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InterContinental Hotels Group, the luxury hotel chain, has spent the last five and half years creating a technology platform for its business that helps it span multiple brands, cultures and continents, according to Tom Conophy, EVP and CIO of the hotel company. Speaking at the GigaOM Net:Work conference Thursday, Conophy explained that the team of developers built the platform themselves and it now acts as the back-end for everything from reservations to buying liquor from the minibar. “A hotel is a microcosm of a corporation,” he said explaining how the company has a variety of different technology needs. However, he’s sensitive to the fact that InterContinental doesn’t own most of the hotels it manages, which means he doesn’t force technology down the throats of the hotel owners. Instead he lets different hotels act as incubators for ideas, believing that successful ideas will get adopted. “We have research friendly hotels that want to the latest trick and that gets people’s attention,” Conophy said. From there it can spread like wildfire as one hotel owner talks to another. He went on to explain to any entrepreneurs hoping to get their foot in the door at the hotel chain, that they should be prepared to explain how they are different from their competitor and send someone who isn’t a “junior level salesman.” Click headline to read more--
Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said the telecom giant plans to end its wireless LTE partnership with satellite provider DirectTV and will stop its buildout of FiOS television and Internet services in the next couple years. The moves come as Verizon Wireless forges a new partnership with cable giants to cross-market phone, video, Internet and cellular services. The comments, made at a UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York on Wednesday, signal massive shifts in the industry that have raised concerns with antitrust regulators, according to a person familiar with the thinking of government officials. In Q&A session at the UBS conference, McAdam said the wireless firm dismissed those concerns. He said the firm has begun discussions with officials at the Federal Communications Commission about its $3.6 billion deal to buy spectrum from Comcast, Bright House and Time Warner Cable. Click headline to read more--
AT&T is apparently making good on its promise to cut back on speeds for heavy data users. Posted by tech enthusiast site CultofMac, a text message sent by AT&T to such a user says that "Your data usage is among the top 5 percent of users. Data speeds for the rest of your current bill cycle may be reduced." The data restriction policy comes as no surprise. AT&T had announced back in July that it would throttle speeds for heavy data users starting on October 1. The policy affects only subscribers who still have an unlimited data plan. Those with limited data plans who go over their allotment are simply charged for the extra data. AT&T has not made it clear how much data you'd need to gobble up to appear in the top 5 percent, but the carrier has said that such users consume around 12 times more data than the average customer. Responding to CNET's request for comment, an AT&T spokesperson promised to provide further details on its data policy. Click headline to read more--
The FCC's Connect America Fund order, adopted in late October and made public shortly before Thanksgiving details a plan not only for transitioning today's voice-focused Universal Service Fund to focus instead on broadband, it also lays out a plan for phasing out per-minute access charges, which have been a key source of funding for communications networks. In addition, the order clarifies a long-standing issue by requiring VoIP providers to pay access charges, albeit under different terms than it applies to traditional carriers. And finally the order closes several loophole that carriers have used to game the system. This week we look at the FCC's plans for reforming the access charge system, as detailed in the 750 page order. Click headling to read more and access hot links--
Mobile apps for specific smartphone platforms continue to sell well, but the app economy could be influenced by the sale of HTML5-capable phones. Research firm Strategy Analytics predicts sales of one billion HTML5 phones in 2013, compared to an estimated 336 million this year. While the most popular smartphone — Apple’s iPhone — is a top seller, it pales in comparison to this figure. Many of today’s mobile apps for Apple iOS and Google Android are partially built with web standards such as HTML5: the code used to power many websites today. Often the HTML5 code is used for presentation in a mobile app — how it looks — but is then wrapped together by a platform’s native operating system code. This approach allows the application to access low-level device-specific functionality such as the camera, GPS radio or storage memory, for example. The choice between apps that run only on certain devices or a wider number of them doesn’t have to be an either-or solution for mobile developers. In fact, it’s generally not, according to Rhomobile’s CEO, Adam Blum. Speaking at our recent Mobilize event, Blum suggested the hybrid approach of wrapping HTML5 code with native software is what many are doing today. It makes sense, because the HTML5 specification is still maturing and isn’t as feature-complete as iOS’s or Android’s software development platforms. Click headline to read more--
