Author: bkramer

The presidential elections are over, and now we all must wait until January to find out what the new administration will mean to broadband industry. Last Mile covers this question in our most recent newsletter. The most immediate impact that seems likely is a change at the FCC. The real question is what this new leadership--and presumably a new approach to policy--will mean to how broadband deployment is approached in the United States for the next four to eight years.

Everybody knows that the economy will be the No. 1 issue facing the new president. Companies are struggling--if not failing outright. Banks won't loan money. The housing market is in shambles. What was once on the up-and-up is now down, down, down.

We all need a boost.

Skirting the edge of the economic crisis is broadband. Who cares about broadband at time like this?

Well, you should. Everyone should.

For businesses to remain strong, they need strong communications.

The Boston Globe recently ran this article about broadband's affect on the housing market.

"High-speed Internet access is now a key utility to offer prospective buyers and tenants, says Henry Pye, director of technology and resident services for JPI Partners LLC, which owns buildings around the country. Pye told the AP they can’t rent units without broadband access anymore.

“'It might as well be water,' he said."

Broadband is that vital.

People need to stay connected to do their business in this global market. Broadband, as we know, has become the primary vehicle for communication. Without a strong broadband infrastructure, there really is little hope to survive.

Obama has posed the possibility of including broadband in the Universal Service Fund, which was formerly used to provide telephone services to rural communities. In addition, some have mentioned using the current or a new economic stimulus package for broadband deployment. (Source)

We have all heard the phrase "the fourth utility" in reference to broadband. However, how do we make that a reality in times of economic crisis? How important is broadband deployment to your business? Let us know in the comments.

Also, please read this old post and take a moment to take our survey.

The United States is hip deep in a financial crisis and two weeks away from choosing a new president who will be charged with steering this country out of it economic woes. Money might be the foremost issue on everyone's minds, broadband is topic that bears some attention.

Both presidential candidates have an extensive platform on technology and broadband. (Read Sen. John McCain's technology platform here; read Sen. Barack Obama's technology platform here.) The candidates acknowledge that improving communications infrastructure can boost U.S. competition in the global market. However, not surprisingly, their views diverge from there.

McCain is against Net Neutrality legislation; Obama is for it. Obama wants public policies to help deploy broadband in rural communities and inner cities; McCain supports private investment for such deployments. (However, McCain co-sponsored the Community Broadband Bill in 2007, which would allow municipalities to engage in broadband projects if passed.)

At Last Mile, we would like to help you better understand the candidates' stances on broadband and technology in general. In addtion to the links above, here are some addition articles that outline Obama's and McCain's positions on the issues that affect you:

• A general outline of the tech issues at PC World
• Grading the candidates at Wired.com
• Analysis of the candidates' technology positions at Investors.com
• Looking at rural broadband at Daily Yonder

Broadband development is one avenue that can help foster economic rejuvenation. Let us know which candidate you think is the better broadband advocate and why in the comments. Don't forget to vote on Nov. 4.

As our collective fiscal belts tighten, it's ever more important to find ways to rejuvenate economic development in our communities. Improved communications infrastructures will help municipalities and businesses compete in the global marketplace.

As we near the end of 2008, we at Last Mile thought it was time to take stock of broadband deployments throughout the United States. In so doing, my colleagues and I have developed a Municipal Broadband Survey that we hope will give us a good reading of the state of broadband network design and deployments.

If your community is in the midst of planning and/or deploying a broadband network, please click on the link above. In addition, if you know of any community that is considering broadband, please let us know or send them our way.

The results of this survey, which we'll compile for the November/December issue, will be helpful to municipalities and industry experts alike as we close 2008 and prepare for 2009.

Take the Last Mile Municipal Broadband Survey and then let us know your thoughts on the state of broadband deployment in the comments.

Greetings from the FTTH Conference in Nashville. I'm writing to you from the Gaylord Opryland Resort, a ginormous compound with glass ceilings and a whole bunch of fiber in the basement, where exhibitors representing the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) industry are displaying their products and services.

Today, I listened to Greg Solomon of Enablence Technologies talk about how municipal utilities can deploy fiber-optic networks with a cost-effective plan. Solomon highlighted competition and a sustainable business plan as two main things for municipal utilities to understand, along with hiring the right personnel for the job (CTOs, technicians, gurus, sales and customer service reps, etc.).

Municipal utilities, Solomon said, need to understand their costs related to the physical network equipment, personnel and maintenance.

On a similar note, I heard Jim Farmer of Enablence Wave7 talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors that municipal FTTH networks might face, cable companies in particular. Farmer noted that cable companies are particularly vulnerable in providing upstream bandwidth.

The themes I've picked up so far are on the ever-growing hunger for more bandwidth that network operators are facing. One way to solve that, obviously, is to build out a fiber network, a technology that as of yet has no limitations to bandwidth capacity.

I will report back later with more from the conference. Until then, check out Geoff Daily's blog App-Rising. I had the pleasure of meeting Geoff here, and he's a powerful advocate for community broadband deployment.

Cheers!

Rural communities are often overlooked by the big-name broadband service providers, but the federal government is taking steps to help those communitiesdeploy high-speed communications networks.

The FCC and USDA have been working on rural broadband all year--that is workshopping. The federal entities have been conducting a series of regional workshops to help promote and facilitate broadband networks in rural communities. (Last Mile initially reported on these workshops in June.)

The next FCC/USDA rural broadband workshop will be next week, Sep. 18, in Austin, Texas, at the University of Texas from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The workshop is free and attendees will be responsible for transportation, food and lodging.

