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Telecom News MIT creates picture of NY communications Global vs. local For the past two months, 24 hours a day, MIT researchers have been collecting the electronic communications of millions of New Yorkers — but not for salacious gossip or to protect national security.They've been building a census that shows, neighborhood by neighborhood, New York's telephone and Internet links to other cities across the planet and how those connections change over time. "Our cities and the globe are blanketed with flowing bits of digital data, and looking at this data, we're able to better understand the physical world," said Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Visualizations from the New York Talk Exchange (NYTE) project are part of a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art called "Design and the Elastic Mind." Open through May, the exhibition examines how designers use technology in ways that change lives. The information reveals a trove of interesting population patterns. By looking at the neighborhoods where the data came from, researchers determined that New Yorkers who engage in global gab tend to be on the high end of the socio-economic scale or struggling to make ends meet. Translation: international business and professional people or poor immigrants. "The striking piece of evidence coming out of this project is that global talk happens both at the top of the economy and at its lower end," Saskia Sassen, a Columbia University professor and globalization expert, wrote for the project catalog. "The vast middle layers of our society are far less global. The middle talks mostly nationally and locally." Nayan Chanda, an expert on globalization, said such research "is absolutely worthwhile." "This fast communication that links the world has made globalization much more intense and much more visible. It gives you a very valuable footprint of the extent to which a country is involved in global communications. It's interesting for demographers, for people studying economics, telecommunications and business," said Chanda, director of publications at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. FULL STORY_Yahoo News_2/29/08 Disney cellphone service in Japan to target women Walt Disney Co., which shut down its U.S. cellphone service last year, is starting a similar service in Japan. But this time it is targeting different customers: adult women instead of children. Disney's Japan unit said yesterday that its new Disney Mobile service will start March 1 in partnership with Softbank Mobile Corp., Japan's third-largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers. It plans to offer content including ring tones, videos and games to female Disney fans in their 20s and 30s. Users also will be able to customize phone screens and emails with Disney-theme graphics. Disney, which already offers nearly 90 mobile Web sites on existing mobile operators' networks in Japan, said 75% of the 3.5 million subscribers to those sites were women older than age 20. FULL STORY Wall Street Journal1/23/08 Cell phones cause traffic jams? A University of Utah study found conversation -- and not the use of hands-free phone devices -- is the main distraction while driving and talking on cell phones. Cell phone usage is being blamed for several problems this week as a University of Utah study found that cell phone usage on highways causes traffic jams. David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah, said new research not only showed that the cars of drivers talking on cell phones tended to move slower, but also that the conversational activity tends to cause traffic to show down. "At the end of the day, the average person's commute is longer because of that person who is on the cell phone right in front of them," Strayer said in a statement. "That SOB on the cell phone is slowing you down and making you late." The Utah study is scheduled to be presented during the U.S. Transportation Research Board's annual meeting later this month; the board is a unit within the National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine. FULL STORY_Information Week 1/3/08 Duke University WI-Fi crippled by Apple iPhones Even before Duke University disclosed that some 150 iPhones have been wreaking Wi-Fi havoc on campus -- effectively taking out wireless access points in inadvertent denial-of-service attacks -- several research firms had issued stern warnings about the security risks that Apple's iPhones might pose to enterprise networks. One of the big selling points of Apple's iPhone is the ability to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi, but I.T. pros at Duke University might say otherwise. The iPhones on campus are flooding the school's wireless LAN with as many as 18,000 access requests per second, temporarily knocking out access points for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, according to Kevin Miller, Duke's assistant director of communications infrastructure . The iPhones are requesting a router address that's not valid on Duke's network. When there's no answer, the iPhones keep asking, a process that essentially amounts to a distributed denial-of-service attack, knocking out access points and keeping Duke's I.T. staff scrambling. FULL STORY_Sci-Tech Today 7/18/07 France's Alcatel set to buy U.S. rival Lucent Technologies in $34 billion merger The deal would create the world's biggest telecoms equipment company with combined sales of 21 billion euros ($25.33 billion). The current market leader is Cisco Systems. The new group will be incorporated and headquartered in France, two sources close to the matter said on Friday, and Alcatel intends to keep its stake of almost 10 percent in European defense electronics group Thales, amid market speculation it could sell the stake to defense and aerospace group EADS to facilitate the planned merger. The rapid conversion of technologies and the growth of "triple play" -- the provision of TV, high-speed Internet and voice services over phone lines -- is prompting consolidation in the telecoms and media sectors. French financial advisers believe Alcatel has also looked at media technology company Thomson for a takeover similar to the buy of set-top-box maker Scientific Atlanta by Cisco. Full Story Reuters_ 3/24/06 Eds Note: Lucent is the owner of 81-year-old Bell Labs, in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where scientists invented the transistor and the Unix operating system, among other notable advances. Eleven Bell Labs scientists have won Nobel prizes for work done there. Senate panel sets end to analog TV broadcasts Cisco Systems to supply Palestine Telecoms Full Story_ Reuters 5/22/05
