Garyy Kim looks at it from a couple of ways, but it looks like AT&T may become the largest WISP in the US (especially if it can acquire DirecTV).

In their SEC filing for acquiring DTV, ATT writes about WLL (wireless local loops). Basically, fixed LTE like VZW is pushing too. Screw an antenna array to residence to pick up LTE signals for in-home broadband, especially in rural markets where building out any kind of fiber – FTTN, FTTP, FTTH – is out of the question for these regions.

Buried in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission is this interesting promise: “the combined company will commit to deploy fixed wireless local loop (“WLL”) technology to bring high-speed broadband to approximately 13 million largely rural customer locations.” [Gary Kim]

This is the promise to the FCC and DOJ: AT&T Might Add 12M High Speed Access Locations Outside its Fixed Network Footprint. MAY add. Yeah.

It’s all part of the story that copper is unwarranted, useless, ancient. LTE is the wave of the future. Oh, and while you are at it, please give us 500 MHz of spectrum to deliver this on.

Just some notes from a discussion on HIPAA and HITECH compliance.

HIPAA is about having policies in place to protect patient info – all patient info (paper and digital).

HITECH is an add-on law that imposes heavy penalties and fines for non-compliance and security breaches. HITECH went into effect in 9/13. The federal agency OCR does compliance audits of covered entities.

Even with faxes and paper files, healthcare covered entities must treat the paper with written and trained policies and procedures to protect against a breach. If I walk out with a fax that contains a patient’s blood test, that doctor is liable for fines. (Not all doctors get this).

There is always an unsecure endpoint (especially the smartphone). Voicemail, faxes, email – all have ePHI stored somewhere insecurely. The Business Associate assumes some responsibilities for the security of the data via a BAA. The BAA spells out the duties of each party.

Some possible vendors:

BOX will offer up a business associate agreement.

some info from eFileCabinet

Microsoft only gives a BAA for MS Office365 and Hyper-V and only with volume licensing.

A flurry of press releases about ATT and GigaBroadband in the past month.

AT&T and Town of Cary Reach Agreement to Deploy Up to 1 Gigabit Network

AT&T and City of Raleigh Reach Agreement to Deploy Up to 1 Gigabit Network

“The agreement stemmed from a North Carolina Next Generation Network (NCNGN) initiative. The NCNGN is comprised of six cities, four leading universities, and local business leaders working to encourage development of high-speed broadband networks in the state.” This after the state signed a bill preventing any more muni broadband networks like Wilson’s Green Light. There is also a couple of public-private fiber networks that run around the state of NC.

“U-Verse with GigaPower – currently approved in Durham and Winston-Salem, and pending ratification in three other North Carolina areas – Carrboro, Cary, and Chapel Hill.” Ratification??? Is there state money going into this? How is state credits and incentives to a private company really different than a muni network? Except that it is state sponsored winner picking.

I think in the race for jobs and re-election, politicians have forgotten that corporations will do what is best for profit despite incentives. Let’s also not forget that the ILEC gets rate increases based on expanding broadband. Where’s that money go?

I think my readers get that I like Tom Peters. I like his writing, his thinking, his presentations, his style – and I was lucky enough to meet him last year when he was the emcee for TEDx Manchester Village in Vermont.

So Tom wrote a 100K word mashup that morphed from “Some Stuff” to “Excellence. No Excuses.” It is a 700+ page PDF about “Overcoming resistance to change.” In other words,74 ways to launch your journey of change and march on excellence.

From Tom Peters about the book: “I’m not wholly insane—I don’t expect you to sit down for the weekend and read it cover to cover. But I do hope you will dive in from time to time and cherry-pick an idea to be used “Monday morning.” Or some such.”

Tom isn’t a stranger to very long publications, his McKinsey presentation booklet that In Search of Excellence was based on was 600 pages. His MOAP – Mother of All Presentations – on Excellence Now is a “23-part, 4096-slide, fully annotated PowerPoint presentation of “everything I’ve learned”.”

This calculator will tell you how much a meeting costs in payroll dollars: here. It was referenced in GapingVoid’s cartoon Friday, along with this INC magazine infographic of what an unproductive meeting costs.

All the experts agree that meetings should have an agenda, be short, be structured, start and end on time, and this: No Chairs, No drinks, No phones, No laptops. Why? Stay focused, don’t get settled in, Just Get it done.

INC says have “purpose, benefit, check”, clear goal and an ask.

I have been in meetings all day at some companies. That’s fine since I am only in town for a short time. Yet when I was on longer projects in Cali and Chicago, every day was filled with meetings. Meetings that were useless, mandatory, and some canceled after the start time. It’s a sign of a dysfunctional organization and a lack of leadership.

I am all for a 12 minute meeting standing up. Harvard Business has a one-pager on meetings.

How other tech companies handle meetings including Google, Apple and 37Signals.