GigaOM

Port Blocking, while not something that is part of popular lexicon, is quickly becoming a VoIP nightmare. Earlier one had found that AT&T CallVantage users were having problems hooking-up with those using Adelphia and Frontier networks. Now there is word, that OOL, Telus are having problems connecting as well. According to Broadband Reports,Cablevision’s Optimum On-line service is blocking outbound port 25 TCP traffic; an anti-spam tactic that is growing increasingly common. This is a problem for VoIP service providers. Try explaining this to Joe Six Pack. Andy has been all over this story,

Business Week reports that finally Nortel might be coming clean with its investors, hopefully tomorrow. The magazine says it could be a day of reckoning for the company, as execs plan to bare all and tell about “limited preliminary unaudited results” for the first and second quarters of 2004. Company spokeswoman Marion Mackenzie told BW that it will be a “milestone” in investors’ minds. “We want to give the investment community a glimpse as to what’s happening at the company,” she told the weekly. On Aug. 17, both Nortel and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed in press inquiries that the company is under a criminal investigation, BW says.

Business 2.0: I did a long Q&A with Juniper Networks’ chief executive Scott Kriens about his company, his decision to buy NetScreen Technologies, and the future of broadband. Why Scott? Well you have read oodles of coverage about Cisco and its new router, CRS-1 in every major magazine - from Fortune, Forbes to Business Week. I did a Cisco story about eight months ago, and it talked about CRS-1 which is known as “huge f**king router” on da street. Juniper has held its own, boosted sales and has painted a rosy future. “It’s sunny here in a partly cloudy industry,” Kirens told me. You can read the whole interview, which is free of Cisco bashing, and at the same time addresses questions like Huawei and their impact on the networking equipment business. Interview is sans all geek-talk like ports, and linespeeds.
Link, Download file.

Business 2.0: The slow demand for LCD televisions has turned into a boon for small screen devices like handheld computers and gaming devices. This is exact opposite of the situation a few months ago when Nintendo and Handspring, both complained loudly about why LCD shortages were killing them. Since then a lot of new capacity has come online. The new capacity was added because many thought LCD TVs are going to be hot. The new supply is good for cellphone makers who are now becoming the fastest consumer of color LCD screens, a trend this is likely to continue for a long time to come. As a bonus tip, sources say that prices of LCD desktop monitors are going to take a dip this fall, by as much as $50 per 17-inch monitor. PDF coming soon.

• Umair points to an interesting list of Urban Games
• John Gruber defends Apple’s digital music strategy. As always he is right on the money.
• Opportunities at the bottom of the pyramind. You read this in my story, Rise of The Instant Company. Nice to see validation from a genius like CK Prahlad. I had urged someone to develop this massputer/People’s PC. Glad to see progress is being made.
• World’s biggest rural wireless network in India!
• Henshell wants better stats for Skype. High time, we dispel the myth of millions served.
• Innovation is not dead. Commoditization inspired innovation is the way to go. Go read Rise of The Instant company.
• Clay Shirky thinks different about Spectrum. Economist has some thoughts as well
• Juiced up scam, take two

If you set the bar low enough, everything exceeds your expectations. For instance, I assume as a reporter most people would try to spin me. If they don’t, it makes me smile and turns my day into a great day. Same is the case with cellular data business. Strategy Analytics estimates that global revenues from mobile data will grow from around $61 Billion this year to just over $189 Billion in 2009, with person-to-person messaging representing 48 percent of the total.

• SA still expects lowly text messaging via SMS to remain the dominant global application.
• Entertainment applications will generate revenues of $52 Billion in 2009 with ‘Music and Media’ and ‘Sports’ content the top two categories. That’s 28% of the total market

David Kerr, Vice President of the Strategy Analytics Global Wireless Practice, adds, “Certain applications are very promising: ringtones and download games continue to perform strongly in many markets, and are increasingly supplemented by video and audio infotainment services as the number of consumer 3G launches ramps up.” (complete press release)

• Yorkshire budding and wireless broadband, those are going to be two staples in Yorkshire, UK, according to this release. Broadband Wireless provider Langreen sells the service in 50 villages.
• Eastern North Carolina is going to get broadband, very soon. eNC, MCNC, Sprint and other partners are rolling out a new project which is going to cost $14 million in infrastructure. Details pending.
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  Supercharged college P2P project, I2HUB expands
• DSL wins more additions than cable in US for first time. In the second quarter of 2004, the top DSL providers added nearly 900,000 subscribers, representing 52 percent of the net broadband additions for the quarter versus cable, marking the first quarter ever that DSL has had a greater share of net additions than cable.
• Wall Street Journal has a longish piece on what Google will do with the $2 billion bounty. They talk about acqusitions, though miss the money they would need to spend of infrastructure in order to keep growing.
• Nortel being probed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; the infrastructure company cannot seem to escape its accounting woes.
• Nokia, Nortel won contracts worth $843 million from indian mobile operators.

WWise Vs TGn Sync battles begin