Blogging has been light this past month, as my wife and I have been moving to our first house.  I borrowed a cute photograph from Ross Rader's blog (Byte.org) which captures the essence of the experience.  Ross was absolutely right - this can in fact be one of the most stressful events a human can experience.  But to add a bit of pain - how about doing it amidst the adverse weather conditions of the Canadian winter (snow and -15 Celsius temperatures followed by continuous rain for a day and about +5 Celsius)?  Not enough?  How about doing it over the Christmas/New Year break, when getting a van, piano movers, etc. gets to be harder?  Well, the worst part is over, and now comes the "order in progress" part (i.e. clearing out all the boxes and re-arranging some furniture).  At least the computer is out of the box and the Internet service is up and running - so blogging is back!

The National Post had a good editorial today, peppered with some interesting comments about the cellular service gap between the U.S. and Canada. Surely, the wireline story this side of the border is good - here in Canada we enjoy good, reliable service at very reasonable rates.  But on the wireless front, the story is totally different.  Currently, we only have three options as far as mobile operators are concerned: Bell Mobility (NYSE:BCE), Rogers Wireless (NYSE:RCN) and Telus (NYSE:TU).  

The editorial made some fine points (I suspect that both techie reporters from the National Post - Mark Evans and Kevin Restivo contributed to the article).  One of the main themes was the fact that the Canadian wireless market is in fact more of an oligopoly in comparison to the highly competitive U.S. mobile communications environment.  One of the reasons mentioned was the fact that Canada is in fact a small market, so the subscribers up here do not benefit from the highly competitive pressures of other markets such as the U.S., Europe and Asia/Pacific.  As a result, features are lacking and prices tend to be higher. 

One example that I can mention is voice mail: all major U.S. wireless operators offer voice mail for free for any customer signing a two or three year plan.  By contrast, in Canada, all long-term deals from Bell, Telus or Rogers only offer free voice mail for a few months, and after that, users have to pay a monthly fee for the service (usually in the $3 to $4 range). 

The article's example is pretty compelling - Cingular Wireless' offering of 1,000 "anytime" minutes for US$39.99 a month, including long-distance, within the continental U.S. simply cannot be matched in Canada, with the closest deal being $35 per month for 310 local minutes during peak business hours and unlimited evening and weekend calling, with extra charges applying for long distance. 

Other differences in the Canadian versus U.S. plans include billing (per minute versus per second billing) and the lack of "rollover" minutes (in the U.S. unused minutes from one month could be added to the next month).  Another factor that reduces the competitive pressures in Canada is the lack of Wireless Number Portability (WNP).  Americans can switch their mobile carriers without needing to change their cellular numbers.  Canadian operators, fearing that WNP would allow subscribers to lower their fees by playing one company off against others, have thus far not offered this important feature.  

From my own perspective, I can also add a few insights on this subject.  First, Rogers' acquisition of Microcell effectively took out the most price competitive offering in the marketplace.  Rogers (which beat out Telus on that acquisition) claims that it will keep the Fido brand, but obviously, it will not keep the Fido prices (note that the CP story was picked up by the Telus site).  So the only other alternative player that might offer slightly more competitive prices could potentially be Virgin Mobile, although relying on the Bell network might leave Virgin little room to maneuver its price.

Second, from my personal experience, it seems that Canadian operators seem to offer new customers better deals than their existing ones - which is interesting, given the low churn rates of our wireless industry.  Case in point: my own contract with Bell Mobility recently expired, and I had gotten a very tempting offer from Rogers, but in the end, after some negotiating and "social engineering" with the Bell call center agent, she matched the deal and I stayed with Bell (the tie breaker being the "one bill" bundle).  Contract expiry time seems to be the only time when subscribers get a bit of leverage to negotiate better deals.  But VM still costs me an extra $4 per month...

So the Sprint (NYSE:FON) and Nextel (Nasdaq:NXTL) merger was concluded after all the speculation and some naysayers claiming that elements such as the disparate networks of both operators would make a fusion practically impossible.  The new merged company will have about 40 million subscribers, compared to 47 million subs from Cingular, the industry leader.  In the deal (called "a merger of equals"), Sprint (the number 3 wireless operator) is purchasing Nextel (the number 5 wireless carrier) in exchange for stock and cash.

