The Hill Associates Week in Telecom (tHAWT - thought)

tHAWT Episode #38: January 12, 2007 - Projectors on a Plane
featuring Michel Gilbert, Trevor Hindson, and Mark Steinberg
In this week's episode, Mark, Trevor, and Michel discuss a variety of topics including the rebranding of Cingular, the Verizon Ethernet roadmap, the iPhone announcement, other cell phones and gadgets from CES (including those projectors), and enhanced security for Wi-Fi. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #37: January 5, 2007 - AT&T The Merger (the last time—again)
featuring Paul Whalen, Dave Train, and Peter Southwick
In this episode, Paul, Peter, and Dave discuss the AT&T BellSouth merger for the last time (or not). Immediately following the last episode the FCC voted on the merger and so we had to raise the topic again. Here the focus is on the potential for the new entity. The discussion includes a look at the role of wireless, for AT&T and others, the bundling of services (triple and quad plays). They also discuss who will be the third big carrier (rule of three). Will it be different in the consumer and SMB space to the larger enterprise space? The session ends with the speculation about the iPod phone which may, or may not, be announced at next week's Macworld. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #36: December 29, 2006 - Got Pennies?
featuring Paul Whalen, Dave Train, and Trevor Hindson
In this episode, Trevor, Paul, and Dave close the year with a discussion of the industry in 2006 and offer some speculation about 2007. Most of the discussion centers around the mergers, acquisitions and splits in 2006. What do they mean to the companies, the industry and customers? Other major topics for discussion are: the emergence of the triple play; Net Neutrality (brief); the continuing soap opera of the AT&T and BellSouth merger; and the globalization of the industry. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #35: December 22, 2006 - Do We Need To Lawyer Up?
featuring Paul Whalen, Dave Train, Adam Rabidoux, Todd Pritsky, and Andrew Hindson
Well, it's almost the end of the year, so Adam, Andrew, Dave, Paul and Todd got together for a chat about what they consider the coolest technology happenings of 2006. No thoughts were harmed and very few laws were broken during the recording session. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #34: December 15, 2006 - End of an ERA
featuring Paul Whalen, Peter Southwick, Adam Rabidoux, and Dave Johnston
In preparation for the holiday party weekend, the Hill Associates folks are gathering in Vermont. In this episode, Paul, Peter, and Adam are joined by Dave Johnston for a lighthearted discussion of the activities of the week. Topics covered include the mergers, TV usage statistics and trends, SMS rate hikes, and Skype billing options. Domain tasting was discussed as well as the amount of money to be made with this scheme. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #33: December 8, 2006 - WiNOT and the VoIP Dead Zone
featuring Dave Train and Paul Whalen
After a hectic week, Paul and Dave kick back and discuss a few of the hot issues in telecom. In this episode they start with a look at the wireless world. WiMAX and RFID are the main topics, but as ususal they stray from the main theme. As we enter the peak buying season of the year, HDTVs are leaping of the shelves, all looking for homes with HD feeds. A quick status report on AT&T and Verizon entertainment offerings is proffered. Meanwhile, Rupert has regained full control of News Corp and has unleashed John Malone on DirecTV. In the final minutes, before they head off for a cocktail, Paul and Dave discuss the VoIP dead zone and the new venture for the Skype guys. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #32: December 1, 2006 - Veni, Vidi, Vista
featuring Mark Steinberg
It has been a busy week for us. So, since everyone is otherwise preoccupied, Mark Steinberg flies solo in this episode of tHAWT on the day after the announcement that Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, is now available after a five year development cycle. Interesting announcements also by Yahoo, Verizon, Wal-Mart and AT&T add a bit of fuel to the musings fire. Mark takes a peek in to the future at a look at the Top 30 IT Trends for 2007, and wonders what the end of the year will bring. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #31: November 24, 2006 - Black Friday Musings
featuring Dave Train and Todd Pritsky
In this episode, Dave and Todd emerge from tryptophan-induced comas and avoid the Black Friday crush by podcasting in relative safety about iPod and IP video, the Library of Congress, and telcos versus the cable companies yet again. Todd even makes a stunning admission that he hopes is not admissible in court. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #30: November 17, 2006 - Games, bots, and wireless
featuring Dave Train, Paul Whalen, and Adam Rabidoux
In this episode, Paul Whalen, Dave Train, and Adam Rabidoux spend a fun 20 minutes discussing a variety of news topics. Paul opens with the “dump and pump” spambots. A lively discussion of gaming and the PS/3 ensues, followed by the migration to digital TV. The remainder of the session is a look at a variety of wireless technologies including WiMAX, WiFi and cellular. Paul introduces a variety of long acronyms and dazzles us with simple explanations of the potential migration to 4G with WiMAX technologies. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #29: November 10, 2006 - The tHAWT Police
