The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week approved a proposal, originally made last month, to make high spectrum available for auction. The FCC will make 11 GHz of spectrum available for flexible, mobile and fixed-use wireless broadband uses.
This is an important step in the evolution to 5G. The key is that the hype and some of the technical developments in 5G are getting ahead of other necessary steps for them to actually roll out. Managing evolution, therefore, is important.
In that context, decisions on what spectrum will be used and how it will be doled out are critical milestones. CNET said that the United States is the first to move on spectrum issues, though other countries have taken aggressive steps in other areas. Verizon and the CTIA-The Wireless Association both applauded the announcement.
Surprise: PC Sales Shipment Numbers Not All Bad
The quarter by quarter decline of the PC market continues. But, Tech Radar points out, there is a silver lining this time around: Gartner says that worldwide PC shipments were 64.3 million in the second quarter. That’s 5.2 percent less than the year-ago quarter and is the seventh consecutive down quarter.
The good news is that sales increased 1.4 percent in North America. The reason may have been a “Windows 10 refresh among businesses,” according to Mikako Kitagawa, a Gartner principal analyst.
TelePacific Moving to SD-WAN
TelePacific said this week that it’s deploying a software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) nationally. It has been working on the project for 18 months. The platform will support hosted PBX services, which the company said is difficult to do on a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network.
TelePacific will now be able to serve customers outside of its footprint. In March, it acquired Massachusetts-based DSCI, which will add to its off-network capabilities.
FDIC Was Probably Hacked
Cyberattacks are one of the biggest fears of the modern world. They can open bridges, take grids down and cause financial havoc.
Reuters reported this week that the Chinese government probably hacked the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2010, 2011 and 2013. A Congressional report cited an internal FDIC investigation that was kept quiet to protect the job of FDIC chairman Martin Gruenberg.
An independent cybersecurity expert doubted that China was behind the hacks. The perpetrators, whoever they were, apparently sought economic intelligence.
The Digital Transformation Meets Resistance
Digital transformation, according to Datamation, offers lots of advantages. It paves the way for better business analytics, mobility, social media and cloud computing. It can also optimize employee speed and the quality of work and interactions.
This would suggest widespread acceptance. But, according to a cited Sungard survey, that is not the reality:
More than half (52 percent) of the IT decision makers recently quizzed by the pollsters at Vanson Bourne on behalf of software and IT services provider Sungard said their organizations’ digital transformation efforts weren’t moving as fast as management expects. Fifty-four percent said the pace of digital transformation was failing to meet the expectations of office workers.
The survey, which again illustrates the fact that progress is almost always resisted, is based on responses of 715 decision makers and 1,400 business employees in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Sweden.
Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at cweinsch@optonline.net and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
