Editorial

by Doug Mohney, Editor-in-Chief

Publisher’s Note

by Bill Sell, Publisher

Steady Building Already Driven by Virtual and Face- Broadband to-Face VON.x

Like clockwork, every couple of years someone picks up the war cry of “100 Mbps Nationwide” and holds it up as a panacea to all of our social and economic ills. The theory is that our country’s household broadband connectivity sucks relative to other (geographically less spread out) nations such as Japan, France, and Korea, and all we need is more bits to the doorstep of each household to ensure economic prosperity. Build it, and we enable distance learning, telework, telemedicine, and lots more.

EDUCAUSE is the latest on the soapbox, proposing a minimum of 100 Mbps with a price tag of $100 billion to be equally split between the federal government, states, and a private or public entity that would actually build and maintain the network. Former FCC Chairman and long-time VON participant Reed Hundt has been on this bandwagon since at least 2003, and he’s more recently pegged the price tag on fiber to the home to be $20 to 25 billion of late; back in 2004, it was $50 to 100 billion of everyone else’s money.

I just can’t see a “Big Dig” project like this being undertaken, regardless of who sits in the White House in 2009. But I also don’t think it will be necessary.

The home broadband duopoly of cable and (wired) telecom is on the verge of making the leap from under 50 Mbps speeds to 100 Mbps+ over the next year. Cable is starting to feel the heat by losing video customers to AT&T and Verizon, so they are already planning to move up to 100 Mbps (and faster) speeds using DOCSIS 3.0. Arris and Cisco announced CPE at CES, so we’re not talking wishful thinking.

Meanwhile AT&T and Verizon lose dial-tone customers to cable companies, so they need to capture broadband customers, hence higher speeds. Verizon’s FiOS, scorned by the shortsighted of Wall Street, has the potential to support up to 200 Mbps broadband to the home under its current GPON incarnation, and they’re already looking at ways to go still faster. What will cable’s next move be?

Maybe we don’t even need no stinkin’ fixed connections. Verizon Wireless is bringing LTE to America, pushing wireless broadband speeds over 150 Mbps. Some would argue that greater mobility trumps the highest available tethered speeds; the 2012 generation of broadband mobile phone users may end up laughing at Grandpa’s fiber connection!

All of this higher speed broadband will also result in steady upgrades to the supporting networks, so high-speed core network companies will have plenty of business in the years ahead. John Chambers at Cisco believes they have another decade of network upgrades of growth in support of video and visual networking. Add it all up, and Americans may get to 100 Mbps per household without heavy government intervention. V

During the past few months we’ve watched the con- solidation in our industry continue–but it definitely isn’t spelling the end to innovation. Innovation is alive and well, and this month we’re seeing it here in the magazine with dozens of VON Innovators Awards finalists being announced; we’re seeing it online through daily stories carried in von:focus and online at vonmag.com; and we’re seeing it live and in-person at the Spring VON.x Conference and Expo and San Jose, home to more than 200 companies and new products.

VON, now in its 12th year, continues to track and report on the many changes in the service-provider market–from mergers and acquisitions to new service offerings and technological breakthroughs. Returning at our VON.x conference in March in San Jose is the ever-popular Town Meeting, hosted by lawyer, blogger, and now law professor Jonathan Askin. The VON Town Meeting takes place Monday, March 17 at 5 p.m.

The evolution of VON continues. You’re seeing us call it VON. x now – with the X being the wild card XoIP factor. XoIP represents the spectrum of Internet communications, and VON has always been home to the Internet communications continuum…your solutions, year-round.

In the coming weeks even the VON organization is launching something new: our first VON Virtual Tradeshow, taking place live on the Internet on May 7 and 8 ( www.vonvirtual.com). While online programs can never take away the many benefits of face-to-face interaction, it can help round out the information-gathering and business needs of our marketplace. About a dozen conference sessions will take place and can be viewed very much like webinars are today, and several dozen exhibit “booths” will be featured. Attendees not only see product information and demos in these booths, they can also initiate instant message (IM) chat sessions with engineering and sales personnel from these companies. Unlike face-to-face, where most conversations with booth staff are one-on-one, the power of Internet communications enables one vendor representative to address several attendees at once. VON Virtual is not a replacement for print, e-mailed news, or face-to-face conferences; it’s simply another great tool in our mix of information services to keep you updated with innovation in Internet communications worldwide.

If you are a von:focus subscriber or a frequent visitor to our companion Web site vonmag.com hopefully you’ve noticed improvements in not just the amount of coverage but also the expanded breadth. We’ve added microsites on important technologies, and we’ve added vertical editions of von:focus. Your feedback on how VON is meeting your needs is always welcome. Call or e-mail any time. V

Doug Mohney can be reached at dmohney@vonmag.com.

Bill Sell can be reached at bsell@pulvermedia.com or + 1 631-961-1070.