May 20 2008 2:02PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
mobile data,
Fixed-mobile convergence,
Verizon
Verizon’s backing of LiMo is being perceived increasingly as a shot across Google’s bow, and also something that may be linked with an operator shift toward FMC and a more software-driven mobile strategy that moves away from IMS. The latter issue is, we believe, an important one for the industry, since any open platform strategy like LiMo or Android will devalue the network if no features are hosted there; everything becomes “over the top” by necessity.
May 19 2008 2:07PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Juniper Networks,
IPsphere
Juniper Networks and Net One Systems have announced the CONTENTsphere Field Trial Cookbook, a collaboration between the two companies to generate an implementation of IPsphere’s content distribution field trial, authorized by the body in the plenary meeting last September. A contribution on the Cookbook is being presented this week at the Stockholm IPSF plenary. The move is important because up to now no vendor has announced an implementation of IPsphere, even Juniper, which was the force behind starting the body about three years ago. This may also signal increased interest in the software space by Juniper, which could be positive for the company’s strategic directions. The question now will be what other vendors in the IPSF do, and what the providers do to encourage other implementations. We expect some insight out of the meetings this week in Stockholm.
May 16 2008 9:16PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Alcatel-Lucent,
Telecom
Alcatel-Lucent is asking shareholders to amend the rules for dismissing the CEO or chairman, which would make it easier for the company to shed current CEO Pat Russo. Russo’s position has been deteriorating with the company’s stock price and financial performance, and many inside ALU and outside believe that a major shakeup in management, needed to improve the company’s position, would have to start with Russo. We’ve noted for some time that Russo was less than the ideal candidate for the times, but one challenge that ALU would face should she be removed is whether anyone, at this time, could do much better. While Alcatel-Lucent has enormous strategic strengths and a strong customer position, it has also created a somewhat dysfunctional organization with the merger, and much of the strategic thinking that characterized the company in the past has been diluted by a combination of organizational change and tactical focus. We believe there are steps ALU could take to recover its position, and even to do so within a year, but they would be bold steps of the type that neither a sales-driven CEO like Russo nor a new figure in the role would be likely to take.
May 15 2008 12:20PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Social networking,
Comcast
Comcast is buying social network and photo site Plaxo, and plans to integrate it into Comcast’s offerings, perhaps even creating a set-top box that could be used to “tune” to Plaxo sites and view pictures. The move is one of several recent steps taken by content and network firms to gain access to web properties for exploitation, and it seems to show that the whole sector is now looking for positive symbiosis among a variety of customer-reaching strategies, perhaps to stave off price competition. In Comcast’s case, we believe it is a step to attempt to hold profit and revenue in a market where satellite and RBOC competitors are generating significant pressure
May 13 2008 2:13PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
HP,
IT,
IBM,
Cisco
HP is nearing an agreement to acquire EDS, which would make it the second-largest integrator in the world after IBM and a truly formidable challenger to IBM for perhaps the first time. The deal comes as the role of IT is shifting in the market in general, due to the emergence of the SOA-driven IT cycle, and also to a shifting relationship between IT and networking. While the deal highlights competition in the IT space, it also has implications for Cisco, whose software/service initiative is the company’s primary growth strategy. EDS has also had relationships with network vendors and a not-too-successful strategy to integrate networks and services it launched with Level 3.
May 12 2008 7:08PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
IMS,
Peer2Peer
A number of developments, especially a rumored suggestion of cooperation among 15 common carriers to produce a P2P-model IMS-competing, voice-over-IP architecture that would be open to developers, suggest that the telco space is shifting its view of the future to accommodate the death of voice as a profit engine and the need to develop connections with the web community to create richer applications. While the move is hopeful, it is also a major culture shift for the operators and perhaps most especially for the equipment vendors that support them. We’ll be looking at equipment vendor views on open software platforms and programs while at NxtComm this year, and we’ll report on the results.
May 7 2008 2:08PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Google,
Intel,
WiMax
ClearWire and Sprint have finally married, apparently, brokered by Comcast, Google and Intel. The move is said to be preparing to shake up wireless carriers, but the most significant impact will be to expand the notion of a hot spot into something with metro or even national scope. As we have said continually, WiMAX is portable user technology not mobile technology, and thus will have its greatest impact where 3G is used for laptop connect. We expect to see pricing for wireless laptop plans fall, but all wireless including WiMAX has a significant limit in total bandwidth per cell, and this will result in sub-par performance relative to wireline broadband connections.
May 5 2008 12:54PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Carrier Ethernet,
Metro Ethernet,
PBT
Vendors and the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) are working to correct an Ethernet omission that may or may not have much relevance to customer interest or service success—the inter-provider NNI. Ethernet standards have not addressed this issue fully because there has been relatively little interest in using Ethernet for long-haul connections, but some believe that the BT interest in PBT for leased-line and frame relay replacement indicate that Ethernet could have a future at a national/international level. This may also spark more interest in pan-provider service management work being done by the IPsphere Forum.
