Job Cuts in Telco

Here the first of many annouced and un-annouced job cuts in the Telelcom sector. As the economy slows, Telco will feel the pinch. Hopefully not as much as other sector because Telecom services can help the bottom line by increasing efficiency and allowing employees to do more with less.


Massive job cuts at BT, but Q2 results solid
By Mary Lennighan, Total Telecom
13 November 2008
U.K. incumbent to shed 10,000 jobs; outlines plans for turning around troubled Global Services unit.
The news that BT plans to cut 10,000 jobs as part of an existing cost-reduction programme overshadowed a largely solid second-quarter results announcement from the U.K. incumbent on Thursday.

BT executives outlined their plans to turn around the ailing Global Services unit, a task that will centre on cutting costs and reducing bespoke contracts, and let slip that the unit signed a big U.K. contract yesterday. There could also be more outsourcing on the cards. But, as Livingston predicted in his presentation, Thursday's headlines will likely focus on the planned headcount reduction. The telco plans to shed a total of 10,000 positions this financial year, 4,000 of which have already gone. The remainder will largely affect indirect employees, that is agency staff, contractors, subcontractors and offshore workers.

Touch Screen Starbucks Tables & GPS Dog

As we move forward with ever increasing technology and bandwidth requirements here are a couple interesting new applications. A bit off-beat, but ya just never know what creative folks will come up with next. http://sharptelco.com/


Totally Trivial: Mad scientists
By Nick Wood , Total Telecom
22 October 2008

The South Korean operator made its first foray into fantastical furniture at a special branch of Starbucks, which will use the touch-screen sporting table, equipped with advanced mobile technology, to allow customers to order and pay for items on the coffee shop's menu."Traditionally, Starbucks customers order and pay at cashier counters," said SK Telecom, in a statement that sent shockwaves through no one."Once customers select and pay for items from the 'Ubiquitous Table', the order information is immediately transmitted via mobile technology to the store's system. As soon as the order is ready, a message appears on the screen of the 'Ubiquitous Table'."The all-pervading furniture has so far been limited to one pilot store in South Korea, and as yet there are no details on a wider rollout.On a related note, rumours that Steven Spielberg is in talks with Paramount to produce 'Attack of the Ubiquitous Tables', have just been started by us.

Putin equips dog with sat navRussian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has put a collar containing satellite-guided positioning technology on his black Labrador, Koni, reports the Associated Press.The former president asked one of his deputies Sergei Ivanov for the device to help him keep tabs on his beloved dog, which is not the most unusual request from someone who used to work for the KGB."She's wagging her tail, she likes it," said Putin, in the report.The device goes into standby mode when the dog isn't moving, "if it, say, lies down in a puddle," said Ivanov, or gets squashed by an armoured car, said Nick Wood.The system itself doesn't use the US Global Positioning System (GPS), but instead relies on the Russian-developed Global Navigation Satellite System, or GLONASS for short.However, while Russia may have beaten the U.S. to blasting a dog into space when it launched the ill-fated Laika in 1957, it still trails in the deployment of navigation satellites: GLONASS is unable to provide worldwide coverage – it currently has 21 satellites in orbit, but needs 24.Still, Ivanov is doggedly determined (pun 100% intended), and claims the system will be extended to the rest of the planet by the end of 2009.

Offices Buildings - a thing of the past?

Do we need office buildings anymore? As data services from T1 or DS1 to GigE continue to become more prevalent in the network the pricing of these advance data services will continue to drop. So what good is an office anymore? Do we need physical interaction? I often Instant Message people in the cubes adjacent to mine instead of talking. We just starting to see 100 Gigabit Ethernet Service tested in the Network. We can only imagine the possibilities of the applications that will be coming down the pipe to use that bandwidth. It could be entire new conferencing application to see and speak to coworkers as easily and quickly as we use instant messaging services now. Consider how much fuel could be saved if the majority of the work force worked from home, not to mention the benefits to the environment. Productivity and Accessibility are always questions when people want to want work from home. I believe given enough bandwidth and the right applications it will be nearly seamless to determine if a person is home or at the office.

100 Gigabits per second Bandwidth!!

This is really a big deal to transport 100 Gbps on not a single fiber but one wavelength on a fiber. That means other wavelengths on that single piece of glass are transporting other high bandwidth services! This breakthrough continues the bandwidth revolution that will fuel our nations economic recovery.

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon and Nokia Siemens Networks have taken a step closer to being able to transmit commercial traffic at a speed of 100 gigabits per second (Gbps). The two companies carried out a successful 100 Gbps transmission on a single wavelength for more than 1,040 kilometers over field fiber, setting a new distance record and demonstrating better performance than conventional transmission.
The field trial, conducted on optical fiber on the Verizon network in north Dallas, successfully proved that 100 Gbps signals can be simultaneously transported with 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps signals on the same system with superior results by using advanced optical techniques.
The Nokia Siemens hiT 7500 ultra-long-haul, dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing platform -- combined with multi-level modulation, polarization multiplexing and coherent detection -- allowed the signal to be carried over ultra-long distances at high-data rates with significantly better chromatic dispersion and polarization-mode-dispersion tolerances than conventional systems.

