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ANGA and GlobalComm As many in the North American cable industry’s technical community gear up for Cable-Tec Expo, which begins three weeks from now in Denver, we’d like to exploit the brief quiet before that storm and draw attention to two other events: this week’s ANGA Cable Trade Fair in Cologne, Germany, and GlobalComm, which begins on Sunday in Chicago. The ANGA organizers are expecting 308 exhibitors from 28 countries, some of whom have kept us in the loop on their plans for this show. Thus, for instance, we’ve hear that: With increased telephony competition in Europe from cable and the ramp-up for this year’s World Cup finals (note last week’s release from Scientific-Atlanta on HD encoding in the German broadcast market), we expect to have heard more about HDTV and IP communications from our UK-based colleague, Mark Holmes, who is currently in Cologne. Post-SuperCOMM The Telecommunications Industry Association’s GlobalComm is one of the two entities that emerged from the split between the US Telecom Association and TIA, the two groups that, up until last June, had jointly produced SUPERCOMM for nearly two decades. In its place emerged GlobalComm and the USTA-backed TelecomNEXT, which debuted March 19-23 in Las Vegas, drawing 270 exhibitors and more than 10,000 attendees. GlobalComm appears to be the stronger of these two spin-offs. Interviewed last week, TIA President Matthew Flanigan said he was expecting 20,000 attendees for GlobalComm. As of last Thursday, TIA listed more than 500 exhibitors on its Web site. The event also is host to these seven related conferences and summits: Given TIA’s sole sponsorship, GlobalComm is the less telco-specific of the SuperComm spin-offs. The schedule, at any rate, reveals some familiar names. Mixed into the three AT&T keynoters at OSP Expo, for instance, is Ted Schremp, SVP and GM for telephony at Charter Communications. CableLabs CTO Ralph Brown is set to address the IEC Communications Forum on the topic of the digital home. And Cox Communications President Patrick Esser is slated as a GlobalComm keynoter next Tuesday at noon. In addition to the cable execs speaking at this event are other technology leaders who deserve cable’s attention themselves. The scheduled opening keynoter, for instance, is Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO of Research in Motion, the Blackberry company. And the trend toward adding video to the mobile voice and data mix continues apace. A general session devoted to the impact of sports content on communications includes panelists from ESPN and Sprint, among others. Expect more coverage of GlobalComm from CT’s Voice Report’s lead writer Jim Barthold, who is taking the brunt of that attack and will be in Chicago this time next week. -Jonathan Tombes