Cell phone makers choose between style and tech Intel unveils
laser breakthrough Verizon buying
MCI for $6.75 Billion in stock, cash and dividends
Radio waves from mobile phones 'alter human DNA' But the European Union-funded Reflex research did not prove such changes were a risk to human health. A spokesman said the study had not shown the biological changes led to disease. Around 1.5 billion people around the world use mobile phones. Full Story BBC News_ 12/21/04
Scottish firm develops search engine that reads out results Called Speegle, it has the look and feel of a normal search engine. Scottish speech technology firm CEC Systems launched the site in November. But experts have questioned whether talking search engines are of any real benefit to people with visual impairments. Full Story BBC News_ 12/21/04
F.C.C. lets big Bells charge rivals more to use phone lines Telephone executives and industry analysts predicted a sharp rise in local phone rates over the next year after a bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission relaxed rules that had required the nation's four large Bell telephone companies to give their rivals access to their networks at sharply discounted wholesale rates. The decision, approved by the commission's three Republican members over the dissents of its two Democrats, was an important victory for the Bell companies, and another in a series of regulatory and legal setbacks for such rivals as AT&T, MCI and a group of smaller competitors. Full Story New York Times 12/15/04 (logon required) November, 2004 Battle for the 'last mile:' The WiMax challenge for phone company high-speed Internet business customers Firms like TowerStream deliver fast, cheap service without digging up streets to install cables. The emerging industry sells a technology known as WiMax, or worldwide interoperability for microwave access. Unlike WiFi, the radio wave technology in airports and cafes that allows users to log on to the Internet from their laptop computers within 150 feet of an antenna, WiMax delivers broadband Internet connections through fixed antennas that send and receive signals across entire cities. Full Story New York Times_ 11/29/04 (logon required)
Vonage Holdings Corp., which has more than 300,000 lines in service, allows a customer to make telephone calls nationwide and to Canada for a flat fee using equipment attached to a high-speed Internet, or broadband, connection. But Vonage is battling with state regulators, like Minnesota, which are demanding Vonage obtain state certification, be subject to rate regulation and offer emergency 911 services comparable to those of land lines. Full Story Reuters_ 11/8/04 September, 2004 Video calls can only be made between Amstrad's E3 handsets but the devices can also be used to browse the web and send e-mail messages. The handsets can also take still photos that can be sent to other computers or mobile phones. Full Story BBC News_ 9/15/04 Built for the
U.S., golbal telecommunications networks worth billions now belong
to Chinese, Indian and other non-American companies FCC: Web phone
calls must allow wiretaps June, 2004 Wiretaps should
apply to Internet phone calls -- Justice Dept
The new smartphoneis one third smaller than its predecessor and the handset is the world's smallest that can handle computer applications. The carrier also said that by the second half of 2004 it would have specially designed "Orange-signature" phones from all six major vendors, adding models from South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Germany's Siemens. The telephones have functions unique to Orange. The new phone, the SPV C500, is contract manufactured for Orange by Taiwan-based High Tech Computer Corp and runs on Microsoft Windows for smartphones. Full Story Reuters_ 6/8/04 May, 2004 SBC Communications
and union reach deal after 4-day strike
The announcement came just minutes before workers ended a four-day strike at 12:01 a.m. today and details weren't immediately released. Key issues were health care and job security. The union called the strike after rejecting a five-year contract proposal from SBC. Full Story San Francisco Chronicle 5/25/04
Verizon Communications Inc. pushes $1 billion fiber optic network Some analysts say it's a risky strategy that may be the only salvation for beleaguered local telephone companies. The "Baby Bells" have long regarded networks built on fiber optic cables as the ultimate weapon to fight off challenges from cable companies and new competitors. Such networks could carry video on demand, telephone calls and Internet downloads at speeds more than 30 times faster than today's fastest home broadband links. Full Story Reuters_ 5/18/04 Allied Defense
Group subsidiary VSK Group announces $3 million electronic security
contract from Portugal Telecom African rush for
mobile phones makes it world's fastest-growing market April, 2004 Internet phone
services cause telecom industry observers to question how well the
old local phone companies will defend themselves Intel's new chips
target future phones Story BBC News_ 4/13/04 U.S. Trade Representative
says China and South Korea plan new barriers to U.S. telecommunications
technology Canada leans toward
applying existing telephone rules to most Internet phone calls Cell phones disrupt
some police and fire department radios Terrorists have
been using the built-in alarms in mobile phones to set off explosives March, 2004 San Francisco
ballpark becomes first pro sports stadium WiFi internet hub Used phones a
threat to big suppliers on China mobile market Mobile phones
to operate TV video recorders, says Opera Full Story Reuters 3/30/04 Four of Europe's
biggest mobile phone firms join forces to dwarf market leader Vodafone Tectronic Engineering
solves cell site selection and construction issues with new program Cellular execs
say go slow on high-speed wireless
Cell phone firms
told to go back to basics: 'Phones don't work that well.' Motorola to launch
world phone later this year; North American market will see it first Tech giants abuzz
over VoIP for cell phones Move over 3G,
here comes WiMAX Nigerian backhaul network improves |
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