Monday, November 2nd, 2009
WASHINGTON, November 2, 2009 - Stephen Liu, the designer and architect of Cisco System’s myPlanNet and a senior marketing manager at Cisco, discussed the company's new computer game that puts the common man in the shoes of the broadband executive. Edited excerpt of his interview with Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com, are as follows:
Q: What sparked the development of myPlanNet?
A: This was actually a result of an internal contest to inspire innovation in marketing.
For me, it was a cool and fun way to illustrate just how far the communications have changed over 25 years and how people's lives have shifted as a result. Remember life before cell phones or when you connected to the Internet on demand vs. it just always being on? We had some fun reminiscing on those nostalgic times when creating this.
Q: How long has it been in the works? It was released in October, correct?
A: This has been a side project for a small team of people at Cisco for about one year.
Q: Why did Cisco do the project? Did it by any chance want to get at some of the most pressing issues/debates at the time?
A: There are a lot of reasons. For one, it's educational....
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Monday, November 2nd, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, November 2, 2009 – Cisco Systems has released a new computer game that puts the common man in the shoes of a broadband executive making deployment decisions. The company’s myPlanNet game attempts to make broadband deployment easy to understand – and perhaps forces broadband activists to walk in the shoes of the network executive grappling with tough issues like the underserved and Net neutrality.
As a service provider in
Cisco’s myPlanNet, the player manages his or her business as it evolves from the stone ages of dial-up, through the broadband and mobile connected eras, and into what it calls “the dawning of the medianet age.” Liu said the game starts out in 1990 and goes on for 25 years, looking ahead – a bit – into the future six years.
The game does not make an overt attempt to reference the federal government’s broadband stimulus funding – or the national broadband plan currently under development by the Federal Communications Commission.
But players – a/k/a broadband service providers – are forced to grapple with thorny questions like network neutrality.
“Certainly network neutrality is one of the topics that is addressed in the game,” Stephen Liu, the designer and architect...
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, October 31, 2009 - This week Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., added to the growing number of network neutrality-related bills when she filed legislation that would ban the Federal Communications Commission from regulating internet access,
as proposed last week by Chairman Julius Genachowski.
Blackburn’s measure, H.R. 3924, is intended “to prohibit the FCC from further regulating the Internet.”
In a statement, she said FCC rules “ironically would make the Internet less neutral by allowing the FCC to regulate it in the same way it regulates radio and television broadcasts.”
She said is concerned that potential rules would decrease the Internet’s efficiency, interrupt the flow of free ideas and information, and hurt the ability of industry to protect intellectual property online. The
Blackburn bill currently has 19 co-sponsors and has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Also, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had introduced legislation, S.1836 on October 22 that would prevent further FCC regulation of the Internet. In a statement, he said that the “government takeover of the Internet will stifle innovation, in turn slowing our economic turnaround and further depressing an already anemic job market.”
He said the wireless industry exploded...
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Thursday, October 29th, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, October 29, 2009 – Microsoft and Yahoo on Thursday gingerly weighed into the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed rules governing internet access – otherwise known as “Net neutrality” – that were announced last week.
The two companies offered up, to BroadbandCensus.com, carefully crafted comments splitting the difference between the hardening battle lines between Google and AT&T.
“Yahoo! believes that all stakeholders - consumers, ISPs, online portals, Congress, the FCC and the FTC - should find a consensus on how best to ensure that Americans have access to a world-class Internet and an increasingly competitive online environment,” said Yahoo! spokeswoman Nina Blackwell. “We have modeled openness on our network – prominent examples include our new front page and cloud computing issues.”
“Microsoft supports the right of consumers to access Internet content, services, and applications of their choice and to connect any non-harmful device to their broadband connections,” said a Microsoft spokesman.
“We also believe that Congress should ensure that network operators are able to offer last mile service enhancements and tiers of service, either to consumers or to online service providers and that those enhanced offerings must not unfairly interfere with the ability of consumers to access online content, products, and...
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Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, October 28, 2009 - Google told the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday that its Google Voice service currently is restricting calls to fewer than 100 specific phone numbers that it believes are involved in the business of adult sex chats.
Google provided a
detailed response (PDF) Wednesday to questions posed by the FCC concerning Google Voice’s practice of preventing calls to certain telephone number prefixes.
The FCC launched the investigation after AT&T filed a complaint that Google was limiting outbound Google Voice calls to phone numbers in a small number of rural areas.
Google claimed it did this because certain local phone carriers' charge exorbitant termination rates for calls and partner with adult sex chat lines and conference calling centers to drive high volumes of traffic otherwise known as “traffic pumping.”
But Google said Wednesday that its engineers have developed a solution for restricting calls to specific numbers. In its blog post, Google
linked to an article from last year about its current foe, AT&T, who claimed in the story that the practice of pumping was costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars.
“To prevent these schemes from exploiting the free nature of...
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Monday, October 26th, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, October 26, 2009 - Absent from the notice of proposed rulemaking released by the Federal Communications Commission Thursday is the charged term of “network neutrality” that has been discussed over the years. Instead, the paper is focused on the need to preserve an “open internet” through government intervention.
The problem is that neither the principle of network neutrality – which deals with how broadband providers may charge differential rates for preferred business customers – or the need to preserve an “open internet” are precise words. Defining either for the purpose of government rules is not an easy task.
The focus on “open internet” versus “network neutrality” in the FCC’s proposed rules and the statement released by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski makes sense given that it is easier to find supporters of the former than the latter. Still, President Obama
used the term “network neutrality” during his campaign.
Regardless of the language used, the discussion of whether the government should become more involved to support network neutrality principles has gone on for years.
“Three years ago we were having a very different discussion; we didn’t have the kinds of applications on the Internet that we have today,” said Rob...
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Friday, October 23rd, 2009
By the Staff of BroadbandCensus.com
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Thursday introduced legislation prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission from implementing the Network neutrality rules that it kicked off on Thursday. The two-page bill is a naked prohibition upon the FCC: the agency “shall not propose, promulgate, or issue any regulations regarding the Internet or IP-enabled services.”
Click here for a copy of the bill:
102109-mccain-legislation-on-net-neutrality
The bill does, however permit the promulgation of FCC rules passed prior to the date that the bill were to be passed, as well as regulations dealing with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, as well as actions deemed necessary “to prevent damage to the national security of the United States; to ensure the public safety; to assist or facilitate any actions taken by a Federal or State law enforcement agency; or to ensure solvency of the Universal Service Fund established under section 254 of the Communications Act of...
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Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, October 22, 2009 - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved controversial proposed rules governing internet access during its monthly public meeting. Commissioners on all sides of the debate stressed the importance of having an open internet, and in engaging in constructive dialogue on the issue going forward.
The move marked the beginning of a formal phase of regulating internet access. Although the FCC in August 2005 adopted a policy statement pledging fidelity to four Net neutrality principles, such a policy was never binding upon all broadband providers.
Additionally, the proposed rules go beyond those four generally-accepted neutrality principles.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a supporter of Net neutrality efforts for some time, noted that the FCC has been addressing open internet questions since 2005.
“[W]e face the dangerous combination of an uncertain legal framework with ongoing as well as emerging challenges to a free and open Internet,” he said.” Given the potentially huge consequences of having the open Internet diminished through inaction, the time is now to move forward with consideration of fair and reasonable rules of the road, rules that would be enforceable and implemented on a case-by-case basis,” he said.
Republican Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Attwell Baker...
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