2-1-08 The Week in Review
Posted on February 1, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under Commentary, VoIP News
The last week of the first month of the New Year (can we still call it that?) ends with a rather important milestone, at least from a unified communications perspective.
FCC Auction in High Gear
The highly coveted commercial Block C of the 700MHz auction has met the minimum reserve, and in doing so, ensures open access for all. Who’s bidding on what remains to be seen, as that is not disclosed by the FCC in an effort to prevent collusion.
But what’s up with Block D? The public service swath of spectrum hasn’t been getting many bidders since Frontline pulled out. If no one meets the reserve, it will be offered in another auction, sans the open access rules. So much for Homeland Security.
At the end of the bidding on Friday, the FCC had raised over 18.5 billion for the U.S. Treasury.
Quality of Service Takes a Hit in the Mid East and Asia
On Wednesday, two under water cables in the Mediterranean were cut, causing a massive slowdown of Internet and telecommunication services from Egypt to India. Repairs on the cable could take a week or more as countries and businesses frantically race to switch to satellite uplinks. On Friday, another submarine cable was cut in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Dubai, adding insult to injury. Both instances involve cables owned by the same company, and are being blamed on anchoring ships. A new Al Queda tactic?
Sprint Rumored to be Talking to Clearwire, Again!
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Sprint is reviving talks with Clearwire to form a joint venture in hopes of getting some outside capital, from the likes of Google or Intel, to help defray the 5 billion dollar cost of building out their WiMax networks. Amid massive layoffs, Sprint has been said to be close to deciding on a microwave backhaul provider for its “post” initial WiMax rollouts. Maybe the beat does still go on.
Continental Airline to offer Free WiFi Internet Access
Continental cuts a deal with LiveTV LLC to offer in flight WiFi Internet access and Satellite TV starting in 2009. WiFi services will be free, and would allow users Internet access through WiFi enabled handhelds and laptops. LiveTV, a unit of JetBlue, already offers its services there, as well as other airlines such as Virgin Blue, WestJet, and Southwest Airlines.
8X8 Announces Profitable Quarter
Finally some good news from a pure play VoIP service provider! Packet8 parent company 8X8 announced third quarter profits ending December 31st, up 17% over last year. Packet 8’s Virtual Office, a hosted IP PBX solution with over 10,000 SMB subscribers, grew 8% in revenue quarter over quarter. Their VoIP residential service was also up by 5% over the second quarter.
And that’s just some of the way it is, February 1st, 2008.
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