The Structure of the Telecom Industry

TELE 450

The Structure of the Telecom Industry

Dr. Finn

Lecture notes – Week 1-6

Week 1 - January 27TELE 450

Agenda:

Intro to the instructor
The Syllabus
Intro to the Students – A Survey
Let’s talk Information Technology
Let’s Talk Industry Structure
Let’s Talk Intellectual Property

Areas Of Telecommunications

The Technology
Policy & Regulation
Industry Structure
Economics of the Industry
The Production of Messages
Effects of the Technology
on Individuals
on Groups
on Society

Telecom Includes:

Telephony
Information Technology (IT)
Broadcasting
Multi-Channel Video Systems
Internet
Wireless
Consumer Electronics

Segments of the Telecommunications Industry

Local Telephony
Long Distance Telephony
Terrestrial Mobile Wireless
Terrestrial Fixed Wireless
Satellite Broadcasting
Computer Hardware
Computer Software
Network Hardware & Software
Internet Sites (ISPs, Portals)
Cable Television
Broadcast Television
Film & Video

Telecom Specialty Areas

Security
Consulting

Gov’t (FCC) traditionally has distinguished

Common Carrier
Broadcasting
Computers (“Unregulated”)

Common Carrier Regulation

technical limits (interconnection, standards)
natural monopoly
rate-of-return regulation
universal service

Broadcast Regulation

technical limits: scarcity
allocation
licensing
public trustee, serve the public interest

Convergence - at the level of:

Technology

Access & TransportTransmission
End-UserMultimedia

Industry

Within companies (mergers & acquisitions)
Across Industries (telephony, computers, broadcasting, film, ISPs, etc.)

Content

Voice, text, still & moving image, raw data
Services (e-mail, web access, phone, VM, etc.)

Computer Technology

Components Of A Computer Network

CPU / Server

Processing
Storage Device

Transmission Medium / Conduit

Terminal Devices
Peripherals

Traditional Types Of Computers

Mainframes
Mini-Computers
Micro-Computers

New Classifications

Servers
“Minis,” “Mainframes” Disappearing
Client-Server Architecture

Four Types Of Computer “Capacity”

Processing Speed
Disk Storage Capacity
Disk Access Speed
Transmission Rate

Five Trends In Computing

Increased Speed
Increased Capacity
Miniaturization
Decentralization
End-User Control

Storage And Processing:

The Heart Of The Digital Computer

A Bit:a Zero or 1
A Byte:8 Bits (00000001)
There Are 256 Possible Arrangements
A Kilobyte:1,000 Bytes (1,024)1/2 Page Text
A Megabyte:1,000,000 Bytes500 Pages
A Gigabyte:1 Billion Bytes500,000 Pp.

My (Personal) PCs

Storage:From NO hard drive, to:

10 Mb, 20 Mb, 340 Mb;

3.2 Gb, 20 Gb, 40 Gb

Processing:From Clock Speed of 33 Mhz to

80, 200, 650 Mhz

Fiber:

Today:2.5 Gb/Sec1.25m Pages
New Fiber:80 Gb/Sec40m Pages

Intellectual Property

Patent

A property right granted by the federal government
A document fully disclosing an invention
Ideas are not patentable, only “things”
Patents last for 20 years

Criteria - it must be:

Novel invention
Useful
Not obvious

Major Patent Issue Affecting Technologies Sector

Software Patents

Criteria - it must be:

An original work
An expression of ideas (not simply ideas)
Fixed in a tangible medium of expression

The Rationale

To encourage people to share ideas and inventions
To ensure compensation for people who create ideas and inventions

Categories of Works Covered

Literary
Musical
Dramatic
Choreographic
Pictorial, graphic & sculptural
Film and audio-visual
Sound recordings

Reproduce (in same or different formats)
Perform
Publish
Adapt
Translate
Transmit
Authorize (others)

Rights are distinctive and exclusive
Can award hardcover vs. softcover publishing rights
Live vs. TV
Separate by geographic area
Grant for limited time

Assignment/Ownership of Copyright

Creator of a work is automatically the owner
Authors assign ownership to others when it is
The assigned work of employees
Work for hire

The author retains “moral” rights to the work
Rights of Paternity
Right to claim authorship
Right to remain anonymous
Rights of Integrity
Right to prevent certain changes
Rights of Association
Right to prevent certain uses
Moral rights are personal rights
Moral rights can be waived, but not sold or transferred

Duration of Copyright

If created since 1978

The author’s life + 70 years
Works for hire: 95 years from date of publication

If created before 1978

28 years, with renewal for 47 years (total: 75 years)
1998: another 20 year renewal added

The Doctrine of Fair Use

A limit on the economic rights of copyright holders
Criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research
Criteria for fair use:
Non-profit purpose (educational, etc.)
The nature of the copyrighted work
Proportion of the work used
Economic effect on the potential market

Week 2 - February 3TELE 450

Agenda:

Syllabus Questions
Discussion:

Lecture:

History of Computers
Transmission technologies
Trends in Telecom

Exercise

List all instances (activities) you can think of in the last 12 months where you were (or may have been) in violation of U.S. Copyright law. Be specific – exactly what did you do?

