Tag: Telco

Life in semi-enforced lockdown, weekend 1

Like in most Aussie households, Saturday’s in hours are Dad’s Taxi days. Ferrying the youngsters around to their music one-on-one & group lessons. It’s bonding time, both quality & quantity, when I’ve barely been home the rest of the week.

Not so this weekend. The conservatorium has sensibly chosen to either cancel lessons or take them online. It’s learning time for everyone – how do teach & learn music virtually. 

Both the 1:1 lesson & the group lesson have been done online. And in style. The kids adapted like ducks to water. It wasn’t perfect, sure. Asymmetric data transfer meant that there was lag. And lag means irregular rhythm. It didnt’ faze the kids who had a ball. The tutors had fun too. And interestingly, the whole family was around watching the kids orchestra have fun. I’m sure it was the same in every household too.

Telecommunication is quintessential at this time of isolation. Maybe we do miss the human touch, the spontaneous connections when we’re mobile.  Many others are quite easily done using technology. Like today’s music lesson.

Why the United States Is So Afraid of Huawei

Huawei emerged on the telecommunications equipment supplier scene a few years ago, & have thrown a spanner in the works for established players, mostly propped up by the heavy-handed US government, under its open markets policy. The pill is bitter to swallow, now that the roles are reversed, China wields more clout economically, & so the US Congress does what it does best: “release” a report that “warns” that Huawei & ZTE (another Chinese company) pose a “threat to US National Security“.  Of course, the report doesn’t cite ANY evidence, but relies on “experts” to say that it is possible.
A moot question then would be to ask if any US companies that have supplied telco equipment to other countries should therefore also be regarded as a national security threat.