Europe to Consider Splitting Telecom, Internet Access Divisions of Telcos
The European Commission will consider tomorrow a plan to fundamentally restructure the way a European telecommunications company manages and offers services to its customers. A new and broad-reaching centralized regulatory framework may mandate that companies separate their Internet data and telephone voice communications services into distinct divisions, in the name of maintaining fair competition with providers who can't offer bundled services.
"I have come to the conclusion that the instrument of functional separation should be added to the remedies tool box of national telecom regulators, to be available for the stubborn cases where other remedies have been tried, but have failed to deliver the desired regulatory outcome," stated EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding, in a speech last October 11. There, Comm.
Gigahertz Makes a Comeback as Intel Rolls Out 45 nm CPUs
Within the next 45 days, Intel's first 45 nm processors for both servers and desktops will be available in quantity, the company announced this morning. Along with them comes the return of what many enthusiasts and system builders consider an old friend: clock speed.
Vastly smaller transistors made possible by Intel's truly legitimate breakthrough high-k-plus-metal-gate manufacturing process - previously known as HK+MG, but referred to today by Intel as simply Hi-K - are paying off considerably. At the time the development was first announced, Intel told BetaNews that one of the payoffs of smaller transistors will be reduced heat and power leakage, which would translate into greater clock speeds. This at a time when Intel's chief competitor, AMD, had been telling customers that "gigahertz is dead;" and just after Intel itself had published white papers pronouncing "the gigahertz myth."
Windows Server 2008 Versions Announced, with Few Changes
The breakdown for the various editions of Windows Server 2008 was revealed this morning by Microsoft, and the big news there is the almost total lack of change: Retail server software editions for the next Windows Server will fall right in line with the current Windows Server 2003 R2 editions, including the number of client access licenses (CALs) provided in the basic package.
The Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions will continue to retail for $999, $3,999, and $2,999 respectively, just as their 2003 R2 counterparts do today. Licensing terms will also apparently remain identical, with 5 CALs minimum for the Standard edition and 25 CALs for Enterprise. The Datacenter edition will apparently retain its hybrid licensing model, which is divided into a "server license" (per-processor) and "client license" component, since that edition was designed for installation on multi-processor clusters.
More Muni-Wi-Fi Project Slowdowns in Boston, Cleveland
As major US cities and American carriers still struggle for what's looking more and more like the same piece of the Wi-Fi pie for revenue, two more municipal projects appear to be slowing down. The Boston Globe reported Wednesday that the non-profit organization set up to manage that city's project now says it's unlikely to be completed at any time in 2008.
This just days after interest from carriers in Cleveland's project is reportedly waning after that city's mayor decided to reject any bids from companies that would require the city to be their anchor tenant - to sign on to a long-term project, usually with plenty of funding up-front. The term comes from the world of real estate, where site management firms make commitments to build shopping malls once they've secured anchor tenants to guarantee customers. A dispute over anchor tenancy provisions is believed to have killed a deal between Earthlink and the city of Chicago last August.
WiMAX Future Looks Cloudier as Sprint, Clearwire Call It Off
In a further indication that the business model for WiMAX service in the United States has yet to materialize, Sprint Nextel and broadband service provider Clearwire - the latest venture to be founded by wireless telecom pioneer Craig McCaw - have called off their joint project, announced just last July, to roll out WiMAX service throughout the US.
The strange Xohm brand (pronounced "zoam," rhyming with "foam") will continue, although Sprint is now writing it as a word and not a false acronym ("XOHM"). And Sprint's ongoing project to roll out WiMAX service to the Baltimore/Washington and Chicago markets will apparently continue, as those projects were already well under way before the partnership ever took root.
Sony CEO Declares Stalemate in Blu-ray/HD DVD Battle
A widely circulated Associated Press report early this morning quotes Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer, speaking before a "Captains of Industry" lecture at the Cultural Center of the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan yesterday, as having declared the format war between the Blu-ray format his company champions and HD DVD a "stalemate."
Sir Howard reportedly punctuated those remarks by saying things had been going well for Blu-ray until last August, when rival Viacom unit Paramount decided to end its support for both formats and support HD DVD exclusively.
EU Trade Commissioner Pressures US to End Internet Gambling Ban
As a demonstration of the rapidly growing payoff from the falling value of the US dollar against foreign currency, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson was in Washington today as part of an effort to compel Congress to repeal a ban on Internet gambling signed into law last year. Comm. Mandelson argued that the ban was unfair to Europe, where much of the world's online gambling operations are centered.
"It's not in the interest of American consumers to have good responsible competitors in this market excluded by regulatory mechanisms," Reuters quotes Mandelson as having told a Capitol Hill press gathering.
