A Standard-Setting Career October 25, 2007
Posted by Grant Seiffert in : General, Standards , add a commentWe talk a lot in this industry about investment, about innovation and regulation and other political issues. In hopeful moments we speak of connecting rural Americans and the people of developing nations to a high-speed, global information network. In anxious moments we talk about bandwidth limitations and technological neutrality.
There are so many separate ways to look at our industry, so many different sectors and components that drive the larger whole. The ICT economy, as a microcosm of the world economy, is so multifaceted it almost defies analysis.
There’s one facet of the industry so important nothing else could go on without it, yet it very rarely gets any attention. That’s standards and the process of standards-setting that goes on every day, not only in our industry but in every corner of the global developed economy — from construction to plastics to telecom to environmental compliance.
In a sense, the work of the standards sector — from large, accredited international bodies at the macro level to the individuals who volunteer their time and energy at the micro level — is like oxygen to the economy. No one really notices when air is plentiful, but we couldn’t live without it. Standards are the same — while most of the world’s manufacturing, public safety, and even service sectors hum along blissfully unaware of their presence, consensus standards continue to support those sectors’ very existence.
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IPTV Mind Bender June 19, 2007
Posted by geoliv in : Trends, Standards , add a commentModerated by Danny Briere, CTO of Telechoice, this panel included, Telus CTO Ibrahim Gedeon, AT&T Vice President of Product and Strategy Jeff Weber, Scientific Atlanta (Cisco) CTO Bob McIntyre, Tellabs IPTV CTO Prem Tirilok, BigBand CTO Ran Oz, and Hillcrest Labs EVP of Andy Addis.
Danny Briere pushed AT&T’s Weber for the future, but Weber said they’re just focusing on deliver the promise of web 2.0. Weber said they are just focusing on integrating all of their elements then delivering what consumers want, when they want it, how they want it. Three different types of video are going to be viewed: Traditional TV/HDTV media forms; gaming; and graphic video from agencies and user generated videos.
Users are getting their hands on HD video cams. High def content will be uploaded into Web portals, and peering agreements will be needed. Users are going to want to get paid for their content.
Set top boxes. “Uggh.” A choke point for IPTV remains making a friend with everyone. Integrating old TVs into the IPTV world creates enormous issues. IPTV on broadband doesn’t work with set top boxes on closed systems. They work with open systems, allowing carriers (and consumers) to check out the right equipment manufacturers they want.
Openness also fosters more development from an applications standpoint. Discussions of individual applications (SMS/American Idol) quickly shifted to creating the right environment for applications to prosper, to be developed. To create a killer application is the wrong focus, but creating the killer experience must be the focus.
The experience migrated to formats: TV , PC, mobile, etc. Everyone felt the TV was the best experience for watching. Online PC usage works better for environments that require interaction, and mobility is necessary for portability.
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IMS is the Key to Web 2.0
Posted by geoliv in : General, Trends, Standards , add a commentA larger discussion on the technologies behind the panel, specifically building out IMS, and the IP Core. There are some key issues of knitting a bunch of networks together versus a wholesale, unified network. A lot of concerns were expressed about the ability to deliver IPTV and other Web 2.0 services to consumers in a full-blown IMS network. Fully developing IMS was essential to video sharing, collaboration and seamless mobility.
Panelists included: Chris Rice, CTO of AT&T; Pieter Poll, CTO, Qwest; Mark Weigleitner, SVP & CTO, Verizon; Mark Bross, Group Technology Officer, BT; and the panel was moderated by Susan Miller, president and CEO of ATIS.
There was great debate over what consumers actually want. Do they want broadcast programming and movies? Or do they want access to a wide variety of content. Some of the CTOs felt linear video was more important than other Web 2.0 oriented video (a la YouTube). There was a little bit of unsure attitude and roles concerning Google and Apple.
Biggest challenge came from Qwest CTO Pieter Poll who sees traffic doubling every year. Another key issues was handling the complexity of the mobile environment and ensuring seamless interaction between networks.
According to ZDNet, the deployment of Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) will help telecommunications operators increase their revenues and bring new services to end-users, says Frost & Sullivan. According to the research firm, increasing competition between Europe’s fixed and mobile carriers and the success of Internet telephony services such as Skype, have heightened the focus on Internet Protocol (IP) including IMS standards based on the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
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3G New Zealand June 11, 2007
Posted by ianmartinez in : General, What's New?, Standards , add a commentIt looks like Telecom new Zealand has a tentative deal with Alcatel-Lucent for deployment of a nationwide 3G WCDMA/HSPA wireless network, though TMCnet and other sources say the contract hasn’t yet been signed.
Great news for the global standards, community especially coming from a country so geographically isolated. According to Wikipedia:
New Zealand is notable for its geographic isolation, being separated from Australia to the northwest by the Tasman Sea, approximately 2000 kilometres (1250 miles) across. Its closest neighbours to the north are New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga.
A major question heading into next week’s NXTcomm show is whether China, a major wireless market that’s isolated in other respects, will open up or continue to stick to its nationalized TCDMA standard, drawing criticism even in the rival Indian market.
Here’s hoping China sees more and more of its Asian brethren adopting the de-politicized global standards.
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The Middle Kingdom June 5, 2007
Posted by ianmartinez in : What's New?, Policy, Standards , 2 commentsThe word “China” as we say it in English is, more properly, “Zhongguo” in Mandarin. The first character zhōng (中), is translated “middle” or “central,” and guó (国 or 國) is “country” or “state.” Early Western missionaries to China translated the term “Middle Kingdom,” which some have said reflected their opinon that the Chinese culture seemed to revolve around the king. The term is multifacted, however, dating as it does to ancient times. “The Middle Kingdom” referred to the “Central States” along the Yellow River valley, but often it was land under Chinese control, or the metropolitan area surrounding the capital, or sometimes even just cultural China generally — doesn’t every culture think it’s at the center of things — and was not associated with a particular political entity.
It’s a powerful term in the context of China’s rich political, economic, and technological histories. Thousands of years old and still kicking, the Chinese have always been innovators. China notably gave birth to what British historian Joseph Needham called “the Four Great Inventions” — The compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing.
Think about it. Yeah, gunpowder was a big one. Empires grew and fell on that one. But the other three! Civilization grew from those technologies. (more…)
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