News of the Day

• Analysts: Bet on Europe's small telecoms
  Analysts and fund managers point investors to small European telecommunications companies that have strong earnings and low valuations. Companies that make a concerted effort to jump into growth markets will attract attention, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Wall Street Journal (2/19)

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Business & Industry Watch

• Alcatel-Lucent plans SMB push in U.S.
  Alcatel-Lucent is setting its sights on small-business customers, outlining plans to launch combined telephony and e-mail services in the U.S. for the space. The service will be built around the company's OmniPCX Office telephony server and its Eye-Box. InfoWorld/IDG News Service (2/16)

• Motorola mobile chief departs for Dell
  Ron Garriques has resigned his post as the mobile chief at Motorola. Garriques has signed on to run Dell's global consumer division. Bloomberg/ClipSyndicate (2/18) , Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg (2/17) , The Wall Street Journal (2/17)

• Verizon records case moves to California
  A California court will now oversee a Maine case in which regulators are working to stop Maine officials from requiring Verizon Communications to say whether it turned over call records to the government. The case has been combined with five similar pending cases. Portland Press Herald (Maine)/Associated Press (2/19)

• CBS fights Web sites seeking streaming video
  Defending itself against an FCC complaint from Virtual Digital Cable, CBS told the federal regulator that TV stations have no legal obligation to provide their programming to companies that stream video over the Internet. VDC filed the complaint after CBS' Chicago affiliate refused to negotiate a carriage deal. VDC has also filed complaints against TNT, TBS and CNN. Multichannel News (2/16)

• MTV endures through reinvention
  MTV Networks is facing competition for viewers from several sources, such as video games, social-networking Web sites and YouTube, as its corporate parent, Viacom, seeks better margins. "MTV has come in and out of vogue," one analyst said. "They have done a great job of being in vogue more often than not." The New York Times (2/19)

• FCC green lights MediaFLO in Orlando
  The FCC will let Qualcomm roll out its MediaFLO service in Orlando, Fla. The federal regulator determined the new wireless multichannel video service on channel 55 would not cause an unacceptable level of interference on channel 56, Ion Media's analog station WOPX(TV). Broadcasting & Cable (2/16)

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Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by USTelecom dailyLead readers in the past week.

• Embarq announces new wired/wireless calling plan (TeleGeography Research)

• Broadband reaches into rural areas (The Dallas Morning News)

• Fixed, mobile worlds converge (The Wall Street Journal)

• AT&T open to more acquisitions (The Dallas Morning News)

• EarthLink lands Houston Wi-Fi network deal (The Washington Post)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Technology Trends

• Broadband penetration to surpass 50% in U.S.
  The U.S. is expected to have more than 60 million homes with broadband by the end of the year, which will translate to market penetration of about 55%, according to Parks Associates. CNET (2/18)

• Review: New tech speeds home networks
  A TwinCities.com writer weighs in on the technology advances being made in home networking, including 802.11n and powerline networking. Twincities.com (2/19)

• Convergence progresses, hurdles still exist
  The communications industry is close to achieving quad-play services that integrate fixed and mobile communications, observers say, but first industry players have to resolve some issues, such as digital rights management and merging Wi-Fi and cellular on their networks. TechNewsWorld (2/18)

• Telecoms eye India
  India is generating buzz among telecom companies, taking some of the focus off China. India represents a growth opportunity, given its telecom market penetration is only at 15%. Reuters (2/19)

• Video sites still looking for copyright-protection solution
  Content-recognition software from companies including Audible Magic and Gracenote could prove an effective way for media companies to monitor their copyrights, if video sites adopt the technology. MySpace is among the sites now using Audible Magic's software, but YouTube has yet to announce its copyright-protection plans, despite pledging to put a system in place by the end of last year. The New York Times (2/18)

LeadQuote

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly." --Buckminster Fuller, designer, poet and inventor