Sunday morning miscellaneous, an assortment as varied as the market:
seattletimes.com
Posted at 06:35 a.m. PDT; Thursday, August 26, 1999
Billionaire borrowing $1 billion, reportedly for more acquisitions
by Bloomberg News
NEW YORK - Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft and owner of Charter Communications, is borrowing $1 billion from Commerzbank and other lenders to help finance more acquisitions, said a person familiar with the transaction.
herring.com
The Santa Clara, California-based company, whose investment portfolio in more than 250 companies is estimated to be worth over $3 billion, has allocated over half of its investment funding to Internet-focused startups, according to company officials. The company started making sizable Internet investments as early as 1996, and those moves now appear considerably prescient as Intel emerges as a major shareholder in many of the leading Internet IPOs.
The latest on wireless tracking:
mercurycenter.com
The FCC on Friday said that by June 30, carriers must design their systems to provide information about a wireless caller's ``cell site' location at the beginning and end of a call. The companies would be required to give that information to law enforcement officials who have legal authorization.
Lucent, ART, and wireless broadband:
infoworld.com
Letter from John McQuillan regarding NGN's fall conference. Note the emphasis on Class 4 and Class 5 replacements: <<<<
What's the killer application for the Internet? Despite all the hoopla about the Web and e-commerce, it turns out that e-mail still accounts for most of the transactions people perform on the Net. It is easy to understand why: People need to communicate with other people, for business and personal reasons, and e-mail has proved to have enduring value.
So what's the next killer application for the Net? I am starting to think that it will be next-generation telephony. Consider how the telephone network is used in business today. Three out of four telephone calls don't reach the intended recipient, ending instead in voice mail. Many businesses use automated systems to answer the phone and direct calls instead of human receptionists. And more than half the phone traffic across the Pacific is not actually telephone calls but faxes.
The POTS model of one person calling another person at their only telephone number, and speaking to them for 7 minutes has given way to many other modes of communication. We all have multiple phones and multiple numbers, and need a way for callers to reach us. Multi-party conference calls have become a way of life, along with shared documents distributed in advance by fax or email. We use our cell phones to stay in touch with our offices by voice mail, to trade stocks, and now to browse specially designed web pages.
So phones are not what they used to be, and the phone network has been scrambling to keep up. For many reasons, next-generation voice communications belong on the Net. Shouldn't all this activity move from the phone system to the Net? Shouldn't e-mail be fully integrated with voice mail, with a common interface on the Web, and common interface at the phone instrument? Shouldn't Web sites, especially e-commerce sites, chat rooms and customer service sites be augmented with voice communications? The answer is Yes.
Meanwhile, the forces of next generation technology are at work, delivering packet-based solutions. IP PBXs have arrived on the market this year. IP Centrex services will be up and running in many regions next year. Replacements for Class 4 and Class 5 central office switches are in trial now, and will be in service next year. It is estimated that 300 million cellular phones will have IP addresses within four years. Just as important, a whole new generation of enhanced voice services is under development.
To compound the pressures for change, worldwide deregulation of telephony is beginning to have significant effects in the US and around the world. Several thousand new service providers have been formed over the past three years. The old line monopoly carriers used to buy from the old line suppliers in an oligopoly. Now startup service providers are buying packet technology from startup vendors. When Qwest acquires US West, and Global Crossing acquires Frontier, it means that there are now major service providers who think like startups, and who will roll out packet-based voice networks next year.
One result, of course, is that the charges for voice calls are going to keep dropping. Recent news stories highlight this trend: On August 9, MCI Worldcom announced that they will provide voice calls for as low as 5 cents a minute at night and on weekends. The next day, Qwest offered 250 minutes for $24.95 a month, with unlimited Internet dial access bundled in "for free." I am expecting other providers to offer high-speed Internet access, via DSL or cable, for low monthly rates with 250 minutes of voice "for free."
The composition of MCI's revenues is striking. In their last quarter, they reported that voice accounted for 62% of total revenue, but grew only 6%. Data accounted for 22% of the total, and grew 29%. Internet revenues are still only 10% of the total, but are jumping 59%.
The sun is starting to set for PSTN voice, in financial results, in regulatory decisions and in technology trends. That means a $100 billion market is open as never before.
At NGN99 this fall, we will give special focus to next generation telephony all week long. Tom Evslin, Chairman, President & CEO, ITXC Corporation, one of the pioneers of IP Telephony, will present a keynote entitled "IP Telephony--Transforming the Public Network" on November 4. Other highlights include a panel session on "Upgrading Cable for IP & Voice," and another on "Redefining the Local Loop: Voice over DSL." New categories of products are emerging, including local exchange gateways, to deliver voice in packets or cells over the last mile.
With any new market come controversies about the best technical approach to adopt. You will want to attend the debate on "Voice over IP vs. Voice over Anything" to hear the latest pros and cons about IP, ATM and frame relay. Huge investment decisions depend on getting the answer right. Find out which way major enterprises like Cisco and key service providers are leaning.
The centerpiece of our coverage of voice at NGN99 is the in-depth coverage of Class 5 solutions, Class 4 replacements, and value-added applications, in the Symposium on next-generation telephony on Friday, November 5. The symposium will feature major vendors such as Cisco, Lucent, Nortel and Siemens, along with the leaders of the next wave: Convergent, MetaTel, Netcentric, Salix,Santera and Sonus.
And if H.323, SIP, MGCP, SS7, SGCP, MPLS, gateways and gatekeepers are all a bit confusing to you, attend our full-day tutorial on "Understanding & Implementing VOIP" on Monday , November 1. This is particularly appropriate for NSPs, but anyone who needs to understand how VoIP will hit the Net can benefit.
In planning the conference, and talking with all these experts, I have had the opportunity to think about the consequences of these changes. Whether you work in an enterprise or for a vendor or service provider, when voice hits the Net, your professional life is going to change. For the unprepared, the transition will be difficult. For the forward-looking, this is an exciting moment in your career--one full of challenge and opportunity.
>>>>>
Turning now to photonics --- the industry having whelped Cerent full-grown this past week --- I found the following:
marconicomms.com
gec.com
Ciena Corp: [for a smile, if nothing else]
ciena.com
ciena.com
And while we're on the subject of technical papers, a couple from Juniper Networks:
juniper.net
And last of all, my movie pick-of-the-week (month):
movies.go.com
The Muse was released this week and the best thing about it is the title. :))
That's it for now ---
Pat |
