Caron Carlson

Belying cautionary tales that broadband deployment faces major hindrances in the United States, high-speed Internet connectivity rose 27 percent in the first half of this year. The Federal Communications Commission released data Tuesday showing that there are 16.2 million high-speed connections in service today, up from 12.8 million in the second half of last year. […]

Covad Communications Group Inc. is taking on the entrenched local telephone company in San Francisco today by adding voice telephony to its data services. If all goes as planned, Covad will expand telephone service to as many as 15 other U.S. cities by the end of next year. More than six years after the Telecommunications […]

As telecommunications carriers continue to retrench, with few signs of conducting major network upgrades in the immediate future, many network equipment makers have turned their attention to enterprises. Frequently, the detour has meant that products designed for service providers have been tweaked to suit enterprises. Not all carrier-grade gear is readily adaptable to enterprise networks, […]

Telecommunications providers, looking for ways to reduce costs and differentiate themselves in a competitive arena, are racing toward automated service provisioning and management services. The move, being made by the likes of AT&T Corp., WorldCom Inc. and others, should not only put more power in the hands of carriers enterprise voice and data users but […]

For the second year running, the federal government has flunked Computer Security 101. The 24 major agencies of the U.S. government performed so poorly this year that lawmakers charged with overseeing government efficiency said they want to tie agencies funding to network security procedures and force them to buy software only from a list of […]

For the second year running, the federal government has flunked Computer Security 101. The 24 major agencies of the U.S. government performed so poorly this year that lawmakers charged with overseeing government efficiency want to tie agencies funding to network security procedures and force them to buy software only from a list of “qualified” products. […]

Level 3 Communications Inc. last week agreed to acquire the assets of Genuity Inc., the latest example of a growing trend in the networking-gear industry that has seen once-highflying telecommunications products and companies put up for sale at bargain-basement prices. The trend has actually spawned a cottage industry of sorts to broker such sales to […]

Level 3 Communications Inc. will effectively acquire networking services provider Genuity Inc. by buying the struggling providers infrastructure and operations. Genuity will file for bankruptcy protection to facilitate the transaction. The companies announced Wednesday afternoon that Level 3 will pay $242 million in cash and take on long-term operating obligations in exchange for “substantially all […]

In “Prey,” Michael Crichtons latest novel, to be released this week, the master of technology-run-amok visions sets his sights on nanotechnology and describes a horde of bacterium-size machines that break out of a lab and evolve into flesh-eating, self-reproducing predators. While even experts in nanotechnology consider it “so new that it barely exists,” the science […]

The proposed department of Homeland Security, which President Bush is expected to sign into law this week, is slated to enhance network security standards within government and throughout the country. The initiative includes provisions to make it easier for companies to turn over potentially sensitive information to the government and to sell anti-terrorism products and […]