As part of the fallout of the deal, there has been some speculation that Motorola (NYSE:MOT) would lose its privileged monopoly status with Nextel.  This is because Sprint's 20.1 million customers rely on CDMA technology, whereas Nextel's 15.3 million subscribers belong to iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network), a network based on Motorola's digital radio technology.

However, Sprint Nextel management claimed that it plans to continue investing in the iDEN network through 2007. Therefore, based on that, there does not seem to be likely for there to be an impact to Moto's short term bottom line, particularly given the fact that the deal is not expected to be finalized at least until late 2005. Moreover, there is the push to provide dual-mode iDEN/EV-DO phones to the new company.  Despite that, the margins for these dual mode phones are not expected to be as attractive, particularly due to the CDMA royalties on the handsets and the high level of complexity in such dual mode devices. 

Motorola will have a challenge in trying to get additional CDMA cell phone business at Sprint.  For one thing, the competition will be tough: Samsung and Sanyo have a good penetration at Sprint, whereas LG is apparently the only vendor that seems to be gaining some better traction. 

The satellite radio market got a boost this week, as Toyota (the fourth largest automaker in the U.S. behind GM, Ford and Chrysler) announced this past Tuesday that it has selected XM Satellite Radio for factory-installations starting from 2006.  XM (Nasdaq:XMSR) already had an existing relationship with Toyota, in which the Japanese car manufacturer was offering XM as a dealer-installed option.  Another part of the deal is that Toyota also selected XM as its supplier for data services, such as XM’s NavTraffic real-time traffic information service.  The number of models offering XM as a dealer-installed option will increase in 2005, with new models such as the Toyota Avalon and the Lexus GS 330 being added to the already existing 10-model lineup. XM also has partnerships with Honda and GM.

On the same day, SIRIUS (Nasdaq: SIRI) also announced that Toyota has selected SIRIUS as a post-production (dealer installed) option beginning in February 2005 for the 9 models on which Toyota is already offering XM as a dealer-installed option.  It is widely believed that this deal came as a result of Sirus' relationship with Penske, the largest owner of Toyota dealerships in the U.S.  While the Toyota deal was a positive for Sirius, factory-installations still are the holy grail, and typically drive a substantially higher volume of activations, making things more difficult for the company to replace XM.  Moreover, XM is better entrenched due to the NavTraffic (the real-time traffic information service) portion of its deal with Toyota.  The company already offers NavTraffic on the 2005 Acura RL model, with service currently available in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas.

After AOL introduced AOL Journals and Google acquired Blogger to offer it as a blog publishing service, you knew Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) would not stand pat. Last week, Microsoft's MSN Internet division introduced a preliminary version of MSN Spaces, a new blogging service "for the masses", as quoted by Blake Irving, an MSN corporate VP.

Any subscriber to Microsoft services such as Hotmail or MSN Messenger can setup a free blog on MSNSpaces.  The blog publishing service is supported by subscriptions and advertising revenues.  MSDN Channel 9 has a 14 minute video demo of the MSNSpaces' features, some of which include user restricted access, photo albums, favorite song lists, etc. Readers can subscribe to their favorite blogs via the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) web publishing system. 

Leslie Walker (techie reporter from the Washignton Post) testdrove the system and reported that MSNSpaces still is pretty much a work in progress.  Of course, in the future, Microsoft will devote its impressive resources towards this endeavor as well, thereby improving this offering.  Time will tell what the user adoption curve will be like, but thus far, I find that the existing Blogware system that I am using for Technology Futurist (courtesy of the folks from Tucows, who so generously donated the space on their server) offers blogmeisters a much richer environment and customization features.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review an Appeals Court ruling that can potentially force cable companies to give third-party ISPs access to their networks.  In October of 2003, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco held that MSOs should allow competing Internet Service Providers on their broadband networks.  This ruling went against the FCC opinion made public in March 2002 - namely, that cable operators should not be regulated as telecom carriers, since High Speed Internet (HSI) over cable was just an "information service" that is different than a telecom service.

As a result of the FCC's classification, the MSOs would not be forced to share their networks with other ISPs (an obligation that they would need to comply with should HSI be ruled a "telecommunications service").  That was the de-facto standard until Brand X, a Santa Monica ISP challenged the FCC view in court, which eventually lead to the appeals court decision last October. 

The FCC and NCTA were granted a stay of the court decision pending a request of the Supreme Court to hear the case.  MSOs have in fact resisted the telecom service notion of "open access" for a long time, claiming that it would create a lot of constraints to the industry due to new regulation, and create technical issues. 

