short takes

On consumers' technology needs: "Consumers have spoken.

American households and businesses are wired into today's

technology, from broadband cable service to the internet. They have

multiple phone lines for a myriad of uses and quickly are realizing the

benefits of having one provider. Consumers are looking to organize what

has become somewhat of a mess ... Bundled services have proven to be a

pivotal benefit to consumers and businesses, it is a service for

organizing and making sense of their technological lives."



-Mark Greenberg, president and CEO, PrimeOne, Austin, Texas



On Year 2000 training and education: "Everyone keeps waiting,

yet dates are slipping by; and, before long, we will be in a real crisis

situation ... Even if you think you have taken care of every bit of your

software to correct the Year 2000 problem, if your suppliers have not

done so, you will have problems ... If you aren't compliant, but

your competior is, you will lose business to them."



-Betty Gardner, manager of North Carolina State University's

continuing and professional education computer training unit in Raleigh,

N.C.



On aptitude tests for IT positions: "Deciding what career to

pursue is one of the most important choices a person will ever make,

but, often, inadequate guidance leads people to the wrong career. It can

be a very expensive mistake. Across the country, companies complain that

they can't find enough information technology professionals to

satisfy their needs. Such issues as the Year 2000 problem, the Internet,

and migration to new operating systems are draining the field of

available professionals."



-Zafar Khizer, founder and president, PC Age computer training

center

On future employment skill standards: "Across the country,

employers, employees, and community-based organizations are joining

together to guarantee a bright future for each industry sector of the

U.S. economy. These partners are working together to establish voluntary

nationwide skill standards, the clear benchmarks for skills and

knowledge in the American workplace. From manufacturing to retail to

telecommunications, skill standards will provide all workers with a

'skill passport' to communicate their training, education, and

experience to all employers."



-James R. Houghton, chairman, National Communications Skill

Standards Coalition



Internet/IP Technologies



Interoperability lab nears completion



The first phase of a state-of-the-art interoperability laboratory

designed by IXC Communications Inc. of Austin, Texas, is nearing

completion, its purpose to assure the cooperative interworking of

signaling and protocols among the IXC network, new technology and

equipment, and services to the customer. More than 30 equipment

suppliers' networking technologies will be contained in the lab

which will also house more than $8 million worth of telecommunications

electronics being both purchased by IXC and contributed by various of

its supplier partners. The lab will be fully equipped to handled all

technologies including ATM, IP, Frame Relay, VoIP, SONET, DWDM, IP

SONET, and more.



Wireless: Voice/Data Communication



Life on Mars? Listen for yourself



From January to December of this year, NASA's Mars Polar

Lander, will travel nearly 6.75 million kilometers to reach the icy

Martian polar cap on that planet. The satellite containing the

"Mars Microphone" will enable mankind to hear sounds on Mars,

while its robotic ear will listen to and analyze audio information.

Installed in the Polar Lander is a highly versatile chip developed by

Sensory Inc., in Sunnyvale, Calif., capable of generating and

recognizing speech and recording sounds. The Martian recordings will be

made in 10-second increments and will be posted live on UC

Berkeley's Space Science Laboratory's Web site

(www.plasma2.ssl.berkeley.edu/marsmic/). Because of a less dense

atmosphere on Mars, sounds are expected to be similar to--but fainter

than--sounds on Earth. Sounds expected to be captured include sand

blowing against the Lander and surrounding terrain, other wind sounds,

and sounds from electrical discharges in the dust clouds.



Telephony/CTI

U.S. digital wireless phones now top sellers



Sales of new-generation digital wireless phones in the U.S. outsold the traditional analog phones in the first three quarters of 1998 a

study by Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Group Inc., a market research

firm, shows. "The analog-digital crossover, at last, signals the

market's protracted transition to second-generation digital phones

a full six years after they were first introduced in the U.S.,"

says Dataquest analyst Matt Hoffman. Nokia, a Finnish telecommunications

equipment maker, saw its share of the U.S. digital phone market soar to

a leading 40.3% in the first nine months of last year; Motorola's

share nearly doubled from 6.3% in 1997; and Sweden's Ericksson and

San-Diego-based QUALCOMM Inc., focusing on niche markets, experienced a

shrinking market share.



Publications



Larus Corp. San Jose, Calif., recently issued the fifth edition of

its popular Digital Network Timing and Synchronization 38-page booklet.

