Recently in Telecommunications Category

OK, dear readers, how many of you out there are still using Internet Explorer 6? If you are, why?

IE6 has to be the most targeted web browser for hacker exploits, even with the security patches provided by Microsoft. If you're still using it, it's time for a change. Just about any modern browser will be more secure than IE6.

We here at The Manse use Firefox 3.6.3 and we update it as soon as new updates are available. Microsoft has IE8. There's Opera, Chrome, Safari, and a whole host of other browsers out there. Pick one, try it, and if you don't like it, try another one. But get rid of IE6 now.

Note: For full disclosure, at work we use both Firefox and IE6. The decision about IE6 is not ours, but that of our corporate IT folks. About the only thing we (meaning Engineering) use it for is some internal applications (Oracle, Microsoft Project Web Access, and one or two other corporate applications), but never for URLs outside the corporate proxy server.

It appears Frontier Communications has fallen further under the spell of Verizon's sales pitch, with the sale of Verizon's Oregon assets to Frontier being OK'd by Oregon's PUC.

But not everything is rosy. At least someone in one state is questioning the wisdom of the sale in light of the fate of other small rural-service telcos that bought what Verizon was selling.

The State Journal-Register newspaper in Springfield reports that [Administrative Law Judge] Lisa Tapia said in a 46-page report that allowing Frontier to purchase the Verizon lines in Illinois "will diminish Frontier's ability to perform its duties to provide adequate, reliable, efficient, safe and least-cost public utility service."

--snip--

Unfortunately for Frontier, they are caught up in the back wash of Verizon's other local exchange divestments. Both FairPoint and Hawaiian Telecom completed similar transactions, and are both now in bankruptcy.

Both FairPoint and Hawaiian Telecom paid far too much for the assets they bought.

In northern New England FairPoint bought an increasing share of a decreasing market, always a formula for disaster. Wireline customers have been shedding themselves of traditional landlines and using either cell phones or VoIP services from their local cable companies for some time, both of which have been competitively priced compared to FairPoint. FairPoint lost over 13% of their customers since they took over operations from Verizon. And because of FairPoint's financial difficulties, its promise to expand broadband service to at least 95% of its service area has fallen by the wayside.

The best thing Illinois could do for telephone customers is to run from the Verizon-Frontier deal. In the end the only one such a deal helps is Verizon. Everyone else will be screwed. Frontier doesn't have the financial wherewithal to handle such a deal and will end up in the same situation as FairPoint and Hawaiian Telecom - in bankruptcy. That helps no one...except the lawyers.

Over the past few years the functionality of cell phones has grown to the point that there are so many functions built in that they rival many home computers in regards to the types and numbers of software applications they can run. They can act as organizers, send and receive e-mail, surf the web, text message, take pictures, record video and audio, play music, play games, give turn by turn directions, and perform a host of other tasks. But one thing they don't always do so well is make phone calls, something customers want them to be able to do.

Over 1,300 survey respondents were asked the open ended question, "What features are desired on your next phone?" The top three responses were better connectivity, better audio and simplicity.

In many cases vendors have been so focused on making complex camera phones, music phones or mobile Internet devices, they have lost sight of the fact that phone functionality is mediocre at best. How often have we seen someone with a finger in one ear and a cellphone pressed to the other ear, desperately trying to hear a conversation? Our survey responses suggest that there is an opportunity for vendors to develop phones with great audio quality, robust connectivity and antenna features that are simply easy to use.

I know there are times when I am not pleased with the quality of the connection and audio on my cell phone. It isn't a problem with drop outs that I find the most vexing, but the poor quality of the transmit and receive audio. It would be nice to have what is called toll-quality audio when I'm using my cell phone rather than the variable and consistently poor quality I deal with now.

Here's yet another non-surprise in regards to FairPoint Communications and their ongoing financial and operations difficulties: The New York Stock Exchange delisted FairPoint today. Their stock fell to a little over 10¢ per share after the NYSE's action.

And the hits keep on coming.

Let this be a lesson for Frontier Communications, a firm that also spent far too much money for some more of Verizon's rural wireline assets. That's what caused FairPoint's problems. I have a feeling Frontier will end up in the same boat.