Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders

The Wireless ISP Industry & Cellular Offloading
The Wireless ISP Industry & Cellular Offloading: Analysis and Forecast

This little-understood industry is at the threshold of moving into urban markets and transforming Internet access much like CATV changed television thirty years ago. Additionally, smartphones and tablet computers offer gigantic opportunities for Wireless ISPs to operate large area Wi-Fi networks enabling users to avoid the bandwidth limits and congestion of cellular systems. (August, 2011)

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Explaining the Wikipedia Blackout

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on January 19, 2012

 
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burger_jim“Gee, Granddad (or Granny), tells us again about the day the Wikipedia went dark!”

Today’s 18-minute audio interview is with Jim Burger who is a copyright attorney with Dow, Lohnes in Washington, D. C. He’s specialized in copyright law for thirty years and prior to Dow, Lohnes was on the legal staff at Apple.

Wikipedia turned out the lights yesterday to protest two bills in Congress. Proponents claim the bills need to be enacted in order to protect movies, recorded music, and other “intellectual property” from piracy. Opponents assert enactment of the bills will, (a) censor the Internet, (b) obstruct innovation, and (3) place expensive burdens on innocent third parties.

To download 18-minute audio interview to iPod, iPhone, or iPad, click here.

The House Bill is termed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The Senate Bill is called the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Most Internet-centric organizations object to the bills, but Wikipedia is the paragon for three reasons. Read more…

First Certified White Space Radio

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on January 6, 2012

 
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ktsToday’s sixteen minute audio interview is with William Koos, Jr. who is the Chief Executive Officer of KTS Wireless. For the past 30 years his company has been a specialty-maker of high performance radios for both military and commercial markets. Presently, KTS produces the only TV Band White Space transceiver certified by the Federal Communications Commission.

“Billy” discusses the earlier trials that KTS did with White Spaces under experimental licenses. He also shares his thoughts regarding how the White Spaces market will evolve in both the United States and abroad.

Download 16-minute audio interview to iPod, iPhone, and iPad here.

One of his conclusions is that municipal Wi-Fi markets will benefit considerably from TV Band White Spaces. He reasons that the FCC envisions White Space technology as encompassing the best of both licensed and unlicensed networks. While they will be able to provide the interference protection of licensed networks they simultaneously offer the innovative free-market access characteristic of licensed-exempt networks. Read more…

Future Unlicensed Wireless Networks

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on December 23, 2011

 
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liorToday’s nineteen minute audio interview is with Lior Shemesh who is the Chief Financial Officer of Israel-based Alvarion. His company is a maker of WiMax and WiFi equipment.

Future unlicensed wireless Internet access networks will use a variety of standards to provide large zones of coverage. Such standards will include WiMax, WiFi, and White Spaces. As users, we won’t know, or care, which standard is being used. All we’ll care about is how well and how fast we are connected wirelessly to the Internet within a wireless coverage zone.

Download 19 minute audio interview to iPod, iPhone, or iPad here.

Wi-Max discussions can be confusing because there are two standards. Read more…

Future Wi-Fi Networks

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on December 15, 2011

 
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roryToday’s podcast is a thirty minute audio interview with Rory Conaway who is the CEO of Triad Wireless Engineering. He is also the author of a constantly growing online book entitled Tales From the Tower which is an excellent source on The Wireless Internet.

Triad is a radio engineering consultancy with two basic services. One is to help equipment vendors and wireless operators bid for, and build, economical wireless communications systems, typically not involving cellular carriers. A second function is to advise equipment vendors on future designs.

Download thirty minute audio interview here.

Rory believes that unlicensed Wi-Fi networks are poised to handle a considerably larger-than-historical share of Internet traffic for four reasons.
Read more…

Let’s Retire the iPhone Smartphone

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on December 13, 2011

 
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philblueheadshot1The iPhone resembles a smartphone less than a BMW does a horseless carriage.

As noted five years ago in this Inside Digital Media video podcast, the device is more accurately labeled a “teleputer”. (The podcast is so old it was done in Windows Media Video). George Gilder originated the concept about twenty years ago when he envisioned a hand-held unit providing convenient wireless access to a global computer network. It was kind-of the evolutionary destination implied by a popular computer industry slogan at the time, to wit, “the network is the computer.”

