I’m grateful to my peers who spent the time to have coffee over this past week. We all see big changes in the industry and are really worried about the skills needed to capitalize on these changes. What follows are some thoughts that might be useful as we all explore how we can bridge the Read More
Category: Telecom
Security Questions to ask Vendors
What security questions are you asking your vendors? The Bloomberg article, “How Russian Hackers Stole the Nasdaq,” is a sobering insight into today’s risk. It should be a wake-up call for all organizations in all parts of the world to understand that even the best security teams are facing an overwhelming threat. The focused expertise used by Read More
Korea LTE Operators Drive an Ecosystem to Ensure Profitability
“Little things” matter in the telecommunications business. The difference between profitability and “just getting by” often depends on small focus innovations that increase margin, open new business opportunities, and add to the top line revenue. Attention to the “small things” are easily seen with the big three Korean LTE Operators. Their success has less to Read More
Crowdsourcing as a Tool for Network Tuning
Excellent mobile customer experience is now the #1 factor keeping happy & paying customers. As the network grows in capacity, coverage, and complexity (heterogeneous network = complexity), the cost of constantly tuning the network also increases. The core mobility vendors[1] are putting forward a variety of “customer experience” tools. These tools work as an integral Read More
U.S. Anti-Bot Code of Conduct (ABCs) for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is now posted
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council’s (CSRIC) has now posted the U.S. Anti-Bot Code of Conduct (ABCs) for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This voluntary code of conduct is a milestone for the industry – placing new expectations on the eco-system required to safe guard our telecommunications system. The core of the code is Read More
NSP-SEC Top 10 SP Security Techniques – Updated Slides
NSP-SEC Top 10 SP Security Techniques is one of the core foundation tutorials for ALL Telcos, ISPs, Cloud Operators, Mobile Companies, and other large ASNs (including Enterprises). This is the foundation for network security. If you are being stupid if not doing these basics and trusting your “firewall.” Note though this that all the recommendations Read More
Beware, Security Liability does roll down hill
In a working “risk” system, security liability would roll “downhill” to an accountable party. Who wrote the code? Who did the audit? Who certified the system as “secure? In my own work, I mention to my peers how everything has changed in today’s Converged Internet/Global Telecommunications world. Liability and accountability roll downhill. If something happens Read More
Highlights of Mobile World Congress 2009
With about 47,000 attendees to the exhibition and conference in Barcelona, Mobile World Congress was quite a vibrant experienced indeed. What was of particular interest to me, was the Internet revolution on mobile- finally! How bringing the Internet (and its related applications such as social networking) has brought a brave new frontier for the mobile Read More
Submarine Cable Cuts – What is the Real Story?
We’ve seen a flurry of outages on some of the major submarine cable systems: http://www.getit.org/Mediawiki/index.php?title=Submarine_Cable_Systems_in_the_News Some points everyone is missing. First, as I pointed out on a NANOG post, cable outages happen all the time. Nothing new. that is why we have a large fleet of ships to repair cables. At the time of these Read More
Principles of Trans-Oceanic Systems
Interconnecting with Services Providers (SPs) across the ocean is expensive and risky. The cost of the links are often the largest entry in the OPEX budget. All of it in hard currency which leaves the company (vs paying another department inside the SP). The risk to these links is often over looked. Oceanic telecommunications systems Read More