Broadband Barometer Charts Networking ProgressThe broadband rollout of Latin America is happening at a swift pace, and Cisco is aiding in the effort on a number of fronts in an effort to bridge the digital divide on that continent.Cisco has released its Broadband Barometer, a report showing high-speed Internet growth for Argentina. The report, sponsored by Cisco and prepared by consulting company IDC, proposed a goal of reaching four million high-speed connections by the year 2010, based on an existing 1,043,289 connections at present.The government of Argentina endorsed the report as a way to drive the country’s economic development.Cisco is working closely with the government to help with rollout. “The possibility of having high-speed connections is not an unimportant matter, since it determines the way in which our country can position itself in the information economy and the knowledge society,” said Sebastian Ballerini, General Manager at Cisco Systems Argentina.”At Cisco, we have been supporting and fostering the movement towards broadband for several years now, this representing one of our main policies on a worldwide scale.”Cisco Broadband Barometers are in place in countries throughout Latin America. In April, Cisco announced a Broadband Barometer report for Brazil, where the country has announced its intention to have more than 10 million broadband connections by 2010.Carlos Carnevali, Cisco Systems’ VP of sales for Latin America, in July outlined the economic growth of these countries and the ways Cisco is meeting their networking needs in a Q&A with News&Cisco.

Broadband Barometer Charts Networking ProgressThe broadband rollout of Latin America is happening at a swift pace, and Cisco is aiding in the effort on a number of fronts in an effort to bridge the digital divide on that continent.Cisco has released its Broadband Barometer, a report showing high-speed Internet growth for Argentina.The report, sponsored by Cisco and prepared by consulting company IDC, proposed a goal of reaching four million high-speed connections by the year 2010, based on an existing 1,043,289 connections at present.The government of Argentina endorsed the report as a way to drive the country’s economic development.Cisco is working closely with the government to help with rollout. “The possibility of having high-speed connections is not an unimportant matter, since it determines the way in which our country can position itself in the information economy and the knowledge society,” said Sebastian Ballerini, General Manager at Cisco Systems Argentina.”At Cisco, we have been supporting and fostering the movement towards broadband for several years now, this representing one of our main policies on a worldwide scale.”Cisco Broadband Barometers are in place in countries throughout Latin America. In April, Cisco announced a Broadband Barometer report for Brazil, where the country has announced its intention to have more than 10 million broadband connections by 2010.Carlos Carnevali, Cisco Systems’ VP of sales for Latin America, in July outlined the economic growth of these countries and the ways Cisco is meeting their networking needs in a Q&A with News&Cisco.

Cisco Unified Communications Gains TractionThis week, the VoiceCon Fall 2006 conference in San Francisco brought out enterprise IT decision-makers interested in evaluating their options for converged, IP networking. Unified Communications was one of the themes of the event, and Cisco used the occasion to announce the most recent companies adopting the Cisco Unified Communications system to streamline their business processes and drive productivity through IP-based communications.C.J. Hughes Construction, Warner Pacific Insurance Services and JJ Food Service are deploying the Cisco Unified Communications system. Announced in March 2006, the Cisco Unified Communications system is a suite of voice, data and video products and applications specifically designed to help organizations of all sizes to communicate more effectively and increase operational efficiencies.For a discussion of how Cisco Unified Communications is changing the workplace environment, check out a News@Cisco Q&A this week with Rick McConnell, Cisco Vice President and General Manager, Unified Communications. To get an overview of how this technology is working in practice, go to the feature story, “œCisco Unified Communications can eliminate barriers to virtual collaboration and improve efficiency,” also found this week on News@Cisco.

Cellular, Wireless LAN Technologies Should Serve Consumer DemandAlan S. Cohen, senior director of the Wireless Mobility Business group at Cisco, in a perspective piece on CNET, firmly dispels the notion that Cellular and Wireless LAN are competitive technologies. Cellular and Wireless LAN are rather two approaches moving ahead together as allies to keep up with burgeoning and varied customer demand for more and richer services on more devices. Cohen cites the growing appeal of dual-mode (cellular and WLAN) phones. “As devices increasingly become more dual and multimode, including WiMax, choice in wireless networks will support more cost-effective scenarios for users,” Cohen writes.”When smart devices and users can move from network to network to take advantage of higher performance, lower cost or even different security scenarios, then switching costs drop, and consumers benefit from a world of choice. At the end of the day, consumers do not care what network they connect to but how well their applications perform.” It’s unwise to be wedded to one particular technology when it’s the users who are usually the final arbiters.”-Public WLAN services are in a nascent phase, and there are already several constituencies, including municipal governments, happily taking advantage of them,” Cohen writes.”More mobility and choice seem better than dogmatism. All industry players should be wary of technology religion, lest they, in the closing words of Shakespeare’s Othello, “love not wisely, but too well.”

Cellular, Wireless LAN Technologies Should Serve Consumer DemandAlan S. Cohen, senior director of the Wireless Mobility Business group at Cisco, in a perspective piece on CNET, firmly dispels the notion that Cellular and Wireless LAN are competitive technologies. Cellular and Wireless LAN are rather two approaches moving ahead together as allies to keep up with burgeoning and varied customer demand for more and richer services on more devices. Cohen cites the growing appeal of dual-mode (cellular and WLAN) phones. “As devices increasingly become more dual and multimode, including WiMax, choice in wireless networks will support more cost-effective scenarios for users,” Cohen writes.”When smart devices and users can move from network to network to take advantage of higher performance, lower cost or even different security scenarios, then switching costs drop, and consumers benefit from a world of choice. At the end of the day, consumers do not care what network they connect to but how well their applications perform.” It’s unwise to be wedded to one particular technology when it’s the users who are usually the final arbiters.”-Public WLAN services are in a nascent phase, and there are already several constituencies, including municipal governments, happily taking advantage of them,” Cohen writes.”More mobility and choice seem better than dogmatism. All industry players should be wary of technology religion, lest they, in the closing words of Shakespeare’s Othello, “love not wisely, but too well.”