tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20516071531334822132012-02-06T00:30:13.172-08:00Contact info: rdinvst@yahoo.comR.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.comBlogger231100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-80561719765851994072011-07-23T19:54:00.000-07:002011-07-23T19:55:10.142-07:00

Today there is a scramble for position on an ever-changing media and technology landscape. Last year, for example, Best Buy, an electronics dealer trying to survive the recession, began offering Clearwire’s broadband Wi-Max service to its customers. Google, on the other hand, is so concerned about Facebook that it is now building a social network of its own called Google+. The LA Times also

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-23114298431116682192011-01-14T17:46:00.000-08:002011-06-10T15:28:42.774-07:00

A lot has happened since I wrote in 2007 that “This is AT&T’s world. We just live in it.”  Some are now suggesting that AT&T has been replaced by Google (or even Apple, Amazon, or Verizon) as the newest internet “Golden Child”. They may have a point. So what happened in 4 years? Competition. Google, Apple, Amazon, Verizon and others are outpacing AT&T, both in technology (copper vs. fiber) and

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-24838332397402242392010-12-23T15:00:00.000-08:002010-12-29T11:32:49.704-08:00

Dear Readers, Happy Holidays ! Here’s to a better 2011 ! Let me take this opportunity to thank all those who have commented on my blog posts over the past few months. Like most writers, I’m not always sure what impact my writing has, so it’s always humbling, and enlightening, to see any reaction from my readers. Again, thank you for all the positive feedback. I really appreciate it. As you can

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-29397624265155617612010-09-30T17:29:00.000-07:002010-11-08T14:52:47.938-08:00

In earlier essays we followed the development of media technology in the United States, beginning with 19th century wireless telegraphy to the modern day internet. Against this backdrop, we compared recent developments by internet companies, pointing out historical similarities and noting significant points of departure. Let’s now discuss the impacts these developments may have on the global

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-17461047716520493142010-08-24T14:48:00.000-07:002010-08-24T14:56:33.438-07:00

For all intents and purposes, Google and Verizon’s recent legislative proposal should be viewed as a preemptive strike expressed out of frustration with the FCC’s slow progress on the classification of access services to the Internet. That change would recast internet access as an “Information Service”, instead of a “Telecommunication Service” as previously defined by the Bush Administration.

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-42429803122980241422010-08-18T16:18:00.000-07:002010-08-20T15:20:32.662-07:00

As the global network expands, different corporations seem to be positioning themselves to exploit different classes of services. We saw the first group, including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable, emerge around 2004 as the internet’s broadband service providers. By 2006 Google and Apple were taking advantage of high broadband usage to place content providers on an equal footing. In

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-29571869023130424522010-08-11T20:37:00.000-07:002010-08-11T20:37:36.277-07:00

Let’s now attempt to evaluate what effects Google’s recent moves to advocate for faster internet speeds, to become more vertically integrated, and to be less dependent on large telecom providers will have. As we asked earlier: How will users be affected by faster and more open internet access? Will policy changes and market maneuvers by large service providers, like Google and Verizon, improve

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-14612816538345515402010-04-07T22:24:00.000-07:002010-04-26T10:14:08.416-07:00

In the fall of 2008 Google took an important step toward its future by bundling “Android”, the company’s open source mobile operating system, in a new smartphone offered by T-Mobile. The German telecom company was an early member of the partnership Google created in 2007 to develop a competitor to Apple’s IPhone. The sensation of Android’s introduction was not lost on Google’s other rivals. Soon

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-86782706746514601902009-09-01T18:07:00.000-07:002009-09-03T00:26:29.649-07:00

Facts about the Global Network The current distribution of IP addresses per continent.  North America (55.9%) and Europe (22.5%) have the two largest concentrations, with Asia’s current share at 14%. Image courtesy of: www.ipligence.com/ worldmap/  What is the internet ? - a computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-56931780373739111812008-07-27T15:03:00.000-07:002008-07-30T11:56:20.713-07:00

The gatekeeper status of the largest cable and telephone companies seemed to hit a high point in 2005. By the second half of 2008, however, the internet’s future seems to be very much in flux. Telephone companies are losing 10% of residential land line subscribers per year to cell phone companies and cable companies offering VoIP services, while adding more DSL customers. Competition between

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-36870220442763365632008-04-28T14:07:00.000-07:002008-10-29T15:46:40.278-07:00

By the dawn of the new century, competition over the internet evolved into two opposing camps. On one side were former telephone companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest, the successors of the Bell System divestiture in 1984 and numerous consolidations in the years that followed. Opposing them were the nation’s largest cable television operators, including Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, and

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-46818669748795326152008-02-22T13:20:00.000-08:002008-06-18T13:47:55.259-07:00

