Anticipation was building… show organizers even changed the event’s name to”Mobile World Congress” (MWC) to acknowledge the evolution of the industry. The stage was set for a technology debate around HSPA, LTE and WiMAX. Many were prepared to engage in the rhetoric and race for mobile access technology supremacy. There was plenty of hype as Intel, Ericsson, NSN, and other corporate titans attempted to increase mindshare for their particular solution or approach. In the end, it was the small guys who captured the attention and headlines-the companies who focused on the delivery of a rich mobile user experience. “It’s the application stupid” was the theme that stole the show (see “Green Porno-a series of short films designed for cell phones and computers; provocatively named for search recognition). As Softbank CEO, Masayoshi Son and Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin pointed out in their keynotes, the Internet, entertainment and mobility are where the world is heading. Mr. Son even went so far as to say, “Voice will be offered for free” Wow… how times have changed. Read More »

Ok, so I know I’ve already mentioned the uber-users campaign we have going on and the Web 2.0 aspects it brings to us, but considering the day and the challenges that so many of us have had with finding love -past, present or future -I figured it would only be appropriate to get a better idea of the challenges that Cupid goes through as well- Happy Valentines’ Day!

Mobile operators and service providers have been looking for efficient solutions to the inter-domain IP mobility for the past fifteen years or so. The main motivation for this effort was the ability to continue an IP session when a host IP address had to change due to mobility. Client Mobile IP (CMIP for short) was introduced by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to overcome this problem. The CMIP allows a mobile terminal (e.g., a laptop or a PDA) to keep its transport connection opened and continue to be reachable while moving. The CMIP also provides a common IP layer mobility across different access technologies. This would be quite attractive for mobile operators who might own several access networks of different types such as WiMax, 3GPP2 High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), or 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), etc. Read More »

We just kicked off a new marketing campaign, focused on the uber-users of the network, to act as a run-up to a major announcement we are planning in a few weeks time. Instead of taking a traditional approach of interviewing enterprises and providers as to the challenges they are facing with network, we directed our questions to the likes of Santa Claus, the Stork, Cupid, the Easter Bunny, and a Unicorn, all of which face some daunting operational issues which must be addressed by the network.Such an approach is a bit different for Cisco. Admittedly, we are showing our fun side which many of our customers and constituents have encouraged (at dinners with analysts, I’ve heard”why are you always so serious in briefings- you’ve earned the credibility to joke around now and then”). Beyond just the tone, though, and more applicable for this forum, our uber-users campaign is also a way for us to embrace the viral marketing benefits that are possible with Web 2.0. With the”tell a friend” function, we are hoping to have these passed about amongst our customers, and in the process, target the news of our upcoming announcement to the parties that are interested in it the most, far more efficiently and broadly than what we could achieve through other, often costly means. This represents us to not only talk about the Human Network but to benefit from it as well. (Our promotional effort will have ties to the larger Human Network campaign itself too, but we can talk about that later-.)So what’s your take on this?And, are you, too, a networking uber-user?

I just found out the other day that two colleagues were recent victims of ‘identity theft‘. One had her credit card number stolen, not once but two times, amounting to fraudulent charges at Walmart and K-Mart, as well as an additional credit card balance transfer of $16,000. The other colleague had someone attempting to take out a huge bank loan using her credit credentials. But as I am finding out, security issues are not limited to credit card fraud. Digging a little more into this topic, I came across recent headlines mentioning ‘storm‘—-an ever-growing Botnet that is estimated to have infected between 1 million and 50 million computers. Botnets are becoming the foundation of elaborate extortion schemes including identity theft. Motivated by political or economic objectives, botnets can cost businesses as well as service providers millions of dollars each year. Such electronic schemes are underlining a fundamental paradigm shift in the miscreant economy—a community that engages in cyber crime-related activities for financial reward. Read More »