telecommunications

McCurry Draws Fire for Net Neutrality Position

Authored by Ned Sherman on June 8, 2006 - 10:37am.

The LA Times reports that Former Clinton Whitehouse Press Secretary Mike McCurry has drawn fire from supporters of "net neutrality", including many on the left, for having taken up the cause of telecommunication giants who oppose legislation restricting their ability to charge extra to provide high bandwith services. McCurry was hired by AT&T, Bell South and other communications companies to promote this position, putting himself at odds with Congresional Democrats, liberal bloggers and companies like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft who support legislation to maintain a level playing field. According to McCurry who has written about his position at The Huffington Post: "The Internet is not a free public good. It is a bunch of wires and switches and connections and pipes and it is creaky."
To view his post on the topic, see:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-mccurry/hostile-commentary-and-ne_b_20179.html
For the LA Times story, see:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-fi-mccurry5jun05,1,1593780.story

OECD: Internet Telephony to Revolutionize Telecommunications

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 25, 2005 - 6:46am.

Paris -- A new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of the world's leading industrialized countries, has identified Internet telephony (VoIP) as the next technological innovation to shake up the global telecommunications industry. "The growing popularity of Internet telephony threatens the fixed-line revenues of traditional carriers, especially for international calls," the OECD said. "VoIP presents a challenge to mobile telephones, which in many countries are now more numerous than fixed connections." The OECD report also said that the growing popularity of downloading video from the Internet would significantly reduce the time people spend watching free-to-air TV, driving down audience share and advertising revenue for broadcasts and making it harder for public-service broadcasters to meet their social policy objectives.

tags: OECD | telecommunications | Internet Telephony |

Report: Internet Telephony Poised to Transform Global Telecommunications

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 26, 2004 - 7:17am.

London -- According to a new study conducted by analysis firm Juniper Research, Internet telephony -- also known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) -- is set to account for about 12% of global telephone revenues within the next five years. Juniper goes on to predict that the VoIP market will account for roughly $32 billion of the estimated overall market of $260 billion by the year 2009. "VoIP brings new revenue-generating opportunities to the telephony market, by combining voice services with other IP applications," said Juniper Research broadband specialist Ian Cox. "This will redefine the telephone, bringing brand new services with telephony at its core." The report also called on lawmakers not to over-regulate the market. "A balance needs to be established between promoting healthy market competition and ensuring widespread VoIP adoption on a fair and equitable basis," Juniper said. "VoIP requires nurturing in the early years as the market develops."