. “The story will likely be a lot different by the end of 2012.”

Tags: Broadband, mobile wallet, Paula Bernier

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• Broadband

by Paula Bernier

December 29, 2011

There are a lot of predictions lists going around these days that pontificate about what we will see in 2012. One of my favorite items appearing on some of those rundowns is the expectation that Apple will launch iTV in the year ahead.

To this I say: Finally.

I have been a big fan of Apple TV for years now. At a time in which telephone companies were plowing big money into their networks to offer services like video on demand, Apple TV allowed families like mine to enjoy VoD capability for just a few hundred dollars upfront (plus the cost of purchased on-demand content, of course) – and no monthly fee, other than the high-speed Internet connection required to enable it. I know a lot of readers of this blog might not be excited about this idea, but from a consumer standpoint it is pretty great.

Still, for whatever reason, Steve Jobs and his crew never did much with Apple TV in the way of a marketing push for this wonderful product. Oh well, I guess they must’ve been focused on some other stuff.

Now, however, Apple is apparently turning its attentions to the television, with rumored plans to go beyond the set-top box and unveil a 37-inch Internet-enabled TV. While some are already criticizing this rumored device as being too small, I say hurrah.

Hurrah, I say, not because this would be the first device of its kind. Of course, it wouldn’t. Internet TVs were the next big thing at the Consumer Electronics Show several years ago, yet how many of us now own them? The good news here, if the rumors do in fact materialize into news, is that Apple could show everyone how Internet TV is done (and, in the process, prove to the world that Apple can continue to succeed despite the loss of Steve Jobs), and move it into the mainstream.

And the successes of Apple and other consumer electronics and over-the-top outfits are not necessarily bad news for facilities-based service providers. This could be yet another opportunity for broadband service providers to sell differentiated connectivity.

Tags: Apple TV, Broadband, Internet-enabled TV, Paula Bernier

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• Broadband

by Paula Bernier

December 22, 2011

AT&T’s plan to acquire T-Mobile USA in what would’ve been the largest deal of the year has dominated discussions in the telecom space for much of 2011. Then, the news came earlier this week: It’s over.

The proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA by AT&T hit the wall after the companies agreed to drop it following efforts by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block the transaction.

So, many are asking, what now? What is the next move for AT&T (after it pays the $4 billion breakup fee, that is)? And what is the likely fate of the other big wireless player’s efforts to expand its spectrum holdings?

Peter Bernstein of TMCnet predicts that AT&T next will seek to sell off some of its business lines, like outside plant operations, that are considered “troublesome assets” relative to FCC rules. There’s also talk that AT&T might make a move for DISH, which would give AT&T access to the satellite company’s spectrum and which likely wouldn’t have the same anti-trust problems as the failed AT&T-T-Mobile pairing.

Meanwhile, the other big U.S. wireless player, Verizon, recently announced an agreement to buy mobile licenses from cableco consortium SpectrumCo and, separately, from Cox Communications. Verizon’s $3.6 billion deal with SpectrumCo gives the telco nationwide AWS spectrum licenses. It is spending $315 million for spectrum from Cox. That’s not a bad strategy, considering Verizon stands to get a good chunk of new spectrum out of the deals, as well as a cadre of nice wholesale wireless customers out of the deal.

All of the above could create an interesting new dynamic in the communications industry that would replace the telco-