Carl Weinschenk

The race to 5G dominates the wireless news for good reason: 5G will use an array of new techniques and technologies to vastly expand wireless capabilities. A key enabler will be frequencies that are higher than those used for mass telecommunications in the past. Singles in these frequencies are easily blocked and don’t travel as […]

Last month, the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) released “MEF 3.0 Transformational Global Services Framework.” It defines, delivers and certifies agile, assured and orchestrated communications “across a global ecosystem of automated networks,” according to the press release. MEF 3.0 has four major elements. It is designed to standardize and orchestrate a variety of services over programmable […]

The spread of unlimited data plans is a marketing bonanza for wireless companies. After all, it is giving customers something of great value and, in the long run, the companies providing it figure to benefit as well. It isn’t easy, though. The folks in the back room – aka network engineers and other technical people […]

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai in mid-November set a December 14 vote on a proposal that would drastically change the way internet service providers (ISPs) are regulated. That news was met by proponents of the current rules as an expected and certain fatal blow to what they see as the tenets of a fair […]

Software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WANs) are the hottest new approach to networking. They are seen as a way to link geographically discrete locales in a manner that uses multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) for high-value and sensitive data and broadband internet for lower-value data. In short: SD-WAN will fluidly send company sales figures over expensive but highly […]

Though it only occasionally will affect business directly, telecommunications executives should track a case about cell phone privacy that was argued this week in the Supreme Court. The case, which some are calling “the most important digital privacy case in decades,” centers on Timothy Carpenter, who was convicted of participating in robberies of T-Mobile and […]

On Monday, The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to stop AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner. The move is beyond the usual mega-deal implications. Paired with the news that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is doing as promised and attempting to kill net neutrality, […]

The highest-profile use case of computer vision to date is autonomous vehicles (AVs). Clearly, the ability to stop, change lanes and otherwise guide a car or truck through traffic requires what in essence is keen vision, whether established by retinas and irises or cameras and remote sensors. AVs, however, are just the tip of the […]

President Barack Obama famously said that elections have consequences. That self-evident reality will be proven once again as Federal Communications Commissioner (FCC) chairman Ajit Pai has set in motion a process aimed at ushering net neutrality out of existence. Though it clearly takes the pro-net neutrality side of the argument, The Verge does a good […]

Telecommunications carriers and service providers spend millions of dollars researching how people feel about their products. Some of the best public information about these issues comes from J.D. Power. Some good research has been released by the firm during the past couple of months. The research is interesting in isolation; taken together, it provides a […]

One of the promises of the Trump administration, and indeed any Republican administration, is to stimulate business by reducing rules and paperwork. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is voting to start the ball rolling on proposals that would take big steps in that direction. The goal is to encourage investment by simplifying network modernization procedures. […]

The tragic run of gun violence of the past couple of months calls for strong measures. One promising tool, smart guns, seems to be accessible. The approach, which borrows significantly from mobile and enterprise IT technology, indeed is a good solution, but for a slightly different set of problems. The most often discussed form of […]