Carl Weinschenk

Google Fiber exploded on the scene in 2011. The giant was going to push the existing cable/telco duopoly to more aggressively upgrade their infrastructures. Google was not acting as a catalyst out of a sense of altruism. It stood to gain: The faster and more robust networks are, the more effectively Google can hawk its […]

Smartphones are the main means of telecommunications in Puerto Rico, and the network, like everything else on the island, was devastated by Hurricane Maria. The fracturing of the electric grid means, of course, that the cell towers more or less are all off line. The Reuters story, which was posted on September 29 and thus […]

Perhaps the hottest area in networking is software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs). These network overlays extend the advantages of virtualization over the distributed reach of decentralized organizations. In the process, they shepherd less vital data onto cheaper broadband links while maintaining Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) for higher value data. SD-WAN is also a hot area […]

The Broadband Forum has said that the number of certified Gfast products has increased from seven to 24 in the three months since certification began. The BBF said that ADRAN, EXFO and Viavi have had passed the certification process, which is being conducted by the University of New Hampshire’s InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). The BBF heralds […]

There has been a lot of news lately about first responder networks. Most of it has been made by AT&T, which struck a deal with the government to build an expansive network in exchange for access to the bandwidth when things are calm. States are joining the network at a consistent pace. Last week, Telecompetitor […]

Many moments can be identified as important ones in the evolution of telecommunications. The invention of the first telephone, the first vacuum tube, the first transistor – the list goes on and on. A key moment that sometimes is overlooked is the laying of the first transatlantic cable, which ran between Newfoundland and Ireland, in […]

The New York State Public Service Commission has settled with Charter Communications for the cable company’s failure to build out its cable networks as quickly as it agreed to when its acquisition of Time Warner was approved last year. The settlement, according to a press release referred to at The Ken-Ton Bee, was the largest […]

IT personnel must pay very close attention to 3D printing for two main reasons: It will change how the organization for which they work operates and how they will do their own jobs. The technology has been here for quite some time, but it is increasingly stunning. It continues to change and grow in capabilities. […]

As if anyone needs to be told this at this point, security is a daunting task. Even before such complex challenges as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), the task of protecting corporate networks was huge. It is growing as these and other sophisticated applications and services are added. The message is clear: How […]

Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) are an increasingly popular category of services built upon the software-defined network (SDN) concept. It’s a hot area because the advantages compared to traditional WANs are compelling. In other words, once it is proven that SD-WANs work reliably, they are odds-on favorites to become the dominant telecommunications platform for geographically […]

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has released a Binding Operational Directive (BOD) mandating all departments and agencies spend the next 30 days identifying security software in their systems from Kaspersky Lab. During the next 60 days, they must plans to discontinue current and future use and, unless told otherwise by the agency, implement those […]

The flavor of 5G for which the major players, with the notable exception of T-Mobile, are planning involves very high frequency spectrum. There is a lot of new science in this. What is already well understood is that the nature of spectrum that high will require small cells. The macro cells that have sufficed to […]