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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
New needs create a new demand
August 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsYou don't have to go too far back in the history books to find a time when, if you announced to the world that you planned to deploy 1550 nm fiber optic technology, you were considered odd, or unique. After all, 1550 was itself an oddity-a distraction to those who were lobbying cable operators to deploy fiber as fast as possible, but preferred that they use 1310 nm gear.
Taking the PC out of the data comm loop
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Michael Lafferty | CommentsRemember that classic scene in Moonstruck where Cher gives Nicholas Cage a swift high-five upside the face and yells, "Snap out of it!"? Consider yourself slapped and duly instructed. For the past year or so, as many in the industry have paced the floor, wrung their hands and consumed mountains of Zantec to calm roiling stomachs churning with cable modem distress, it seems everyone's attention ...
Bury your head  and bury your business(2)
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsI've written tutorial stories about the technology, commentaries about its possible use as an adjunct to cable TV (before that idea was prohibited by FCC mandate) and covered new product releases - all in an effort to educate CED readers about what was happening with that alternative video medium. The fact of the matter is, however, that I was never really impressed with the technology.
Bury your head  and bury your business
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsI've written tutorial stories about the technology, commentaries about its possible use as an adjunct to cable TV (before that idea was prohibited by FCC mandate) and covered new product releases - all in an effort to educate CED readers about what was happening with that alternative video medium. The fact of the matter is, however, that I was never really impressed with the technology.
Bury your head — and bury your business(2)
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsI've written tutorial stories about the technology, commentaries about its possible use as an adjunct to cable TV (before that idea was prohibited by FCC mandate) and covered new product releases - all in an effort to educate CED readers about what was happening with that alternative video medium. The fact of the matter is, however, that I was never really impressed with the technology.
Bricking up the 'Net to make it safe for business
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Dana Cervenka | CommentsAmong the more intriguing aspects of the Internet are the capabilities it provides to 'Net surfers to gain access to limitless information, visit exotic locales without ever leaving the safety of their keyboards and even interact with other people electronically, revealing only the information that they want to reveal about themselves, and in some cases, trying on new identities for size.
Bandwidth hunger driving high-speed data
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by David J. Freeman, Senior Consultant, Digital Equipment Corp. | CommentsThe continuing explosive growth of the Internet and the U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996 have kicked into high-gear plans, pilots and development of high-speed data networks to homes, schools, offices and many other institutions. An applications-driven market is developing with an increasing need for connectivity and greater bandwidth.
Capital Currents: Baseband digital interfaces, revisited
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, Interfacing with The Digital World and President of Telecommunications and Technology policy | CommentsThis work has run into a major conflict that is almost certain to lead to incompatible, consumer-unfriendly products. And this time, nobody can blame the cable industry. The blame rests with two different groups of TV and VCR manufacturers. Background The EIA set out a few years ago to adopt a standard for a baseband digital interface that allows digital TVs, VCRs, cable boxes and other audio- ...
Bury your head — and bury your business
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsI've written tutorial stories about the technology, commentaries about its possible use as an adjunct to cable TV (before that idea was prohibited by FCC mandate) and covered new product releases - all in an effort to educate CED readers about what was happening with that alternative video medium. The fact of the matter is, however, that I was never really impressed with the technology.
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.
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.
