Cable & Wireless Sets Up Communications Gateways in India by John Ribeiro

In the past, C&W (Cable & Wireless) had to rely on a local telecommunications services provider in India to route all its traffic in this location. But now C&W has received government security clearances in India, meaning the company now owns the entire network and can run its own gateways in and out of India. In the current world of rapidly expanding globalization and privatization, C&W has taken a great stride in networking across the world. The company now can offer new services and it is no longer restricted by the smaller capacity of the local telecommunications services provider. In the past nine months, C&W has invested $30 million to build this “multiservice platform network” in India that will be one of the company’s largest and most important platforms. With complete ownership of the network, C&W will be able to expand the network’s connectivity, reaching across all of Europe, Asia, and North America. I was really intrigued by this article because yesterday in my International Business class we talked about India’s fast economic growth and how they are moving away from a state-owned economy to a more privatized and globalizing capable economy. The Indian government’s granting of these security clearances is a great example of this economic transformation.

http://www.cio.com/article/477627/Cable_Wireless_Sets_Up_Communications_Gateways_in_India

the silicon solution

Article: “The Silicon Solution” By Mario Paniccia and Sean Koehl
1/21/09 [IEEE Spectrum]

A faster internet is always in demand. Today, speeds of traffic data are reaching ten billion bits per second. Although this rate may seem impressive, Intel and other companies are still coming up with faster and faster microprocessors. There is one major catch however; the copper. Copper is used in a lot of internet hardware including the wireless serves that allow connectivity. Factory printed-circuit boards that contain this copper have tiny, microscopic imperfections that have not been a problem for our generation so far. However, as the speed of internet traffic reaches ten billion bits per second, these imperfections cause data to be distorted. Researchers have found a solution for the problem by replacing the copper on the circuit boards with Silicon. Silicon can be easily adjusted to work into the factory printed-circuit boards and other servers. Researches even predict that wireless internet speeds have the opportunity to reach over one-hundred billion bits per second without and distortion from the silicon. This would allow people like us to download a full movie on our lab top in seconds.