DSL Prime News Briefs

DSL industry news from around the world.

by Dave Burstein of DSL Prime and Future of TV [October 12, 2005]

Briefs

• For the record, I did a phone consultation through Standard and Poor's Vista division for a modest (few hundred dollar) fee, answering a mutual fund's questions about telco video strategies. I have done three similar ones for Gerson Lehrman. I have also been treated to generous meals lately by several chipmakers. The publisher (Dave Burstein) has determined the editor (Dave Burstein) is not infringing this publication's conflict of interest rules by so doing.
  
  
• "We're sorry, all circuits are busy now." I heard that twice one day, and far too often on my Vonage line. Both times, I went over to my Verizon line and got right through, so the problem wasn't on T-Mobile. A few days later, I got a "please try your call later message." I got a "circuits busy" message again today, after dialing 1-212 to begin a New York call. Echo and call quality have been abysmal as well, even though my Verizon line tests consistently at 2.5Mbps/600Kbps and I make sure nothing else is going over my connection. I wouldn't report this if I hadn't heard far too many similar complaints. A good company, good plans, apparently just growing faster than they can support.
  
  
• Darren Entwhistle of Telus has always been gracious to me, and offered interesting thoughts about his DSL plans. Nevertheless, I was glad I missed him at the Goldman Sachs meeting, because it would have been hard to shake his hand given the company's active efforts against their union. That's particularly tasteless as they announce breakthrough profit increases. Beyond the issue of right and wrong, fighting your own workers is typically a very dumb move for the company's future.
  
  
• Verizon is a strong example of the cost of the terrible morale after repeated union battles. Verizon at the top has the most effective thinking about the future of any telco in North America; at the technician level, the anger is so extreme it only sometimes stops short of sabotage. The employee passive resistance has gotten worse the last few years, as CIO inspired operational plans rarely reflect the complexity of the actual situation and result in frustrated employees and customers angry they've been treated. A little more basic respect and consultation with the people who have to do the work would dramatically improve the operation.

Press

• The Merc graciously named Om Malik "Scoop" because he's been beating all of us so often it's getting embarrassing. The N.Y. Times already has John Markoff on a similar beat, but might have to offer Om a job before the WSJ steps in. Most impressive is the way "GoogleNet," a term he coined, became part of the language within months.
  
  
• Discussing the best telecom reporting, a D.C. reporter complimented Ted Hearn for his "great institutional knowledge," and agreed with my respect for George Leopold and Jonathan Krim. Pity the big media are so weak in our field, especially one reporter busy winning awards for his securities reporting while his other beat, communications, is virtually ignored. Mike Powell at PFF complained that reporters never took the time to listen to what he had to say. In fact, every telecom reporter I know wanted more time with Powell, who was hard to reach but highly quotable when you did. Then I realized he really was speaking of one grande dame paper and a particular reporter.

People

• Dorothy Attwood, SBC's woman in D.C., is moving closer to corporate headquarters in Texas but retaining her current position.
  
  
• For the job ads, visit the DSL Prime website.

Wall Street

• Bram Cohen of Bit Torrent raised $8.75 million from VC David Chao of Doll Capital Management, It's no shame to be poor, but it's no honor either, I guess.
  
  
• Upzide, Mikael Isaksson's Swedish chip design company, received additional funding from Emano and Lunova. Isaksson, a VDSL pioneer, has cooperated with Tensilica for an advanced VDSL2 Data Path design. There's no public announcement of licensees, but I note Tensilica processing cores are also licensed by Broadcom, Conexant, Ikanos, Marvell, and STMicroelectronics. . .

Copyright 2005 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

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