BROWSING: Opinion

AI and IIoT: How to make products better and faster – at less cost (Reader Forum)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a key asset in the continuing effort to derive greater value from business processes and business models in general. While much of the attention AI has garnered has centered on digital services and applications, the technology is also driving significant enhancements...

Kagan: How 5G will change pay TV and internet

5G is more than just faster wireless service. It is transformative. It will transform the way we use wireless and expand what we can do over it. Over the next few years, 5G wireless will open new doors and create a completely different experience...

Americans and Canadians both want 5G, but policy is lagging (Reader Forum)

Most often, we read of differences between the United States and Canada, but in one area, the people of both nations agree: neither country can get enough of mobile wireless services. Consumers devour more mobile wireless data each year, and mobile operators beg the...

The next steps for FirstNet: Defining indoor coverage specifications (Reader Forum)

Today, critical communications between first responders – such as police officers, paramedics and firefighters – is compromised by unreliable, ineffective, non-interoperable radio communications systems. To address this, in March 2017 AT&T was selected to build LTE-based FirstNet (First Responder Network Authority), a public safety network....

Analyst Angle: Microwave sharpens its edge for 5G backhaul

Last year, Sky Light Research wrote a paper on microwave being able to meet the requirements of 5G.  That paper explored various benchmarks that microwave needs to meet for 5G to be successful - capacity, low latency, high cell densification, and flexible OAM through...

The pros and cons of automating physical building security

The role that IoT can play in the physical building security can have massive implications on a comprehensive intelligent building solution.? At its most basic level, physical security can be enhanced in a number of ways by leveraging IoT sensors and/or cloud connectivity.? Briefly...

Kagan: Frontier AnyWare lets you manage your company from the cloud

Frontier Business is expanding their AnyWare business service offering. They let users manage their company’s usage through the Frontier Cloud. This service is growing into a fully integrated set of services that is easy to manage for any business over the cloud. Let’s take...

Wired vs. wireline: When fiber just isn’t an option

As the global network infrastructure is tasked with maintaining pace with voracious bandwidth demands that continue to rise exponentially, fiber optic wireline networks are often looked at as the silver bullet that can keep up with ever-changing end-user behavior. These thin strands of glass,...

New business cases, technologies driving NB-IoT toward market acceptance (Reality Check)

With the announcements by three major U.S. telecom carriers this year, and significant activity taking place in China, narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) has come out of the shadows in a big way. The announcements by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile that they would be stepping up...

Can CBRS be a DAS killer?

Before we begin, consider the following quote: "Over 70% of commercial buildings have insufficient mobile coverage indoors. OnGo improves wireless coverage and capacity, making it ideal for wireless needs in a world where spectrum is limited, but data demand is not.? - Joel Lindholm,...

Three ways digital technology is recalibrating supply and demand in healthcare (Reader Forum)

The healthcare industry in the United States is hugely complex, and under increasing strain. Pressure is being exerted by multiple factors. The increase in baby boomers retiring and demanding care is arguably the most significant. Rising demand reveals a chronic shortage in terms of...

The role of Common Area Maintenance fees for intelligent buildings

Common Area Maintenace fees, or CAMs, refer to operating expenses that are shared by building owners and tenants in a commerical property.? These fees can range from lighting in a reception area to landscaping in the parking lot to the water cascading from a...

Kagan: Why the T-Mobile US, Sprint merger seems tougher than ever

T-Mobile US and Sprint have been trying to merge for more years than I can count. There have been issues and roadblocks from the government, regulators and the companies themselves. So, why has it been so difficult for these two to actually get together?...

Are you really ready for 5G? (Reality Check)

Using AI-driven analytics to please customers and streamline operations in a 5G world Every day we’re being bombarded with emails, blogs, and vendor dissertations about 5G addressing everything from new media delivery to gigabit speed to mobile devices.  With seemingly limitless bandwidth possibilities, the value-add...

Can One-Touch Make-Ready increase broadband competition? (Reader Forum)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to adopt the long-awaited “One-Touch Make-Ready” (OTMR) regulatory framework today that will allow new entrants in the telecommunication industry to seamlessly attach new equipment to utility poles seamlessly. In the past, an onerous process known as “make-ready” has...

Proposed FCC rule threatens farmers (Reader Forum)

The right mobile broadband infrastructure could deliver big productivity gains to U.S. farmers as the internet of things lets them analyze data about crops, weather, and soil conditions more effectively. But recent policy initiatives, including a rulemaking proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC 18-42)...

AI makes a better salesperson than a network engineer (Reality Check)

In the relatively rare instances that artificial intelligence is already part of a telecommunications network, it is generally there to optimize connectivity and the network itself. However, when deployed correctly an AI salesbot can act as a salesperson, driving sales and increased profitability across...

AR/VR will be the go-to engagement tool in intelligent buildings

Experiential consumerism is the term that describes the immersive experience that retailers are going to have to provide in the future to attract and woo customers. For some, older consumers, this can be described as the ability to try on a shirt in a store...

Will digital labor merge the facility manager and IT manager roles?

Of all the jobs that are threatened to be replaced by AI, big data, and the rise of digital labor it stands to reason that IT Manager might possibly the only job that is completely safe from being automated out of existence. Or is it??...

Congress is wrong to question Huawei’s academic partnerships (Reality Check)

The fruits of the research we fund are a public good not a threat to America Recently my company Huawei was strongly criticised by several members of the U.S. Congress. They asked the U.S. secretary of education to investigate whether our co-operation with U.S. universities...

Kagan: The Charter Spectrum Mobile wireless growth plan

Craig Cowden, the Senior Vice President of wireless for Charter, explained some of their interesting growth plans at a recent U.S. Senate hearing. I think it’s important for all of us to take a moment and pull the camera back. Let’s think about where...

Blockchains, microgrids and building automation systems: Taking commercial real estate off the grid?

As buzzword bingo goes, Blockchain, Microgrid and BAS are all heavy hitters in the tech lexicon. Can all three work together to score a game changer in building automation and sustainability? In a briefing with start-up building automation system vendor BEM Controls, COO Rasheq Rahman...

The advantage of running a telco ranch vs. a wireless pet store (Reader Forum)

With the transformation from hardware-centric networks to networked cloud platforms, the relationship between telecommunications companies (telcos) and their server(s) is inherently changing. Cloud computing introduced a software design paradigm that required a change in the ways enterprise and telco approach operations, and with it...

3 strategic imperatives for winning the secure cloud transition (Reader Forum)

Networking and security IT infrastructures have evolved to a level of complexity unmanageable by operators and enterprises using a conventional approach. The ongoing reliance upon legacy network hardware and disjointed WAN architectures inhibit the operational agility required by global organizations looking to digitize business...