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This week, the acquisition of Time Warner Cable by Charter Communications closed and the new owner said that it is going to do away with the old firm’s name.
The closing of the $55.1 billion deal occurred about a year after it was first announced. The Time Warner Cable name, which is described as toxic in some quarters, will be phased out over time, according to Bloomberg.
It is not as if Charter is intensely popular in its own right. The story refers to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which gave TWC 51 out of 100 points. Charter, however, has its own woes: Its pay television service only scored a 63 and it trailed TWC – 57 to 58 – as a broadband service provider.
AT&T Discusses 5G
AT&T has filled in some of the blanks on its 5G testing plans, according to Light Reading.
Speaking earlier this month at the Jefferies 2016 Technology Conference, Senior Vice President of Technology Planning and Engineering Scott Mair reiterated that the operator plans to test 15GHZ fixed wireless this summer and 28GHz fixed by the end of the year.
Mair said that the company will use pre-standard equipment to test 5G mobile by late next year. Fixed testing will be run with Ericsson AB and Intel and the scope of testing will evolve over time.
IPv6 Still Not a Done Deal
It seems odd that we are still talking about the importance of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). But we are. The very short version of why IPv6 is vital: The old scheme for the Internet is not nearly big enough to support the trillions of addresses that will be needed in this brave new age. IPv6 offers a virtually endless supply.
The problem is that implementing IPv6 is a long, ongoing task. Charles Sun, the technology co-chair of the U.S. Federal IPv6 Task Force, described at Network World why IPv6 is a must have if the Internet of Things (IoT) is to succeed.
He offers five reasons: That the IoT simply requires more addresses than IPv4 has to offer; that the growth of the cloud further straps that supply; that IPv6 offers significant security benefits; that IPv4 was never meant to carry this load (which seems to be more or less a restatement of the first point); and finally, that adopting IPv6 is “a matter of leadership, vision and [a] competitive edge.”
The Case for BC Grows Stronger
Perhaps the main challenge business continuity (BC) faces is that it doesn’t generate revenue. Most people understand that it is a good thing to have. However, business continuity is easily bumped off the to-do list by things that actually open the cash register.
Matt Kingswood, the head of managed services IT Specialists, a company in the UK, suggests that companies that bypass BC are making big mistakes for two reasons. One is that the kind of disasters that BC is geared to deal with are coming more frequently. He also points out that the process of putting a BC plan in place has benefits independent of its value in an emergency:
The planning process, which begins with a business impact analysis (BIA), forces a business to assess and prioritise critical processes, employee roles and technology. By taking a closer look at the organization’s inner workings, management are likely to discover new opportunities for cost savings or even revenue generation. These opportunities are nearly guaranteed to surface if the organization works with a consultant who can provide an objective business continuity assessment.
Nokia Back in Device Mode
Nokia’s absence from the device market didn’t last long. WirelessWeek reports that the company has signed a deal for Nokia-branded phones to be manufactured by HMD.
The 10-year deal covers intellectual property rights in addition to branding. HMD will pay royalties to Nokia Technologies for sale of the phones. Nokia will not produce the phones but will get a seat on HMD’s board and set brand and specification requirements.
Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