One interesting point about this case is that the courts often seek the advice of expert agencies when pondering upon complex policy nuances such as the current telecom versus information service debate.  But the Appeals Court in San Francisco chose its own interpretation rather than deferring the decision to the FCC. 

It will be interesting to see how the Supreme Court will rule - just because it agreed to review the case, that does not imply that it cannot remand the case to the FCC for further clarification.  The FCC has been deliberating on the regulatory issue of how to classify VoIP for years, and thus far, it chose a rather friendly stance, in order to help the industry flourish.  The oral arguments are set to begin on March 23rd, 2005, with a ruling anticipated before the Supreme Court recess in June.

Of course no sooner than the issue of Philadelphia's mega-WLAN deployment was discussed here, Verizon changed its initial position in support of the controversial House Bill 30, and allowed the project to go through (at least for Philly).  The bottom line was that HB 30 was still signed, and the implication of that is that ILECs such as Verizon would have the right to keep local governments from setting up paid services like Philadelphia after January 1st, 2006.

Philly sought assurances from Verizon that the carrier would not fight its WiFi project in the event that its in-service date would not meet the requirements of HB 30.  There are indications that the city believes it will complete the $7-10 million deployment only by June of 2006.  So what's the bottom line?  Other cities in Pennsylvania will only be able to deploy a similar service until the first day of 2006.  After that, the ILEC will get the first rights of refusal (in other words, the local government will have to offer the ILEC the right to provide the service).  This bill will not affect free services.

It is laudable that Verizon allowed the Philly deployment to go through.  But the issue still is that the RBOC will have a first hand say (after the start of 2006) about which service gets deployed in each municipality from its ILEC region.  The fundamental question then becomes: will this law set a precedent that will influence similar projects in cities across the U.S.?

Amidst the flurry of announcements about the acceleration of Project Lightspeed, the availability of residential VoIP services and the IPTV deal with Microsoft, SBC also publicized its plans about a new offering geared towards VoIP service providers.  Namely, in a filing made on November 24th, SBC made the FCC aware of its TIPToP (True IP to PSTN) service, which enables VoIP providers to connect IP traffic to circuit-switched network through a specially designed interface

This last announcement did not go unnoticed by folks like Jeff Pulver, Om Malik, or groups such as the Internet Innovation Alliance.  So what's the issue?  Well, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who is known for his VoIP friendly stance, stated:

"Should we conclude that this tariff is being used to justify the imposition of traditional tariffed access charges on VoIP providers or to discriminate against SBC's competitors, the commission will take appropriate action."

Powell already has three decisions to make related to charges applicable to VoIP services.  One of the matters to be resolved is related to intercarrier compensation.  He remains committed to ensuring the commission avoids any action that might slow down the "IP services revolution". 

Even though SBC still has not made the tariff public, there is some concern that offerings such as TIPToP might block some competitors from using the tandem interconnection altogether - making it not a viable option.  These tandem connections allow the LECs (Local Exchange Carriers) to connect with each other.  Some players such as Vonage go through CLECs to tap into the RBOC networks.

SBC is claiming that TIPToP is a voluntary product that should not impact the FCC's ruling on intercarrier payments, and that it has already gotten some interest in the offering.  BellSouth (NYSE:BLS) has already been promoting a similar service since May of 2003 (although BellSouth's service converts the VoIP call into signaling traditional phone networks understand, a more complicated and costly process than what is provided by SBC), whereas Verizon (NYSE:VZ) offers a nationwide VoIP service, but it requires customers to maintain their local main lines with the company, marketing the service as a second-line replacement.

Soon, we will find out where Powell will draw the line.  The key issue is that even as a "voluntary" service, TIPToP can potentially become a back-door way to impose the access charges that were initially rejected by the FCC.

CNN has a story that is a great validation for the growing popularity of blogs.  Merriam Webster, a famous dictionary publisher, claims that the word "blog" is their top word of the year, based on total number of web searches.  As a result, the word BLOG will be added to the 2005 version of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.

Note: The complete list of words of the year is available at the Merriam-Webster site.

Business Week had an interesting article today on the advent of XORP (the eXtensible Open Router Platform).  The concept is simple: provide enterprises cheaper and more flexible routers built on commodity hardware and open-source software.  The cheaper hardware comes from microprocessor vendors such as Intel (Nasdaq:INTC), whereas the software would be open-source.  The project has the backing of players such as Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and the NSF (National Science Foundation).  The first release of XORP came out in July, and more are expected in the future. 

