February 20, 2013

What You Need To Know Now...

Can AT&T Entice More Product Partners With API Access?
AT&T wants more enterprise customers, and it’s started a new partner program to get them, saying such collaboration will benefit business solution providers and AT&T alike. The AT&T Partner Exchange “expands and enhances” the operator’s current relationships with more than 700 solution providers while attracting new ones and pursuing billions of dollars in revenue opportunities. AT&T is focusing on bringing more IT consulting and services experts into the fold because of their ties to business users, and it’s dangling its APIs in front of targeted potential partners. Participants will have access to certain AT&T systems, processes and tools as they work with the carrier to deliver finished products to business customers, with an emphasis on mobility managed services, cloud and networks.
 
Commish Sets The Stage For An Increased Wi-Fi Bottom Line
The FCC made good on its promise to find more spectrum for faster expansion of the burgeoning Wi-Fi industry, introducing a NPRM looking into technology that can reach 1 Gbps or more, increase overall capacity and reduce congestion at Wi-Fi hot spots. The NPRM seeks to make as much as 195 megahertz of additional spectrum in the 5 GHz band (a 35-percent increase) available to unlicensed wireless devices along with creating a more light-handed and streamlined regulatory environment for new products and services. Wi-Fi is becoming more and more of a revenue producer for cablecos and other operators, and NCTA sees this notice as a plus, commenting, “More extensive use of the 5 GHz band along with additional unlicensed spectrum in other bands will permit cable companies and other innovators to continue to provide Americans with new benefits, businesses with new opportunities and those in need with life-saving connections.”
 
TIA Uses Industry Heavy Hitters In New Tech-umentary Series
The brand-new, four-part Future of the Network documentary Web series unveiled today by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) explores what the group deems are the most critical issues facing the future of the network through interviews with leading ICT industry executives.  The first Webisode, airing online today, focuses on M2M and the Internet of Things, and it includes interviews with execs from Alcatel-Lucent, Intel and other companies. The May 15 edition will deal with Broadband Capacity: Are We Ready?; the Sept. 10 episode tackles The Future of the Network: Government, Healthcare and Education; and the final video on Oct. 1 looks at Cloud Computing and Services. There is a method to TIA’s madness: the group is using this series to gin up excitement and registrations for its TIA 2013: The Future of the Network gathering set for Oct. 8-10 in Washington, D.C.