January 2004
Happy New Year from all of us at ATS. The ATS Network & Billing Update is published by Advanced Technologies & Services, Inc. (www.atso.com), a revenue and service assurance solutions provider. This free newsletter is a guide to telecommunications OSS, billing, and revenue assurance news and other telecom industry analysis. To unsubscribe, contribute an article, or for offbeat news, please scroll to the end. Feel free to forward this newsletter!
In this issue:
VOIP: Separating the Hype from the Reality (Part 1)
This year, we'll devote more time to the increasingly interesting area of Voice-Over-IP. To hear some speak, this is the next technological boom for our industry... promising carriers lower network costs and increased revenues from new service offerings. Sound familiar? Our industry's seen these promises before. Over the course of the next few months we'll look at the following:
-
What's needed in the way of local-loop investment to make any broadband solution (VOIP or otherwise) worthwhile?
-
What are the Cable players up to, and how much of their strategy tied is to first-mover regulatory advantage?
-
Will broadband telephony thrive in the business setting (where ample bandwidth exists already) or in the home, too? If the home, what new "killer apps" will be developed to take advantage of high-bandwidth (and high-investment!) on the famed "last mile"?
- [Top of Page]
(Related Articles: IEEE's Spectrum: Fiber to the Home, America's Network's WLNP as the great equalizer)
Wireless LNP Complaints soaring
It's probably no surprise that the brave souls who've tried to port their wireless number since last November 24th have had problems. The FCC reports nearly 2400 complaints in the first month of Wireless Portability, with AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless leading the charts. [More] [Top of Page]
Telecom Capital Spending may be on rebound
Carriers, analysts and vendors alike have all taken notice to some interesting announcements in recent days. Some of the large carriers, led by Verizon are actually increasing capital spending this year. And, it's not where you might think. [More] [Top of Page]
OffBeat
News:
"Dad,
I need you to get off the phone ... Now!"
A
7-year-old boy had to be rescued with the help of a locksmith recently
after crawling into a supermarket's stuffed animal game machine while his
father talked on the telephone.
"He was sitting right in there with the stuffed animals," said
Shift Commander Mark Zittel of the Sheboygan Fire Department.
He said the boy, whose name was not released because he is a minor,
crawled through about an 8-inch-by-10-inch opening to get into the glass
enclosure via a chute where the toys come out, but when he tried to get
back out his way was blocked.
The stuffed animals are prizes that can be hooked by players with a
crane-like device.
"His dad was three feet away at a pay phone," Zittel said.
"He was talking on the phone and he said the next thing he turned
around and the kid was in the thing."
He said the boy stayed calm and didn't panic as firefighters responded to
the Piggly Wiggly store and then moved the game machine to the back of the
store and got a locksmith to open the main loading door. The process took
about an hour.
"There was no panic," Zittel said. "We could have broke the
glass if there was an emergency."
The boy was not injured or traumatized but desperately had to go to the
bathroom, he said. (Source: KFMB-TV)
. [Top of Page]
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