Rogers Exec Calls for 100% Availability of Ethernet Services

Cable companies have a major opportunity to win enterprise business away from telcos, but need to interconnect their networks to provide national coverage and deliver higher-quality customer service, Terry Canning, senior vice president of Canada-based Rogers Business Solutions, says.

"Telcos were built on five-nines, but they stopped there," Canning said. "We have the opportunity to win huge shares of marketplace if we pursue 100. But we're not there yet." MSOs Can Outdo Telcos in Ethernet


The need for 100 percent availability is particularly important as more enterprises move critical applications into the cloud and rely on network connections into the cloud for those applications, he said.

Whether in actual fact any communications service can reach 100-percent availability, and still be profitable, is the issue.

The issue of national interconnects between major local cable companies is a related, but separate, issue. Where cable is disadvantaged, compared to telcos, is in going outside the typical regional footprint of a cable operator to serve national and multinational enterprises, he said. 


Rogers is developing network-to-network interfaces to interconnect with other cable operators, but more work is needed to develop a standard product set across the cable industry. That impediment also illustrates the issues faced by the cable industry. Unlike the telecom industry, which builds every network element and system for interconnection, cable operators traditionally have not needed to do so.

Cable also must overcome its reputation as a "best effort" service provider by delivering higher-quality customer service to its most important customers, Canning said.

YouTube Now More Like TV

YouTube now features a few new changes that make the experience more like TV, especially the "channels" format. Now if Google can someday acquire more "TV" content to fill those channels, we can better a better sense for the actual shifts in user behavior many have been predicting ultimately will happen.

 

Cable Success in Mid-Market Requires Changes

David Strauss, a cable industry consultant, explains what cable operators in the U.S. market must add to their playbooks as they target mid-sized businesses more aggressively. Cable Expands Its Business Game

Up to this point cable has been most successful in the small business segment (a dozen to 16 phone lines).

Google Delivery Service Protects Search

You might think a shipping service for online products is directly related to protecting the value of a search business, but that is precisely what Google believes. The problem, in a nutshell, is that Amazon Prime, and perhaps Amazon in general, often becomes the "go to" search engine when people are shopping online.

So Google is in talks with major retailers and shippers to create a service that lets consumers shop for goods on the Web and receive orders within a day for a low fee, all as a way of bolstering the use of Google's search engine for e-commerce activities.

Amazon's growth has surged in recent years with the help of a service called Prime that allows people to receive many items they order from the site in a day or two for a $79 annual fee, analysts say. Google, Retailers in Fast-Delivery Talks

For Google, the issue is that when users bypass Google's search engine and go straight to Amazon, Google's advertising model is threatened.

Revenues from Multiscreen Content Platforms to Top $21 Billion in 2015?

New NPD In-Stat research forecasts that revenues from multi-screen content platforms will top $21 billion in 2015. Asia Pacific will have the most active multi-screen households by 2015, and 273 million households will be using some kind of multi-screen service by 2015.


Precisely what that revenue forecast actually means is an issue, though. As is the case for triple-play services, the precise revenue contribution from each of the constituent parts is an accounting issue. 

All revenue forecasts for "TV everywhere" or "multi-screen" video entertainment services faces the same issue. When the ability to stream some content to a tablet or smart phone, within a home, is bundled with a cable TV subscription, how does one attribute the revenue? 


If an additional fee is assessed, the issue is clearer, but that might not be the dominant way such services are sold to consumers. 


Multiscreen Content Platforms to Top $21 Billion in 2015

HTC, Sprint Acknowledge Using Carrier IQ Software But Deny Snooping

Sprint and HTC apparently use a diagnostic application called "Carrier IQ" that can record keystrokes and even encrypted search terms on some smart phones.

Sprint and HTC say the software is used for ordinary diagnostic reports needed to help improve the performance of mobile devices and mobile networks. HTC, Sprint Acknowledge Using Carrier IQ Software

Carrier IQ Logs Smart Phone Keystrokes

In November 2011, security researcher Trevor Eckhart announced that he found software made by Carrier IQ that may be logging your every move on your mobile phone. 


Trevor referred to it as a "rootkit", a piece of software that hides itself while utilizing privileged access like watching your every move. Carrier IQ didn't take too kindly to this accusation, and responded aggressively with a cease-and-desist letter, and went on to deny this accusation. However, to further back his accusation, Eckhart released a video that he says shows the software working. 


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