Advanced Search

Businesses are harnessing the technology to spur sales and give workers an edge

Note: eMarketer is a fee-based site

---

Despite optimism surrounding the launch of the wireless web, it hasn't exactly taken off in the U.S. and may not for the forseeable future due to these six barriers.

Trying to paint telecommunications in the Asia-Pacific region with a broad brush is unwise, according to a recent report from Gartner. Read on to get an overview of how countries including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea have taken a different approach to liberalizing the industry. Full report is also available for free download.

Gartner Group article compares DSL and cable modem based services, specifically with an eye to quality of service (QoS).

Article provides a plain-english look at a new wireless technology that has the potential to shake up several markets.

The Washington Post devotes a section to the struggling Telecom sector. Stories touch on the investments in the sector -- and their dubious payoffs. The lead story of the section, "A Hot Sector Burns Out", sets the stage for a discussion of the current shakeout in the industry and Wall Street's investments both past, present and future in the growth of telecom. Other stories touch on spectrum, workforce issues, policy, and wireless hardware and standards. Particular stories of note follow. The URL of the section is immediately below.
- A HOT SECTOR BURNS OUT
Issue: Telecommunications
http://www.washtech.com/news/telecom/7919-1.html

- BROADBAND'S NICE IF YOU CAN GET IT
Issue: Broadband/Digital Divide
http://www.washtech.com/news/telecom/7902-1.html

- VETERAN HANDS STILL IN DEMAND
Issue: Workforce/Economy
http://www.washtech.com/news/telecom/7908-1.html

- RIDING UP TO THE CHALLENGE
Issue: CLECS
http://www.washtech.com/news/telecom/7903-1.html

- A PUSH FOR MORE FREQUENCIES
Issue: Spectrum
http://www.washtech.com/news/telecom/7918-1.html

- BELLS, RIVALS GEAR UP FOR BATTLE
Issue: Broadband
http://www.washtech.com/news/telecom/7915-1.html

How are the cell carriers ever going to run a decent business with so many customers so irate?

"'The U.S. [cell phone] industry is a freak of nature, an artificial creation with more competitors than the economic reality justifies,' argues Scott Ford, president of Arkansas-based Alltel, the largest regional cell phone company. 'It's the biggest issue facing the industry. We are rapidly moving from wealth creation to wealth destruction.' What's needed is a wrenching, top-to-bottom consolidation - and it is coming soon, thanks to the unlikeliest of saviors: the FCC. By year-end the FCC is expected to eliminate, or at least loosen, restrictions that have effectively banned large-scale consolidation. The most important restriction is the cap on how much radio-wave spectrum a single cellular firm can control in a given city; another rule bans cross-ownership of certain types of cellular licenses. Together the regulations effectively guarantee fragmented, unprofitable markets."

The Internet is going mobile. To succeed, it must learn from the mistakes made in the fixed-line Internet boom, argues Tom Standage.

CIOs grappling with remote user connectivity issues and those at small enterprises should pay close attention to the evolving cable modem standards that are geared toward making cable modems more viable.

In Europe last year, telecommunications and financial companies joined at a rate of one alliance a month. The trend will go global, because financial content is where the money is.

What happens when demand myths, faulty forecasts, and financing traps converge.