This was the week that we learned that online protesting can work -- if enough people get involved and if you get the support of some powerhouse websites like Google and Wikipedia. It looks like SOPA was dropped and the vote on PIPA was delayed. (It is still alive due to Democrat lawmakers who are beholden to Hollywood like Florida Senator Bill Nelson. If he knew how to turn on his laptop by himself I could understand it, but come on!)

We don't really need any more copyright laws. If we did, would the feds have been able to fly to New Zealand to arrest the owner of MegaUpload? What was he arrested and renditioned for? Online piracy. 

Not for nothing, but don't we have more important things to be spending federal dollars on? We are a nation with lost priorities.

And yet another carrier joins the CLOUD: "US Signal recently released an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) product offering, what US Signal calls Managed Data Center. Customers have increasingly requested US Signal to host their applications, for financial reasons, scalability, security, and more."

Yesterday, TCA held its monthly agent webinar with Netwolves presenting on Managed Services. With most of the telcos offering Managed Servcies, we at TCA thought it was time to give an overview of what Managed Services are from carriers, who is buying them and how does an Agent sell them. How does an Agent start that conversation with the prospect about managed services? The webinar was recorded and TCA members can play it back at any time.

Nemertes Research predicts a shortage of colocation space in the U.S. beginning this year. That is likely because some colo space is being used for PAAS and IAAS. Also, some colo houses don't want to sell colo any more because there is more cash in xAAS. (Or so they say.) I have seen that trying to find single rack colo slots are getting more difficult. Personally, I thought that when Amazon, Facebook, Google and others built their data centers, a lot of space would be opened up in other data centers. 

The other issue with colocation is that Equinix, InterNAP and now Savvis have cut the channel out of selling their space. Other data centers - like Vegas' SwitchNAP - are difficult to deal with. That kind of affects colo sales, too.  Luckily, ViaWest and TELX are still agent friendly.

Code 42 Software, a cloud backup service named Crashplan, got $52M in funding from Accel Partners. It seems a massive amount of funding for an online backup company.

Is 5G around the corner? Heck, most of the US is still in 2.5G-3G land.   

How badly does AT&T need spectrum now that the T-Mobile deal is dead? According to analysts (who are likely just trying to get press and pump up some stocks so they can make short term gains), AT&T has to make a move soon.  T-Mobile does too.

I find this interesting because AT&T and T-Mobile are sitting on spectrum that they have not deployed. If you needed it that bad, you would use what you have - at least for now.

Let's look at Clearwire as a 4G wholesaler. Clearwire has a ton of spectrum - not all of it deployed obviously, because they need money badly to operate what they have deployed and to build out the rest of their nationwide network. T-Mobile could partner with Clearwire for 4G.

T-Mobile could also outsource their 4G network to someone like Nokia Siemens (NSN). 

There is also Lightsquared. Oh, wait. The DOD kind of put the nix on that idea.

That must be why the analysts are bullish on DISH - and AT&T buying DISH. As a bonus, AT&T gets satellite TV and Blockbuster. That must be to counter Verizon buying Netflix.

MetroPCS and Leap are still in play in the bankers world of M&A. In the past, these two have had failed merger attempts, but this is a new dawn. Meanwhile, MetroPCS, which wanted to buy leftovers from the AT&T-T-Mobile merger, is saying that they could use Clearwire spectrum, too. Well, sign a wholesale agreement, Mr. Lindquist.

Today, we have both the FCC and CTIA stating that consumers will require 500 MHz of spectrum for bandwidth usage in the future. What they are really saying is that all spectrum will belong to 4 companies for all reasons - radio, TV and cell. You watch.

Comcast bought NBCU. Most MSO's own sports channels like MSG and YES. If Clear Channel, the mouth of Bain Capital's former managing partner (Romney), goes BK in 2014 as predicted, it won't be long before the radio, TV, news and cell are all owned by 4 companies: ATT, VZ, Comcast and Cox. That's my prediction by 2015.

in other news:

Jerry Yang, Yahoo's co-founder, has quit all positions at the company. This move comes as Wall Street is rattling sabers about selling yahoo off in pieces - even though PayPal's Scott Thompson just signed on for the top job at the struggling search company.  Thompson has a big job on front of him. Let's hope that Yahoo! isn't the next Kodak.

Another troubled company, RIM, maker of my Blackberry, reportedly is in talks to sell to Samsung, HTC, or anyone.

Oh, yeah, one more rumor: Sprint merging with T-Mobile after buying Clearwire.