Risk & Innovation Small Companies in Six Industries: Background Papers Prepared for the NAE Risk and Innovation Study (1996) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
6 Network Services and Terminal Devices
6 Network Services and Terminal Devices
Pages 109-124
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 109... ...
Janet H~iker is a staff officer in the Program Office of We National Academy of Engineering. This paper was prepared for a National Academy of Engineenng workshop on small companies in advanced network terminal devices and services held March 24-25, 1994, at the Beckman Center In Irvine' California.
|
From page 110... ...
Simultaneously, Me use of fiber optics is vastly increasing network bandwidth. Currently, more than 90 percent of long-&stance phone calls are transmitted over optical fiber, and the large bandwidth of optical fiber as well as improvements in network control are expected to enable these networks to simultaneously send large amounts of data.
|
From page 111... ...
What this convergence will ultimately look like, and how useful these alliances will be, will also be shaped by government policies. Increasingly intense competition in these different sectors, as well as the convergence of different modes of communications, has seen regulations relaxed for almost all communications and computing networks.
|
From page 112... ...
discovering new oppo~nides not seen by larger players, or seen as too narrow, Hat wild drive demand for network capacity. underpin Technologies These emerging networks depend to perhaps a wrpnsing extent on solutions developed by innovative new comparnes.
|
From page 113... ...
In response to this technological uncertainty, LANcity, a technology start-up, has developed technology to enable large computer networking companies to create virtual high-speed multimedia networks over existing CATV networks between computers up to 70 miles apart. Although this service does not provide the same capacity as fiber, fiber-optic lines are not nearly as ubiquitous as CATS, creating an opportunity for small companies Hat can develop come technologies unto fiber is comDletelv deoloved (Cooke.
|
From page 114... ...
Several highly capitalized new companies are also exploiting the small size and relatively inexpensive technology used by "Lithe LEO" satellites (satellites using frequencies below 1G~) to deploy global communications services for brief digital messages (e.g., electronic mail and paging to portable devices)
|
From page 115... ...
As real-time videoconferencing becomes integrated with desktop systems, videoconferencing could even exceed these projections. The major vendors in this market are largely new companies formed to exploit this opportunity, including Compression Labs, PictureTel, and VTEL that have developed attachments that can turn a desktop computer into a video communications center for less than $10,000 (Shadier, 1993)
|
From page 116... ...
Now, new companies are offering specialized Internet news services to computer users. For example, ~foseek in California uses the Attempt to let users search large, commercial databases by typing requests in simple English for about 10 cents a query, considerably less then Mead Data or Dialog.
|
From page 117... ...
What the larger company gains by acquiring rights, however 117
|
From page 118... ...
ategies We networking sector attempts to deal with technological uncertainty by developing standards, and competitors seek to have We standards built around their own technology Technologies become an industry standard In different ways, usually either through competition among various technologies for acceptance in the marketplace, or selection by a standards-se~n~ body The ~ c, ~ ~ ~ lack of an entity-established standard, which maybe more reflective of the status quo then the future of an industry, can benefit a small company by leveling the playing field it shares with larger, more wellestablished competitors. Some new companies are attempting to exploit this fact by pursuing an open licensing strategy as a way to gain widespread user acceptance of their technologies and thereby become the de facto standard.
|
From page 119... ...
Increasingly intense competition has seen regulations ~ ~ ~ · , e ~ ~ , ~ , ~ , - a_, ~ ~ relaxed in almost ad sectors ot~telecommun~canons. remaps the most aramanc or tnese changes is in long-distance service, where deregulation and competing microwave transmission and satellite technologies have resulted in an open, competitive market for larger users as well as lower rates for subscribers.
|
From page 120... ...
CATV providers also expect to compete for the $80 billion market for phone service, accelerating competition in the local loop. Competition is also emerging for CATV (combined revenues, $21 billion)
|
From page 121... ...
· Focuses on (1) He development of very high performance, scaleable computing systems and operating software capable of at least one trillion operations per second, or teraops (as of 1990, He fastest systems had exceeded 0.1 teraops)
|
From page 122... ...
To encourage the development of these applications, the adm~nislradon requested $96 minion in 1994 for a new Information ~fiastn~cture Technology and Applications Program to assist industry in development of hardware and software needed to fully apply advanced computing and networking technology in fig, in health care, in life-long learning, and in libraries (Office of Science and Technology Policy, 1994~. Separately, Congress increased the funding of the HPCC program by $1 billion in 1993 to fund demonstration projects in four areas: medical imaging, education, manufacturing, and electronic libraries.
|
From page 123... ...
changes In network terminal devices and services will dominate, leaving less room for new competitors. A reduction of uncertainty, and hence lower risk for big players' participation, as markets evolve.
|
From page 124... ...
1994. Silicon valley concerns offer specialized news.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.