“We build our computers the way we build our cities — over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.”

-Ellen Ullman

The Internet runs on a variety of specific networking technologies that are advancing in their own right. As advances in networking make our world smaller, and bring once unimaginable technologies to the average consumer, they also present challenges. How can technology and policy best address the many thorny issues relating to networking – issues around broadband and spectrum, management, business models and more? In the articles below, experts in specific networking technologies such as W-Fi, LTE, and Ethernet tell us where these systems are going.

Spectrum Reality, Part 2

In my last post, I promised to follow up on the 700 MHz band’s unique properties, so here you go. The background fact about spectrum is that opportunistic spectrum access [...]

Spectrum Reality

Now that a detente of sorts has been reached with Congressional efforts to muzzle some of the most egregious criminal sites on the Internet, attention came resume on some of [...]

FCC and AT&T Rural LTE Kerfuffle

A lot of ink has been spilled in the past week since AT&T withdrew its FCC application for a merger with T-Mobile and the FCC released a staff analysis report. [...]

The Shift to Smartphones in the Developed World

It’s a clear indication of mainstream smartphone adoption when even my mother is interested in getting a smartphone.  She has always been content with a basic phone – not even [...]

Giving Android a Chance

A little less than a month ago, I wrote some effusive praise for the iPhone 4S on this blog and chronicled my buying experience. The 4S is a very impressive [...]

Verizon Takes a Step Forward

PC Magazine broke a very interesting piece of news Saturday about a new system Verizon has developed for their wireless network. Briefly put, this system presents an API that allows [...]

Spectrum Deficit Disorder

The discussion about the wireless spectrum crunch can be hard for the average citizen to follow. While it’s easy to understand the straightforward fact that every network has a capacity [...]

Landmark Cellphone Safety Study

A group of researchers at the Danish Cancer Society’s Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen and at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon have concluded the first [...]

iOS 5 Upgrade: Error 3200

If you’re unable to upgrade your iOS device to release 5 today with an “Internal Error” or “Unknown Error 3200″ on restore it’s not personal and your device isn’t broke. [...]

Why Apple Doesn’t Support LTE Yet (and why it doesn’t matter)

I was going to post this yesterday, but analyzing Apple products on the day of Steve Jobs’ passing would have been silly. As the ITIF tribute said, Jobs is an [...]