A story in Reuters that Verizon Communications Inc. is gearing up to deliver subscription video services outside the FiOS TV footprint got some people in a tizzy. Will it disrupt the traditional pay-TV market? Should an already wounded Netflix Inc. fret that a death blow is coming? It all depends on what Verizon has in mind here, but signs of a video Armageddon are upon us. If it's another Netflix-type offering with on-demand content, then, sure, Netflix should be worried. If it's the delivery of that, plus some live TV channels and a TV Everywhere component, then that should concern everyone else, including the satellite TV guys and the cable MSOs. And if those guys get worried, then rest assured they'll speed up their own efforts to counter it, despite some recent posturing at Comcast Corp. that delivering services OTT and out-of-footprint isn't economical. (See Comcast Won't Go Over the Top.) Cable's losing video subs, and the satellite guys are losing them or seeing subscriber additions slow down, at least domestically. And the long-term future of U-verse and FiOS TV can't be all rainbows and unicorns, either. The beast must be fed. And when the beast begins to starve in its own territory, it's forced to look elsewhere for good hunting. Click headline to read more--
AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens is putting a brave face on his company's beleaguered bid to acquire T-Mobile. Speaking at the UBS Conference on Global Media in New York City on Wednesday morning, Stephens promised that the telco would "continue to move forward" with its efforts "to complete the T-Mobile transaction." AT&T and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telecom are "motivated to complete a transaction and we continue to pursue the sale," he confidently told the conference panel. "Not much more that I can tell you this morning, but it's important to remember why we did this deal in the first place," Stephens added. "It's for our customers. It's a solid, strategic move that will help us provide better service, while addressing the spectrum concerns that everyone in the industry shares." But listening to the whole conference Q&A with Stephens, a bystander might get the impression that AT&T has at least half an eye on the exit doors, given this obliquely worded proclamation: Click headline to read more--
Industry group TribalNet has recognized two Humboldt county tribal information technology departments as 2011 Tribal Technology Leadership Award winners. IT teams were nominated for “substantial accomplishments in leadership, excellence, innovation and at times overcoming the odds, all while utilizing technology effectively for successful business and nation building,” a press release said. The group honored the Yurok Tribe Information Services Department and the Blue Lake Rancheria last month. Award categories were based on IT team size. In the category for nine or more people, TribalNet selected the Yurok Tribe Information Services Department. According to TribalNet, the department had exceptional growth and development in information services and information technology and overcame significant challenges.
Core Communications, a small telephone company, and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission are suing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its recent order to convert a multibillion dollar telephone fund into a subsidy to expand Internet access Both suits allege that the agency's order was "arbitrary and capricious" and a "departure from reasoned decision-making." The Pennsylvania PUC, a state agency, also argues in its filing that the FCC order violates the 10th Amendment, which leaves powers not given to the federal government to the states. Core Communications filed its lawsuit in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., and the Pennsylvania PUC filed its suit in the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia. Click headline to read more--
Verizon Wireless experienced another outage on its LTE network on Wednesday, causing customers across the country to lose access to their ultra-fast mobile broadband connections and deal with the slower data speeds of Verizon’s 3G network. Verizon restored the network to normal late Wednesday, but this latest glitch shows that Verizon’s one-year-old 4G rollout is still experiencing some growing pains. As the first to launch LTE on a large scale, Verizon has become a guinea pig for the entire industry, making it the first operator to encounter and deal with the bugs remaining in the new technology. Unlike the major outage Verizon experienced in April, Wednesday’s LTE problems didn’t affect all customers and it affected them intermittently. April’s outage affected all high-speed data connections to 4G customers – new HTC Thunderbolt and MiFi owners couldn’t even get a 3G connection and had to resort to the dial-up-modem-like speeds of Verizon’s 2G network. This time around customers affected couldn’t link up with the LTE network, and while there were reports of some customers losing their 3G access as well, most devices were able to fall back on Verizon’s 3G EV-DO network. EV-DO doesn’t pack the punch of LTE, but is enough to support most of what you would want to do on a smartphone. Verizon issued this statement on Thursday morning: Click headline to read more--