Recent standards and new technology are included in the publication

which discusses synchronization sources available to provide timing

reference for digital network connectivity, as well as functional timing

system diagrams and a table listing clock strata requirements. For a

free copy, contact Larus Corp., 1560 Berger Drive, San Jose, CA 95112;

Tel: 800-999-9946; visit Larus' Web site at www.laruscorp.com.



Communications Specialties, Inc., has published a free 24-page

educational guide to fiber optic transmission systems entitled,

Introduction to Fiber Optics., The guide is designed for communication

professionals who want to learn more about the technology and is ideal

for anyone faced with the challenge of integrating fiber optic systems

into videoconferencing or a similar environment. Contact Communications

Specialties by telephone at 516-273-0404; via e-mail at

info@commspecial.com; or visit the Web site at www.commspecial.com.



A detailed brochure on Alexander Resources' new study, U.S.

Wireless Business Telephone Markets (WBTS) 1998 to 2003, is available

via telephone: 800-948-8225; via e-mail at sales@AlexanderResources.com;

or via the Web site at www.AlexanderResources.com. The report

identifies, evaluates, and quantifies the wireless communications needs

and requirements of the nation's 132,353,092 workers in over

6,613,218 business establishments, examining the technology, regulatory

standards, and spectrum trends that influence the growth of the market.

The WBTS market consists of Wireless PBX, Wireless Centrex, Wireless

Office Service, In-Building Cellular, Wireless Voice LANs, and

Unlicensed PCS.



Employment



Tech jobs demand new reference focus



According to Management Recruiters International (MRI), Inc., today

the reference check is vastly more complicated than in recent years.

This is true particularly in the technology field where candidates are

interviewing clandestinely while they still have a job. The prevalence

of the employed (vs. the unemployed)seeking work has brought changes in

the dynamics of the reference check. First, reference checks are

becoming more systematic and standardized; and, second, more than

before, a diverse group of references has become acceptable--co-workers

who can speak from personal experience; business contacts outside a

candidate's current company (clients, customers, joint venture or

project partners, vendors); a candidate's former employer who has

left the company; colleagues from other professional affiliations

(professional associations or other groups).



"Qualified and highly skilled professionals remain at a

premium. Employers today are looking for the best, most accurate

reference check they can find. Companies cannot afford to hire the wrong

person for a high-profile position because the competition is so

intense. The reference becomes vitally important," says Jeffrey

Heath, president of The Landstone Group in New York, an MRI affiliate.

MRI, a subsidiary of CDI Corp., is the nation's largest executive

search and recruitment organization.



Convergence Technology



Traditional American and British pastimes shift



Consumers in the U.S.A. and Britain indicated to

PricewaterhouseCoopers' 1998 Consumer Technology Survey that the

`Net is changing the way in which their personal entertainment choices

are made. Reading, watching television, and window shopping are three

areas of interest somewhat neglected now by about one-third of 2,000

surveyed consumers who spend more time on the Internet. These same

consumers expressed curiosity about digital television (DTV), primarily

because of the potential for movie-quality entertainment at home.

Peculiarly, consumers' willingness to pay more for movie-quality

digital television (a perspective based on billing and entertainment)

was offset with their lack of familiarity with and a hesitancy to

actually invest in a DTV.



Advanced Telecommunications



The future of broadband



At the close of 1998, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) at its Arlington, Va. headquarters, filed additional comments with

the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the deployment of

advanced telecommunications capability. [The complete text of TIA's

filing is located on its Web site at www.tiaonline.org/

government/filings] TIA believes that such capability is not being

deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. The

organization urges the FCC to remove regulatory barriers to investment

in telecom capability and proactively encourages competition in the

local loop.



The association's president, Matthew J. Flanigan, says,

pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of Fashion 1996 concerning

deployment, "Current state-of-the-art technologies should not be

regarded by the commission to be the final resting place for a Section

706 determination, but rather the mere beginning." TIA suggests

that a data transmission speed exceeding 128 kbps, both downstream and

upstream, is an appropriate minimum near-term deployment target. TIA

believes that some minimum level of service should be adopted in

defining advanced telecommunications capability in order to create

market certainty. Further, all competitors should be on equal footing to

compete in the new market, with no particular category of providers

being given an advantage or a disadvantage by virtue of regulation.



Among its comments, TIA suggests that the FCC offer an optional

relief to all telecom providers under Section 706 which would allow a

carrier to design a specific plan of regulatory relief that is linked to

deployment of advanced telecommunications capability or to customize a

plan to meet the needs of a specific class of carriers--either to be

provided via a so-called social contract or a mutual agreement.



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