MetaFilter posts tagged with Telecom

Susan Crawford on Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly, and Unfair

Blasdelb — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 06:50:33 -0800

In the Internet era, a very few companies control our information destiny. In this talk, and in her new book "Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age," Susan Crawford—a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a former special assistant to President Obama for science, technology and innovation policy—demonstrates how deregulatory changes in policy have created a communications crisis in America. The consequences: Tens of millions of Americans are being left behind, people pay too much for too little Internet access, and speeds are slow. But everyday people can change this story - and what happens in the year ahead could change the game for good.

A ~40 minute lecture with questions afterward.

For a shorter simpler and more straightforward analysis see her interview with Bill Moyers Susan Crawford, former special assistant to President Obama for science, technology and innovation, and author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, joins Bill to discuss how our government has allowed a few powerful media conglomerates to put profit ahead of the public interest — rigging the rules, raising prices, and stifling competition. As a result, Crawford says, all of us are at the mercy of the biggest business monopoly since Standard Oil in the first Gilded Age a hundred years ago.

“The rich are getting gouged, the poor are very often left out, and this means that we’re creating, yet again, two Americas, and deepening inequality through this communications inequality,” Crawford tells Bill. (25:38)

on Huawei from non-Chinese in China

gen — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:57:57 -0800

In light of the US House Intelligence Committee recommendation that American companies should be blocked from carrying out mergers and acquisitions involving two Chinese telecommunications firms, ZTE and Huawei, how do people in the telecommunications industry think about Huawei? And what is really going on with the Shenzhen-based ICT conglomerate? Hosts Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn of the Sinica Podcast (recorded in Beijing) cover Huawei in depth in August at The Huawei Enigma with guests David Wolf and Will Moss.

Minitel, we hardly knew ye

Wolof — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 06:53:17 -0800

Minitel bows out It was France's first glimpse of an online future. But now, 30 years after it was invented, the wired experiment that foreshadowed the World Wide Web is about to lose its connection once and for all.

Cat telecom company

tomswift — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:41:44 -0800

If cats ran the telecom company (in a world of cats), it would ~~sort of look like~~ look exactly like this. (via the boing) One of you will spend the evening either transcribing this into English, or putting subtitles on it, I just know you will. Please let me know when you're done.

Internet and telecom in Northern Canada: Driver’s-licence pictures crash the network

joeclark — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:23:23 -0800

Internet and telecom infrastructure in northern Canada is so bad it threatens the whole region. That’s the conclusion from a new report cited in a Globe and Mail article, which notes: “The government of Nunavut bought new digital cameras to produce photos for driver’s licences. But the photo files were too large for local E-mail systems and so must be loaded onto memory sticks and flown to Iqaluit for processing.” The report (in Chapter 4 [PDF]) notes that monthly Internet costs vary from $41.95/month for 0.384 Mbps and a 5GB data cap to (using another technology) $399.99/month for 1.5Mbps with a 20GB cap. One ISP, NorthwesTel, lists $119.95/month for unexceptional DSL service in Iqualuit, for example. That's one reason CBC's Spark podcast offers a low-bandwidth version (related episode).

History Changes

holterbarbour — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:12:58 -0800

"History Changes". LG Telecom is Korea's perennial also-ran in the mobile telephone market. Their latest attempt at coming from behind includes another revision to their brand identity: "U+", replacing 2009's "Oz" rebranding effort. With operating profit down by half since last year, they are anxious to prove that they are as good as, if not better than, their competitors Korea Telecom (KT) and SK Telecom. Now that they are offering 4G service almost as soon as KT, LG sees itself as making history in the same way Barack Obama did when he demonstrated the equality of everyone in the ~~Korean telecom market~~ United States. Text overlay on images of Jim Crow-era American South: "It was utterly impossible for a black person to become the President of the United States." Voiceover: "History Changes! Beginning with 4G service".

I just made you read that confusing thing.

dubitable — Sun, 29 May 2011 03:46:56 -0800

Eugene Mirman has unleashed his absurdist wrath upon an unsuspecting telecom (Time Warner Cable) for their lack of customer service, taking out a paid advertisement in the New York Press to do so. This is not the first time (referenced here previously, the mp3s can be found here) this high school commencement speaker has used his bizarre powers to fight the (strange but) good fight against a telecom.

"The U.S.A. Is Only A Few Minutes Wide"

zarq — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:10:42 -0800

Wired: "Who 'Ruled the Air' in 1910, and Who Rules It Now?". Also see: Vintage AdBrowser (Previously): Communications Ads of the: 1910's, 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.

Obama supports Blue Dog

joannemerriam — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:51:30 -0800

Obama, telecoms and the Beltway system. Georgia Rep. John Barrow ran ads accusing his party of wanting to "cut and run in Iraq," and was one of the Blue Dogs to send a letter to Pelosi asking to be allowed to vote to give the President warrantless eavesdropping powers and to give lawbreaking telecoms amnesty (previously). Barrow faces a July primary challenge from State Senator Regina Thomas, whose policy positions more closely match Obama's views and the views of the Democratic base in that district. Despite this, Obama has taped a radio ad in support of Barrow.

