Technology Review: To Fight, Verizon Switches

Just came across a good article on carriers switching from circuit switches to packet switches, courtesy of MIT's Technology Review.

Revenue Assurance in VOIP

A useful article in the recent Billing World and OSS Today Magazine outlines in some detail what we've all instinctively known about VOIP but were afraid to voice. When you get past the hype (and recognize that a picture of a cloud doesn't tell the whole story), there's still a lot to worry about. In his article, Jerry makes a useful analogy to Cellular service. It too, by its very nature, is highly "portable". But in the early days of analogue cellular service, cloning was easily done and quite rampant. He points out that half of New York City's cellular traffic was unbillable at one point, because you couldn't peg the traffic to a valid subscriber. VOIP service, which touts an ability to hook in to the network at any point with a LAN or Wireless connection, is going to pose similar problems.... Interesting.

The Jeff Pulver Blog

It's not everyday that you come across someone with unique insights into the telecom industry. When you do, you should take note. One such fellow is Jeff Pulver, and I put his blog on the recommended reading list!
The Jeff Pulver Blog

Bad news for Tivo

Yet another major cable player is getting into the PVR game. Cablevision's making clear their intent to get into that market, too. Any why not? The phone companies made a killing off their "vertical features" (Caller ID, and so forth) and they - poor things - had to invest in their networks. If you were a cable company, wouldn't you want to collect another 10 bucks for selling someone else's equipment? The cable companies are on a war path: Invest in Digital Programming to take a body-blow to Satellite-TV, pursue Voice-Over-IP to take a swipe at the Baby Bells, install big-hard-drives in their customers' homes to change the way they watch TV (the PVRs) and then sell out to eager venture capitalists. Yes, it's true, interest is back - and this time, it's the one's with the networks who'll win.

(And don't discount Scientific Atlanta either - somebody has to make the glorified hard-drives.)