Two key lawmakers are expected to release draft legislation on Thursday that offers an alternative to two controversial bills cracking down on piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites. The draft legislation from House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell, R-CA, and a similar Senate draft measure from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, are aimed at countering a House bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), introduced last month by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-TX, and a similar bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in May known as the Protect IP Act. Click headline to read more--
Susan Crawford published an excellent essay in the New York Times presenting her Looming Broadband Monopoly argument as a discussion of the coming digital divide between those with access to next-generation networks and those without. "These numbers are likely to grow even starker as the 30 percent of Americans without any kind of Internet access come online. When they do, particularly if the next several years deliver subpar growth in personal income, they will probably go for the only option that is at all within their reach: wireless smartphones. A wired high-speed Internet plan might cost $100 a month; a smartphone plan might cost half that, often with a free or heavily discounted phone thrown in." "The problem is that smartphone access is not a substitute for wired. The vast majority of jobs require online applications, but it is hard to type up a résumé on a hand-held device; it is hard to get a college degree from a remote location using wireless. Few people would start a business using only a wireless connection." She identifies the problem as a lack of competition in the market while highlighting the role of lobbying from the wealthy cable companies to keep it that way: Click headline to read more--
Bandwidth.com recently launched a new wireless carrier named Republic Wireless promising unlimited text, data, and voice for an unheard-of $20 a month. How are they reaching such a price point for "unlimited" service? The company offloads most of that traffic to Wi-Fi, and kicks you off the network if you consume to much (Sprint) cellular capacity. While pretending this is really unlimited wireless service is disingenuous, initial impressions of the service are rather favorable (see CNET's review as one example). Analysis of Republic's product by Current Analysis notes that while the service by-and-large works and provides value, it suffers from issues such as a lack of cellular to Wi-Fi handoff. Current also criticized the company's terms of service, which inform users they may lose connectivity if they repeatedly consume too much service. The company defines their "fair use threshold" to be around 550 minutes, 150 texts, and roughly 300 megabytes of data per month. The cellular-to-Wi-Fi handoff issue is one Republic says they'll have fixed as the product moves out of beta and into broader commercial availability: Click headline to read more--
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Are wins getting a little bit more common in the fight against corporate power? It's far too soon to say that the balance of power has shifted in the United States, far too soon to declare ultimate victory, even in the case of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, which was withdrawn from the consideration of the Federal Communications Commission at AT&T's request on Nov. 29. The purchase of the nation's fourth-largest wireless provider by its second-largest would not only have created a monster corporation with a huge chunk of the country's wireless business, surpassing Verizon, but would have eliminated around 20,000 jobs at stores and call centers. It would have cut down on competition in an industry already dominated by a few giants with high prices and not-so-great service, and likely done little to improve or possibly even worsen service for customers (AT&T is once again ranked last this year in customer satisfaction, according to Consumer Reports). So it's worthwhile to take time out and celebrate wins when they come, as well as to look back and see how they were achieved. After all, Craig Aaron, president and CEO of media reform group Free Press, told AlterNet that this could be “the first time since the '80s, probably, that AT&T didn't actually get its way.” Click headline to read more--
Lakefield has long been known as the heart of Jackson County. Today let it be known as the heart of the area’s fiber-fast telecommunications network. News that Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services last week connected its first customer — in Lakefield — only puts an exclamation point on the importance of the community to the entire fiber network and vice versa. It was in Lakefield the idea for the fiber ring was first hatched, where plans were laid, where headquarters were established, where ground was broken. It is Lakefield that has benefited from the presence of project officials, construction crews and a headquarters building housing a growing body of full-time employees. And it will be Lakefield that continues to grow and prosper along with the still-developing government grant-backed fiber network. And Lakefield, the heart of Jackson County — the heart of the area’s fiber telecommunications network — will surely not miss a beat.