Download five minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, and iPod here.

Each day Gilder’s concept becomes increasingly obvious to a growing proportion of iPhone users.  Today everyone realizes telephone conversations are only one of many useful iPhone functions. More significantly, iPhone users are progressively learning that computer applications are becoming the unit’s raison d’etre. In short, the phone’s digital capabilities such as photography, geo-location, audio & video playback, and especially Internet access, are the defining characteristics. Applications like Skype and FaceTime portend an era when cellular telephony per se, becomes irrelevant to iPhone owners. Read more…

Two Years Before Time-Warner Cable

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on December 9, 2011

 
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philblueheadshotEarlier this week Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal provided implications (1) about the ultimate potential of Wi-Fi and unlicensed networks and (2) that the Cable industry is not really “about” television anymore.

For example, he quoted Time-Warner Cable’s strategy chief, Peter Stern: “We’re basically a broadband (Internet) provider….As a convenience to our customers we (also) package and distribute television (programming)”.

Inside Digital Media subscribers got the word two years before Mr. Stern in our “Cable Operators Will Abandon TV” post and podcast on December 5, 2009. The viewpoint created a lot of flak at the time.

In short, we concluded cable operators would eventually abandon television service for two reasons. First, Internet services are much more profitable. Second, cable networks like ESPN will constantly pressure CATV operators to raise subscriber rates or accept lower profit margins.

Download two minute audio narration here.

We recommended that CATV managements begin to focus on providing increasingly reliable and lightning-fast Internet while preparing for the day when it would be wise to divest or spin-off the pay television service. Unlike you, Peter Stern was not an Inside Digital Media subscriber. Read more…

TV Incentive Auctions and White Spaces

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on December 7, 2011

 
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corantvToday’s podcast is a twenty-five minute interview with Steve Coran who is a co-founder of Rini Coran which is Washington law firm dedicated to wireless FCC work. We discuss two topics: (1) incentive auctions for TV stations and (2) TV Band White Spaces.

TV Station Incentive Auctions

Steve estimates it could be three years before TV station auctions actually take place.

Background. At the behest of the FCC, Congress is considering bills to permit selected local TV stations to auction their broadcast spectrum. The likely buyers are cellular operators like AT&T and Verizon. Presumably, most of the auction proceeds would go to the U.S. Treasury, but a minority fraction would be retained by the selling station.

Download 25 minute audio interview to iPhone, iPad, or iPod here.

Typically the seller would use the proceeds to continue broadcasting by sharing spectrum with another local TV station. Digital technology enables traditional analog TV channel band to broadcast multiple streams of digital programming. Selling stations could arrange to share their portion of the auction proceeds with a non-selling station in order to get access to the spectrum needed to remain a competitive broadcaster. Most viewers would be unaware that two competitors are sharing a single TV channel because cable systems would assign each a separate ‘channel’ on the programming guide.

Read more…

Fulfilling a Steve Jobs Vision

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on November 28, 2011

 
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wavionToday’s podcast is a twenty-five minute interview with Ulik  Broida who is the Vice President of Marketing at Israel-based Wavion, which is a subsidiary of wireless equipment maker, Alvarion. Wavion specializes in Wi-Fi access points designed for outdoor use.

Earlier this month the senior founder at Trilogy Partnership disclosed that Steve Jobs was originally seriously considering whether Apple could build a nationwide Wi-Fi network for the iPhone. Since Wi-Fi spectrum is unlicensed Apple could build its own network thereby avoiding the possibility that the iPhone user experience would be dependent upon cellular carriers. Presumably, with the iPad on the drawing board, Jobs could see that much of Apple’s future growth would depend upon the availability of reliable wireless service at reasonable fees.

Download 25 minute audio interview to iPod, iPhone, or iPad.

According to Trilogy’s John Stanton, who spent a lot of time with Jobs during iPhone gestation, “(Jobs) wanted to replace carriers. He and I spent a lot of time examining whether a new carrier could be created synthetically with a national Wi-Fi network using unlicensed spectrum.” Jobs eventually partnered with AT&T, partly because the carrier agreed to subsidize the iPhone subscriber costs. Nonetheless, Stanton concluded, “If I were a carrier, I’d be concerned about the dramatic power shift that occurred.” Read more…