Gesture and Voice control of Electronic Devices–This seems to be a wave (ahem) of the future.  Samsung showed off a gorgeous TV that used gesture and voice control rather than the conventional remote.  Microsoft Kinect for Windows seems to be gaining some traction as well.  Apple is rumored to be developing a television with a “Siri-like” interface.  All of this actually makes sense.  If we can talk to our cars and our smartphones, it’s just a matter of time before this technology is commoditized to other devices as well.  I will give my personal “tech editor” award to the first company that makes a voice command driven remote that will translate to IR/RF and with older home theatre components.  Now that would be a “universal” remote!  And you wouldn’t have to search for the “light” button!

OLED Televisions–”Organic Light Emitting Diode” sets debuted in several booths this year.  This display technology is very power efficient and allows the design of very thin displays.  This technology has been used in smartphones and tablets for a number of years, and has found its way into the design of large displays.  In theory, display panels could be manufactured less than 1/4″ thick-certainly a conversation piece in anyone’s living room.  I question the practical advantages of such a thin display, in terms of shipping, set up, connectorization, etc.  There are no inherent quality advantages of OLED over currently available technologies, but that said, my sense is that we will see more of this technology in larger displays as manufacturing/logistical challenges are conquered.

Thunderbolt–The Intel “Thunderbolt” connectivity standard appears to be gaining mainstream acceptance.  Thunderbolt boasts incredibly fast data transfer rates, as well as the ability to connect multiple devices with different functions; i.e. an external disc drive and a display monitor in the same I/O port, for example.  Throughput is over 20 times faster than USB 2.0.  Apple’s new laptop line has had Thunderbolt connectivity for a while now, but peripherals and Wintel computers hosting the standard were pretty scarce.  Acer has embraced the standard with its new Aspire Ultrabook computer and both Seagate and Western Digital showed new external drives with the standard embedded. This particular technology becoming more ubiquitous  is a good thing IMHO as this is  a really, really good technology–very user friendly and highly capable.

A couple of notable points–3DTV was not generating the buzz that it did last year, although Samsung and LG, among others, still seem to be committed to the technology.  Most set companies appear to be pushing internet apps into their more mainstream (read: “cheaper”) televisions.  The show was again awash in tablets, just as it was last year.  But market penetration numbers have not changed much.

A great time to be alive, if you’re a gadget guy!

Until next time…

1)  TiVo or DVR–regardless of who your video service provider is, a digital video recorder is one of the best inventions on the planet.  Being able to “time-shift” video material from its broadcast slot to a time convenient to you is priceless.  Being able to fast scan through “commercial interruptions” saves time and aggravation.  If you don’t have one, you need one

2)  Tablet computers–I’ve had a lot of folks ask me about how I use my iPad, and what it helps me do, in anticipation of buying one for themselves or a spouse for the Holidays.  These are wonderful devices, limited only by your imagination and wallet.  There are thousands of really good, useful apps that can enhance your brain, creativity, and “joie de vivre”.  While I think the iOS versions are the very best choice, there are a number of alternatives out there this year that are viable, including the Android based Samsung Galaxy and Amazon Fire.

3)  Voice Command Technology–The new Apple iPone 4S is a marvel of engineering, taking vocal commands and creating digital events as a result.  Ford has improved the Microsoft based “Sync” technology in its products as well.  Talking to machines?  Better than talking to yourself, I suppose, but it will be interesting to see where this technology leads.  From a technical standpoint, though, this technology is getting better and has some genuine usefulness as our brains become more and more loaded with minutiae.

4)  Universal Remotes–There are some great universal remotes out there which are reasonably priced and can control almost every type of media center device.  The latest models use a Web based interface to program the nuances of “what you want the thing to do”, rather than sit there with a book full of codes trying to tie things together with a “button” interface.  My favorite?  The Logitech Harmony 650.

Well, that’s a couple of ideas that may make your holiday shopping a bit easier for the techie in your life.  May you all have a wonderful Holiday Season surrounded by those you love, and may you have the spirit of giving and reverence that the Season invites us to enjoy.

Until next time….