What is Gigabit Ethernet?

Gigabit Ethernet Service (GigE) is a fiber-based network service that utilizes a high speed backbone to provide customers with LAN Interconnection between multiple locations at the native Gigabit Ethernet LAN speeds in specific geographical locations. GigE service delivers a full duplex interface conforming to Gigabit Ethernet standards(1000BaseSX, 1000BaseLX) directly to the customer's LAN. The Telco Company will deploy equipment in the customer's serving central office and connect them using a high speed backbone. This backbone will consist of multiple Gigabit Ethernet trunks. Depending on the customer's location, the backbone may be shared by several customers connected to this service. GigE service provides data privacy and security through the use of 802.IQ closed user groups. Users in a group can only access their own data. Customers will connect to the C.O. equipment using fiber optic LAN extension equipment located on their premises. This, equipment, which is owned by Telco Company, will be the network interface for this service. The customer interface is a single mode or multimode fiber optic connection providing ethernet at 1 gigabit per second. If the facility has extensive bandwidth requirements, GigE is often the most cost-effective option for bandwidth and reliability. For additional information and to see if Ethernet service is available at your location - Click Here

Is Ethernet the new Telecom Backbone Circuit?

Growing up as Telco Dog for 20+ years, OK maybe even becoming an old Telco Dog, T1's or DS1's have been the Telecom backbone for as long as I can remember. T1's are used to connected PSTN (public switched telephone network) switches together, T1 Circuits connect PBX's and key systems to the PSTN network, T1's are the primary means of transporting most Internet circuits across the globe. Granted there are OC3's OC12's and many other faster bigger pipelines that carry data communications around the globe, but all those circuits use T1's as the building blocks for those faster circuits. An OC3 backbone carrier circuit is really 84 1.544mb T1's packaged together. We're finally seeing a new kid emerge on the block and that's Ethernet business service. The telco world is starting to embrace Internet Protocol connectionless architecture, where instead of massing together groups of 24 64kb voice circuits to make a T1 Circuit and them massing together those T1's into bigger pipes, Ethernet service is true bandwidth and is available by what the customer needs for their business. Ethernet allows the business to directly plug-in to the Internet Cloud reducing equipment required which dramatically reduces cost per Meg or Gig of bandwidth. Naturally Ethernet for business is a new product and just like early T1's, are only available in limited areas. T1's today are available everywhere, and eventually Ethernet Business service will be too. To see if Ethernet Service is available at your location check out ShorForEthernet.Com

T1 Pricing for your Business

There are so many small businesses operating today on DSL, which is OK if for a small office or work at home situation. DSL and cable internet are both great, extremely cost effective solutions when price is the most important consideration. However when your business grows out of a home office to where you depend on internet and phone service to make money and when your DSL or cable internet goes out you're losing money, then it's time to upgrade to a reliable robust T1 or DS1 circuit for you office. T1 Pricing continues to drop as competition increases among telecom carriers. $300 to $400 a month sounds like a lot to many people, but what most need to consider is that T1 line will also provide your phone service. If you have 5-6 business telephone lines and internet service, frequently you can save money by bundling your telephone lines and internet service on the T1 Line. When you consider T1 lines are ultra-reliable and monitored 24x7 for performance, T1 Pricing becomes a great value for the expanding business.

How Much Bandwidth is Enough?

We're well into the 21st century, we've become an information society. I can't believe the information that is literally at my finger tips at any time of the day or night. One of my passions is motorcycles. I'm starting a project to add a fairing to my Valkyrie motorcycle. I found an old piece of junk Batwing Harley fairing at a swap meet for a couple bucks and picked it up. In the old days, I would have had a very difficult time finding the other parts to mount it to my bike by using shoe leather and the telephone. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't be successful unless I got really lucky and found someone friendly and very knowledgeable to help. Today it took me less than 20 minutes to research that it was 70's era FLH Shovelhead fairing along with a parts breakdown of the mounting brackets required to mount it. Then a quick check of ebay revealed the project could be done. Wow! I have a 5 megabyte Verizon FiOS link to my house. T1 Pricing continues to drop every month where you get an ultra-reliable 1.5 megabyte guaranteed up and down stream broadband link that's monitored 24 hours a day. The next jump for commercial broadband service is direct Ethernet connections of 10 to 30 Gigabyte data rates at very competitive rates with T1 Reliability. As more and more applications use the worldwide data network, DSL Availability residential Internet services data rates of 50 Megabytes will become common in the next couple years. Can't wait to see the applications that be common for children! More news and information at SharpTelco.Com