Mitch Wagner of Light Reading's "Carrier SDN/SDN Archictectures" news analysis blog reports that Cisco's quarterly earnings have once again suffered from weakness in its Carrier segment.
"Weak carrier business continues to drag down Cisco's revenue, but that sector is improving, and future growth will be driven by the cloud, the Internet of Everything, and other new technologies and markets," the company revealed in its fiscal third-quarter earnings call on May 28, as reported by Wagner.
The service provider market is an area where the company is having problems "both macro and Cisco specific," Cisco's CEO John Chambers said during the call. "Service provider orders were down 5%, showing improvement from the 12% decline in Q2 and 13% decline in Q1. Weakness in emerging markets also hurt the service provider market. Also, service provider video revenue declined 26%, and orders declined 11%."
"We are seeing some signs of stabilization in the SP business but believe it will take multiple quarters to return to growth," Chambers added.
Full blog: Cisco Earnings Suffer From Carrier Weakness (lightreading.com)
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
Could AT&T's new fiber-optic phone network stymie first responders?
As aptly characterized by Gizmodo, "AT&T's plan to roll out next-gen fiber-optic cables nationwide as a replacement for its traditional copper-based telephone networks is great in most respects -- save for the fact that it won't support the government's special telephone service for national emergencies."
AT&T's new fiber network reportedly won't support a priority line, called Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS), which is used during disasters or terrorist attacks when phone lines are usually clogged. "Essentially, the new AT&T network would force government to use the same -- potentially inundated -- phone networks as everyone else to communicate, potentially delaying first responders," adds Gizmodo.
Related story:
As originally reported by Brian Fung at the Washington Post's "The Switch" blog, "The Department of Homeland Security says an AT&T plan to test new network technology would degrade a special telephone service reserved for national emergencies and presidential communications. If implemented, the plan would hamper the ability of first responders and public officials to respond to a crisis of the magnitude of Hurricane Sandy or even 9/11, according to DHS."
GETS has proven its value in the past; the system served 10,000 phone calls during 9/11 and, in conjunction its wireless counterpart WPS, 45,000 calls during Hurricane Katrina.
The tech blog Engadget sums up, "AT&T's at least willing to work with the DHS to configure its fiber-optic network to recognize priority calls. That could take some time, though, and there's no word on whether Ma Bell's putting its plans to test the new technology on hold until then."
AT&T's new fiber network reportedly won't support a priority line, called Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS), which is used during disasters or terrorist attacks when phone lines are usually clogged. "Essentially, the new AT&T network would force government to use the same -- potentially inundated -- phone networks as everyone else to communicate, potentially delaying first responders," adds Gizmodo.
Related story:
As originally reported by Brian Fung at the Washington Post's "The Switch" blog, "The Department of Homeland Security says an AT&T plan to test new network technology would degrade a special telephone service reserved for national emergencies and presidential communications. If implemented, the plan would hamper the ability of first responders and public officials to respond to a crisis of the magnitude of Hurricane Sandy or even 9/11, according to DHS."
GETS has proven its value in the past; the system served 10,000 phone calls during 9/11 and, in conjunction its wireless counterpart WPS, 45,000 calls during Hurricane Katrina.
The tech blog Engadget sums up, "AT&T's at least willing to work with the DHS to configure its fiber-optic network to recognize priority calls. That could take some time, though, and there's no word on whether Ma Bell's putting its plans to test the new technology on hold until then."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
