Thanks to my friends from the Arizona Telecommunications & Information Council (ATIC) for pointing out a valuable broadband performance testing service provided by the Federal Communications Commission.

A bit of introduction to the testing system:

“The purpose of the Consumer Broadband Test (Beta) is to give consumers additional information about the quality of their broadband connections and to create awareness about the importance of broadband quality in accessing content and services over the internet. Additionally, the FCC may use data collected from the Consumer Broadband Test (Beta), along with submitted street address, to analyze broadband quality and availability on a geographic basis across the United States.”

My Desktop results:

My iPhone results, using the FCC  Mobile Broadband Test iPhone application:

Further information about this service provided by the FCC:

The Consumer Broadband Test, currently in beta, is the FCC’s first attempt at providing consumers real-time information about the quality of their broadband connections. Because measuring broadband speeds with software tools is not an exact science, we are providing two popular consumer broadband testing tools in this Beta version: Ookla and M-Lab. Both will enable consumers to test the quality of their broadband connection by transferring a small temporary file back and forth and measuring the results. Users will be randomly assigned to one of the two chosen testing tools: Ookla or Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) running on the Measurement Lab (M-Lab) platform, or they can choose their preferred tool by using links on this page. Each test is likely to provide a different result, and the differences may be significant in some cases. While the tests will give consumers some information on relative speeds, the FCC does not endorse either one as being a definitive testing method. In the future, the FCC anticipates making additional broadband testing applications available for consumer use. The FCC does not endorse any specific testing application.

Try it out!  Does your broadband performance match what you think you should get?

On a recent trip out of town, while waiting in the Phoenix airport to board my flight, I suddenly become aware that I had really used a lot of apps on my iPhone that morning. So I counted the ones I had used – all 15 of them – before 10am.

1. Mail
2. Phone
3. iPod
4. Safari
5. Messages
6. Calendar
7. Toodledo
8. Evernote
9. Tweetie
10. Facebook
11. Brightkite
12. Livestrong
13. AP Mobile
14. Weather Channel
15. Tripit

I went on to use some more apps later in the day, but this all goes to prove that the iPhone has become an indispensible part of my life – helping me be more productive, connected and responsive to the people in my life.

What apps are a critical part of your everyday life?

Ten years ago, while employed by Oracle, I worked on a project where we tried to convince the large North American telcos to act as Application Service Providers (ASP) and host Oracle applications for their customers.  We proposed that the combination of existing telco data centers, network connectivity, business customer base and billing infrastructure provided an ideal foundation for such services.  At that time, we didn’t get much traction with the telcos, but Oracle went ahead and launched their own ASP service, now known as "Oracle On Demand.”

Now, as Sun awaits acquisition by Oracle, it is interesting to see telco participation in what we now term “Cloud Computing.”  On Monday, AT&T announced “Synaptic Compute as a Service(SM), its latest innovative global cloud-based service, designed to give companies of all sizes simple on-demand access to scalable computing capacity.”  Ironically, the press release was entitled, “AT&T Unveils Network-Based ‘On Demand’ Computing for Companies of All Sizes.”  I’m not sure what Oracle might think of AT&T’s use of the “On Demand” term.

AT&T is working closely with Sun to use the Sun Cloud Open Cloud Platform, Sun Cloud APIs, cloud reference architecture and design expertise to create an environment to make it easy for developers to build and deploy value-added services.

"Sun is committed to helping our customers and partners deliver public and private clouds that are cost effective, open and interoperable," said Dave Douglas, senior vice president, Cloud Computing, Sun Microsystems. "AT&T’s network and operational excellence coupled with Sun’s Open Cloud Platform and Sun Cloud APIs delivers a revolutionary cloud offering. We’re excited to be working with AT&T to bring an enterprise-class, highly scalable offering that delivers choice and flexibility to market."

The trend towards cloud computing marches on.  I think we will see more telco participation in this market. We have long accepted utility telephony services from telecom operators.  Offering computing utility services is a logical next step.

Do you remember when a mobile phone was too heavy to carry?  Take a look at this nostalgic series of classic cell phone photos.

Technorati Tags: Mobile, Telecommunications

A few weeks ago, Bruce Schneier posted an interesting article explaining how Barack Obama will need to give up his Blackberry to minimize his personal “electronic trail” that could prove troublesome or worse:

“When he becomes president, Barack Obama will have to give up his BlackBerry. Aides are concerned that his unofficial conversations would become part of the presidential record, subject to subpoena and eventually made public as part of the country’s historical record.”

Interestingly enough, when I re-visited that article this afternoon, the sidebar list of Most Popular posts listed “Governor is Arrested on Graft Charges” as the second most popular post today. I wonder what Governor Blagojevich thinks about the damning electronic trail he left behind?

Technorati Tags: Blackberry, Obama

In this Telecom TV video interview at the recent NXTComm conference, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems talks about the impact of cloud computing and open source software on the telecom industry.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, OpenSource, SunMicrosystems

AT&T announced yesterday that “the company has shattered its text messaging record of 64.5 million by generating more than 78 million messages this season of ‘American Idol‘ — the most popular show on television.”

My family contributed substantially to that total. Thank heavens for unlimited text message plans!

So, at least for now, SMS is still the reigning “killer application” for mobile telephony.

Technorati Tags: SMS,
Telecommunications

I recently had an interesting discussion with a telecommunications executive about Google. He loves the way Google creates demand that increases the percentage of potential subscribers who buy his broadband Internet services; he hates Google’s penchant for giving away services for free. Most of all, he hates Google’s avowed ambition for “world domination.”

“Will Google get into the wireless telephony business?” I asked.

“No, the high cost of installing and operating a mobile phone business is far too expensive,” he said, “even for a cash-rich company like Google.”

But he was quick to point out that Google’s bluffs in that direction have already caused Verizon and AT&T to announce they are opening their networks to non-proprietary phones. The Open Handset Alliance and Google’s intention to bid in the 700 mHz spectrum auction next month has the big carriers churning.

Isn’t competition interesting?

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications,
Google