Of course, this is still very much a work in progress, which at this point in time is still far from posing a threat to other router vendors such as Cisco, Extreme or Foundry.  Also, this is not the first attempt to create a software-based router based on open-source code.  But the backing of above-mentioned players lends some level of credibility to this work.  Perhaps another validation comes from the fact that nowadays, even Cisco has a line of low-priced networking gear based on Linux, that targets the pragmatic, cost conscious consumer.

But ultimately, the appeal of XORP is not only the lower cost, but also the level of customization that it empowers end-users with.  These end-users can configure the software to suit their own particular needs and/or applications.  Not only that, the network routing can be embedded as software inside a server or other devices.   

Back in September, Philadelphia's WiFi plans were discussed here. The ambitious project called for turning the city's entire main core of 135 square miles into the world's largest wireless Internet hot spot.  The plan was to offer inexpensive wireless Internet as a low-cost municipal service, charging end-users less than what is currently charged for DSL or cable broadband. That announcement generated a lot of optimism, since it epitomized the good that a forward-thinking government can deliver to its citizens.

Unfortunately, that did not initially sit well with the commercial interests of the local incumbent phone company, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ).  The RBOC did back House Bill 30 (HB30), a measure that would curb the ability of city governments to provide high-speed Internet access for a fee, effectively making providing a subsidized low-cost service illegal. High tech enthusiasts, activists and users at large are urging legislators and Gov. Rendell to postpone that bill's passage, or perhaps even kill it outright. Governor Rendell has until Nov. 30 to veto the bill or sign it into law.

For that matter, Verizon was not alone in trying to impede these types of deployments.  Other regional and long-distance phone companies (selling broadband Internet to consumers and businesses) have recently increased their efforts to quash similar creative municipal wireless initiatives, in locations such as San Francisco, Chaska (Minn.) and St. Cloud (Fla.).  Verizon has changed its attitude since coming out in support of HB30 and now states unequivocally that it will not block Philadelphia's WiFi plans.

Despite that, the marketplace consensus is that the RBOCs, IXCs and other broadband service providers are crying foul because they argue that a city can raise money via taxes, while a private company must pay interest on borrowed capital.  In the meantime, consumer advocates are claiming that cheap WiFi services fill a void that the operators either cannot or simply have no intention to deliver.  Philly's CIO (Dinah Neff), claims that Philadelphia currently ranks 33rd in the US in terms of availability of wired or wireless connections (less than 60 percent of the city's neighborhoods have the option of subscribing to broadband, either DSL or cable).

The bottom line is that the City of Brotherly Love can still deploy its network (according to this article), as long as it can be operational by January 1, 2006 (the city originally hoped for an in-service date of June 2006). 

But ultimately, the government will have the final say.  If the U.S. is to accelerate its broadband penetration and catch up to leaders such as Korea and Japan, more proactive measures that encourage these types of municipal initiatives are required.  And bills such as HB30 should be shot down, because having a legislature overturn a municipality's ambitious "broadband for all" plan - just for the benefit of a few service providers - does not make sense at all.

Note: Another couple of good articles on the same thread can be found here (another good insight from MuniWireless.com) and here (WSJ article, so password is required).

There have not been too many positives for Nortel's stock lately, whose performance has been plagued by the company's ability to get its financial restatements done in a timely fashion.  Because of the delays in reporting the results, Nortel (NYSE:NT) stock has been downgraded by the likes of Prudential, Goldman Sachs, and CIBC World Markets, among others.  

For most shareholders, the delay in the restatements has been an unfortunate development, particularly now that the company is making positive strides on the technology side of the equation.  For instance, in VoIP, Nortel has a leadership position in the Class 5 softswitching market, as reported on Light Reading.  Nortel has also a strong position in the wireless market, having been on the short list for many RFPs for CDMA and UMTS tenders.  Despite all the accounting woes, the company still is able to be at the forefront of cutting edge technologies, such as mesh networking.  And the enterprise IP PBX opportunity should be also a positive development, as the existing installed base begins to mature and starts transitioning from TDM to IP (Nortel has a substantial installed base of TDM equipment - Meridian PBXs and Norstar key systems).

