Welcome to BroadbandCensus.com

By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 19, 2009 - Today, Broadband Census News launches BroadbandBreakfast.com, a new daily web site with definitive and independent news on broadband stimulus funding, wireless internet, and the national broadband plan. This new domain, BroadbandBreakfast.com, will be used for the journalistic operations of Broadband Census News LLC -- our company's news subsidiary -- and will cover broadband technology and internet policy. Our reporters are passionate about broadband, and we aim to maintain our focus on core issues of broadband technology and internet policy. Meanwhile, the web site BroadbandCensus.com has been relaunched for the purposes of Broadband Census Data LLC: ensuring that the public has free and transparent access to basic and granular broadband information about broadband Speeds, Prices, Availability, Reliability and Competition.

Going Forward with Broadband News AND Data

In previous entries in this series of five blog posts, I’ve highlighted the history of BroadbandCensus.com. We've been leading the charge for public and transparent broadband data for more than three years. In that time, much has changed about the opportunity that we face, and our country faces, in bringing better broadband data to consumers, and to policy-makers. I’ve highlighted the history of BroadbandCensus.com's efforts...

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By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 6, 2009 - While the U.S. takes steps to make so-called Network Neutrality principles mandatory under official rules, the European Union moved forward this week with its own set of internet access requirements. Under the proposed EU rules, “national telecoms authorities will have the powers to set minimum quality levels for network transmission services" so as to promote Net neutrality or "net freedoms" for European citizens. In addition, owing to new transparency requirements, consumers must be informed – before signing a contract – about the nature of the service to which they are subscribing. Such disclosures must include traffic management techniques and their impact on service quality, as well as any other limitations (such as bandwidth caps or available connection speed),” according to a document posted Thursday on the portal web site of the European Union. The Net neutrality principles outlined above are part of a telecom reform package that members of the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers agreed upon this week following intense negotiations. The reforms were originally proposed by the European Commission in November 2007, though the sections to “reinforce the neutral character of the internet” and an internet freedom provision,...

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By the Staff of BroadbandCensus.com

A video posted last month on YouTube from Jesse Dylon of FreeForm in support of Net neutrality wants to touch your heart and has the music and images to boot. “This is a video we made about free and open web access. An Open Internet should be a right for all people, of all backgrounds, with all interests. Net Neutrality is for all of us,” reads the last moment of the screen with the sound of the piano. Starring in the video are Net neutrality advocates Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School, Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, Vint Cerf, chief internet evangelist for Google, and Christopher Libertelli, senior director of government and regulatory affairs for Skype, among others. FreeForm says on its Web site that it gathered these individuals “to discuss the vast implications of limiting access” on the Internet. Currently, the Federal Communications Commission is considering proposed rules, so-called Net neutrality principles, to regulate Internet access. On its home page, FreeForm, a multimedia production company, has pictures of celebrities such as Cameron Diaz, Gweneth Paltrow, Brad Pitt mingled with political figures such as former President Bill...

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By Mercy Gakii, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 3, 2009 - The Internet could provide vital links between people and institutions to keep government running and businesses operating during an outbreak of H1N1 influenza, said a report released in October by the Government Accountability Office. Maintaining a robust infrastructure that can handle a rise in the use of bandwidth-heavy applications that would be used during widespread pandemic-based telecommuting should be a top priority for network operators during times of heightened concern, the report said. "It is obvious that a functioning Internet will keep both government, private companies and individuals in contact, and people will be able to access information from wherever they are." The Internet would allow people to communicate effectively without coming together physically during an outbreak, GAO said. This would assist in creating “social distance” to reduce the potential for illness to further spread. Many other governmental agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, have been advocating that businesses and other enterprises consider increased use of telework by their workforce as a way to continue operations while maintaining physical separation from other workers during a pandemic. Doing so would typically involve employees working from home and accessing their business’s networks over an Internet connection. Some...

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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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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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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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By the Staff of BroadbandCensus.com

The FCC has established the OpenInternet.gov web site as a portal for public participation in the discussion about preserving the free and open Internet, introducing collaborative tools Web 2.0 applications.  Among the links included on the site is one to Idealscale at http://openinternet.ideascale.com/, which allows the public to evaluate, rank and discuss the ideas regarding the open Internet, in new and improved pathways for communication to encourage and facilitate public participation. The page breaks the discussion down into ten open Internet topics that have generated widespread interest, including freedom of speech, innovation, transparency/disclosure, and others. A blog at http://blog.openinternet.gov/, will provide an additional forum for public comment and debate.  Comments from the blog and the Ideascale page other than anonymous comments will be included in the official public record of the Open Internet inquiry, along with comments filed through traditional channels at the FCC.  And one of those traditional channels – the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) at http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs2/ – became much easier to use and search this month with the launch of ECFS 2.0. The FCC previously announced the use of other popular social media sites to increase public...

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