A late summer cold hit me out of nowhere, and I likely got it at the gym is my best guess. I'm in the gym 3 to 4 days a week now and feeling good. Having Wi-Fi at the club makes it less stressful and I can sit by the pool or in the lounge and still get my calls in, use my iPad to get work done. IP based services really do change the world, and that's why today the theme is going to follow that meme...So On With The News.

First up is what's been happening with Tom Wheeler and the FCC. Here are a few stories that pretty much paint a picture of what's reality, what's needed and what may (or may not) happen.

Is this the sound of Comcast's merger hopes dying? FCC Chairman declares U.S. broadband uncompetitive.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday said what everyone who pays a broadband bill outside a few select cities already knows, that the country lacks a competitive broadband market. In a speech delivered at 1776, a startup incubator in Washington, Wheeler said, "meaningful competition for high-speed wired broadband is lacking and Americans need more competitive choices for faster and better Internet connections…."

No Kidding? FCC Chairman Says Broadband Market Isn't Competitive.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday that Americans don't have enough choice when it comes to high-speed broadband providers and the government needs to do something about it. More than half of Americans have only once choice of providers that can offer 25 Mbps download speeds, adding, "[T]here is simply no competitive choice for most Americans."

Most of the US has no broadband competition at 25Mbps, FCC chair says

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler today stated what is obvious to US Internet users: for broadband speeds fast enough to serve modern homes, competition simply does not exist in most of the country. The numbers are OK if you use the FCC's outdated broadband definition of 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream.

Mike Dano at FierceWireless penned a piece the other day about VoLTE. I chimmed in to set the record straight…you need to do that now and then to keep the story correct.  Here again, IP at the core makes it all possible.

After VoLTE, what is the future of the telephone call?

The introduction of IP calling technology in mobile sets the stage for real change in how and when people will use telephony. According to those in the industry, we might see some significant changes to some parts of the calling experience, but phone numbers and regular old phone calls appear to be here to stay.

Amazon is changing the game of shopping and delivery and may end up revitalizing the US Postal Service. As the son of a former Postal Service Station Superintendant, call him the postmaster if it was a suburban town, I know full well how important the US Mail service was, and how they didn't transform soon enough. Part of it was the union but another part of it was just not seeing what was coming back when I was already on a COMPAQ PC and my dad was still doing the daily count for stamps sold by an adding machine and a paper ledger book. That was the 80s……

Amazon expands partnership with U.S. Postal Service to deliver groceries

Amazon confirms that it has begun testing grocery delivery service in San Francisco with the help of the U.S. Postal service. A spokeswoman called it a "small test," adding that Amazon is "always looking for new and innovative ways to deliver packages to customers."

USPS To Screw Up Amazon Grocery Deliveries In San Francisco

Like that desperate, failing business-owner who keeps convincing people to give them one last shot to prove that it's not yet time to hang it up and find something else to do, the U.S. Postal Service has somehow made a deal with Amazon to give it a shot at delivering groceries in the San Francisco area.

Is that cell signal really a cell signal from the mobile operator or is the mobile version of a Man in the Middle attack about to snatch your data and more. This is a serious threat and one that some upstarts are trying to address.

Phone Firewall Identifies Rogue Cell Towers Trying to Intercept Your Calls

My good friend, and now head of Wireless and Operator Services at F5, Tom Carter, had an idea years back that led to the start of BridgePort Networks, now part of CounterPath. The idea was handover between Wi-Fi and mobile networks of the call.  Truphone's founder, James Tagg had a similar idea for a commercial service that did just that. Now more and more mobile operators are beginning to do just that, and as a result, supplier consolidation is afoot.

Taqua on Kineto Purchase: Carrier VoWiFi is Set to Take Off

One telecom vendor is so convinced network operators are about to embrace voice over Wi-Fi that it has acquired another vendor to better position to capitalize on that opportunity. Taqua, provider of software underlying cellular networks, said this evening that it has purchased Kineto Wireless, provider of software for smartphones that enables the phones to support VoWiFi.

Cable consolidation plays into the theme around the FCC too. Time Warner and Comcast, Charter are there peas in a pod. Brand names aside, they are just all horses of a different color.

If Comcast swallows Time Warner Cable, we'll get a new cable company called GreatLand Connections

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. The newly formed cable company that is set to be created from parts of Comcast as it seeks federal approval for its merger with Time Warner Cable will be known as GreatLand Connections Inc.

WebRTC is happening. As a long time VoipWatcher, I see the same business themes happening that we saw with VoIP, SIP and all things real time comms….

WebRTC-Reality Check 2014

What a difference a year makes. And sometimes not. Both apply to WebRTC, which, even as it builds market share, still lacks the reliability and support from Internet Explorer that many enterprises require. Net Applications says Internet Explorer has a 58 percent market share on desktops using any OS.

How WebRTC Could Disrupt the Hospitality Industry

Chad Hart | September 04, 2014 | How do you leverage Web technologies to rapidly disrupt an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars? I'm not talking about WebRTC and the telecom industry; I'm talking about rising sharing economy star Airbnb and the hospitality industry. I am an Airbnb host.

Will WebRTC video blow up the network?

Initiating a video chat should be as easy as making a phone call and WebRTC video is getting us closer to that But could the network become a victim of WebRTCs success

The cloud is everywhere. It's not foggy either. It's clear as day and touching everyone in business and even your personal lives. As we see the shift from only the enterprise to mom and pop business, the opportunities are massive for all.

Mom-and-pop shops drift to cloud computing

Welcome to a new era of computing, where silos are giving way to standards. Rather than having to worry about how software from Oracle or SAP will talk to other programs from Microsoft or IBM, businesses can buy cloud products that were created to work together.

And to close the week, here's two stories about startup ideation and creation to get you thinking about how change is afoot in that world too.

Have a great weekend.

Here's a radical idea: Let startups choose whether to pay for mentorship

Business incubators have become ubiquitous in the technology startup world. Some are generalists, some are niche. Some are thought of as kingmakers, some as bottom feeders. In almost all cases (including on the fictionalized HBO show Silicon Valley), they have the same basic value proposition: We will provide your startup with expert mentorship, services, and connections, and in exchange you will provide us with equity.

How to Make Your "Uber for X" Idea More Than Just a VC Pitch

As a venture firm, we see entrepreneurs routinely pitch companies as " Uber for X," where X can be any number of mobile-enabled services. We agree that Uber is just the tip of the iceberg and apps that orchestrate physical services (" mobile-enabled on-demand services ") are disrupting dozens of industries, including groceries (Instacart), car sharing (RelayRides), dry cleaning (Washio), and parking (Zirx).