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HEADLINES AT A GLANCE"Europe Presenting
Challenges For AOL" "Europe Presenting Challenges For
AOL" Although Europe will experience rapid Internet growth, AOL Europe must still fight hard for new subscribers and markets, analysts say. The firm, Europe's second biggest online service, faces competition from local telcos that offer Internet services, says Eric Kintz of Roland Berger & Partner. These telcos are familiar with their markets, enjoy brand trust, and have strong customer relationships, he says. T-Online, owned by Deutsche Telekom, and Wanadoo, owned by France Telecom, have 7.5 million and 2.4 million subscribers respectively. Compared to their American counterparts, European surf the Internet less due to high per-minute fees while firms spend less on online ads. In addition, people of different cultures prefer different aspects of the Web, hindering the spread of uniform technology. Moreover, people in Europe access the Internet more frequently using cellphones than PCs. Still, AOL Time Warner's COO Robert Pittman is confident AOL Europe will gain more subscribers through its appealing Internet technology, cross-marketing of Time-Warner products, and its expected acquisition of IPC Media, UK's leading magazine publisher. (Product Sales and Marketing) "Programmers Could Thwart Hacker
Attacks With Smarter Software" AT&T Labs researcher Avi Rubin believes that training smarter software programmers can foil hackers. He cites the buffer overflow security hole in AOL's Instant Messenger program as proof that better programmers are needed. "There's no excuse for buffer overflow problems," Rubin insists, adding that security experts have known about them for two decades. The AOL flaw, which was disclosed by students at Utah State University, could have enabled hackers to anonymously take over the vulnerable machines by bombarding them with email, he explains. To solve this problem, Rubin recommends that companies hire programmers whose background includes computer security. Such professionals would make it their business to avoid such buffer overflow vulnerabilities in the design phase, he says. (Network Reliability, Security and Quality Assurance) "Study: Multimedia Messaging Will
Re-Boot Euro Market" Multimedia messaging service (MMS) could be an important component in the growth of Europe's wireless sector, according to a report by Yankee Group. MMS technology will lead to an integration of voice, text, image, and video applications between mobile and fixed terminals, forecasts Yankee Group's Declan Lonergan. MMS will propel mobile firms to invest in new networks and gear and promote the idea of using 3G services. Yankee predicts MMS will be a US$10 billion market by 2006, producing $44 billion in annual service revenues. MMS could account for 24 percent of all revenues for carriers, Lonergan says. Although infrastructure costs for MMS are likely to be steep, investments will be worthwhile, Yankee predicts. Carriers need to make sure their MMS technology is state of the art. MMS will also spur handset upgrades, Yankee analysts forecast. (Multimedia Communications and Digital Media) "A Connection Without Wires" Wi-Fi, or 802.11b, is being adopted by many mobile Internet services around the world. Although Wi-Fi is not perfect for mobile users on the go, many of these private networks have attempted to expand the reach of Wi-Fi, with a certain degree of success. These networks have been able to extend the range of Wi-Fi from about 150 feet to a distance of about 6 kilometers. The technology is also creeping into handhelds, even though in theory it was supposed to consume too much power to be suitable for such devices. Handhelds were originally supposed to use Bluetooth, a technology that sprang from an agreement between approximately 2,500 telecom and IT companies. One chip manufacturer, Cirrus Logic, is now manufacturing Wi-Fi chips with its WhiteCap2 technology. These chips can be used to locally stream audio and video data, and the devices that contain Wi-Fi chips are expected to be extremely easy to set up. Nevertheless, Bluetooth does have the advantage of being fairly cheap, so the battle between the two technologies is not yet over. (Communications Standards) "Wireless Harmless, More or
Less?" There is continuing debate over the question of whether the electromagnetic fields used in wireless technologies cause health risks in humans. Ever since the FCC started to auction off sections of the electromagnetic spectrum in the mid 1990s, the number of devices using radio frequencies has risen exponentially. The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association says more than 129 million people in the United States currently own mobile phones. Fears of possible health risks associated with electromagnetic fields led the World Health Organization to establish the international EMF project in 1996, one of the objectives of which is to establish international standards for exposure to radio frequencies. The project will not be complete until 2005, and other studies into the effects of electromagnetic fields have turned up conflicting evidence. Anti-wireless activists say people should use caution until there are conclusive answers on the issue and recommend that people stick to conventional communications devices until that time. The FCC does not have any plans at the moment to alter its exposure guidelines, which the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements establishes. (Wireless Communications) "MAN on the Run" A metropolitan-area network (MAN) is a network of sites connected