Inter-modal competition and telecommunications policy in the United States.
Abstract: This article discusses changes in the U.S. telecommunications market over the last decade and argues that increasing competitive substitution from wireless and internetbased communications has undermined the rationale for conventional monopoly regulation of incumbent local telephone carriers. The article suggests that the time is right to shift from...

Financial assessment of citywide Wi-Fi/WiMAX deployment.
Abstract: There are several ways by which a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) can deliver city wide wireless broadband services. However, it is necessary to determine a profitable business case and at the same time a cost-effective service model, which is affordable to all types of users and different...

Mobile multi-media messages (MMS): show-don't-tell in a communication (*).
Abstract: With its complex intersemiotic and intermedial textual configuration, the multimedia mobile message (MMS) offers a unique opportunity to apply visual semiotics tools to the theories of communication. By means of an experimental technical device used by a sample of MMS users who exchanged real image-containing messages, the author...

Caller line identity delivery: a computerized call alert application.
Abstract: The subject of this study was to analyze the Frequency Shift Keying caller ID FSK transmission protocol used by Jordan Telecom. and implement a call alert computer application. An FSK decoder is presented and a decoding algorithm based on asynchronous data communication is discussed. Data is captured through...

The great VoIP rush: consumers are flocking to VoIP like prospectors to the hills--ready or not.
Editor's Note: Because VoIP is a complex emerging security topic, we've dedicated two articles to it in this issue, each with a different focus. This piece deals with VoIP on a network security level. To read about VoIP's impact on alarm management and intrusion prevention, check out Ken Gentile's...

Broadband and wireless spark U.S. telecom growth: TIA survey projects accelerated spending for next four years.
Annual spending in the telecom industry is on the rise. According to a recent report from the Telecom Industry Association, total spending rose to $784.5 billion in 2004, a 7.9% increase from the previous year. Furthermore, TIA projects that the U.S. telecom industry will grow at a 9.5% annual...

Interview with Prof. Roger Silverstone: professor of Media and Communications, The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Conducted by David OSIMO, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, European Commission--DG Joint Research Centre, Sevilla David OSIMO: Innovative ICT products and services have become increasingly available in recent years, thus assuming growing importance in everyday life. However, consumers often use these products and services in unexpected ways....

Overlay networks and the future of the Internet.
Abstract: In recent years, we have seen the emergence of numerous types of so-called "overlay" networks in the internet. There are many diverse examples of such overlay networks including the content-delivery-caching networks, implemented by companies like Akamai, the peer-to-peer file sharing networks associated with applications such as BitTorrent, the...

Ford and SBC sign VoIP deal as enterprise adoption grows: surveys foresee IP telephony use soaring among large companies.
The recent deal between SBC Communications and Ford Motor Co. that will see SBC companies design, implement and manage an IP telephony system at Ford's headquarters and other facilities in Michigan is stoking the view that VoIP technology is finally moving into mainstream enterprise deployment. The SBC...

Crash course: IP telephony's power surge disrupts international wholesale. (cover story).
Internet telephony may be having a renaissance. It's not that the "my technology is better than your technology" debate has finally seen a winner emerge--far from it. What's changed is that Internet telephony players may be proving that they have the right business model, after all. Instead...