Uncertainty about the global economy doesn’t seem to be hindering the growth of the telecommunications industry. Currently at 2.1 trillion, revenue from services are expected to grow to 2.7 trillion by the year 2017. This news comes to us from …

The FCC isn’t standing in the way of the local utility company rolling out broadband service over powerlines; state governments and the lobbying by competitors have obstructed this.

In a move that takes considerable political clout, Presidential hopeful Chris Dodd has placing a hold on the FISA bill in the Senate that would immunize telecommunications companies against litigation for their role in handing over phone records to the US government.

In case you’re still convinced there’s a true open market in broadband space and the handful of companies running it are sufficient competition for each other, consider this: in Hong Kong, you can get a fiber-to-the-home connection 20 times faster than Verizon’s FiOS connection for about the same price.

I never even got into see a presentation. The hallway was too good. Here’s my photos.

The $200 billion boondoggle that was meant to deliver high speed digital services to the home by the year 2000 instead left America running to stand still in the world of broadband delivery.

“Yahoo!Xtra Bubble” – sounds like a kind of gum, doesn’t it?  But it’s actually a new service that should soon become available to customers of Telecom New Zealand, and it’ll “offer a suite of premium services accessed through a personalised homepage – all at no extra cost.”

Google’s had some success in South Korea, yet the search engine giant has also had to make a number of adjustments and compromises.  Now its tenacity may be paying off; reports indicate that South Korea’s biggest mobile phone operator may employ Google’s search-based advertising throughout its network.

The United States has 58.1 million broadband (256 kbps or better) in December 2006, but at 19.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, America is just average at getting broadband to the people.

US Broadband Penetration Just Stinks

It’s often considered lazy writing to start a piece with a quote, but I think that, in this case, it might be necessary. 

Wikipedia calls traffic shaping “an attempt to control computer network traffic in order to optimize or guarantee performance, low latency, and/or bandwidth.” 

And now that you know that, know this: a major British telecom does not favor traffic shaping.

Due to demand, MySQL AB announced the expansion of its telecom-specific services and consulting for MySQL software. Specifically, the company is promoting its MySQL Cluster, a high-end version of the standard database designed for fault-tolerant, mission-critical network and telecommunications applications at carrier-grade.

Phillip Torrone writes about the future of credit cards. Oh, I so want one. Patrick and I were having lunch with Tara Hunt, Rachel Clarke, Ernie Svenson Adriana Linares (lawyer tech expert), and Chris Messina. Patrick leans over and says “can I have more money?”

Can someone please tell the telecom companies to stop moaning that Google is enjoying a “free lunch”.

My how our dictionary has changed. Podcast, Skype, Wikipedia, Googlebot and WiMax were all regularly used terms during 2005.

China Telecom, the country’s biggest telecommunications operator is trying to put a stop to VoIP use in the country as long-distance revenues fall.

Telecom Italia announced their leap into the Internet television business starting massive trials in Rome, Milan, Bologna and Palermo. They look to roll out services in 21 cities by the fall and say over 4 million households will have access to a wide variety of programming.

The Indian Telecommunications industry will benefit from favorable government policies and rulings.

Bad news for Kerry supporters in the telecom field: they won’t be allowed to come play at The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission.

Dedicated High Quality Circuits Provide Pinpoint Customer Authentication and High Speed Access to International Content.