News Corp. honcho Rupert Murdoch threw his weight behind Congress' attempt to restrict the Internet, personally lobbying leaders on Capitol Hill Wednesday for two measures that purport to combat piracy. Murdoch's media empire is among some 350 large corporations that have come out in favor of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, as well as the Protect IP Act in the Senate. Both measures would require Internet operators to police activity online, and would mandate Internet giants like Google and AOL (the parent company of The Huffington Post and an opponent of the bills) and credit card companies to take down sites that have content deemed to be in violation of copyright rules. The battle has pitted huge content generators like Disney and the motion picture industry against their online competitors, with each side reportedly spending some $90 million on lobbying efforts. Supporters say the measures will help curb theft and preserve the integrity of the Internet. Opponents charge that the measures amount to censorship that will stifle innovation and impose higher costs on consumers. Click headline to read more--
By asking Google to remove an app from a forthcoming phone for its network, Verizon Wireless has rekindled the debate over a compromise in the Federal Communications Commission's Net neutrality rules that Google and Verizon helped broker. The app is Google Wallet, which enables users to charge purchases to their credit cards by waving a specially equipped phone (such as Sprint's Nexus S) over a customized card reader. That, by itself, is nothing special; I mean, how hard is it to swipe a credit card? But Google envisions a future in which merchants send special offers wirelessly to customers who walk into their stores, and customers automatically redeem stored coupons and earn loyalty points just by paying with their mobile phone. With a digital wallet that's continuously connected to the Internet, shoppers can have the same sort of interaction with local retailers that they do with merchants on the Web. It's a potentially huge market, and Google is just one of several big players trying to grab a piece of it. Others include Visa, Paypal, American Express and, wouldn't you know it, Verizon Wireless. The Verizon effort, called Isis, is a joint venture with AT&T and T-Mobile. Click headline to read more--
The House of Representatives on Tuesday easily passed legislation that updates video privacy laws to make it easier for online rental services such as Netflix to share information about customers' viewing habits with user consent. Current law requires written consent to share video records, but the new law would allow companies to obtain consent over the web. The two-page bill needs to be approved by the Senate before it becomes law. The United States affords unusually strict privacy protections to video rental records. During the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, an enterprising reporter obtained copies of Bork's video rental records. Bork's video rentals were innocuous, but the incident spooked Congress enough to pass the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act, which required written consent from consumers before video rental records could be shared. Two decades later, that rule continues to apply to Internet-based video rental services such as Netflix. Netflix and Facebook have been pushing to change the law because they want to give users the option to share information about their Netflix viewing habits with their friends on Facebook. The problem is that since Netflix customers don't walk into brick-and-mortar Netflix stores to get their videos, Netflix never has a chance to ask users to sign a paper consent form. Also, current law requires the user to separately consent to each disclosure, which some users might find annoying. So legislation sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) would tweak the Video Privacy Protection Act to allow users to consent to video sharing over the web. It would also allow users to consent once to all future sharing. Click headline to read reactions--
The Dutch competition authority NMa raided the offices of KPN Mobile, T-Mobile Netherlands and Vodafone Netherlands earlier this week as they investigated possible cartel practices in mobil eservices. Vodafone Netherlands then said in a statement that it has not seen persuasive evidence that its employees acted improperly with regard to operating a pricing cartel in the Dutch market. Click headline to read more--
The United States of America was forged in resistance to collective reprisals—the punishment of many for the acts of few. In 1774, following the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament passed a series of laws—including the mandated closure of the port of Boston—meant to penalize the people of Massachusetts. These abuses of power, labeled the “Intolerable Acts,” catalyzed the American Revolution by making plain the oppression of the British crown. More than 300 years later, the U.S. Congress is considering bills that would lead to collective reprisals against online communities. The Senate’s PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House are supposed to address copyright infringement and counterfeiting. In reality, they are so technically impractical that they do little to address these problems. They would, however, undermine participatory democracy and human rights, which is why these bills have garnered near-universal condemnation from both human rights groups and technologists. Click headline to read more--
