This year is the twentieth anniversary of the formation of the Wi-Fi Alliance and the launch of commercial Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi has become so ubiquitous in our lives that it's hard to believe that it's only been twenty years since all broadband connections came with wires. In 1999 most people were still using dial-up, and that's the year when early adapters started buying DSL. I remember having incredibly long phone cords so that I could use my laptop at different places around the house. more
Many commentators rushed into print when they heard that Craig Barratt, senior vice-president of Google's parent company Alphabet and CEO of Access (the unit of which Google Fiber is part), stated that he would quit the job and that Google would slow down or stop its fibre deployment. So, yes, obviously something is happening at Google; but at the same time, the company has a commitment to complete the fiber deployment projects it has already started and also to build the many new networks that have been announced over the last six months. more
New York City is in the midst of a two part Landrush for its .nyc domain names. First is a 60 day application period (August 4 – October 3) during which anyone with nexus -- basically city residents -- can purchase an available .nyc domain name... It doesn't even matter if a name has a NYS Trademark or d/b/a registration, those names too are fair game... There are significant problems with this process. more
The last two months have seen a flurry of Starlink activity, including the following: Bill Gates has a history of interest in satellite Internet and in September, Microsoft announced their Azure Obrital ground station service, which enables satellite access to its Azure cloud services. SES, Viasat, and Intelsat were announced as initial partners and SpaceX just signed up. Starlink+Azure Orbital will compete with Amazon's satellite constellation and its ground-station service... more
Last April, I shared information about a multistakeholder process that CIRA is part of, which seeks to identify and guide the development of policy around the Internet of Things (IoT), putting security at the heart of internet innovations in Canada. Since the formation of this process, we've made quite a bit of progress and I'm pleased to share some of that with you. more
Given all the clueless, nonsensical assertions coming out of Washington these days about 5G and purported leadership, it seemed time to do another reality check. It was timely at the moment because, with the Coronavirus concerns, the massive 3GPP 5G industry collaboration engine switched to virtual meeting mode for February. Thus – with travel barriers to participation completely absent – the participation metrics represent a real litmus test for even nominal engagement in global 5G industry collaboration and technology development. more
This has been a busy week in the race to deploy constellations of low-earth orbit (LEO) Internet-service satellites. In their quarterly report, Telesat mentioned progress in two, disparate markets. As I noted earlier, they have signed their first LEO customer - Omniaccess a provider of connectivity to the superyacht market. more
Recently, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) unveiled its Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), a tool it proposes will help fight trademark infringement relating to another of its new programs - generic top level domain (gTLD). As Lafeber describes, criticism of ICANN's gTLD program and subsequent TMCH database is mounting. Skeptics have noted that given the significant cost of registering a gTLD - the application fee is $185,000 and subsequent annual fees are $25,000 - the program appears to be solely a cash cow, without adding much value to Internet users. more
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Tom Wheele, the FCC Chairman, gave a range of spirited responses to a grilling from the Director of the GSMA, Anne Bouverot. She was following the line of the telcos and questioned if the FCC intervention would stifle growth and investments in the market; however she had problems reconciling her position with the fact that, despite these regulatory changes, the American industry was still prepared to invest a whopping $45 billion in new spectrum. more
Nielsen recently published some statistics about how we watch videos that show a continuing trend of migration from traditional video to watching video online. One of the most striking statistics is the total volume of online videos. December 2021 saw an aggregate of 183 billion minutes of online video viewing. And even that, the number is likely small since there are many uses of video on the web that are not likely counted in the total. more
The mobile phone market is growing exponentially and will continue to evolve for years to come. Why has the Cable Industry not moved into the lucrative mobile phone market? It could definitely be a revenue bonanza, as it currently is for telecom companies. ... Verizon and AT&T's revenues, as a percentage of stock price by division, attributes mobile phone service up to 40-42% of total revenues. more
ICANN reports that Google paid over $25 million for .APP in the February 25 domain auction. They were willing to bid $30M, but it's a second bid auction so that was just enough to beat out whoever the second highest bidder was. The auction proceeds piggy bank just nearly doubled from $34M to about $59M dollars, and ICANN still has no idea what to do with it. more
I was told recently that I should register the domain "calzone.pizza" as soon as it becomes available, even though our start-up has nothing to do with food. This is a question that a lot of businesses may be facing as they become aware of the new dots that are becoming available, like .club, .nyc and .guru. Should businesses spend money and grab their brand in all of the new domain extensions to prevent potential customer confusion, or worse - cybersquatting or phishing of their brand on the internet? What if your brand can have multiple meanings? more
With much fanfare last month, Uniregistry announced that proposals for dispute resolution between New TLD applicants in lieu of ICANN's so-called "Auction of Last Resort" posed significant antitrust risks. Their claim of concern was not based on any critical antitrust analysis, but rather on the fact that they had sought a "Business Review" letter from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and, according to Uniregistry, the DOJ failed to provide them a positive response and discussed the issue with them. more
The decision to bid for a new gTLD can be driven by reason or by love. Either the applicant practices strategic and financial valuation, or the applicant falls for an idea implicit in the gTLD. The second group had better be very lucky or have some motivation besides profit. They enjoy little chance of economic viability. Worse, they follow up their poor initial selection with similar bad calls about their marketing message. more
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