Backtalk

SCTE, NCTI Partner on Training
SCTE President/CEO John Clark (left, front) and NCTI President Thomas Brooksher (right, front) signed an agreement Cable-Tec Expo in which NCTI becomes an official training partner of SCTE, and SCTE becomes an official certification partner for NCTI. Other principals instrumental in formulating the agreement included (left to right) Marv Nelson, SCTE; Terry Cordova, Cequel III and SCTE director-at-large; Wayne Hall, Comcast, SCTE board of directors chair, and SCTE region 11 director; Eugene White, Bright House Networks and SCTE region 9 director; Keith Grunberg, Charter Communications and SCTE region 3 director; and Alan Babcock, NCTI. Mark Your Calendar
September 14: VoIP Deployment Symposium Brought to you by SCTE and Communications Technology, “How to Cost-Effectively Engineer New VoIP Revenues Through Best Technology Practices,” is a one-day symposium set for September 14 in Philadelphia. Designed for upper-level engineers, headend technicians and voice services managers, the agenda includes: Sponsors include Acterna, Motorola, Siemens and Sigma Systems. Register now . Quotables
“If [telcos] are so close [to rolling out video], why are they reselling to satellite guys and building up subs for a company they are soon going to compete with through their own network?” — Brian Roberts, Comcast “We are satisfied with the court’s decision and believe this is a positive step forward for New Yorkers and the industry. Vonage remains eager and committed to working with the states, Congress and the FCC to create a national framework for this emerging industry.” —Jeffrey A. Citron, chairman and CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp. ,on a judge’s decision to keep the New York PSC from regulating Vonage as a carrier. “…The nation’s small rural telecommunications carriers have already done an outstanding job of deploying broadband to between 70 percent and 80 percent of their markets. It is the remaining 20 percent to 30 percent that represents the deployment challenge and will cost billions of dollars to overcome.” — National Telecommunications Cooperative Association Chief Executive Officer Michael E. Brunner
Letter to the Editor
War of the Worms Editor:
I really enjoyed the article “War of the Worms,” in the June issue. However, I’d like to offer some feedback. I live in Brazil and work for Brasil Telecom, which reaches nine of the 22 Brazilian states, and the article’s Figure 3 (Slammer/Sapphire Propagation) seemed strange. There is a big blue dot in an area that doesn’t have hosts. This area is part of the Amazon Forest. How could this be? —Gianfranco Muncinelli
Brasil Telecom
Data Communications NOC Author Tom Donnelly responds:
Figure 3 (Slammer/Sapphire Propagation) in the “War of the Worms” article is based on data from CAIDA, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (see http://www.caida.org/outreach/papers/2003/sapphire/sapphire.html). Unfortunately, this reference was inadvertently omitted. In this case, the modeling tool used by CAIDA is referenced by IP addresses. To more accurately graph against a geographic map, we would require more detailed information associating geographical coordinates per IP address. This is mapped via the domain name system as well as the associated IP registry in each continent (RIPE in Europe, etc). As you are no doubt aware, many countries have a large pool of IP addresses mapped to country level resolution rather than city, province or state. In such a case, as with Brazil, the modeling tool tends to draw a small, medium or great big dot right in the middle of the country. Brazil is a populous country, but many domain names are no more location specific than foobar.telefonica.br, so we get a great big dot in what appears to be the Amazon rain forest. Thanks again for your interest. —Tom Donnelly
VP, Marketing and Sales
Sandvine Inc. Supplier Diversity Minority- and women-owned businesses gathered tips on establishing relationships with vendors and customers at SCTE’s diversity workshop at Cable-Tec Expo. (l-r) Jim Hughes, CommScope; Sherryl Love, Cox; Richard Coleman, NextGEN; and Paula McGuinness, ARIA Technologies. (Not shown) Payne Brown, Comcast.