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"New" Cable-Based Point-to-Point Telecom Services
Martin, Donald R. , Ph.D.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author discusses cable's entry into more traditional services such as switched telephony, data distribution, and PCS.

Access Strategies for Communication Service Providers
Kumar, Balaji
[HTML version] [pdf version]
Addresses an important component of the network -- access to the customer -- which is currently the bottleneck in providing a wide range of services in a cost-effective way. A broadband access architecture that is capable of providing both broadband and narrowband services is outlined for each of the various service providers.

Bringing Enhanced Cable Services to Market: Forecasts and Analyses
Evans, Scott
[HTML version] [pdf version]
Provides a state-of-the-industry overview of cable. Included are recommendations for the industry plus financial analyses using different enhanced services models: video only, Internet only, video + Internet, video + voice, and combined services.

Broadband Access Ramps: The Inevitable Next Horizon
Wright, Terry
[HTML version] [pdf version]
Considers the drivers underlying the emergence of the publicly accessible broadband network. Begins by stepping back in history to look at similar change agents that produced paradigm shifts. Argues that the cable industry has the opportunity to be an influential catalyst in shaping the nature and timing for this evolution to broadband-accessed cyberspace, as it remolds its installed competitive advantage into the fundamental on-line services access transport.

Cable Modems and the Internet
Evans, Scott
[HTML version] [pdf version]
Examines what is driving cable to commit billions in new capital expenditures to deploy a technology -- high-speed, on-line access via cable modem -- that has yet to prove itself. The author looks at the problems related to provisioning the service, and what it will take to bring the product to market.

Competing with HFC: Tips, Tactics, and Tricks for Switched Digital Video Providers
Goldberg, Lee
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author looks at two competing systems for bringing voice, video, and data into homes and small businesses -- hybrid fiber/coax networks and switched digital systems. He discusses the architectural similarities and differences of each and the assumptions each makes about the future of communications. He argues convincingly that SDV's switched architecture and open-ended connectivity make it able to offer a wider variety of services. Finally, he provides some practical advice on how to leverage the strengths of SDV into competitive advantage.

Competitive Advantage on Cable's Digital Tier
Gardner, James N. , Esq.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
On the eve of cable television's rollout of digital services, this article outlines what the author sees as the likely characteristics of competitive advantage on cable's digital tier. He begins with a discussion of some of the challenges facing the broadband communications industry as it seeks to make an historic transition to a new digital era, then sketches out six basic rules which may shape the terms of economic combat in this challenging new environment.

Competitive Impacts of Wireless and Cable Voice Services
Vanston, Lawrence K. , Ph.D.
Rogers, Curt
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The authors analyze the magnitude and timing of the impact of wireless and cable competition on the LECs' wireline services, provide forecasts for some best- and worst-case scenarios and finally recommend some strategic responses for the LECs.

Fiber Antics: Practical Lessons in Building a Municipal Fiber Optic Network
Grant, August E. , Ph.D.
Berquist, Lon
[HTML version] [pdf version]
Draws lessons from the city of Austin, Texas and its process to select a company to build a broadband network to provide telephone, cable TV, digital video, and digital data services. Readers may find the city's selection very interesting and insightful. It is hoped this information will be useful to companies wishing to work with city governments on advanced telecommunications networks.

Forecasts for Advanced Video Services
Vanston, Lawrence K. , Ph.D.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author previews a newly defined industry -- advanced video services (AVS). He provides forecasts with analysis for the adoption and availability of AVS and HDTV. These forecasts are intended to help decision makers who are concerned with timing the development of the advanced video services market and the supporting infrastructure . Included is a table classifying video services by customer interface.

Future Imminent I: The Battle for Consumer Loyalty
Evans, Scott
[HTML version] [pdf version]

Future Imminent II: Playing (and Winning) the Content Game
Evans, Scott
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author says the money is in the content. He discusses delivery models for content and the dynamics and opportunities in the content business.

Future Imminent III: Navigating the (Uncharted) Interactive Waters
Evans, Scott
[HTML version] [pdf version]
In his third installment of "Future Imminent," the author talks about the challenge to develop interactive services that are usable.

Future Imminent IV: Entertainment on Demand
Evans, Scott
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author explores a solution for providing entertainment on demand, which can be deployed quickly and cost-effectively in the near term.

HITS...and Misses!
Evans, Scott
[HTML version] [pdf version]
Argues that cable companies in search of new options for delivering digital services to market in a timely manner may find a near-term solution in HITS -- Headend in the Sky. .The author believes that the HITS approach provides a viable alternative for cable systems of all but the smallest size to offer additional programming in a mass market category.

Hybrid Fiber Coax: A Solution for Broadband Information Services
Podlesny, Carl
[HTML version] [pdf version]

If Competition Won't Build the NII, Utility Partnerships Will
Rivkin, Steven R. , Esq.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author argues that, expense notwithstanding, broadband fiber is far superior to any other telecommunications medium for building a "door-to-door" national network. In his view, the local electric utility is fortuitously positioned to meet this national need for early deployment of broadband residential networks and to make competition work -- in telecommunications and information services.

