This page is destined, I hope, to become a useful introduction to concepts in telecommunications. I will be trying to keep up with learning some web development tools in addition to adding useful content here. I don't expect growth of this page to be fast, but keep an eye on it. Please give me feedback as to whether I have presented things usefully (and correctly, if you know).
This page will be focused on explaining things to people who have little or no background with technology and telecommunications. "Telecommunications", for my purposes at this writing, means telephones and the Internet. I am sure this will cause me to touch on such things as cable television, satellites, and government organizations like the FCC. It's hard to split out these things.
As telecommunications technology and infrastructure grow, the different ways we use that infrastructure become more intertwined. Phenomena like cell phones with web browsers, Blackberries, and TiVo/Ultimate TV show this. The differences between phone companies and internet service providers is becoming more and more blurred. There will likely be a growing market for wireless internet service. Who's market is that? Does it belong to cell phone companies, like Verizon/Vodaphone, or to ISPs, like Earthlink? (This answer may already be known, just not yet by me.)
And those companies can't do anything without phones that actually support wireless Internet, so Motorola, Nokia, and Alcatel will have a hand in how the market develops. And since wireless Internet will be an extension of the wired Internet, with radio towers and satellites added on, companies like Cisco could have an impact too. And, of course, the governments start out owning the airwaves, so the ways they choose to distribute that bandwidth also has a giant impact. Already, the wireless internet industry (read "cell phone service providers") is mortgaged up to the hilt because of the price of G3 spectrum licenses auctioned off by governments. But if consumers are expected to pay off that debt quickly, the price will be so high for browsing the Web from one's cell phone that most people won't do it.
I'm going to try to make sense of this. And learn some web development. Wish me luck.