October 16, 2005

By Reed Hundt

For the past two years, everyone in Washington has agreed that the country needs a new telecommunications law. But no one has been able to provide a reason in terms that any voter could grasp. One of the many outcomes of the Katrina and Rita catastrophes is that we all know, tragically and inescapably, that America needs a new, up-to-date communications network. If a law will give us that, then Congress should pass that law. In a hurry.

We can start by identifying some things not to do. For example, Louisiana and Florida adopted legislation in recent years intended to slow the deployment of municipal wireless broadband communications networks. These states are not alone; a dozen other legislatures have tried to slow the deployment of municipal broadband.

October 14, 2005

By Paul Smart

This offers a very similar service to that I reviewed earlier this year, the main difference is that this is a portable service and can be connected to any standard router.

As far as the service is concerned it seems the same as reviewed on the 24/6/05 in the Vonage VOIP article, you can either enter ‘Vonage’ into the GadgetSpeak search engine of work back through the reviews to the 24th June.

The big difference is rather than a special router being provided you get a far smaller phone adapter that itself plugs into your router. As yet nothing has been provided for users of USB modems.

October 11, 2005

By Stuart Elliott

HERE is a look back at some of the highlights, lowlights and sidelights of the 95th annual meeting of the Association of National Advertisers, attended by more than 900 people here last Thursday through Sunday.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY One topic discussed by many speakers during the conference was branded entertainment, the integration of products and sponsors into movies and television programming. One speaker provided a timely reminder of how pervasive it once was.

During a presentation, Julie A. Roehm, director for marketing communications at the DaimlerChrysler Corporation, screened a clip from a 1959 episode of the "Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse," a weekly series on CBS. In the clip, the cast of "I Love Lucy," a Desilu production, was joined by Betty Furness, the longtime Westinghouse spokeswoman, to deliver a commercial for Westinghouse appliances that Ms. Roehm timed at 3 minutes, 44 seconds.

In the commercial, Furness showed off " '59 appliances at less than '49 prices" to Lucille Ball, as Lucy Ricardo, and Vivian Vance, as Ethel Mertz. As Ms. Furness pointed out a "programmed computer washer," Lucy asked, "What's a programmed computer?" Ms. Furness's reply: "It's like a built-in brain."

October 10, 2005

By Mark Trumbull

Across the high-tech landscape, tectonic plates are shifting.

Google, the company that's king of the online search, recently offered to provide wireless Internet access to the entire city of San Francisco - for free.

Apple Computer now offers an iPod music player so tiny it could get lost in your wallet.

And the British Broadcasting Corp. is starting to offer many of its TV programs in digitized formats online

This is a far different boom from the dotcom craze of the late 1990s. It is the Web's sober second act, characterized not by soaring stock prices but by forces that are challenging traditional industries - from publishing to telecommunications - to adopt new business plans. Consumers seem to be the only sure winners.

October 7, 2005

By Sue Vorenberg

Don't let my phone jack hit you on the way out.

I've joined the digital telephone revolution, and I didn't even have to put on a funny hat and shout "vive le phone" to do it.

In the past month, I've switched my telephone service from $60-a-month Qwest to $25-a-month Vonage.

The funny thing is that I get more features now for $25 a month than I did when I was stuck with the big monopoly, and I still have the same phone number.

Vonage and another company called Net2Phone sell telephone service through your high speed Internet connection. The switch is a lot easier than you might think.

The thought of setting up a phone through the Internet used to make me nervous, until I looked into it. Turns out, they'll send you a router - a thing you can plug into your modem - and it has a normal phone jack in it that you can hook your regular old wall phone into. And the computer doesn't have to be on for the thing to work.

October 5, 2005

By Michelle Rosenberg

The township recently showed that actions speak louder than words by adopting a Mississippi city that was lost during Hurricane Katrina.

The Township Committee voted 4-0 to officially “adopt” the city of Pass Christian at the Sept. 26 meeting. The idea to adopt a city was suggested by Committeewoman Serena DiMaso and Deputy Mayor Janet Berk at the previous meeting. Following the suggestion, Township Administrator Christopher Schultz contacted Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Simpson to find out what would go into adopting a city.

After a lot of research and unsuccessful attempts to contact people in the destroyed area, Simpson finally discovered the small city of Pass Christian. Simpson said that after looking through articles online from local newspapers, he located a person’s name and working cell phone number. The number he found was that of a committeeman from Pass Christian.

October 1, 2005

By Staff

Vol. 13; No. 10; Pg. 22

Baton Rouge (La.) General has enhanced its Wi-Fi network to enable it to treat patients displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The 448-bed hospital is taking in many patients forced to evacuate New Orleans hospitals because of damage and flooding from the hurricane. The rush of new patients has required Baton Rouge General to step up its I.T., including its Wi-Fi network. The hospital and PHNS, its Dallas-based I.T. outsourcing vendor, have enhanced its Wi-Fi network to reach areas that are being used to house New Orleans patients. The hospital is placing patients into all available space in its facility. Baton Rouge General expects to receive 20 complimentary notebook PCs from Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc. to use to access its enhanced Wi-Fi network.

October 3, 2005

By Sunil Jain

Last fortnight, this column dealt with the regulatory problems faced by the Tatas’ telecom business. There is, however, another major change taking place globally, and that will affect not just the Tatas but everyone who derives large revenues from long-distance telephony. Till some time back Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) was done only on your PC/laptop and so, though it did slash costs, it was always cumbersome.

Now, you can now do internet telephony through your normal phone, by using an adaptor that companies such as Vonage offer free with their services, which cost as little as $14.99 a month, including 500 minutes (www.vonage.com) of free international calls anywhere in the world, and then a very low fee for additional calls (5 cents to Singapore, for instance).

October 1, 2005

By Staff

Vonage Holdings Corp. remains the leader of the North American voice-over-IP (VoIP) market, even though such large MSOs as Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems are quickly closing the gap. Vonage reported last month that it has now activated more than 1 million VoIP lines across North America, making it the first IP telephony provider to do so. Vonage's latest surge puts it ahead of Time Warner, its closest cable rival.