Still, all this progress is not as relevant now, as the company focuses in delivering its results before the end of the year.  The bookkeeping blunders need to end in order for Nortel to avoid the unthinkable: delisting.  For instance, the NYSE listing can come up for formal review unless the vendor can file the restatements by year-end.  The company is working diligently in meeting that deadline.  Mark Evans, the technology reporter for The National Post, found the following gem (John Manley, a board member, offered the following comments on the accounting efforts):

Nortel shareholders hope that John is right and that this time around, all the numbers will be OK.  In the meantime, there was some good news this week.  Nortel claimed (following discussion with the Office of the Chief Accountant at the SEC) that it will not change its accounting treatment for optical product sales. This is good news, since it might be a clue that the restatements will not go back to the years before 2001.  Hence, it could also mean a higher likelihood that the 2001-2003 numbers will be filed within the next six weeks.  The other piece of good news is that Nortel confirmed what some Wall Street analyst firms (such as Solomon Smith Barney) already suspected to be the case: the NYSE will not begin a delisting review process until after December 30th, and Nortel would likely have an additional three month grace period.

So, in conclusion, Nortel would likely not be delisted (in a worst case scenario) until April 1, 2005. Right now, it looks more likely that NT will file at the latest by January 2005, so it should be able to avoid the bleak delisting scenario. All in all, the probability of such an event was decreased with this week's news. Hopefully, after the restatement becomes a reality, past accounting practices will no longer overhang the stock, and investors will finally be able to focus on the company's fundamentals, technology and market performance.

Broadcom (Nasdaq:BRCM) has introduced a new line of 802.11 chipsets geared towards increasing the range of WiFi networks by as much as 50 percent.  The new BroadRange 54g chips are enhanced with the company's BroadRange technology, which utilizes advanced digital signal processing techniques to deliver the highest receive sensitivity of any 802.11g chipset on the market. The general rule of thumb for WLLAN systems is that as the wireless endpoint (PDA, laptop, 802.11 handset) moves away from the AP (Access Point), the transmission worsens.  Hence, the WLAN system has to transmit at a lower bit rate to compensate for that.  With the BroadRange chips, the connection does not degrade as quickly with the increase in distance, and hence, higher throughputs can be achieved at longer distances away from APs.  Another important new feature supported by BroadRange is lower power consumption (as little as 9 mW in idle mode). 

As if users did not have enough worries about viruses hitting their PCs (whether at home or at work), the latest Trojan hit mobile handsets running Symbian-based OS.  The latest piece of malicious code has been dubbed "Skulls" by the anti-virus experts, and comes disguised as a theme manager for Nokia phones in the Symbian Installation Format, such as the 7610.   The virus kills off system applications and then replaces their icons with skull images.

But Skulls is not alone in Trojans creating havoc for cell phone users.  A program called Delf, was used in Russia to infect PCs so that spam could be sent to mobile users across Russia.  Similar viruses have been written to attempt to infect devices such as PDAs running on Windows CE.  Hackers will be increasingly focusing on creating viruses that can infect mobile handsets.   

Three years after spinning off its mmO2 subsidiary, BT (NYSE:BT) launched a new mobile service. The MVNO service, dubbed BT Mobile, offers a range of enterprise mobile services. The introduction is part of the company's new network agreement with Vodafone. BT Mobile will therefore act as "virtual network provider" with its customers' calls being carried over Vodafone's network.

The new agreement should supercede any prior arrangements, including former deals with mmO2 (allowing the telco to offer BT enterprise customers airtime on the O2 network) and T-Mobile (a deal geared towards consumer subscribers).    The 305 k existing wireless customers will be transferred to the new BT Mobile service within the next few months.  There are plans for plans for a combined mobile and fixed-line phone service.  BT also announced its plans to hold a wireless broadband WiMAX trial sometime next year.

Satellite radio has been getting quite a lot of press lately, particularly after radio celebrity "shock jock" Howard Stern signed a deal in October with Sirius Satellite Radio (Nasdaq:SIRI), one of two satellite radio service providers.  Many Wall Street analysts feel that Sirius was able to overcome some problems and catch up to its competitor XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq:XMSR).  Sirius has attained more than 700,000 subscribers (representing roughly a 20% market share) and relies mainly on two distribution channels: automotive OEMs (BMW, Daimler Chrysler and Ford) and aftermarket (via plug-and-play radios sold via Best Buy, Circuit City and Radio Shack).  There are some OEMs that are nonexclusive (e.g. Nissan and Toyota), and those are expected to have a 50/50 split between XM and Sirius.