Like other media before it, the internet was possible because of pioneering individuals, government supported research, and several defining events that seemed to unfold independently. Each of these factors were, in fact, curiously related, creating the conditions for the world’s first interactive network during the second half of the 20th century, just as broadcast and cable television

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-68276041804038553812008-01-10T15:38:00.000-08:002008-02-29T12:24:37.178-08:00

Cable TV introduced a new model for television that was disruptive to the major broadcast networks. In this episode we shall see that cable was remarkable not only for challenging broadcast TV in the 50’s and 60’s, but also for laying the groundwork for a global information network known today as the Internet.More Television ChannelsCable systems were the first technology to expand the number of

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-82759759262568944842007-12-13T21:23:00.000-08:002008-02-29T12:26:25.522-08:00

The Problem with CableBy the time the FCC ended its first investigation of cable television in 1966, the commission concluded that the new technology was a serious threat to broadcast television. The basis of the threat was cable’s perceived ability to transmit unlicensed programming into protected television markets, the potential to create original programming that could siphon off lucrative

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-49876106570170346342007-11-27T13:19:00.000-08:002008-02-29T12:27:26.928-08:00

The early success of cable television resulted in growing apprehension among local broadcasters and the major networks throughout most of the 1950's, but failed to push the Federal Communications Commission's to regulate the new service.The earliest FCC inquiry of CATV began tentatively after the first experiments. In July 1949, the Portland Oregonian reported the expansion of Ed Parson's antenna

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-84752991972142643972007-11-07T15:07:00.000-08:002011-05-08T11:34:06.046-07:00

(This short piece is a detour from our story of media development in the United States. It illustrates how and why media operate in this country, and suggests that media history is the best context in which we can understand developments in the industry.) Monday, November 5, 2007, was one of those days in which we were given a glimpse of media development and the movement toward new forms of

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-40031311968990030372007-10-29T13:17:00.000-07:002010-10-14T11:28:45.334-07:00

Early cable television systems were little more than wire relays set up in small towns to receive broadcast signals from distant cities. The method was first used by early radio broadcasters in 1923. American inventor Philo T. Farnsworth performed one of the first public demonstrations of televised images in Philadelphia in 1934. NBC’s David Sarnoff followed with his own exhibition at the 1939

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-80950089440654100992007-10-19T15:45:00.000-07:002008-02-29T12:32:08.149-08:00

Even as radio companies were reaching the height of their influence, David Sarnoff, Bill Paley and others manuevered to introduce a new technology called “television” to mass audiences. But like the wireless, scientists worked futilely on early television experiments in isolated locations with minimal commercial support, some as early as the 1890’s. David Sarnoff was so sure about television that

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-38548512870768315632007-10-05T14:13:00.000-07:002008-03-11T19:57:44.777-07:00

The Story of American media continues.RCA kept a low profile in its early years, but that did not suggest a lack of activity. At its birth in 1919 the company was granted free use of GE’s patents and became its sole agent for radios and equipment sales in the United States. RCA also acquired all government stations and ship installations formerly owned by American Marconi. This allowed the new

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-84432764038068244642007-10-02T15:34:00.000-07:002010-10-14T11:36:32.466-07:00

Radio historians tell us that wireless telegraphy, the forerunner of radio, television, and the internet, was the first globally accessible communications medium. Most popular accounts, however, don’t mention that wireless was first regulated by the federal government in the early 1900’s because of its importance to America’s growing military presence in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-12969365135731425922007-09-28T16:48:00.000-07:002008-02-29T12:35:06.382-08:00

As the 2008 campaigns begin in earnest, there are a bewildering number of so-called “media and internet issues” that have been relegated to the WONK file. That’s what I call the margins of the national consciousness overseen by mainstream media that get little, if any, attention from the general public because the issues are deemed too technical or complicated to capture in short articles or 20

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-9541946898228301662007-09-14T17:39:00.000-07:002008-02-29T12:35:46.001-08:00

The reality that competition over the internet is evolving into two opposing camps is now well established. On the one side are “former” telephone companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest, the successors and beneficiaries of the Bell System break-up in 1984. Opposing them are “former” cable television operators, including Time Warner, Comcast, Cox, and Charter Communications, the successors

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051607153133482213.post-33638150781913254482007-09-07T19:32:00.000-07:002008-02-29T12:36:17.801-08:00

One of the best ways to gather information about the tendencies of large media companies is through listservs. Basically, a listserv is a running e-mail dialogue among groups of people who have similar interests in obtaining and sharing information, venting about government or corporate policies, and testing strategies they might use in the future. Here’s an illustration of how information on a

R.E. Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16161725669360807392noreply@blogger.com0