The District is touting its new high-speed, fiber-optic network. Built with stimulus money, city leaders say the network will dramatically increase internet speeds, help bridge the so-called "digital divide" and convince technology companies to move to D.C. How fast is D.C.’s new 100-gigabit-per-second network? Try about 10,000 times faster than an iPhone -- at least that's what the federal government says -- and fast enough to download a full-length high-definition movie in minutes. Of course, that’s not why the city – with help from the federal government – is laying down 176 miles of fiber-optic cable. "This network puts the District on the map as we strive to become a leading tech hub," says D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray. "The District of Columbia government now owns and operates the highest speed and most extensive city-wide fiber network in the world." The city isn’t providing direct internet access to homes or private businesses through the network -- only government buildings, schools, health centers and certain non-profits can use it right now. Eventually, service providers like Verizon or Comcast will make deals with the city to tap into the network and provide faster, cheaper broadband for everyone else. Click headline to listen to the WAMU coverage--
Most of us are familiar either with Metcalfe's law or the general principle of it: networks are more valuable the more people are on it. The common example used to illustrate is a telephone. One person on a telephone network is useless. Two people is an improvement. With millions, you are far more likely to be able to call the person you want to. Recognizing this principle flips common arguments about connecting rural areas on their head. Ensuring that people in rural areas are connected benefits everyone -- it is not charity. Connecting people in rural areas increases the value of the connections in urban areas, creating more value for everyone. But the flip side may be too rarely considered. As these networks have grown in size (and therefore value), the cost of those who are excluded from them also increases significantly. This means that while the costs of not connecting rural areas are high today, those costs will be even greater in coming years. The argument is rather intuitive, but for those who want to learn more, Rahul Tongia and Ernest J Wilson III published an academic paper this year in the International Journal of Communications. Click headline to read more and access link to the paper--
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee unanimously approved President Obama's two nominees to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, on a voice vote on Thursday. The nominations will now move to the full Senate for consideration, but Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has promised to block them unless the FCC releases documents related to its review of LightSquared, which plans to launch a wholesale wireless broadband service. Click headline to read more--
Waze, a crowdsourced traffic data app, had its big coming-out moment during LA’s “Carmageddon,” a weekend-long closure of one the city’s busiest freeways in July. The startup partnered with the local ABC affiliate and provided critical data about actual traffic patterns, even on surface streets. The partnership proved beneficial for both parties, helping Waze boost its LA community by 70 percent in one week while providing ABC7 with fresh data and a way to engage app-savvy users. Now Waze is formally opening up a broadcast partner program to replicate that relationship and offer its services to TV stations around the country. It is launching with 12 partners, including stations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas and Philadelphia. Waze, which has zoomed to 9 million users from 2.2 million a year ago, lets users share their anonymous traffic data with the service, so the entire community can benefit by seeing the overall traffic patterns in their area. Now, with the new broadcast partner program, TV stations can tap into this data and present it on air using an iPad version of the app. Instead of just providing information from sensors or cameras, which monitor mostly freeways, Waze data shows how people are moving on regular streets too. Click headline to read more--
The South Dakota Bureau of Information and Telecommunications (BIT) has started a Broadband Technology Planning and Computer Ownership program as part of the bureau’s previously announced South Dakota Broadband Initiative (SDBI). The Broadband Technology Planning and Computer Ownership program’s primary purpose is to provide South Dakota’s Community Anchor Institutions (CAI) with technology consulting and solutions pertaining to their technical infrastructure and broadband connectivity. Those institutions include libraries, medical and healthcare facilities, K-12 schools, institutions of higher education, public safety offices, government offices, and community support locations. “The staff and our state’s telecommunications providers are working to improve broadband services across the state of South Dakota,” said Jim Edman, South Dakota Broadband Initiative Project Manager and BIT Deputy Commissioner. “If an institution’s local network has problems, it keeps users from getting the most out of that improved broadband connection. In many cases, those problems can cause the local network to be the weak link between the user’s computer and the Web. We want to help them make the most of their broadband services and their online experience.” Click headline to read more--
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