This week's announcement that Mel Karmazin will take over as the new CEO of Sirius (with the current CEO Joseph Clayton becoming the Chairman of the Board) has been viewed very positively by the Street.  The optimism is due to Mr. Karmazin's extensive operating experience in the media industry (including his recent tenure as President and COO of Viacom for the past four years, his years at CBS, where he played a key role in the TV network's turnaround and his role at Infinity Broadcasting). Karmazin represents a great coup for Sirius, because it instantly makes a positive impact on the depth, quality and credibility of the company's management team. Moreover, he has a great reputation as a strong manager with a tight focus on cost controls, which could improve Sirius' financial discipline as it relates to advertising, distribution and programming deals.

More about the satellite radio industry:  many observers expect satellite radio will eventually be viewed as a traditional duopolistic market (with Sirius and XM as the two players). This is the prevalent thinking for the time being, because the FCC is unlikely to allocate additional spectrum for new entrants. Moreover, it would be very difficult for a new entrant to obtain funding, given the uneven history of the existing players and the long-term exclusive distribution contracts that XM and Sirius have signed.

Sirius and XM will be competing for talent both against each other and non-satellite radio operators. Sirius paid top dollar to get NFL rights and sign Howard Stern, whereas XM locked in Major League Baseball. Also, another factor that is still to be determined is whether or not the FCC will clamp down on content in the future.  Right now, Sirius is exempt from FCC decency regulations, which allows it to carry risque programming such as Howard Stern and Eminem.

Om Malik had a thought-provoking article on Business 2.0 about Microsoft's VoIP plans.  They are nothing less than ambitious: become the key enabler of the technology (via Longhorn - the next-gen OS that will include SIP addresses everywhere, a corporate IM client codenamed Istanbul, and its newest release of LCS).  Again, I personally believe that Microsoft will not quite compete against the likes of Avaya, Nortel, Cisco and other PBX/IP PBX vendors. 

However, there is little doubt that the folks from Redmond want to be an integral part of applications that will be key in providing the productivity enhancements that VoIP promises to deliver.  For instance, the tight integration of Istanbul and LCS can mean that a conference call can be simply initiatied by dragging and dropping (via MS OLE) a bunch of contacts from a Microsoft Outlook address book.  A phone number in that same contact list might have an embedded SIP link that will automatically spawn a VoIP call.  This means Microsoft will be, at least on the application side of things, the de-facto platform for VoIP in the enterprise (despite the fact that the currently, the only two vendors running Microsoft Windows OS on their IP PBX servers are Cisco, with the Call Manager, and Siemens, with the HiPath 5000). 

SBC (NYSE:SBC) became the latest RBOC to announce the availability of residential VoIP services.  The service provider expects to go live with VoIP in early 2005, and has already been testing technology with about 1,000 customers in Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and San Antonio.

The VoIP service will rely on DSL to deliver not only voice calling but also additional enhanced features, including a web portal and advanced call- management capabilities that make it easier for customers to manage their communications. Among these features are "find me" and "do not disturb," which enable subscribers to specify which numbers can ring through, in addition to a click-to-call capability allowing customers to call friends and family with the click of a mouse.

This comes on the backdrop of SBC's announcement of Project Lightspeed, an initiative to deliver digital TV, VoIP and super high- speed broadband services to 18 million customers in two to three years (via FTTN with VDSL/ADSL 2+). After the FCC's RBOC-friendly fiber ruling, observers expected these deployments to be accelerated.

Note: SBC also announced during the week that it has chosen the new Microsoft IPTV edition software for Project Lightspeed.  The deal, worth $400 million over 10 years, calls for the deployment of IPTV software in set-tops that will be deployed as part of the Lightspeed buildout.  SBC Labs had been testing the Microsoft platform since June of this year, and trials are expected in mid-2005, with commercial availability expected in late 2005.  Features include IPGs (Interactive Program Guides), customizable channel lineups, VOD, DVR, event notifications, instant channel changing and a security system that includes subscriber digital rights management technology to protect content across devices.

Motorola (NYSE:MOT) announced yesterday the acquisition of MeshNetworks, a Florida based startup focusing on wireless application development.  No financial terms were disclosed, and the transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.  Motorola had already been licensing MeshNetworks' software.

Mesh networking is a cutting edge technology that allows users of mobile devices "create self-forming and self-healing wireless networks" that can go above and beyond the range of established wireless hotspots.  In other words, mesh networking also empowers network operators to move beyond the limitations of 'hotspots' that typically restrict wireless service to within 100 meters of an access point.  Mesh networks can therefore augment the reach of wireless networks and offer continuous outdoor coverage over large metropolitan areas.

