Jim Wagner

The European Commission (EC) is unhappy with the closed-door access incumbent telecom carriers give to the competition, and decided Monday to throw the gauntlet in order to get them to open up broadband access lines. In March, 2001, the EC adopted five directives to regulate the industry, which were essentially incumbent-friendly and relied more upon […]

Home networking has reached the “early majority” phase in its growth as a market, thanks in part to broadband growth in the U.S., as well as the need to share files and printers, according to a report released by Cahner’s In-Stat Monday. The Arizona-based research company fielded the comments of 500 “average advanced users” at […]

Qwest Communications is getting on with the business of being a regional Bell operating center (RBOC), judging by the senior management housecleaning conducted by its new chairman and chief executive officer. Richard Notebaert instituted an almost complete revamp in the way the Bell runs its business, reorganizing the telephone company into three units — consumer, […]

The flip side to the sagging stock value is the opportunities it creates for a buyout, something James Crowe, Level 3 chief executive officer, intends to do with the $500 million investment his company garnered in an announcement Monday. “The ongoing shakeout is creating extraordinary opportunities, as telecommunications companies, their network assets and customer bases […]

IPv6, as an Internet numbering specification, is ready for prime time deployment around the world. But it seems that two key essential elements that could trigger large scale the U.S. and the Internet Engineering Task Force aren’t ready to switch from IPv4. The U.S., flush with IPv4 addresses, and the IETF, which is the standards-based […]

Sprint PCS is putting the finishing touches on its summer launch of next-generation digital wireless phone services, the much-hyped but sub-3G technology that delivers data packets over the phone. The nationwide wireless phone carrier enters the 3G fray months after its biggest competitor, Verizon Wireless , which launched a similar service in January. Dubbed “Express […]

International Network Services Inc. is the proud owner of Lucent Technologies’ enterprise services division, officials announced Wednesday. The deal, terms of which are unavailable, is expected to close in July and is part of Lucent’s ongoing strategy to spin off or sell its non-core businesses to cut down on costs. Last October, the Internet equipment […]

Gearing up for the next generation of advanced network services, officials at Verizon Communications announced Tuesday they equipped two switching centers with equipment that puts phone calls on a data packet. Armed with the Nortel Networks Succession product line, Verizon’s centers in Newark, N.J., and Tampa, Fla., can take phone calls and put them over […]

EchoStar experienced another hitch in its broadband Internet access hopes Monday afternoon when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cancelled its Ka-band license. The FCC’s international satellite bureau cancelled the license because its records show EchoStar has not started construction of a satellite that operates on the Ka-band, the frequency found best for two-way satellite broadband […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to put the deployment of high-speed Internet services in the hands of a relatively select number of companies, a report Monday shows, and in the end it’s the consumers who lose. Those are the findings of “The Role of ISPs in the Growth of the Commercial Internet,” conducted by […]

The jury’s out, though everyone seems to have an opinion, on the reason for mainstream America’s reluctance to embrace high-speed Internet service. While the number of digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable Internet users is still rising, subscribers still only make up 10 percent of online America. The reason for the hesitancy may come down […]

While WorldCom is in no danger of shutting down its network, analysts warn Internet service providers (ISPs) and other customers to reduce their dependence on the financially troubled carrier. WorldCom, one of the largest carrier telecoms in the nation, is under intense scrutiny from the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and Congress for overstating $3.8 […]