Whistleblower: AT&T Maintained a 'Secret Room' for the NSA
Bringing his claims to Capitol Hill for the first time, former AT&T network technician Mark Klein appeared yesterday at a press conference to reiterate his astonishing claim: AT&T operated a 24 x 48-foot room in one of its network operations centers in San Francisco, where Klein discovered his employer was cooperating with the National Security Agency in the monitoring of all Internet traffic over a major backbone line.
"I have first-hand knowledge of the clandestine collaboration between one giant telecommunications company, AT&T, and the National Security Agency to facilitate the most comprehensive illegal domestic spying program in history," Klein remarked in his press conference yesterday.
Some Blu-ray BD+ Equipped Discs Now Duplicable, But For How Long?
A mere five months after the initial specification for the long-awaited BD+ copy protection system for Blu-ray Disc was formally released, the manufacturers of the media disc backup utility AnyDVD HD released a beta that has apparently been proven capable of copying BDs equipped with BD+ protection.
The beta of version 6.1.9.6 is apparently not without problems or exceptions, as indicated by a check of manufacturer SlySoft's forums today. Users reported problems copying Fantastic Four, Live Free or Die Hard, Sunshine, The Hills Have Eyes, and Spiderman 3 - which collectively constitute the bulk of all BD+ titles currently available. 20th Century-Fox was the first label to produce BD+ titles, and continues to be a principal champion of the system.
Microsoft + Novell at One: What's Changed for Interoperability?
It was one year ago this week that Microsoft and Novell proclaimed their historic and still controversial agreement to not hold each other responsible for using any technology the other may have created or have rights to. Whether either side actually had the legal right to claim what technology it would agree not to claim, is still a matter of debate.
Like the famous transfusion between Gene Wilder's version of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, Microsoft appears to have gotten a part of Novell's "wonderful brain." But what did Novell get in return?
Latest SoundExchange Royalties Offer Suggests Possible Compromise
Perhaps in anticipation of the passage of federal legislation capping the amount of performance royalties collectable from Internet and other digital audio broadcasters at 7.5% of annual revenue, the SoundExchange performance rights organization has reportedly offered one segment of that group - cable radio broadcasters - an annual royalty rate not exceeding that same amount.
Though the news has not yet formally been confirmed by SoundExchange, according to the SaveNetRadio campaign on Monday, cable radio operators were offered a performance royalties rate scale of between 7.25% and 7.5% of annual revenues, which would take effect for each year between 2008 and 2012. SoundExchange had earlier rejected a 7.5% rate when offered as a compromise to the far higher rates it suggested for Internet radio streamers last March.
Rep. Lantos to Yahoo: 'Morally, You Are Pygmies'
In a scene staged for maximum dramatic effect, complete with the mother and family of jailed dissident Shi Tao seated directly behind them, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and chief counsel Michael Callahan were grilled yesterday for over three hours by Rep. Tom Lantos (D - Calif.) and his House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"While technologically and financially you are giants," Chairman Lantos reprimanded them, with his face cast down and his eyes peering out like the famous promotional poster for A Clockwork Orange, "morally, you are pygmies."
Fired: Microsoft CIO Violated Company Policies
Without much explanation late yesterday, Microsoft notified the press that it had terminated the employment of its Chief Information Officer, Stuart Scott, for violation of its corporate policies. This after having appeared on stage just seven weeks ago to hold up Microsoft's IT department as a role model for, as he described it, stamping out "shadow IT" agents within corporations, so that they can do more with less.
Scott may have done exactly that for Microsoft during his short tenure there. In 2005, he was brought onto the CIO role from General Electric, only to find that Microsoft already had somebody called "Chief Information Officer" reporting to a different department. That person was Ron Markezich, whose role was described at the time as "chief beta tester." Since that time, Markezich has shifted to Vice President of Managed Solutions, with his awkward co-CIO role having effectively been stamped out.
MPEG-2 Patent Holder, Licensing Agent in High-Def Codec Dispute
The company which saw the biggest IP infringement verdict in history granted to it and then taken away, faces a new problem this week over another part of its MPEG IP portfolio. The principal licensing agent for MPEG codec technology, MPEG LA, has sued Alcatel-Lucent in Delaware court.
Its claim is that Alcatel didn't have the right to absorb Lucent's IP portfolio -- which included patents on MPEG-2 technology -- into a new and separate trust, after Lucent had already made a commitment to provide that technology through MPEG LA.
Microsoft Launches Assault on Google's Search Appliances
In a clear move to undercut one of Google's most noteworthy revenue sources outside of advertising, Microsoft today launched its "search server" strategy by releasing both a free and a commercial version of software that performs many of the same functions as a dedicated search appliance.
In classic Microsoft fashion, the company has released a free edition of the product as its way of crashing the gate.
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