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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Universal telephone service as a weapon
June 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, High-Definition Anticipant and President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | CommentsThe funds are hidden in the access charges that long distance carriers pay for the use of local telephone channels. This system was intended for a regime of monopoly local phone service, but the 1996 Telecommunications Act has ended that regime. The current system is broken: it fails to target the neediest subscribers, it rewards inefficient phone companies and it is inconsistent with the goal ...
Narrowband on road to high-tech social scene
June 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Fred Dawson | CommentsA growing band of innovators in multimedia entertainment is driving changes in the Internet environment that represent major new challenges to strategists in the high-speed data services arena. Where on-line content to date has been largely defined by the bandwidth limitations and latency factors of Web links, providers of on-line multiplayer games and other content tied to community interactio...
Road work continues on the public I-way
June 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Tom Robinson | CommentsThe point of all this, though, is not to talk about the literal meaning of the phrase, but rather the analogous meaning that there are a number of ways to accomplish a given task or reach a needed goal. Such is the case with the continuing construction of critical portions of the public I-Way. For example, New York City's Institutional Network (I-Net), profiled in this column in November 1995, ...
MMDS standing tall on digital technology, RBOC $$
June 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Dana Cervenka | CommentsHistorically, wireless cable service (known as MMDS) hasn't posed enough of a competitive threat to keep wireline cable operators up at night—but that's about to change. Soon, MSO execs may be haunted by nightmares of giant microwave towers, sporting coats-of-arms with the letters RBOC, as they trample everything in their path.
Execs spin, wait on modems
May 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by CED Staff | CommentsAnyone who made the trek to Los Angeles last month for the National Cable Show and visited only the hardware booths could have easily mistaken this "cable TV" show for a "computer" show like Comdex. While certainly not as massive as a Comdex, the NCTA show did set a record for number of registrants (more than 30,000), and the clear focus was on high-speed data delivery and little else.
Will small ops get squeezed?
May 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsThe passage of the Telecom Reform Act has dramatically changed the structure of the communications industry. Suddenly, everybody can get into everyone else's business. The bill's advocates hope the new lack of regulation will allow unfettered competition, which should be good for consumers by driving down prices.
Reed Hundt and the chilling of HDTV
May 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, High Definition Anticipant and President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | CommentsHe claims he wants to let the marketplace make the decisions. But there's a chicken-and-egg problem. In this case, we'd all be better off by having the FCC, not the marketplace, decide to go ahead with HDTV. Otherwise, we risk losing our lead in this technology to other countries. Remember VCRs? Testing of the Grand Alliance Digital HDTV system was completed last summer.
The FCC's compatibility rules: good news and bad
May 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Walt Ciciora | CommentsThese rules were required to implement Section 17 of the 1992 Cable Act. Shortly after these rules were issued, numerous Petitions for Reconsideration were filed by both the consumer electronics and the cable sides. The FCC has issued its reconsideration in a Memorandum Opinion And Order released April 10, 1996 and has modified the rules.
Building the headend of the future
May 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Michael Lafferty | CommentsComputers have changed the way people work, play and even create and the cable industry is certainly no exception. Yet, as the 20th century careens toward its inevitable conclusion, computer hardware and software applications have finally vaulted over the last bastion of hardwire, creating fundamental changes in headend design and operations.
A Home Traffic Cop
April 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Clifford R. Holliday, P.E. | CommentsAround the world, deregulation of the telecommunications industry is resulting in competition among telephone carriers, cable TV services, utilities and other newcomers. One effect of this competition is the sudden emergence of not one, but several actual and potential broadband communications networks into homes and small businesses.
MSOs search for a role in PCS delivery
April 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Fred Dawson | CommentsThe shifting interplay of technical and strategic developments in PCS is redefining the cable industry's options in telephony, posing both a challenge and an opportunity to MSO strategists. Where much of cable's focus has been on making wireline delivery of telephony technically and commercially viable as a prerequisite to deep involvement in wireless services, developments on the wireless fron...
Providing access to the universe
April 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Tom Robinson | CommentsAlthough the focus is squarely on promoting vigorous competition in a variety of telecommunications marketplaces, there are several provisions targeted directly at the public interest in the 1996 Act. One of these is the section pertaining to universal service, especially the language in Sections 254(h)(1) and (2) that provides for preferential access to basic and advanced telecommunications an...
Virtual circuits and the cable cloud
April 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Wendell Bailey | CommentsMost of those working in the cable industry should know what virtual circuits are, but have they ever stopped to think about how those circuits might apply to their industry? Everyone talks about the use of this technique in traditional telephone networks. In that network environment, the idea is that the paths between central offices would be used in a virtual way to conserve resources.
Digital video copy protection details
April 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, Digital Copycat and President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | CommentsNow, a similar deal is in the works for digital video. It directly affects the cable TV industry. It should allow earlier performance windows for hot new movies on pay-per-view, but it could raise the cost of set-tops. On balance, if movies are made available to cable earlier, it seems to me that this is a reasonable tradeoff.
Achieving 99.99 percent availability
April 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Fred Dawson | CommentsSome excellent papers on network reliability were presented at the NCTA Technical sessions in Dallas last May, and on network availability at the SCTE Conference on Emerging Technologies in San Francisco in January. Engineers and technicians responsible for planning and operating broadband networks need to become familiar with the concepts, as well as the causes and remedies, discussed in these...
