Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, November 17, 2009 - The consulting firm Empiris LLC joined a host of cable and phone broadband network related entities on Tuesday when it slammed a recent study from Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society on broadband policy.
In July the Federal Communications Commission commissioned the Berkman Center to review the existing literature and studies on broadband deployment and usage throughout the world to inform the FCC’s development of a National Broadband Plan. The FCC is sought
public comment on the study through November 16.
Empiris held a teleconference with bloggers Tuesday to discuss its problems with the report. Empiris argues that the study failed to provide an accurate summary of broadband policies in other countries and advances “conclusions that conflict with the evidence found in existing research.”
“The central question for developing broadband services and the infrastructure required to deliver them is how to provide the requisite incentives for carrier investment in such infrastructure,” noted Robert Crandall, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and a senior expert for Empiris, in a statement. “The Berkman Study ignores this issue, focusing instead on a policy of intra-platform competition that has been thoroughly discredited in...
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Monday, November 16th, 2009
By Eli Evans, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, November 16, 2009 – A working group of the non-profit U.S. Broadband Coalition on Friday released a report in which the group called for the federal government to “play an active role in stimulating adoption and use of advanced broadband connections.”
The group, one of six committees of the U.S. Broadband Coalition – which had gathered more than 160 organizations to push for a national broadband strategy – presented its finding at the Federal Communications Commission, after introductory remarks by Blair Levin, director of the FCC’s national broadband plan.
The coalition’s leadership spoke very positively about the prospects of inter-industry cooperation and identifying points for possible improvement. But the group generally avoided specifics about what should be done to fix these problems. The FCC’s Levin pointed out, “Our work is about gathering data…we’re not talking about solution sets right now, we’re putting that off until December.”
The U.S. Broadband Coalition presented its report on September 24, 2009, but the Adoption and Use Working Group sought further time to collect its thoughts into an extensive 54-page report on the subject.
In addition to promoting federal involvement in broadband adoption, the group urged “federal and state support should include programs, grants,...
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Thursday, September 24th, 2009
By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, September 24, 2009 - A national broadband strategy must take steps to stimulate adoption and use of technology at a variety of levels, said a report by the U.S. Broadband Coalition, which presented the report at the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday.
The coalition, a non-profit organization made up of more than 160 organizations that provide or depend on broadband services, came together to push for a national broadband plan in mid-2008.
The release of the group's report is the culmination of 18 months of work that predates the passage of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act when the coalition issued a "call to action" to organize and create a national broadband strategy.
FCC broadband czar Blair Levin welcomed the group's comprehensive report. Facts needed for the commission to construct a national broadband plan are "not in the record...and not at the FCC," he said.
If the government is to invest in broadband, there must be a "level of clarity...a level of certainty...about those facts," Levin cautioned. And when it comes to data and facts, the FCC needs help gathering facts to fulfill its charge from Congress, he said: "I have to tell you, we don't have that."
Keeping...
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Thursday, June 18th, 2009
By Tina Nguyen, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
ARLINGTON, Va., June 18, 2009 - Broadband policies must adapt to ensure both competition and quality service for all consumers, a group of industry executives and policy experts said Thursday during at the Pike and Fischer Broadband Policy Summit.
Lack of universal access and market competition are two reasons the U.S. lags in broadband, whether one believes "the glass is half full or half empty," said Google Media and Telecommunications Counsel Richard Whitt.
"I think everybody agrees that the receptacle is not being used to its full capacity,” he quipped. But broadband deployment should not just be for the sake of building pipes, but to enable applications. Whitt cautioned: "Broadband is about online connectivity."
Consumers are increasingly viewing broadband as a component of infrastructure and a utility, or not just a commercial service, said Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott. The $7.25 billion appropriated for broadband in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act was a charge from Congress to develop programs based on a "robust broadband infrastructure."
Scott noted prices for broadband service in some areas are 10 percent higher than others because of lack of competition. Solving this problem will require new telecommunications policies for a networked world based...
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Friday, June 5th, 2009
By Douglas Streeks, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, June 5, 2009 - With Broadband being a keystone aspect of President Obama’s economic policies, it is important to understand where America’s broadband deployment and adoption rates stand internationally, a panel of experts agreed on Friday.
Although rankings of the global status of broadband deployment by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have been maligned by some, policy makers can still draw some valuable lessons from the data.
Former Ambassador David A. Gross, now a partner at the law firm of Wiley Rein, said that OECD’s broadband statistics are flawed, since they do not take wireless hotspots, and facility sharing, such as college dorms and single access points for large buildings, into account. “To their credit,” however, “they are working on correcting it,” he said.
Gross was speaking at a panel of telecommunications experts at an event, sponsored by the Free State Foundation, entitled “Broadband Nation: Where Does the U.S. Really Stand in the World Rankings?”
The “most fundamental flaw” in the way broadband statistics are interpreted is the assumption that “the winner ranks higher and the loser ranks lower,” as if it were a zero sum game, he said. Because broadband benefits all, that zero-sum approach is...
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