Caron Carlson

On the brink of codependency, voice carriers and next-generation service providers are beginning to work together to learn how to recognize and address the real needs of e-business. The historical phone company model is being strafed with enterprise requests for Web hosting, intelligent IP services and optical networking, to name a few, while service providers […]

AT&T Corp. last week began formalizing the restructuring plan that it initiated in October, and for consumers of high-end business services, the process holds the potential for more responsive, efficient service. AT&T maintains that end users will not be affected by the separation of the giant company into four independent units: business, wireless, cable TV […]

Ushering in what appears to be an era of improved relations between lawmakers and telecommunications regulators, U.S. senators overseeing the Federal Communications Commission this week will consider three new commissioners for the five-seat agency. In preliminary interviews before Congress, all three nominees stressed cooperation and restraint, suggesting that the new commissioners will differ from their […]

The tightening purse strings of major telecommunications equipment vendors are straining the training and services provided to carrier and enterprise customers. This is good news—but only if youre an independent IT training provider. Some vendors are farming out portions of their training programs to smaller manufacturers and consultants. The most likely courses to be outsourced […]

From the convention floors of Las Vegas to the halls of Capitol Hill, a downturn in the fortunes of carriers is blunting customer enthusiasm for all but the most Spartan offerings and raising regulatory cries of unfair competition in telecommunications. The result will be evident at this weeks NetWorld+Interop show in Las Vegas, where vendors […]

Washington lawmakers are pondering ways to bring more high-speed Internet service options to rural parts of the country. Last week, Reps. Billy Tauzin, R-La., and John Dingell, D-Mich., pushed a bill that would allow incumbent local exchange carriers—RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies), for the most part—to provide long-distance data services without having to meet competition […]

In some areas of the country, as much as 20 percent of a companys monthly telephone bill represents federal and state surcharges. These fees are levied to support a long-entrenched policy of universal, affordable, basic phone service. But while a wide consensus among lawmakers ensures continuation of the policy, corporate users increasingly are questioning such […]

Deep personnel cuts among network gear vendors are taking their toll not only on marketing and administration employees but also on some service and support workers who help users keep their systems running. And while the cuts are designed to appease nervous investors eyeing the bottom line, they are doing little to calm the jitters […]

If youre going to battle for the heavens, youd probably want weaker adversaries than the Pentagon and the Roman Catholic Church—but those are the opponents wireless carriers face in their battle to procure new spectrum to deliver next-generation services. Efforts to meet an October presidential directive to review the status of spectrum in the United […]

President Bush stuck to his pattern of picking insiders with last weeks appointments of three Washington policy veterans to the Federal Communications Commission. The move is a departure from numerous recent FCC nominees recruited from tangential fields. Unlike some of their predecessors, Bushs choices are well-versed in the machinations of communications regulation. Two of the […]