• Cars 2
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2

Those of you who have invested in 3D technology in your homes may give these a whirl.  I personally have seen none of these films, so can’t comment on the respective artistic application of the technology.  All three films certainly hail from successful franchises, so they will likely do well in whatever format shown.  I’d be interested in hearing about your 3D experience with these films (and other content, for that matter).  This is WOW’s first foray into the technology as a distributor, and we are always interested in feedback regarding any new offering.  Because consumer adoption of 3D has been “glacial” according to industry pundits, we are certainly interested to know where this is going, and what matters most to our valued customers.

In general observation during the small amount of shopping I’ve done lately, it appears the “cost of entry” for 3D has come down somewhat.  But then so has the equivalent flat panel 2D technology, whether LED or CFL backlighting.  Bottom line, there are some real deals out there for 2D technology this season, so it will be interesting to see whether folks will upspend to gain the 3D technology or not.  This season may be a pivotal point in the adoption cycle.

Until next time….

The NOC’s overall goal is to monitor and identify potential as well as actual problems and quickly escalate to our internal teams so we can ensure the impact to our customers is as minimal as it can be. We are staffed 24×7, 365 days a year by a team of dedicated and passionate NOC employees who recognize the importance of understanding our network and providing that quick response.

Unfortunately, we know that outages will occur and there are many reasons and numerous levels of impact. There are hardware failures, cable cuts, power outages, just to name a few. There are also times when a failure occurs because of human intervention even though I hate to admit to this. These are the issues that we focus on immediately and intensely so we can learn from them and ensure that if a mistake is made or if a key learning point is identified, we document, train and test  so it does not occur again.

Over the past 10 years, we have deployed tools, implemented processes and procedures and gained the appreciation that if 1 customer or 500 customers are affected by an issue, it has to be reacted to and resolved with the greatest sense of urgency. We know that when a customer experiences a service interruption of any kind, it reflects on WOW, no matter what the cause and we will always be looking for ways to improve to ensure you receive a customer experience we know you expect.

First, to set the framework–the FCC has promoted a public policy for some time that all Americans have the right to telephone services.  Obviously, in rural areas, the cost to provide that service has historically been quite high.  For nearly 80 years, rural telephone companies have been subsidized in these “high cost” areas through low cost loans from the government to build plant.  In 1997, Congress mandated an additional funding mechanism known as the “universal service fund”, where customers of telecommunications providers (including wireline, wireless, and VoIP) in “low cost” areas would contribute a percentage of the interstate services on their bill to the fund, which aggregation was used to subsidize customers in “high cost” areas.  Since 1997, the percentage of contribution has steadily grown and sits presently at 15.5% of interstate and end user services.

There are arguments on both sides as to whether this fund has been effective (or not) in promoting the public policy initiatives of the US government, but what is undeniably clear is that the fund is an expensive “tax” for 96% of the voice services customers in the country.  There has been a sense for some time that things needed to change.

Enter the “Connect America Fund”.  With this Order issued last week, the FCC has effectively created a fund to subsidize broadband deployment in the rural parts of the US, and is effectively transitioning the existing funding framework of the Universal Service Fund for the CAF.  Said another way, subsidies for voice services in rural areas are being phased out over the course of the next 5 to 9 years (depending on the company), and those same funds will be made available for rural telcos to deploy broadband data services to their customer base.  The fund will be “budgeted” at the same level it is presently, with the idea that the CAF fund will not grow beyond current funding levels.  In the summary of the order, there was language to suggest that the USF cum CAF would see attrition as the public policy goals associated with broadband deployment were achieved, reducing effective “communications tax” burdens on customers of telephone, cable, and wireless companies over time.

There were many other changes dictated by the Order, including an entire revamp of the intercarrier compensation system (the way companies compensate one another to reach end users on another network), jurisdiction policy (will State public service commissions continue to regulate “intrastate traffic”, or has VoIP made jurisdiction a moot point?), Interconnection Agreement framework (the standard agreements carriers sign with one another to exchange traffic), and so on.  Arcane indeed.

What is clear is that our users will continue for an indeterminate time to subsidize FCC public policy initiatives as they have in the past, but the tide may be turning.  Technology is making it easier and less expensive for all companies to provide voice and data services.  Over the course of the next few years, I hope and expect that all communication companies will become independent and self sustaining, reducing the subsidy burden on the industry as a whole.

Until next time…

At WOW!, we work hard but we have fun, too.  Here are some photos of our employees celebrating Halloween this year.

