“Among entertainers, the FCC is seen as the self-righteous censor that levies high profile fines against  a broadcaster for a “wardrobe malfunction,” or a radio station for playing a profane song.  It’s no wonder Eminem complained that the FCC wouldn’t let him be! 
But, the times they are a-changin.  Earlier this week, a high-profile musician offered his wholehearted support for one of the FCC’s more challenging regulatory initiatives – live, on national television. 
As Stevie Wonder prepared to announce the winner of the Grammy for Song of the Year, he opened the envelope and discovered the recipient’s name was written in braille.  He showed the card to the TV audience and taunted the viewers for being unable to read braille, punctuating his impromptu remarks with “nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah!”  He then turned serious, telling the audience, “we need to make everything accessible to every person with a disability.” 

This Saturday, February 20, marks 10 years since I wrote my first blog post, “It’s a start“.
For 10 years, I have tried to provide you with current perspectives on communications technology and services, sharing some of my thoughts on issues, often from a different angle compared to what you might read in other fora.
Every one of the more than 2500 posts is available on-line (use the “My back pages” tab on the right side). As I glance through some of the posts from the early years, I see that my style has evolved through the years.
Prior to launching the blog in 2006, I wrote periodic updates for my clients. Between 1997 and 2005, some of these appeared on the “Reports & Updates” section of my website. Over the past few weeks, I have migrated them onto this blog platform so that there is now a single archive of nearly 20 years of observations on Canada’s communications scene. I apologize if some of the links are dead.
It is always interesting for me to see which issues attract the most views; over the past few years, I have highlighted the “Top 5” of the year at year end. I hope that at least some of my posts have been worthwhile sharing with colleagues.
Very few of my readers add comments, but I always appreciate the emails or calls or direct messages on Twitter that provide feedback, some of which is positive enough to encourage me to keep writing.
I’m not retiring yet.

As the business world gets more competitive, the drive to enter into new markets and obtain new customers will be growing amongst many businesses and organizations, not just here in the United States, but worldwide, as well. This is even true for the telecom industry.

At the present time, there are just a handful of big players, such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Windstream Communications, etc., that are making it very tough for the much smaller telecom vendors to survive.

This competition has become so fierce that just recently, it was announced that Mediacom is in the process of filing a lawsuit against Iowa City, IA, and Internet service provider, ImOn. Apparently, the lawsuit alleges that the latter has recently activated voice and Internet services to customers in this geographic location and, as a result, has stolen market share from Mediacom.