by an optical Ethernet. Such networks fulfill critical needs for network managers, according to Gartner analyst John Mazura. He says that MANs' bandwidth-on-demand offers a considerable advantage over frame-relay, T1 and T3 lines. MANs offer users fast, scalable connections by utilizing already deployed but largely unused optical fiber to comprise the Ethernet. Yipes, Telseon, and Cogent Communications are among the firms that set up MANs. Incyte Genomics selected a MAN from Telseon to transfer information between Incyte's head office in Palo Alto and its data center 18 miles away. Incyte's Philip Kwan says it is a less costly alternative to a burstable T3 line, particularly for clients who log on concurrently. However, not all locations have MAN providers, while some lack enough unused optical fiber; companies that wish to set up MANs in such areas must make creative decisions. (Optical Communications and Networking) "Japan's Kyocera, S. Korea's Hanaro
in Wireless Deal" Kyocera, a Japan-based maker of cellphones and electronic parts, has partnered with Hanaro Telecom of South Korea to develop high-speed wireless communications services over PCs. Kyocera is to provide Hanaro with technology for wireless base stations for transmissions above 1 Mbps, according to a Kyocera spokesman. The firm would also supply PC card technology, allowing PCs to receive mobile data transmissions. Kyocera's technology is used by Japan's KDDI for data transmission services as well. (Wireless Communications) "A New Wave" Vanderbilt University's Akram Aldroubi and the University of Connecticut's Karlheinz Grochenig believe they have developed a set of algorithms that will allow digital samples to be reconstructed without the loss of data that usually results from band limits or uniform sampling, first developed by Claude Shannon in 1948. The algorithms could prove particularly beneficial for body-scanning technologies--magnetic resonance imaging, for instance--that rely on signals that generate a lot of data that is lost due to band limits. The researchers use data derived from non-uniform sampling, which enables a more sophisticated way of digitizing the signal and eliminates band limits. The process is comprised of several steps, rather than one. One of the algorithms is used to analyze the original sample and create "a very poor man's approximation of what the function is like," according to Dr. Aldroubi. This model is then compared to the original sample data, and the algorithm calculates and corrects any discrepancies between them on an iteration-by-iteration basis. (Computer Communications, Systems and Protocols) "Researchers Test Near-Light Speed
Computing Network at Northwestern U." Northwestern University's International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) has partnered with SBC Communications and Nortel Networks to conduct the first metropolitan test-run of an all-optical broadband network that uses light waves to carry information. Such a network would be able to send information a lot faster than the fiber-optic systems used by most university and corporate networks. The technology has already been tested in wide-area networks, which connect major cities, but metropolitan networks have not yet tried an all-optical broadband network, says iCAIR's Jeremy Weinberger. In the current test, a Chicago government initiative called CivicNet will be combined with the metropolitan network, OMNInet. One major benefit from this test-run for Northwestern is that it will enable the university to transfer huge amounts of information between research institutions. ICAIR director Joe Mambretti says the real-world file-transfer applications of OMNInet will be explored during the test period. (Optical Communications and Networking) "Asia Prepares for a Boom in
Privatizations" Asian privatization deals in telecoms and banks are likely to offered this year. Governments in the region want to sell off unsold issues from last year. This year, the supply of equity totals approximately $20 billion, says Michael Berchtold, president of Morgan Stanley Asia-Pacific. Volumes could go back to levels seen in 2000, he says. However, if investor demand remains low, prices could fall. China is expected to lead in the global equity capital markets, generating as much as $10 billion this year and $200 billion over the next 10 years, says Berchtold. Among telecoms, China Netcom is expected to conduct an initial public offering, followed by China Unicom. The biggest draw appears to be China Telecom's offering of its southern assets, dubbed China Fixed South. (Product Sales and Marketing) "China's Unicom Pushes Ahead With
CDMA Plan" China Unicom Group has deployed a mobile-phone network based on the CDMA standard. The move may be a risky and expensive one as competition increases in China's mobile market. The network will be targeted toward more affluent customers and is capable of handling more bandwidth than GSM networks. China Unicom hopes to have capacity for 50 million subscribers within three years, says the firm's chairman Yang Xianzu. The CDMA business will be operated alongside the firm's GSM holdings, which have approximately 35 million subscribers. However, developing the CDMA network could detract from China Unicom's GSM network, which holds a 30 percent market share. Just the initial phase of the new network cost the No. 2 mobile operator $2.8 billion. China Unicom is the country's No. 2 mobile operator behind China Mobile. (Network Operations, Management and Control) "Softbank, Callahan Eye Korean
