Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
By Lou Carlozo, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com
CHICAGO, November 17, 2009 - As the 121st meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners kicked off Tuesday, the usual presentations on energy efficiency, commodities and electrical grid jiggering couldn’t match the drama and dilemma surrounding a topic that didn’t even exist a few decades ago: the future of broadband, and broadband stimulus money in particular.
That’s a $7.2 billion question—that number representing the amount of money federal agencies can deploy before September 2010. And the good news coming from three key federal players is that the money will start coming to states as soon as early next month, with grants rolling out through early 2010.
The first rounds dished out by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the U.S. Rural Utilities Service (RUS) won’t nearly match the demand, though. With 2,200 applications on file, Washington would need many times the available funding. “It’s just stunning the creativity and industriousness in these proposals,” said Lawrence Strickling, NTIA’s director. “It’s sad we don’t have the money to fund them all; we were oversubscribed seven times.”
The good news is that the NTIA and RUS have a request for information (RFI) out, with a November 30...
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
Editor’s Note: The following is a BroadbandCensus.com summary and analysis of the recent report, “Next Generation Connectivity,” released by the Berkman Center, and commissioned by Federal Communications Commission.
WASHINGTON, November 17, 2009 – The main purpose of the report by the Berkman Center at Harvard University, commissioned by the Federal Communications Commission, was to examine global broadband policies and determine how the United States may adopt principles employed by the rest of the world as a means of expanding the current state of domestic broadband. Among nations, there seem to be two different overarching goals, ubiquity and capacity.
Many European nations seem to be reaching for a goal of ubiquity rather than capacity. While they do seek to obtain high-speed connections, their first goal has been to achieve mass adoption and availability of broadband. This ubiquity was a key portion of Japan’s early broadband planning, but now it has shifted toward higher-capacity connectivity.
The U.S., said the Berkman report, has never had a properly-organized and centralized plan to promote either ubiquity or capacity. However, with the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and the Universal Service Fund, it seems like the choice is being made toward ubiquity.
Open access seems to be...
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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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Monday, November 16th, 2009
By Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
November 16, 2009 - Speaking in a country known for its internet censorship policies and heavy-handed government involvement in communications technologies, President Obama repeatedly took the time to voice his support for an “open internet” in Shanghai on Monday.
“So I'm a big supporter of not restricting internet use, internet access, other information technologies like Twitter. The more open we are, the more we can communicate. And it also helps to draw the world together,” said Obama.
“And so I've always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I'm a big supporter of non-censorship. This is part of the tradition of the United States that I discussed before, and I recognize that different countries have different traditions. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet -- or unrestricted internet access is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged,” he continued.
Obama delivered his remarks to four hundred-plus Chinese youth as well as thousands of others who attended the event virtually through events organized by the U.S. Embassy and Consulates. The question related to Internet use was delivered by U.S. Ambassador to China Jon...
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Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Christina Kirchner, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, November 5, 2009 - Panelists at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation on Friday agreed that price and digital literacy have created a barrier to broadband demand that can affect more than just broadband adoption.
The event was based off of a report written by Robert Atkinson, president of ITIF, “Policies to Increase Broadband Adoption at Home.” The report said that of the 92 to 94 percent of Americans have the opportunity to subscribe to broadband, only 65 percent have chosen to do so. The broadband penetration number comes from the widely-regarded random-digit-dial surveys of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
James Prieger, associate professor of public policy at Pepperdine University’s school of public policy, cited another barrier to adoption: the price of broadband service is just too high.
Creating subsidization programs for broadband, or lowering taxes that pertain to broadbandmight be additional possibilities, he said. Prieger said that Canada had used tax credits to subsidize broadband, which could be a possibility for the United States, too.
But Prieger cautioned, “Just because you have a plan, doesn’t mean that it is going to work.”
According to panelists, another problem for broadband adoption is that consumers may not recognize that...
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009
By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
October 31, 2009 - Finland made headlines earlier this month in declaring that broadband had become a legal right. While this startled some people, the Finns were not the first people to declare this – the Swiss were. Further, in 2003, at the World Summit on the Information Society, a declaration of principles was drafted and signed by a number of nations around the world, including the United States.
While Finland is the first nation to declare broadband a right, many nations around the world have developed plans to have universal service within the next 5 years. Finland’s plan is to have 100 percent coverage by 2015 at 100 Megabits per second, but the parliament has yet to officially approve the recommendation.
The United Kingdom announced through their Digital Britain plan to have 100 percent coverage by 2012 with a minimum speed of 2 Mbps. Germany has also announced full coverage by the end of 2010: 75 percent of all households are to have speeds of 50 Mbps by 2014, and then 100 Mbps for 100 percent of households by 2018. France also announced a plan to get universal coverage by 2012.
All of those plans were established...
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Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
By Mercy Gakii, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, October 14, 2009 - In a draft 232-page report that the Berkman Center of Harvard University conducted for the Federal Communications Commission – and was released by the agency on Wednesday – the United States was rated less-than-the-best in broadband performance.
The draft report found the U.S. lacking in fixed broadband, mobile penetration and in average prices at medium and very high speeds.
Titled “Next Generation Connectivity: A review of broadband internet transitions and policy from around the world,” the report distinguishes between countries with successful broadband outcomes from those whose outcomes might be seen as less than desirable.
The U.S. is a good performer in both advertised and actual speeds, said the report. It has lower-than-average broadband prices, and provides the lowest rates for slow internet connections. The same is not true for higher-speed broadband connections, where U.S. prices are higher.
The U.S. began the 21st century in the top quintile of nations in low prices and high broadband penetration. But it has been overtaken by other countries over the past decade.
The Berkman report favorably commented on “open access” policies, including unbundling, wholesaling, functional or structural separation and co-location requirements. Such policies had fallen out of favor during...
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Saturday, September 26th, 2009
Editor’s Note: This is the one of a series of panelist summary articles that BroadbandCensus.com will be reporting from the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, September 25-27, at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va.
By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
ARLINGTON, Va., September 26, 2009 - Fiber to the home (FTTH) has been touted by many as the next great leap in broadband connectivity, and was discussed at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference here on Saturday.
In Japan this service has already become the leading method of broadband connectivity, with speeds reaching 1 Gigabits per second (Gbps), and a seemingly endless potential for application development. Professor Masatsugu Tsuji from the University of Hyogo presented an analysis on how FTTH has become the dominant connection method in the country.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation is the dominant corporation in the FTTH market with a market share of nearly 70 percent. The cost of these services is also much lower in Japan versus the United States: in Japan, a 1Gbps connection costs less than $40.
Because some individuals still prefer to keep their older digital subscriber line connections, NTT must maintain two networks, a copper network for DSL and a fiber network. Japan does...
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