Renewing U.S. Telecommunications Research (2006) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Evolution of the U.S. Telecommunications Industry and Effects on Research
2 The Evolution of the U.S. Telecommunications Industry and Effects on Research
Pages 13-31
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From page 13... ...
As has been observed by many others, there has been an overall downturn in many areas of U.S. industry research.1 Along similar lines, a report released earlier this year by the National Academies concluded that the nation's commitment to basic research in science and engineering needs to be sustained and strengthened.2 The full impact of these trends on long-term telecommunications research is probably not yet evident, as the industry continues to exploit fundamental knowledge gained over the past 1This phenomenon is not new.
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From page 14... ...
of fundamental research and were able to provide a work environment that fostered world-class research in virtually every aspect of telecommunications technology. Stable funding for research was provided via a tax levied on the service revenues of most of the Bell operating companies, an approach approved by state regulators.
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From page 15... ...
Thus although a tax on telecommunications revenue remained as a source for funding R&D at Bell Labs, the prospects for increased competition, lower telecommunications prices, and decreasing telecommunications revenues for AT&T, as well as the regulatory pressures to lose market share to new competitors, led to the beginning of the reduction in the long-term, unfettered, fundamental research done at Bell Labs. Additionally, divestiture marked the beginning of a process of transforming the telecommunications industry in the United States from a vertically organized structure (where one body, the Bell System, had control over every aspect of the telecommunications process, from components, to boards, to systems, to services, to operations)
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16 RENEWING U.S. TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH services.
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CableLabs -- while not doing fundamental research itself -- continues to play other important roles for the cable industry, such as helping to facilitate specification development, providing testing facilities to ensure quality equipment, and generally serving as a clearinghouse for information on current and prospective technological advances. More recently, CableLabs has been involved in the development of high-definition television systems, VoIP packet networking, interoperable interface specifications for real-time multimedia, and standards to create a common platform for interactive services.5,6 The Internet In the early 1960s, the vision for a research program aimed at networking computers took shape at the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, later DARPA)
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18 RENEWING U.S. TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH Other key DARPA-funded work concerned the protocols used for communicating over the network.
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, a technology standard adopted by the Telecommunications Industry Association in 1989; and code division multiple access (CDMA) , a newer, competing technology developed and championed by Qualcomm.
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This time period also saw venture capital play a more prominent role in the telecommunications industry (Box 2.1)
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From page 21... ...
Shifts from the High-Margin Public Telephone Network to New, Lower-Margin Services as a Source of Revenue Another major change in the telecommunications industry has been a major shift from basic, high-margin, wireline telephony services provided by the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to wireless and broadband services that both complement and compete with the traditional services and are associated with lower margins.14As a result, revenue is shifting 14TIA's 2004 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast (Telecommunications Industry Association, Arlington, Va., 2004)
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From page 22... ...
Service providers and equipment vendors primarily support research leading to near-term incremental additions to their own products and services, and are likely to keep the results of their short-term research programs proprietary in the interest of gaining competitive advantage. Although demand-side entities are generally more likely to direct their research investments toward more fundamental and long-time-horizon opportunities, a major economic impediment to doing so is so-called free-riding.
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From page 23... ...
However, testimony to the committee and comments received from a number of researchers clearly indicate a qualitative shift in the time horizon for research. Long-term, fundamental research aimed at breakthroughs has declined in favor of shorter-term, incremental and evolutionary projects whose purpose is to enable improvements in existing products and services.
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industry 50 3.7 Asia 332 24.6 Europe 278 20.6 Other (majority from Canada) 222 16.4 TOTAL 1,352 100 focus of 80 to 90 percent of research at the Bell family labs is now concentrated on short-term innovation rather than long-term fundamental research.
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Industry Research Laboratories (for companies with more than one paper) at the 2005 International Conference on Communications and the 2005 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (Globecom)
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26 RENEWING U.S. TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH arguably the most prestigious journal in the communications area.
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THE EVOLUTION OF THE U.S. TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY AND EFFECTS ON RESEARCH 27 NIST, NOAA, EPA, and DOE/National Nuclear Security Agency -- that provide the bulk of federal research in these areas.
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28 RENEWING U.S. TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH and management of future networks.
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THE EVOLUTION OF THE U.S. TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY AND EFFECTS ON RESEARCH 29 for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, Mobile Network MIMO, Rescue Transponder, Networking in Extreme Environments, and NeXt-Generation Communications programs.24 DARPA has had a long and illustrious history of funding high-risk, high-reward projects, many of which have changed the face of military systems, computing environments, networking, other military technologies, and ultimately technologies in private industry.25 Other Federally Funded Telecommunications Research The previous sections highlight several of the more prominent federal funding programs related to telecommunications.
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to recommend that service providers contribute a percentage of total annual revenues to telecommunications research. R&D investments by carriers may be internal or external; external contributions are made to an MIC-administered fund that is then distributed to Korean research institutes.
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In particular, China has fostered a strong and growing telecommunications industry. Briefers to the committee and reviewers of this report noted the increasing technical sophistication and competitiveness in pricing of Chinese equipment vendors.30 Countries such as Japan (e-Japan)
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