Impact of Internet Traffic on Public Telephone Networks
Kumar, Balaji
[HTML version] [pdf version]
Addresses the impacts and the implications of Internet traffic on the local exchange public network. First, some background on the LEC network and the assumptions used in the design of telephone networks is provided. Second, the characteristics of voice and Internet traffic are defined. Finally, how Internet traffic impacts the local network is defined. Having identified this impact, some potential solutions for short-term and long-term options are discussed.

Media Asset Management
Van Tassel, Joan , Ph.D.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author provides an overview of an emerging technology, media asset management, that she argues will revolutionize the entertainment industry and all content provider businesses in the next decade. She introduces us to the technology -- what it is and what it does -- and discusses why film studios, production companies, special effects and post-production facilities, Internet content providers, and many Fortune 500 companies are adopting the technology. She concludes with a look at barriers to adoption and some drivers for adoption.

Packet Plutocracy, Data Democracy, and the Bureaucracy
Wohlstetter, John C.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
This article examines FCC policy concerning access to advanced services that risks perpetuating a plutocracy of high-end users while delaying diffusion to the mass marketplace. John discusses how Sections 254 and 706 of the Telecom Act could potentially work at cross-purposes with each other, how the FCC interprets the interplay between these two sections, and whether this interplay could advance or delay rapid modernization of the public switched telephone network.

Rebooting the Regulatory Operating System: The Computer Industry Turns on the Power
Van Tassel, Joan , Ph.D.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
Tells the story of an extraordinary industry coming of age, its entrance into the domain of public policy and regulation, and its demand for changes in the way business-as-usual is conducted. This article begins with a description of the core beliefs and practices that are so highly regarded within the information technology (IT) pantheon. It then describes the factors that are propelling the IT companies to action and the fears this creates in traditional analog-based entertainment, consumer electronics, and telecommunications industries. From there, the article details the inter-industry conflicts that have arisen and the actions the information interests are taking to pressure the government and existing industries to meet the needs of digital technologies. Finally, after covering the scorecard of the IT efforts, the piece examines the potential for moving from conflict to collaboration between these groups.

Smart Communities In Action
Jung, John G.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
John Jung's companion article available only electronically.

Smart Communities: Digitally-Inclined and Content-Rich
Jung, John G.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
John Jung has previously written about the increasing role of telecommunications in any community's economic development strategy. In this latest NTQ article, he looks at the state of the smart community today. He argues that merely deploying additional wire does not make the community smart. The successful smart communities are those that are able to use the technologies of a knowledge-based economy to develop, market, and supply new products and services that are demanded both by other knowledge-based economies and by the developing markets moving in that direction.

The Evolution of the Interactive Broadband Server, Part I
Van Tassel, Joan , Ph.D.
Rose, Steve W.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The authors discuss developments leading up to and traditional approaches to the design of interactive broadband servers. Particular attention is given to servers that are constructed by aggregating conventional single bus computers with other necessary components.

The Evolution of the Interactive Broadband Server, Part II: The Cool Hairy Onion
Van Tassel, Joan , Ph.D.
Rose, Steve W.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
In Part I of this article in the last issue of NTQ (1Q96), the authors discussed the design and inherent problems with conventional linear interactive broadband server (IBS) design. In this second part, they present the rationale for the features and resulting benefits of an integrated IBS design which will translate into improved performance and reliability. They use the "cool hairy onion" analogy to describe the richly connected layers separated by function and responsibility. The authors describe each functional layer and the storage design, and conclude with some thoughts on the location of the server.

The Interactive Device for the Information Age
Miller, Avram
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author argues quite convincingly that it is the PC, not the TV, that will become the ubiquitous information device used by people for communicating and accessing information on the electronic superhighway of tomorrow.

The Passive Audience for Interactive Technology
Grant, August E. , Ph.D.
Meadows, Jennifer Harman
Handy, Susan L. , Ph.D.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The authors explore the implications of people who watch and/or buy from television shopping services. They take the research a step further and discuss the implications of the "passive consumer" for almost any emerging interactive technology.

The Remaking of the Internet
Evans, Scott
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author gives us his perspective of the Internet. Always entertaining, he provides a quick history of the evolution of the Internet, then looks at three emerging trends -- Intranets, digital cash payments, and multimedia content delivery via the Internet -- that have the potential to remake the Internet.

The Residential Gateway: A New Traffic Cop for the Home
Holliday, Clifford R.
[HTML version] [pdf version]
The author introduces us to a new concept -- the Residential Gateway -- that is a basic enabler for residential broadband communications networks. He believes that this concept is crucial to the realization of a multiple-provider, competitive residential environment. The Residential Gateway provides an effective solution to multiple incompatible external networks such as twisted copper pair, fiber optics, and coax interfacing with in-home networks and devices such as VCRs, TVs, and PCs.

The War of the Wires
Evans, Scott
[HTML version] [pdf version]
Examines the market dynamics of providing a multitude of communications products and services to the home. The author discusses the key factor limiting new service introduction -- the aging infrastructure. He talks about current competitive strategies for both the telephone and cable industries and gives us his thoughts on what we can expect in 1997.

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