Internet Investment" Japanese firm Softbank and U.S. investment fund Callahan plan to invest in South Korea's Internet sector, according to Information and Communications Minister Yang Seung-taik. The two foreign companies will lead two investor groups, Yang said, and are interested in Hanaro Telecom and Thrunet. The two Korean firms are currently involved in merger talks and are the second and third largest ISPs in South Korea. The merger is part of governmental plans to streamline Korea's telecoms sector. (Product Sales and Marketing) "Coastal Collaboration" Under the Deepwater Capability Replacement Project, the U.S. Coast Guard plans to replace aging ships and aircrafts and their communications systems. One of the tools the Coast Guard is using is SiteScape Forum. The Web-based software centralizes the creation, storage, management, retrieval, and distribution of information through shared documents, files, calendars, threaded discussions, real-time messaging, and chat, says SiteScape. Most of the data that is created and shared is private and needs secure dispersal. Some documents can be hundreds of pages long and must pass through several offices. Only selected staff have access to the information, which is available around the clock in a secure, Web-based location. Users must have passwords and access control rights. The system is more secure, efficient, and inexpensive than the former paper-based method used for sharing information. (Communications) "Digital Certificates Draw Wireless
Attention" Last year Air2Web signed an agreement with VeriSign to integrate the Wireless Public Key Infrastructure (WPKI) solutions into Air2Web's mobile Internet platform 4.0 release. Air2Web vice president Kathy Jaques says that the new product lets users make "digital, signed, secure transaction[s] through the exchange of certificates between the wireless device and the server." Baltimore Technologies, 724 Solutions, and Aether Systems have all come out with similar WPKI-based solutions, and Data Monitor predicts that by 2006 the global WPKI market will make up 40 percent of the $3.6 billion PKI market. A Certicom white paper points out that it is harder to deploy digital certificates in the wireless space because of limits on storage space, processing power, memory, displays, and network bandwidth, so services and software must be more efficient for wireless work. Likewise, protocols are different to the point where they are not interoperable with Web-based protocols without a gateway. The 724 PKI Gateway has been integrated into the application framework, which lets service providers choose the policies and fields for a given transaction. Service providers, carriers, and device manufacturers are working together to embed security in platforms. (Wireless Communications) "Cryptographic Abundance" Cryptographic knowledge has been freely distributed since the late 1970s, and the time is coming when cryptography will be used widely and inexpensively to ensure security of messages, writes Xerox Palo Alto Research Center scientist Tom Berson. He says system designers generally avoid cryptography because of the outdated assumption that it is expensive, difficult to comprehend, and hard to deploy. This has led to tools and electronic devices that reveal the information displayed on them and whose digital identities are vulnerable to theft and misuse. The benefits of widespread cryptographic resources have the potential to resonate throughout every strata of people, systems, and data. Spam and e-surveillance could be eliminated, identity theft could be thwarted, and systems would be capable of verifying the authenticity of any communications and digital content that users receive. But for these things to be realized, consumers must be weaned off the belief that low levels of privacy and security are the norm. A major stumbling block is the fact that consumers' privacy interests are at odds with the marketing interests of information systems providers. (Computer Communications, Systems and Protocols) "Collective Brainpower" Companies are realizing tremendous benefits by harnessing unused computing cycles through grid computing. GlaxoSmithKline has built an in-house grid that taps into computing power from 600 desktop PCs throughout the world, running at a peak capacity of 95 percent. With its grid, GSK can shave weeks, even months, off product development, cut research and development costs through faster drug analysis, and most important of all, study scores of compounds faster than anyone. The company has also saved $4.8 million that would otherwise be spent on additional equipment. Meanwhile, other companies have started laying the foundation of a national computing grid designed to facilitate power sharing between businesses that promises to be as simple as Web-based data sharing. Companies will be able to tap into other companies' raw computing power anywhere and at any time. IBM is pioneering the commercialization of the technology with its support of the Globus consortium, a global initiative to develop grid computing on open-source software. Globus director Ian Foster says grid computing is "gaining critical mass" among businesses, as number-crunching becomes an ever more critical function. IBM vice president for emerging technologies David Turek says IBM is talking with companies in five industries about building or running grids to facilitate a wide range of activities. Turek foresees a whole industry worth billions built around running and supporting grid networks. He says, "Grid computing will allow the Net to be used as a supercomputer for hire." (Computer Communications, Systems and Protocols)
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