featuring Dave Train, Paul Whalen, and Trevor Hindson
In this episode, Dave Train, Paul Whalen and Trevor Hindson discuss the recent election result and the how the shift in power may change the decisions and processes affecting the telecom industry. Senator Ted Stevens cropped up again as did net neutrality and Senator Kennedy's views. In international news the Telstra share offer T3 was discussed along with their ADSL2+ roll out. Of course we had to mention that Britney Spears allegedly dumped K-Fed using a text message. There have been rumors of a Sprint Nextel purchase and it appears that the recent analysts agree with Dave on this one. Other news includes a new version of Skype rolling out and announcements of the Internet Telephony magazine's VoIP awards for 2006. We also discovered this week that our podcasts are going to be mentioned in an upcoming IEEE Spectrum magazine. The following are some links mentioned in the podcast. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #28: November 3, 2006 - Come on FCC, we are waiting...
featuring Mark Steinberg and Trevor Hindson
In this episode, Mark Steinberg and Trevor Hindson got together via Skype on the day that the FCC was supposed to be making a decision on the merger of BellSouth and AT&T. We discussed a number of the financial announcements from the various players: Verizon, Qwest, and Vonage. We also talked about some other VoIP players like Jajah which has an interesting model though a somewhat controversial one, and Netgear's Wi-Fi phone which offers ease of use for Skype VoIP users, as well as business friendly Skype. Not to be left out, Google's acquisition of Jotspot was also worth a discussion seeing as we have been spending more efforts in wiki's ourselves, but that might be letting out more that I am supposed to say at the moment. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #27: October 27, 2006 - The Wait Continues...
featuring Paul Whalen and Trevor Hindson
In this episode, Trevor and Paul discuss the continuing saga of the AT&T mergers with recent news that AT&T has filed with the FCC that there are a number of companies vying for the assets that AT&T is required to divest as a result of the SBC merger, encouraging the FCC to close the BellSouth merger. More details can be found in the Telephony article. The advanced wireless spectrum auction completed a short while ago and T-Mobile has been a big purchaser. With all this money being spent on spectrum, what is to be used for? Will social networking go mobile? However it seems that US users are slow to take up 3G services. Perhaps services like Nakama will drive usage, where not only can you post pictures direct from your phone but you get called by the site to then record a message to be tagged with the picture, that should increase revenue. And finally in a somewhat unrelated story, Firefox 2.0, a free open source browser, was released this week. This is a popular browser in the geekdom and many of the features found in earlier versions have now found their way into the recent Internet Explorer 7. Due to the open nature of the browser many extensions are available from the firefox community, a recent extension I have found to be useful is googlepedia which mashes google and wikipedia results on the same page in split screen. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #26: October 20, 2006 - A week of results, merger, splits and the U-verse
featuring Dave Train
In this episode, Dave Train reviews this week’s activities in telecom. Cingular has announced their Q3 results, which look good. What will we see from Verizon Wireless, Sprint-Nextel and T-Mobile? While Cingular did well, the news was not as good for the equipment manufacturers. Level 3 announce their acquisition of Broadwing, is this the end, or are there more to acquisitions to come? Verizon looks to spin off their directories business in November. How much will they get and what will they do with it? Time Warner gets ready to sell shares in Time Warner Cable. Does this suggest a spin off in the future? How might this impact the business going forward? Finally, are you ready for the U-verse? AT&T has aggressive plans to bring consumers into their entertainment offering, U-verse. What are customers saying today? What are the plans for expansion? All this and more….. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #25: October 13, 2006 - Buy, buy baby and GooTube
featuring Dave Train and Mark Steinberg
In this episode, Mark and Dave look at the various mergers and acquisitions occurring in the industry. When will the AT&T BellSouth merger close? How long will the delay be? Dave and Mark share their thoughts. Google and YouTube consummate a $1.65b deal. Why? What is in it for both sides? Who is the third YouTube founder? Will it impact Google’s deal with MySpace? What’s next for Google? Is Yahoo really in trouble? Mark and Dave share their thoughts on these and other topics. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #24: October 06, 2006 - I can get in trouble for that?
featuring Trevor Hindson and Paul Whalen
