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Developments in the telecommunications industry and the broader digital economy have opened up many new markets over the last few decades. Telecoms has changed from a more or less standalone, horizontally-organized industry to one that has become a key facilitator in a range of vertical markets. The keyword that is used to indicate that change is "smart." We are talking about smart transport, smart energy, smart cities and so on. more
The small West African country of Benin has been working quietly over the past few years to become a regional hub for international fibre bandwidth. The national telco, Benin Telecoms (BT) has been building terrestrial fibre routes to landlocked neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso and Niger, allowing them to connect to its landing station for the SAT-3/WASC cable, the only one serving the region. more
In a 52 page security report released by Cisco, the company has confirmed what has been consistently been observed through out this year: "the Internet-based attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and specialized as profit-driven criminals continue to hone their approach to stealing data from businesses, employees and consumers." The 2008 edition of the report has specified the year's top security threats and offers recommendations for protecting networks against attacks that are propagating more rapidly, becoming increasingly difficult to detect, and exploiting technological and human vulnerabilities. more
This latest initiative announced by the Coalition for Digital Africa will focus on strengthening the Internet infrastructure across the continent by enhancing five existing Internet exchange points (IXPs). The initiative is supported by a grant from ICANN and will be implemented by the Internet Society (ISOC) and will involve identifying five IXPs based on their potential to make a high impact on the respective local and sub-regional markets. more
When the scale of global surveillance carried out by the NSA (USA) and by the GCHQ (UK) was exposed by Edward Snowden through The Guardian, people around the world were shocked to discover how two established democracies routinely resort to methods that they have long deplored -- and rightly so -- in dictatorships, theocracies and other single-party arrangements. In a previous article, I lamented the fact that by carrying out this surveillance on an unprecedented scale, the US and the UK are, in fact, converging with the very regimes they criticize. more
Recently, there were news articles about a large software provider who experienced a global outage due to an expired digital certificate - and this is not the first time this kind of issue has hit the news. Digital certificate outages, when an organization forgets to replace an expiring certificate for a business-critical domain name, continues to cause business disruption and security risks. more
In a software-defined and virtualised world, who will integrate the complex dynamic systems, and take responsibility for the result? It is unclear if telcos have the skills, but someone else likely does... The included image caught my eye whilst I was reviewing presentations from last October's Metro Ethernet Forum gathering in Florida on behalf of a consulting client. At first glance, it's just a marketing pseudo-Venn diagram peppered with telco tech buzzword bingo. But... more
I'm writing this piece on the plane on my way back to Vancouver after a 12-day trip in China. I've written about China before, and every time I go, I understand and appreciate this complex country and culture a little more. If you think China is "up and coming," well, you might want to go and take a look for yourself. To be honest, I think they are already here. more
Cuba, one of the least connected countries, has started providing internet on the mobile phones of select users as it aims to roll out the service nationwide by year-end. more
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced that it will strengthened its commitment to net neutrality. more
The applicant community is working its will on the rules for generic top-level domain (gTLD) auctions published by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). But, as always, ICANN is no pushover. ICANN posted the new gTLD auction rules for public comment last month after community outcry over the preliminary rules during ICANN's Public Meeting in Buenos Aires in November. more
The latest technology on the horizon is the metaverse, which, stated simply, is the creation of online environments. While the primary focus of the metaverse is to create alternate realities, an application with a possible immediate big uptake is vertical presence for business meetings. Ciena, a manufacturer of fiber optic transmission equipment, recently did a survey worldwide of 15,000 business people to understand the interests and expectations of the metaverse. more
The coalition led by Engine, Y Combinator, and Techstars, along with over 800 tech startups sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai urging him to focus "on policies that would promote a stronger Internet for everyone," rather than dismantling the existing net neutrality framework. more
This is the first post in a series from Corey Grant, Senior Industry Consultant at ARI Registry Services, on what .brand TLDs need to do to get started and make the most of their TLDs... If you are a .brand Top Level Domain (TLD) and have a Registry Agreement from ICANN which you have not yet signed, you need to sign it by July 29, 2015. You're not alone; there are many others in the same boat -- all staring at their Registry Agreement trying to figure out what to do next. more
The new TLD for Scotland, .scot, has been launched. About 50 sites run by "launch pioneers" are expected to go live on Tuesday. Among those who have signed up for a new domain are the Scottish government, referendum campaigners Yes Scotland and Better Together, WWF Scotland, NHS Scotland and Scouts Scotland. The .scot domain is one of a number of new top-level domains going live this year including .wales, .london, .berlin and .NYC. more
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