Edward Scisscorhands

Toy Story

They're creepy and they're kooky - the Addams Family

Why are business customers rapidly choosing WOW! as their provider of choice?  The answer is simple, because we take the time to understand your business on the front end, we develop solutions that allow customers to operate their company more efficiently, we provide tools that ignite a company’s sales and marketing effort, and we deliver our services over a network designed to deliver the rock solid reliability that is absolutely critical for business customers.  And, what customers find so unique about WOW! Business Solutions, is we are simply, easy to do business with – Our customers like having a personal account rep and a whole network of support people that are friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.  This is the personality of our company and customers have commented that they find our responsiveness, attitude and approach to “customer service” refreshing and definitely different from their experience with past providers.

So whether you are a small business looking to drive better sales results by leveraging the web, or an Enterprise business needing to connect multiple locations with scalable data connections that are designed to insure continuity of service, we have the answer.  Our product suite includes:

Small/Medium Business – Robustly featured business telephone lines, scalable high speed Internet connections from 5Mb to 50Mb, email, web design and web hosting solutions to help you drive better sales results and cable TV services.

Large/Enterprise – Fiber based solutions that provide the robust services you need to run your business: PRI’s, Metro Ethernet, high speed Internet (up to GB), and diversity solutions to insure you always stay connected.

Contact us today to learn how WOW! Business Solutions can help your business compete and prosper in any economy and what it feels like to be truly “valued” as a customer.

My impression of him was that he was a complex man, with significant strengths and weaknesses like the rest of us.  Without a doubt, though he was passionate about the company that he created, and passionate about the customer experience.  Did he always do everything right?  Don’t think so, and if he were around he’d likely freely admit that.  But I have to say that I admired his passion.  Even the people whom he routinely offended had to admire his passion.

The company that he created built products that have always appealed to me–their elegance, and even more important, their “creation philosophy”, though I have to say that sometimes the execution fell short.  But the idea of digital tools that would do stuff intuitively and allow one to do things never done before was what Apple was all about.

I began working for a small telephone switch manufacturing company based in the Rocky Mountains in 1983 as Director of Customer Service.  I had a staff of three people, who were chartered with documentation, customer education (technical and operational), switch installation and maintenance, software configuration and control, and other tasks required to maintain a loyal customer base.  Our customers were some of the early pioneers in the interexchange carrier business–those companies competed with ATT to provide long distance services at discounted rates.  A number of these companies are still in business, though morphed significantly as the business has changed.

We began our efforts in documentation on a simple text editor associated with the OS we were using at the time.  To say it was basic was being generous–a single monospaced font, left hand justification only, fixed tab lengths–no enhanced features of any kind.  Illustrations were (literally) a cut and paste into a blank spot left in the text.

Along came Apple’s Lisa.  Proportional spaced fonts, real word processing and page layout functions, and an intuitive GUI that made everything happen.  Just slower than cold tar.  But we loved it, because the finished product looked professional, and Lisa allowed us to update information in that fast paced environment without breaking the bank in printing costs, which other high tech companies struggled with at the time.  I knew then that we were on the verge of something special.

When the “Fat Mac” came out (512K of ram memory, hence “fat” when compared to the 128K common in the computers of the time), I bought one of those for my personal use. In retrospect, it probably would have been a good thing to have invested that money in the company instead

Will Apple be alright without Jobs?  Sure.  Steve surrounded himself with good, capable people, and those who worked closely with him admired and emulated his strengths. In the years Apple has been in business, it has created a culture of creativity and customer focus which, if adhered to, will serve the company and its customers well into the future.  Not even John Scully could completely stamp out that seed.

Until next time….

And while I’m glad to report all the good news, I also wanted to take a moment to thank you, our WOW! customers, for your patience and commitment as we completed the transition.  I understand this work has caused some pain as you’ve added new equipment, kept up on channel movements and endured the occasional service outage while we worked diligently to get your services transitioned.  From the beginning of this project we committed to providing you with regular updates.  In fact, you may be really tired of hearing from us by now!  Completely understandable.  It’s been quite a year of change and I appreciate your willingness to change with us.

On behalf of the entire WOW! family, thanks for continuing to choose us as your service provider.  Now let’s celebrate the end of this project and the beginning of a new digital era!