In this episode of tHAWT, Trevor and Paul review the news items that have a theme of content on the Internet getting people in trouble. From the problems the rep. Mark Foley has found himself in after his indiscrete instant messages with pages, to members of the Hewlet Packard’s board allegedly illegally gaining person records from carriers and even the a blogger being successfully sued for libel. It brings into question responsibility for information that can be obtained from the web, which may be why some municipalities are looking at filtering what can be accessed from their “free” Wi-Fi services. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #23: September 29, 2006 - Bernie and Sol: Leaders or Bleeders?
featuring Mark Steinberg, Trevor Hindson, and Dave Train
In this weeks episode the subject of leadership is raised with Bernie going to jail and Sol under fire. Most people are aware of Bernie Ebbers, now they can learn about Sol Trujillo the former US West CEO who is now causing a stir down under. The triple play raises it head again and we discover that Mark is an unusual duck. Verizon announce financial data for their FiOS offering and cable companies continue to see success for their triple play. Competition on the business side is discussed as IBM enters the VoIP service business. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #22: September 22, 2006 - What would John Malone YouTube?
featuring Todd Pritsky and Dave Train
In this episode, Dave and Todd revisit John Malone's dance with Murdoch and DirecTV, and discuss how the cable companies continue to turn their triple plays, results of the latest wireless auction, advertising trends and the exploding YouTube phenomenon.  Trust us, it's all related. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #21: September 15, 2006 - The possible return of John Malone and other entertainment news
featuring Dave Train
The wireless advanced services auction (AWS) is coming to a close. As expected the top bidders are the wireless carriers; however, the combination of the cable companies and Sprint Nextel makes you wonder what the plans are. In this episode Dave explores this and other wireless issues, such as the potential for John Malone to retake his place as a major player in the network business. The other topic of the day is entertainment. What are the content providers trying to do? How are the equipment providers helping? This week Microsoft introduced Zune, Apple announced enhancements to the iPod. Where is it all going? more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #20: September 08, 2006 - Gorillas and Video and WiFi, Oh My!
featuring Peter Southwick and Todd Pritsky
In this episode, Peter and Todd have a wide-ranging discussion about Lucatel, the optical equipment market, Apple versus Amazon, yet another Google search engine, content aggregation, WiFi and bypassing traditional carriers.  Can you believe they crammed all of that in 17 minutes?  True story. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #19: September 01, 2006 - The Vagaries of Wireless
featuring Paul Whalen, Dave Train, and Peter Southwick
Paul, Dave and Peter discuss the happenings in the world of wireless. Will we have a single device to access cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX networks in the near future? How big will the batteries be for the 4G phone? Can you go faster than 25 mph in Tokyo? All this and more in this twenty minute episode. more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #18: August 25, 2006 - Consumer Market Redux
featuring Dave Traindson and Mark Steinberg
This week Dave is alone as all the instructors are out teaching. He revisits the consumer market for the triple play. A recent USA Today article provides more data to confirm that competition is good for the consumer. A related topic is the removal of the Universal Services Fund fees from DSL offerings. He looks at the decision of Verizon and BellSouth to replace the USF fee with a new fee. BellSouth has since withdrawn their fee, probably due to concerns of rocking the boat at a time their merger with AT&T is being reviewed. In the final segment Dave answers listeners’ questions about the technology behind Fiber to the Premises (FTTP). He provides a brief description of BPON and GPON technologies.   more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #17: August 18, 2006 - What's Happening with the Consumer Market?
featuring Dave Train and Mark Steinberg
Dave and Mark focus their discussion on the consumer market. The recent growth in broadband wireless access options is examined from the Wi-Fi mesh, WiMAX and cellular data (EVDO and UMTS) perspectives. They touch on the advanced wireless services (AWS) auction and the directions the bidding is taking. Proving their age, Mark and Dave do not get the people willing to pay for cell service to get MySpace on their phones. Throughout the discussion they raise the importance of the value added service to capture the eye of the consumer.   more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #16: August 15, 2006 - DIGG This – Valley Guys, Blogosphere Growth, Privacy (NOT)
featuring Trevor Hindson and Mark Steinberg
In this episode, Trevor and Mark got together via a Skype call to discuss the cover story in Business Week regarding Kevin Rose, the Digg site and the strength of communities in Web 2.0.  In discussing the growth of the blogs, the cost of a comma, and what is tracked versus not lead them to a discussion of privacy versus that which is not.  more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #15: August 8, 2006 - Verizon Quest AOL MCI
featuring Dave Train and Todd Pritsky
 more on the blog....

