Posted by: Joan Marsh on October 29, 2010 at 11:08 am
Although I don’t normally like to advertise for our competitors, I can’t help but draw attention to GigaOm’s recent mobile broadband buying guide, which does a great job of highlighting the robust competition in the mobile broadband space. The guide seeks to navigate the vast array of choices available to consumers and notes that, with the competing 4G networks now available and more emerging in 2011, a veritable mobile broadband tsunami has arrived.
One of the most interesting aspects of GigaOm’s guide is the role new, niche and smaller carriers play in the ever-changing competitive marketplace. GigaOm highlights some changes that took place in just the last six months:
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Posted by: Joan Marsh on October 25, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Anyone who believes that FCC-mandated net neutrality could or should be applied to wireless networks ought to read Mike Dano’s recent article at FierceWireless. Dano’s focus is an FCC filing earlier this year by T-Mobile which described in detail the damage caused by a poorly designed instant messaging app that pinged the network with substantial frequency creating signaling problems:
“These signaling problems not only caused network overload problems that affected all [local] broadband users; it also ended up forcing [a reengineering of the radio architecture] to address this never-before-seen signaling issue.”
According to the filing, this one application caused an increase in data use of as much as 1,200 percent on a single device.
To be clear, I am not casting stones. We have been on the frontlines of the mobile broadband data and app revolution, working and investing furiously to keep pace with the exploding demand for wireless data services. But this experience shows once again how the advocated “all apps are created equal” regulatory straightjacket, which doesn’t even make sense for the wired web, is spectacularly ill-suited for wireless networks.
Even pro-Net neutrality advocate Robert Cringley has acknowledged that a handful of Slingbox streams are enough to overtake the capacity of a cell tower.
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on October 22, 2010 at 12:56 pm
By Charlene Lake, AT&T SVP, Public Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer
Here is one four letter word we want kids to embrace: STEM. At a time of great difficulty for our public education system, a diverse set of stakeholders including the government, educators, companies and nonprofits can agree that STEM —science, technology, engineering and math – is key to improving the country’s global competitiveness.
A new report by the President’s Council of Advisers in Science and Technology finds that the U.S. has extraordinary STEM assets that could be leveraged to revitalize student interest and increase proficiency in these subjects and, ultimately, promote jobs and economic renewal. Now if we can just use this information to get kids to jump on the bandwagon with us.
One of the best ways to motivate kids to take interest in STEM subjects is through hands-on activities. We’re not shying away from the opportunity. AT&T is particularly proud to be sponsoring the USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Taking place this weekend, the festival aims to expose children and families to new technologies that are strengthening communities, building the careers of tomorrow, and stimulating economic growth. The effort is also supported by a Department of Energy grant designed to promote sustainability as an overarching theme of the festival.
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