The Androids are coming!

loquacious — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:37:00 -0800

Google's Android goes live for demo. Lots of video and stills. Cache.

Improved Billboard Touts AT&T and NSA Collaboration

homunculus — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:00:15 -0800

"The Billboard Liberation Front today announced a major new advertising improvement campaign executed on behalf of clients AT&T and the National Security Agency. Focusing on billboards in the San Francisco area, this improvement action is designed to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants." [Via Threat Level.]

Senate Votes for Retroactive immunity

delmoi — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:02:14 -0800

Senate votes for retroactive telecom immunity 67 senators voted against the Dodd/Feingold amendment to strip telecom immunity from the Protect America Act. It still needs to be pass the house. The Democrats voting against the amendment to strip immunity (and therefore maintain the current liability) were: Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Evan Bayh (D-IA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Jim Webb (D-VA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). Hillary Clinton was the only Democrat not voting today.

EFF vs. AT&T

homunculus — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:15:54 -0800

Up Against Big Brother: "For 18 years the Electronic Frontier Foundation has fought for the rights of ordinary Americans in cyberspace. Now it’s stepped into the limelight with a legal challenge to warrantless surveillance." [Via Boing Boing.]

The Year of Net Neutrality

spiderwire — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:29:52 -0800

We're only two weeks into the year, but net neutrality issues hit the ground running. The FCC already has three different inquiries open. (also) (previously) The 700 Mhz auction threatens to disrupt an already converging telecom industry. AT&T's post-merger commitment to net neutrality ends this year, and they plan to test the filtering waters, despite recently opposing the practice. And today, a leaked memo revealed that Time Warner will test tiered internet services soon. The Internet as we know it, and communications in general, might be headed for some major changes in 2008.

Whack-a-mole with the "Telecon" mashup

slightlybewildered — Fri, 26 May 2006 02:19:55 -0800

[Telecom] has used confusion as its chief marketing tool This quote from New Zealand's Telecom's CEO is used to set up this mashupof one of their advertisements. The original had kids praising the company; in this version they're saying they've been shafted. Telecom, naturally, has been trying ever since to get it off the internet - crying "Copyright!" (mirrors in the comments here)

Hands off the Internet?

F Mackenzie — Sat, 13 May 2006 07:13:53 -0800

Don't Regulate is telecom-sponsored ad dressed up as an underground cartoon, writes Timothy Karr. At issue is net neutrality (previously discussed here).

Significant insignificant

Samuel Farrow — Wed, 03 May 2006 03:02:57 -0800

New Zealand is a backwater when it comes to high speed internet. Today the government has done something about it.

Hi, I'm calling from the Dem.... NO CARRIER

bashos_frog — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 06:14:00 -0800

CITEL, an entity of the Organization of American States, is the main forum in the hemisphere in which the governments and the private sector meet to coordinate regional efforts to develop the Global Information Society according to the mandates of the General Assembly of the Organization and the mandates entrusted to it by Heads of State and Government at the Summits of the Americas.

No Democrats allowed.

TiVo close to Comcast deal

MattD — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 04:32:27 -0800

TiVo saved? After a grim 4Q04 conference call, focusing on bells and whistles for which there's little evidence of customer demand, it's now reported that TiVo is on the verge of striking a deal with Comcast to integrate TiVo software and services into Comcast's integrated tuner-DVRs. TiVo needs this deal very, very badly...

SBC to Acquire AT&T for $16 Billion

gren — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 05:15:59 -0800

SBC to Acquire AT&T for $16 Billion or Death to the Deathstar "Luke, I am your father![pdf] " -Noooooo... oh wait, now I own you.

Hacker or Lynx user?

krisjohn — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 15:27:15 -0800

Boing Boing says he's a Lynx user , but British Telecom declared him a hacker and that's what the BBC is carrying. There's no way to tell who's right yet, but I'd say the Bloggers are betting on Lynx user. Anyone got an update?

zeoslap — Tue, 27 Aug 2002 13:44:46 -0800

Interesting article about ways in which telecom companies can take what they have and make it more profitable as opposed to pie in the sky broadband/lifestyle schemes. Some cool ideas.

RylandDotNet — Tue, 12 Feb 2002 18:05:10 -0800

A man in New Zealand received a huge bill from Telecom, with an added insult. (via sensible erection)

"We're sorry, but the number you've dialled..."

baylink — Wed, 07 Feb 2001 16:22:18 -0800

"We're sorry, but the number you've dialled..." [ 11 second RealAudio file ] Found here, as part of a collection of recordings most of the rest of which will only be interesting to telecom geeks.

SBC + BellSouth

bvanveen — Wed, 05 Apr 2000 10:49:08 -0800

SBC + BellSouth Any Latin experts out there? We need a funny name for this mess too.