tHAWT Episode #14: July 29, 2006 - The Long Tail
featuring Dave Train, Paul Whalen and Todd Pritsky
 more on the blog....

tHAWT Episode #13: July 21, 2006 - Wireless And Such
featuring Dave Train, Peter Southwick and Todd Pritsky
Dave Train, Peter Southwick and Todd Pritsky got together in the Vermont office to gab about Cingular's quarterly report, interesting advertising trends, the 800 pound Google, Apple/Intel convergence and other sundry topics, including Todd's dad's new cellphone, er...car.    more on the blog....

tHAWT Episode #12: Laundry?
featuring Michel Gilbert, Trevor Hindson, and Doug Lifton
In this episode, Michel Gilbert and Trevor Hindson, with the passing input from Doug Lifton discuss a diverse range of topics ranging from the continued fall out from the NSA phone records issue, to advertising on the Internet, to how your laundry experience can be improved. ;-) more on the blog....

tHAWT Episode #11: Its not a truck its a series of tubes
featuring Todd Pritsky, Mark Steinberg, Trevor Hindson, and Peter Southwick
In this issue we start with discussing the net neutrality debate again thanks to comments made by Senator Ted Stevens the chairman of the senate commerce committee. more on our blog....         

tHAWT Episode #10: Wireless
In this episode we discuss aspects of wireless networks. Your wireless “phone” is much more than just a voice communication device. From being able to point your phone at something to find out about it, to installing personalized ring tones (including ones adults can't hear), or using it as a GPS navigator. We discuss announcements made at the Yankee Group’s  wireless leadership decision summit including Cingular’s cautious approval of VoIP over 3G networks and the rollout of 3G to New York. Is voice free now? What about when devices have chips that have access to multiple wireless networks, as announced by Intel a while ago. Finally there is 4G, what is it? Does anybody really know? more on the blog...

tHAWT Episode #9: Universal Broadband
featuring Peter Southwick, Paul Whalen and Trevor Hindson
Published: June 23, 2006

tHAWT Episode #8: Security
featuring Peter Southwick, Paul Whalen and Trevor Hindson
Published: June 16, 2006

tHAWT Episode #7: Web 2.0
featuring Peter Southwick, Michel Gilbert and Todd Pritsky
Published: June 09, 2006

tHAWT Episode #6: Broadband
featuring Paul Whalen, Mark Steinberg and Todd Pritsky
Published: June 02, 2006

tHAWT Episode #5: Net Neutrality
featuring Dave Train, Trevor Hindson and Todd Pritsky
Published: May 25, 2006

tHAWT Episode #4: IP Telephony
featuring Dave Train, Trevor Hindson and Todd Pritsky
Published: May 19, 2006

tHAWT Episode #3: NSA Phone Records and IPTV
featuring Dave Train, and Todd Pritsky
Published: May 15, 2006

tHAWT Episode #2: Fun With IP Telephony
featuring Mark Steinberg, Dave Train, and Todd Pritsky
Published: May 5, 2006

tHAWT Episode #1
featuring Paul Whalen, Dave Train, and Todd Pritsky
Published: Apr 28, 2006