I pay $60pm for 75mbps internet access with Verizon FiOS, which they upgrade to 100mbps. When I connect my laptop directly to the router’s Ethernet port I see about 90-93mbps. It’s near enough what they claim. I know people in several countries that will look on enviously at such bidirectional rates (cough, Australia). However, new […]
I’m asked this question surprisingly often, “Alan, what is it that you do?” My stock answer is, “I wander the world helping people.” Which generally results in a wry smile from those who know me; else a questioning or annoyed look from someone who was expecting a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. When I […]
I thought I’d keep this article punchy as I’m full of a cold, so would rather just shoot from the hip than think too much on some of the topics I’ve discussed on my calls this week 🙂 There are some numbers in here, so its not just rambling opinion. Cisco bought market share, all the […]
Through email, Linkedin, WhatsApp, Skype, Wire, etc. I have many funny conversations with people in the industry. I share here, anonymously of course, a conversation I had recently on the future of 6G, lumpy fiber deployment, and death with a CxO. AQ: “Enjoying my new Verizon FIOS service http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4490896763 at the moment. Yesterday, 6 simultaneous Netflix […]
Better late than never, I’ve finally got around to the BBWF (Broadband World Forum) summary. No 2014 trends weblog this year, its simply become too passé. I’ll likely do something in the summer on trends. BBWF is a great litmus test across the whole of the telecom industry. This year the theme that hit me […]
Apologies for typos and lack of links in this article, Hurricane Sandy took out our power and broadband, so I’m on a congested 3G network with lots of time-outs limiting online editing. BBWF (Broadband World Forum) continues to be a ‘sweet spot’ conference, not as big as MWC (Mobile World Congress) where prices are silly […]
An operator is composed of three domains: Network, IT and Services. Historically we’ve treated the services domain as something that can be solved by a piece of technology, called the SDP (Service Delivery Platform). This has resulted in the industry’s slow response to the competitive threats of web-based service providers, which are now starting to […]
Sycamore Networks has an interesting back-haul compression solution called IQStream. Earlier this year they published some interesting stats in their weblog on the increasing concentration of video traffic, see below. The reason behind this concentration is partially mass-market adoption drives concentration as people tend to ‘follow the herd’ so viral videos have a much bigger […]
As promised in the Day 1 BBWF article, here is a sample of the excellent presentation given by Matthias Linder, CTO Magyar Telekom providing an open and frank discussion on their experiences around convergence (many suppliers/consultants call it business transformation to make it sound more expensive.) The key to success in convergence isn’t about technology, […]
Dear Operator, When I have a problem with your network, I really do not want to call you. I fault-find my home network, I reset the router, I check the ONT (Optical Network Terminal), I reset the PC, I reset the router with the PC off and then turn on the PC. I do everything […]