Carl Weinschenk

Progress usually comes in small incremental steps, especially after a technology has been around for a while. The cable industry, however, seems to be toying with something that could, indeed, represent a breakthrough for its access networks. CableLabs, the industry’s research and development consortium, is looking at coherent optics as a tool for linking headends […]

One of the great challenges presented by the Internet of Things (IoT) is linking the billions and potentially trillions of sensors and endpoints together. (If trillions of devices seems like a stretch, consider that implementations include such things as tracking individual cows as their herds migrate.) In addition to sheer numbers, the IoT must go […]

A few years ago, some cable television industry companies made a big bet on 3D TV. They lost, as the expensive sets and subscribers’ reluctance to wear glasses doomed the programming format. The question on the table now is whether or not virtual reality (VR) can escape the same fate. There is, of course, the […]

Barack Obama famously said that “elections have consequences.” The axiom is proving true in the case of zero rating and likely soon will for the bigger, related subject of net neutrality. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission’s new chairman, Ajit Pai, said that the investigation into zero rating is being closed down. This is significant […]

A key goal of vendors and carriers is to upgrade the capacity of the networks upon which they rely while spending as little money doing it as possible. A prime example of this is the ongoing research and development on 5G. It is also driving carriers and their ecosystems toward increasing the capacity of passive […]

We have no shortage of existential threats to the telecommunications industry and its customers. One that is high on the list is the prospect of the Internet of Things (IoT) being compromised. The fear is that elements are being rushed out quickly before security technology is baked in. The Mirai and related IoT-driven botnets are […]

An ongoing question among skeptics is whether the data speeds promised by big ISPs are actually delivered. In New York, the Attorney General has weighed in with his answer – in the form of a lawsuit. The AG, Eric Schneiderman, this week sued Charter and its Time Warner Cable subsidiary. The company, the suit says, […]

The mobile operating system (OS) world has evolved into a near duopoly, with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android dominating. Smaller OSes, such as Microsoft’s Windows Phone and the BlackBerry OS, have faded. Indeed, BlackBerry has pretty much moved over to Android. But the marginal OSes soldier on. There were four pieces of news during the […]

The telepresence sector was born a half-decade ago when Cisco released a full room system. That particular approach proved far too expensive and was soon terminated. However, the race was on for reasonably priced systems. The benefits of eliminating at least a portion of the time and expense of business travel proved a driver that […]

Ransomware is becoming a part of everyday life. This is illustrated by startling examples of the insidious malware that have occurred in just the past few weeks. Ransomware occurs when a user executes malware that locks up his or her device. The malware gets into the machine either because the user is tricked into doing […]

AT&T says that it is further along in its drive to virtualize its network than it thought it would be at this point. Chief Financial Officer John Stephens told analysts during its fourth quarter call that 34 percent of the AT&T network was virtualized as of the end of last year, a significant increase from […]

It’s been a horrendous 2017 for the municipal broadband sector. The headline item in the coverage of the naming of Ajit Pai as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is the likely demise of net neutrality. Benzinga notes that Pai opposed municipal broadband as well when the issue came up for votes during his service […]