By: Tim Young
There’s a scene in Noah Baumbach’s film While We’re Young in which a group of friends, in conversation, is trying to recall the name of the almond-based “candy that they sometimes make into
pigs or little fruits.” After a few seconds of thinking and a few failed attempts at recalling the word (“I want to say baklava, but that’s a Greek dessert…”), one character, played by Ben Stiller,
reaches for his phone to look it up. But that move is thwarted by his conversation mates, a couple of idealistic young hipsters who suggest they try to remember it on their own, insisting that
looking it up is too easy…
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By: James D. Taylor
During the early days of our telecommunications infrastructure, copper wires were the only pathway necessary to connect consumer communications needs. Voices speaking on either end of a
telephone line, coupled to a complex network of switches transmitting an analog signal, were at one time the greatest accomplishment of the 20th century. Now, copper may be more valuable as
the melted-down byproduct of a bygone era. When I started at Lincoln Telephone Company in Lincoln, NE in 1990, the digital age was in full swing…
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By: Nick Maynard
BMIs (Brain Machine Interfaces) are one of the most promising fields of emergent technology, with many exciting and truly transformative use cases potentially being enabled by the technology.
To many, BMI technology would be considered the stuff of science fiction, identified with Robocop or Star Trek: The Next Generation. In practice, basic forms of BMI technology have already been
utilized in the medical field for a number of years. This existing use principally focuses on the cochlear implant, a medical device which uses BMI technology to provide a sense of sound to a
person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing…
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By: Yotam Gutman
IoT is rapidly gaining traction and being globally adopted, but alongside the novel opportunities come new risks to privacy, security and safety. An Introduction to IoT The Internet of Things
is nothing less than a revolution, disrupting businesses and changing the way we engage with our surroundings. The ability to connect everyday devices to the cloud, receive information, analyze
data, gain insights and perform actions will enhance our personal comfort and convenience, create new business opportunities and reduce waste and pollution…
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By: Eliezer Silveira Filho
Three prisoners trapped in a cave from the moment of birth can only see a wall lit by a fire. On this wall are projected shadows of statues representing humans, animals and objects. The shadows
are manipulated as daily scenes that are analyzed and judged by the prisoners. Now, imagine if one of them can break free to explore the external world. When you leave the cave and get in touch
with the real world, you are enchanted with real beings and real everyday life. When you return and share with the others, you are called crazy…
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By: Dean Campbell
In the 2018 IHS Markit Optical Network Strategies Service Provider survey, it was found that, “of service providers using optical transmission and switching equipment, 47 percent of respondents
indicated interest in the use of disaggregated optical equipment in their networks, up from 33 percent in 2016.” Breaking down network functionality into smaller elements allows for more
network flexibility, faster updates, and more reliable systems. A fundamental requirement to make this architecture work, however, is the availability of standardized management interfaces (API’s)
– “open” interfaces that facilitate the integration of elements within a network…
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By: Adhish Kulkarni
Mobile communications service providers have historically been network engineering organizations largely founded on their technology expertise. As they transition to a digital services
landscape, it can be argued that this paradigm is changing, and that mobile CSPs will increasingly need to become sales and marketing organizations. Thus, driven by the explosion of value added
services, the ‘what’ (do we sell) has replaced the ‘how’ as the first area of focus for telcos. The fact that this requisite shift presents a challenge can be seen in the many carriers now
experiencing a negative revenue trend across both core and VAS lines of business…
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By: Mattias Fridstrom
As we know it today, the internet has been largely about connecting people to information, people to people and people to business. Almost anything consumers might want is just a click away.
But for businesses, the gains have been much less dramatic. That is changing. Monetization strategies range as widely as the options available, and for all the successes, there are even more
failures. While many of the advancements have been extraordinary—even unthinkable a short time ago—too often we’re still left asking, “to what end?” Beyond a doubt, the most notable trend we see in
the market today is the move toward the cloud…
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By: Praful Krishna
Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm that worked for the Trump campaign and harvested raw data from up to 87 million Facebook profiles, has folded. In the wake of Facebook’s
congressional hearings and the role Cambridge Analytica played in the Trump’s election campaign, considerable concerns have surfaced. Facebook has long been regarded as the trailblazer in
social media. However, how much can users really trust platforms like Facebook with their data? In this case, a third-party developer exploited a loophole in the system to gather information
on users—as well as users’ friends—without them knowing…
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By: Alan Coleman
The first ninety days of a new customer relationship are crucial because they set the tone for all future engagement. Communications service providers (CSPs) who get this onboarding phase wrong
risk losing customers within weeks of acquiring them, while those that get it right create a lasting, profitable and valuable relationship. As the customer profile and the services they use from
CSPs have changed, so has the way in which the relationship needs to be managed. Users now rely on their CSPs for an ever-wider range of products, from mobile and broadband connections to TV, music
and other content…
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By: Scott St. John, Pipeline
The top stories from the month are summarized below. To view all the news as it breaks, check out Pipeline's News Center or subscribe to receive our news summary each week. Mergers and
Acquisitions In another contest between giants, Comcast has outbid The Walt Disney Company with an all-cash $65 billion bid to acquire 21st Century Fox and its “New Fox” businesses. Comcast
proffered the superior proposal and set forth its terms via a letter delivered to 21st Century Fox’s Board of Directors on June 13…
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By: Tim Young
“Do not fear mistakes. There are none.”- Miles Davis “Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.”- Duke EllingtonYou know, somewhere between these quotes from two of the greatest jazz
musicians who ever lived, I think there’s a pretty solid lesson about innovation. Miles says there are no mistakes. I guess that’s true in jazz—but a little less true in technology. I mean, fail
fast, sure, but eventually the idea is to succeed, right? At some point, you may need to at least glimpse at the proverbial sheet music…
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