Intellectual Property is an Ancient Principle.

Intellectual Property is recognized worldwide.

Without intellectual property, few people would produce original work.

Intellectual Property is necessary to create incentives for the production of original works.

Weakening intellectual property law would result in substandard literature, art, music, and the like.

Intellectual property follows directly from the notion of physical property.

Week 3 - February 10TELE 450

Agenda:

Housekeeping

Critique 1 questions?
Upcoming STAR Center's Sessions

"Creating, Editing, & Uploading Web Pages"

Thu., Feb 13, 3:30-5:30
Sat., Feb 21, 3:30-5:30
Sun., Feb 22, 3:30-5:30
Tue., Feb 25, 5:30-7:30

Lecture:

History of Computers
Transmission technologies
Trends in Telecom

Discussion:

from Moschella’s Waves of Power

Wave 1 to Wave 2

The transition

From System-centric to PC-centric

Means a transition . . .

from corporate to individual computing
from Grosch’s to Moore’s law
Herb Grosch: computer power increases as the square of its cost (60s-70s)
Gordon Moore: semiconductor performance doubles every 2 years (actually, 18 months)
from the data center to the client/server
from proprietary to commodity systems
direct vs indirect selling
from a vertical to a horizontal supplier model

Markets

Consumer (Residential)
Business (Office)
Global / International
Business to Business

Types of Computer User Interfaces

Paper (punch cards and paper tape input)
Command Line (1960s - today)
Menu (1970s – today)
Direct Manipulation (1980s – today; Mouse, light pen, touchscreen); commonly called “GUI”
Browser (1990s – today; hyperlinks)
Voice (coming – for input and output)

Week 4 - February 17“Snowed Out”

This is –

Week 5 - February 24TELE 450

Agenda:

Housekeeping

Critique 1
Upcoming STAR Center's Sessions

"Creating, Editing, & Uploading Web Pages"

Thu., Feb 13, 3:30-5:30
Sat., Feb 21, 3:30-5:30
Sun., Feb 22, 3:30-5:30
Tue., Feb 25, 5:30-7:30

Who has it scheduled?

Lecture:

History of Computers
Transmission technologies
Trends in Telecom

Discussion:

Trends in Technology

Digitization
Data is overtaking Voice
Increased Bandwidth Needed in the Network (Transport: Transmission & Switching)
Increased Bandwidth Coming - Not a Problem (?)
Broadband Access Needed in Residential Market
The “Local Loop” is the Bottleneck
Voice over IP (But customers expect telephony-level QoS)
New Demand for Wireless
Broadband Wireless in Local Loop (MMDS, LMDS)
Explosion of Cellular/PCS and Cellular Apps
Convergence

Access (to the home) Technologies

Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS)
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
ADSL, HDSL, HDSL-2, VDSL
Two-way cable
Cable modems (cable company hooks into the PSTN)
Wireless Local Loop
Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Systems (MMDS)
Local Multipoint Distribution Systems (LMDS)

Transport (in the network) Technologies

Circuit Switching
SONET
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Internet Protocol (IP)

Transmission Standards

Analog
Multiplexing Protocols
Digital (packet)
Frame Relay (e.g., SONET)
Cell Relay (e.g., ATM)

Wave 2 to Wave 3

The transition

From PC-centric to Network-centric

Means a transition . . .

From microprocessor to comm bandwidth
From Moore’s Law to Metcalfe’s Law
From internal to external networks (LANs to WANs, or Intranets)
AOL-types, UUNet-types, and telephony companies compete for this business
From GUIs to Browsers
From indirect to online distribution channels
Stand-alone products to bundled services
From client-server to e-commerce
Individual productivity to virtual communities
From a horizontal to a converged computer and communications industry
From US/global to national supplier leadership
From single vendor to distributed power

Wave 3 to Wave 4

The transition

Network-centric to Content-centric

Means a transition . . .

From electronic commerce to virtual business
From Metcalfe’s to ‘law of transformation’

An industry will be transformed to the extent that it is “digitizable”

From the wired consumer to individualized services
From bandwidth to software, info, and services
From online channels to customer pull

From a converged computer/comm/ consumer elec. industry value chain, to embedded services