Caron Carlson

The Federal Communications Commission on Monday ordered several requirements to protect competition following Verizon Communications Inc.s planned purchase of MCI Inc. and SBC Communications Inc.s planned purchase of AT&T Corp. The Bell companies must provide standalone DSL service for two years, retain the rates they charge businesses for high-capacity communications for two years and continue […]

To ensure that businesses arent left without competitive offerings following the acquisition of the two largest long distance carriers by the two largest local telephone companies, the Department of Justice said today that it will require the telcos to divest portions of their fiber-optic networks in 19 cities. Without this condition, some business users in […]

The good news for Americans traveling overseas with a required RFID-outfitted passport beginning next year is that there will be no fee to replace the document if the chip fails. The bad news is that technology glitches provide one more opportunity to get stuck at the border. Only 1 percent of the public responding earlier […]

Improving cyber-security may be in the public interest, but to persuade the commercial owners of the countrys critical infrastructure to invest in more secure networks, the Department of Homeland Security next year plans to show them the bottom line. Echoing what has become a mantra on Capitol Hill, lawmakers chided the DHS last week for […]

As the volume of phone calls carried over IP grows, so does the threat of voice spam. From the perspective of those who hold a stake in voice over IP, however, “social irritations” such as spam are the least of their worries. According to the VOIP Security Alliance, the greatest threat to VOIP comes in […]

In the latest effort to encourage owners and operators of the nations critical infrastructure to hand over threat and vulnerability data to federal agencies, companies that do so may be given further exemption from longstanding federal laws designed to promote open government. Last week, a group of industry executives who serve on the presidents National […]

The responsibilities of government CIOs largely mirror those of their private sector counterparts, but the key challenges faced by the two groups of CIOs often differ, according to a study released today by the Government Accountability Office. In an ongoing effort to shed light on the federal governments long-standing IT problems, the GAO met with […]

To give midsize businesses a ready-made version of the integrated network services traditionally available only on a customized basis, Echopass Corp. is launching a hosted service integration platform that melds call center offerings with customer relationship management, network delivery and work force management technologies. The EchoSystem platform delivers applications as needed in conjunction with call […]

As legislators meet this month to hammer out details for extending controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act, corporate America finally has found a voice, albeit a quiet one, with which to speak out against the acts more intrusive surveillance powers. Manufacturers, real estate companies, financial institutions and many others want Congress to restore checks […]

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 failed to spur robust competition in traditional local telephony, but just as Congress prepares to rewrite it, a federal appeals court ruled that the Regional Bell Operating Companies, or RBOCs, will have to face charges that they conspired to prevent that very competition. Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals […]

As many enterprises rediscover the benefit of having someone else monitor and manage their networks, others are eager to bring those duties in-house. For the latter group, CentrePath Inc. is making the latest version of its Magellan network management technology available as a software package for on-site installation. Magellan monitors the topology of optical and […]

Regulators gave voice-over-IP providers a break last week in the effort to make Internet-based calling compliant with emergency 911 service rules. Earlier, the Federal Communications Commission had said that all VOIP subscribers had to acknowledge that they may not be able to reach an emergency operator when dialing 911 or else their service would be […]