Telecom

U.S. VoIP and Broadband Policy: Today’s Debate is Off the Mark!

Despite rather rapid growth in broadband access, the U.S. is falling further and further behind other countries -- we're now ranked #16 in the world. What's slowing the U.S. down? Two threads dominate U.S. broadband policy debate today. The first focuses on traditional telecom regulation -- reciprocal compensation, universal service, e911, and CALEA (wiretap capabilities). The second focuses on "Internet freedoms," i.e., guarantees that your broadband access provider won't block or inhibit specific applications like VoIP. more

Disappearing Telephony

I'm just stepping back a minute to think about what Emerging Telephony actually is. You might have seen my earlier musings on the different philosophical underpinnings of "Western" telephony and "Eastern" thought. In an oversimplified nutshell, the Western approach puts the individual in the centre of the universe. The Eastern idea is to put the group in the middle. more

Flushing the ‘Net Down the Tubes

Doc Searls has written a brilliant piece framing the battle for the 'Net at Linux Journal. The piece is long, but if you take the time to read just one essay on the 'Net and the politics surround it this year, read this one. If you're involved in public policy, it's especially important that you take the time to understand what's at stake here. One of Doc's main points: we haven't framed the conversation correctly and our poor choice of words makes the argument seem overly technical and arcane when it's really about freedom, markets, and innovation. more

Vint Cerf Speaking Out on Internet Neutrality

In a U.S. congress hearing held yesterday November 9th, significant focus was projected on "network neutrality" and a new telecommunications bill affecting the Internet. "This bill could fundamentally alter the fabulously successful end-to-end Internet," says Alan Davidson in the post on Google blog. Vint Cerf was not able to testify because of the Presidential Medal of Freedom award ceremony at the White House, but submitted the following letter to the hearing... more

Online Registries: The DNS and Beyond

As the world grows more connected and more complicated, we all need ways of defining, identifying and keeping track of things and cross-referencing them with their owners. The simplest way to do that is with registries -- everything from the Domesday Book, a medieval registry of land, property and people; to current-day auto registries on the one hand and the worldwide Domain Name System on the other...But now, companies and organizations have to keep track of ever more things and people, not just inside their walls but across extended organizational boundaries. Call this new wrinkle an "external registry". Finally, they may want to interact with things and people, rather than just look them up, via an "active registry".  more

London Ranks Last Among 18 European Capitals for Mobile Download Speeds

Ookla's latest benchmarking ranks London last among 18 European capitals for mobile download speeds, revealing persistent congestion, worsening latency and infrastructure constraints despite widespread 5G availability. more

Submarine Cable Resilience Faces Growing Threats From Aging Fleets and Concentrated Ownership

Submarine cables underpin global communications, yet shipping accidents, sabotage risks and aging repair fleets threaten their resilience. Growing private ownership and fragmented international oversight raise difficult questions about infrastructure security, maintenance and accountability. more

SpaceX Agrees to Acquire Nationwide 800 MHz Spectrum for Starlink Mobile

SpaceX has agreed to acquire nationwide 800 MHz spectrum licenses from Grain Management in a deal reportedly worth $8 billion, potentially expanding Starlink Mobile's ability to integrate satellite and terrestrial connectivity. more

AT&T Chief Challenges Economics of SpaceX’s Mobile-Network Strategy

AT&T CEO John Stankey questions the economics of SpaceX's expanding mobile strategy as regulatory filings and independent measurements show the spectrum, satellite capacity and terrestrial infrastructure involved in scaling direct-to-device service. more

Candle Submarine Cable Reaches Indonesia on Route Across Six Asian Markets

The 8,000-kilometre Candle submarine cable has landed in Batam, advancing a six-market Asian system designed for 570 Tbps capacity, 24 fiber pairs and geographically diverse routes ahead of commercial service in 2028. more

Canada Plans Sovereign Broadband Backbone With New Fibre Investment Incentive

Ottawa plans to help finance a national broadband backbone with direct links to Europe and Asia, while new tax incentives aim to spur fibre investment and strengthen Canadian control over critical digital infrastructure. more

Starlink’s Other Network

Starshield gives SpaceX a separate military satellite network, raising a broader question about whether Starlink could dedicate satellites to cellular and business backhaul without reducing broadband capacity for residential customers. more

FCC Moves to Open 1,050 MHz of Spectrum to Satellite Broadband

The FCC plans to open 1,050 MHz in the 12.7 GHz and 42 GHz bands to expanded satellite use, adding capacity for broadband, mobile connectivity, inter-satellite links and ground networks. more

4iG and SpaceX Plan Starlink Mobile Rollout Across Hungary and Western Balkans

4iG and SpaceX plan direct-to-device Starlink services across four European markets, alongside secured government communications, but national spectrum approvals and key details of the proposed sovereign infrastructure remain unresolved. more

Cable Faults Cut Vietnam’s International Internet Capacity by 30%

Four undersea cable faults are disrupting Vietnam's international internet connectivity, with operators rerouting traffic as earlier outages reduced available capacity by about 30%, highlighting concerns over network redundancy, repair delays and infrastructure resilience. more