MeshNetworks relies on a proprietary technology called QDMA, which can send and receive data in vehicles travelling up to 200 miles an hour, compared with about 30 miles an hour for WiFi, which operates in the same 2.4GHz radio spectrum.

Another innovation milestone was reached by Korean manufacturer LG Electronics (LGE).  The company announced this week the introduction of the world's first wireless handset able to receive terrestrial DMB (Digital Media Broadcast).  In achieving this goal, LGE won the DMB satellite race, becoming the first cellular phone manufacturer to make handsets that allow consumers to receive satellite broadcasts to watch satellite programs while simultaneously speaking via a mobile phone.   

The Korean-based vendor incorporated the standard home TV antenna functionality into the new mobile handset to receive broadband DMB.  The total investment in this project was about 20 billion won (roughly 18.3 million dollars).  In achieving this feat, LGE's team of 130 researchers was able to solve issues such as power consumption and bulky terminal size.  The DMB receptor chip is currently an OEM, but LGE plans to make its own chip by the end of 2005.

One of the things I did while in Boston for the Fall VON show a month ago was drop by the old 'Tute (as MIT is affectionately known by all its students). The first night I got to Beantown, I crossed the Charles and went to Cambridge with another friend to get a quick tour (from 77 Mass Ave. to the Kendall Square, via the famed "infinite corridor"). Of course, on the way, I picked up a copy of The Tech (the student newspaper) and found an interesting insert on that particular edition.

I am talking about the G.L.A.T. (no, that does not stand for a type of Kosher food). I am talking about the Google Labs Aptitude Test. Apparently, Google had been on campus recruiting some talent, and wanted to leave a mark in testing future candidates.  Of course, some people claimed Google was taking a page out of Microsoft's book (by the way, there is an interesting book on the subject named "How Would You Move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle", by William Poundstone).  We are all familiar with stories of Microsoft interviews in which questions such as title of the book (or why are manholes round, etc.) are made to perspective employees. 

But Google had a few quite interesting puzzles to solve, and in my opinion, some of the questions were more geared towards also knowing the persona of a candidate (more or less like a hidden type of Myers Briggs test).  For instance, one question read: "It's 2 PM on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the Bay Area.  You're minutes from the Pacific Ocean, redwood forest hiking trails and world class cultural attractions.  What do you do?" Or what about this one: "This space left intentionally blank. Please fill it with something that improves upon emptiness."

So here are a few of the GLAT teasers (will have some more in a future installment):

Does anyone want to take a stab at some of these questions?

Outsourcing is also bringing a lot of contact centers to India.  The latest example is Dell, which opened up a 300 agent contact center in Chandigarh:

The Indian market has been quite hot in the past couple of years, with newcomers adopting aggressive strategies such as offering premium salaries for the agents and substantially discounting services, in order to get a piece of the $400 million Indian contact center outsourcing pie.  This has lowered margins even more in an industry already known for tight margins. 

Note: There is an interesting web site totally dedicated to the Indian contact center industry and offshore call centers: Call Centers India.

With the advent of VoIP, cable companies have started making a foray into the telecom marketplace by offering bundles of voice, video and data services (constituting the so-called "triple play"). In competing against the RBOCs, the MSOs have one compelling advantage (video), but also one potential Achilles' heel: the possibility of a "quad play" with wireless services. Hence, it was not surprising to see yesterday's story on IT Manager's Journal that the cablecos are considering launching a joint cell phone venture.

According to some insider information from the Wall Street Journal, the US largest MSOs have been discussing the possible formation of a joint venture geared towards offering cell phone service.  The informal consortium includes cablecos such as Advance/Newhouse Communications, Comcast (Nasdaq:CMCSA), Charter Communications (Nasdaq:CHTR), Cox Communications (NYSE:COX) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX).

The idea of such a JV for these large MSOs has been floating around for quite sometime, but there have been rumors that the talks to carry out this plan have heated up in the past few weeks, with the cablecos interviewing investment banks to act as advisors for a potential deal. 

One alternative is the outright acquisition of an existing cellular operator.  Another more likely option would be to use the cellular network of an established wireless operator, reselling the service under a separate brand.  Virgin Mobile uses such an arrangement in the US (with Sprint PCS) and Canada (with Bell Mobility).  Ditto for Qwest, which also uses Sprint's PCS wireless service.  MCI and Sprint both signed contracts with Time Warner to carry and terminate VoIP traffic.  

The potential MSO cell phone JV can really add wood to the fire in the MSO versus RBOC war, improving the cablecos position on the "quad play".

Earlier in September, Technology Futurist reported Ericsson's pullout of Bluetooth development, which certainly did not bode well for the technology, given the fact that the Swedish vendor was one of the major driving forces behind that industry. 

However, Bluetooth prospects are looking a lot brighter this week.  CNET reported earlier today that the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) made public its roadmap up to 2006.  As part of the announcement, SIG also mentioned the approval of the much antecipated Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) specification.  One of EDR's main advantages is that it can offer three times the bandwidth of other conventional Bluetooth protocols. 

Bluetooth adoption in the U.S. has been lagging other regions such as Europe.  It is hoped that the update will help stimulate the uptake in the U.S., since these latest enhancements can potentially make the technology more popular with computer and device manufacturers.  EDR changes the signal encoding system used by Bluetooth to enabling it to transmit at throughputs up to 3 megabits per second (which is several times faster than the third of a megabit or so of conventional Bluetooth 1.1 devices).  Simultaneously, EDR lowers power consumption and is still backwards compatible with older products (at slower data speeds).

The plans are posted on SIG's home page (registration is required, but it is free). 

I got a flurry of e-mails today from colleagues, newsletters, etc. giving away some interesting information about the latest Microsoft-related news.  Among the latest rumors are the following:

Blogging has been light this past week, as I am in Europe with my wife for a mini-vacation.  Technology Futurist broke the 10,000 visitor mark, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to post something on the makeup of the people browsing this site.  One interesting fact: the share of folks using Firefox has definitely beek increasing.  Case in point: this past week, the share hit about 12%.  I wonder if the same numbers are being registered by other blogs.  Could this be an interesting statistical occurence or is there some substance to the fact?  Also, one has to take into account the fact that TF is a techie blog, and techie people are more likely to dowload the software.  The chart follows below:

Jap@n Inc has an interesting report on the CEATEC JAPAN 2004 show, held earlier in October. The event featured the latest technology products in areas such as removable storage, audio/video/displays, wireless technologies/communications and cameras.  Among the many new gizmos demonstrated, one product that caught my attention was the Panasonic next-gen Broadnow mini TV Tuner.  This prototype runs runs full D1 Video (Main Profile AVC/H.264, based on a single Media Processor), at 1.5Mbps (suitable for VDSL). The demo given at CEATEC used Moonlight's video Codec technology.  The Broadnow is of the first set top boxes supporting AVC/H.264 that will be coming to the market in 2005.

A group of vendors, spearheaded by Sun Microsystems, introduced last week a draft of Java Business Integration (JBI), a blueprint for facilitating the integration of Java SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) software.  The SOA standard was developed by 22 vendors and is endorsed by players such as Novell, Oracle, Apache, and JBoss.  However, one of the drawbacks of the spec is its lack of support of BEA (Nasdaq:BEAS) and IBM (NYSE:IBM), two of the biggest Java vendors.  One potential scenario that could arise as a result is that these two giants might decide to work on their own SOA implementation, which can lead to an additional fragmentation of the Java platform.

After attending VON last week, I was unable to go to the CTIA show happening this week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, but some of my colleagues attending have given me the latest scoop of some of the major developments and announcements at the event.  Among the major developments at the show were:

Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) announced today at the CTIA show that it will make a "significant" investment with Clearwire, a wireless broadband startup funded by Craig McCaw.  The partnership is geared towards accelerating the development and deployment of WiMax networks.  The agreement stipulates that both companies will be actively engaged working collaboratively to develop WiMax products and deploy WiMax networks as the technology matures.  The Intel VC arm (Intel Capital) did not disclose any specific financial terms of the deal. 

Clearwire already offers WiMax service in Jacksonville, FL and St. Cloud, MN.  The company is planning to offer services based on the emerging 802.16e IEEE standard (an extension of the original 802.16 WiMax standard that addresses the mobility aspect).  The plan is for NextNet Wireless (a Clearwire subsidiary) to use the newly unveiled Rosedale Intel chip in new WiMax gear.  The deal will be a catalyst for the fixed wireless broadband industry, and Intel believes that next-gen products supporting mobility and using its chips should be widely available by 2006.