This workshop is designed to provide communities, organizations and businesses in rural America seeking to bring the benefits of broadband to their communities with an opportunity to learn about the resources, programs and policies of the FCC and USDA. The topics to be covered include different technology platforms used to provide broadband services, USDA funding for broadband deployment, the Universal Service Fund, the FCC’s Rural Health Care Pilot program and wireless spectrum access. The workshop will also provide communities and organizations with an opportunity to share their experiences about broadband deployment in rural and hard-to-reach areas.

For additional information about the workshop, please visit the FCC’s Web site; send an email to ruralworkshop@fcc.gov; or contact Cecilia Sulhoff at (202) 418-0587 or Matt Nodine at (202) 418-1646. Further information on rural programs is available on the FCC/USDA Broadband Opportunities for Rural America Web site, at a local USDA Rural Development office and on the USDA’s Web site.

If any readers attend this or are planning on attending the next workshop in November, please let us know about it. How helpful was it? And what more would you have liked to know? Let us know in the comments or by e-mailing me, Brad Kramer, at bkramer@benjaminmedia.com.

The Democratic National Convention started this week in Denver, while the Republican National Convention kicks off next week in Minneapolis. The media maelstrom surrounding these two events will be rife with campaign posturing, while the barrage of political advertisements continue to reign our TVs.

These waning summer months of a presidential election year bring the promise of a new White House administration in January, which will also bring a change in public policy. The broadband industry sure could use it. The United States has consistently been ranked in the middle of the pack, globally, when it comes to broadband deployment penetration. New blood at the helm could spark new innovations to boost the broadband market. Or this country will be stuck with more of the same.

We have been talking here about the prospect of a national broadband policy as a means put more emphasis on deploying high-tech and high-speed communications networks. However, will such a policy hamper this rapidly changing market?

Some industry experts have urged the government to make changes to slacken regulations on broadband, like Verizon’s Dick Lynch, who says, “The public interest can best be served by getting as much broadband in front of as many people as possible, as quickly as possible and ensuring that investment keeps up with demand. To a large extent, this is a matter of taking down the barriers to investment and refraining from erecting new ones.”

Speaking at a recent meeting of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, the Verizon executive vice president and chief technology officer adds, “Dynamic industries like ours require flexible solutions that can evolve and adapt to a changing environment — not rigid regulatory solutions that are one step behind the marketplace.”

Others, like John Cooper, president of the consulting firm MetroNetIQ and a frequent commenter on this blog, say that citizens and public leaders must be proactive in the effort to deploy broadband to their communities. Instead of waiting for policymakers and private companies to make these decisions, Cooper says that public policy should come from the public.

“The first step is to accept that we’ll have to take matters into our own hands,” Cooper wrote, commenting on a July post. “When communities realize that they have inside their own boundaries all the skills, talents, resources and initiative they need to do this on their own, then they will be off and running.” The key to helping communities realize this, Cooper says, is education.

You can view the candidates' views on broadband (and technology in general) on their campaign Web sites. For the Democrat, go here. For the Republican, go here. Do you think either candidate will make a big difference in the broadband industry? Does one have a better policy, or will just the addition of fresh blood spark the market? Am I opening a can of worms?

This week, many of us will be tuning in to the Olympics to watch those young athletes -- and some not so young -- achieve their gold medal dreams. Some of us might be tuning in from our computers to watch streaming video from Beijing. NBC has made a big deal of its uber-coverage of the games, employing broadband technology to fill the gaps of its TV broadcasts.

However, some people aren't too impressed with NBC's approach. The broadcasting company decided to spend big money on video coverage, but is saving much of it for prime time TV rather than live online streams. New York Times deputy managing editor Jonathan Landman accuses NBC of "oldthink." Of course, Landman is trumpeting his media company's coverage over NBC, but his point is valid.

If NBC is showing an event on tape delay, it won't make the video available until after it airs on TV. So much for high-speed communication. In addition, NBC is also monitoring its online visitors to make sure they're located in the United States. And here I thought the Olympics were a global event.

I commend NBC for its savvy video content and nifty Web site (www.nbcolympics.com), but the company is missing the broadband boat. If I'm interested enough in an event, I'm not going to wait until the delayed broadcast to find out what happened. I'll get my news elsewhere, just like everyone else. Oldthink, indeed.

The super-duper iPhone is again grabbing headlines and AT&T is again retracting an offer of free Wi-Fi access. Coincidence? CNET News.com reports that AT&T announced access to the free iPhone service and then quickly killed it.

"For the second time in less than six months, AT&T mistakenly published a notice on its Web site indicating that Apple iPhone users would get free access to the wireless operator's more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hot spots around the country."

Oops. Sorry guys.

CNET reminds us that AT&T did the same thing six months ago with its Laptop Connect customers. AT&T isn't commenting on the double flub.

If the iPhone didn't already generate enough drooling, I'd go all conspiracy theory on you and claim AT&T did this on purpose to nab more customers. But I guess I won't.

Back Talk
John Cooper, commenter and occasional contributor to Last Mile, made some interesting points regarding my last post, "Let Them Eat the Internet." He says communities need strong leadership to educate others and initiate broadband deployments.

"The first step is to accept that we'll have to take matters into our own hands. When communities realize that they have inside their own boundaries all the skills, talents, resources, and initiative they need to do this on their own...then, they will be off and running."

Check out Cooper's site MetroNetIQ.com for more about his stance on community broadband deployments.

Continue the conversation in the comments or let me have it for making you read more about the iPhone.

In the effort to close and seal the Digital Divide in the United States, a new Internet advocacy group is pushing to provide world-class, high-speed Internet access to every home, business and civic institution. InternetForEveryone.org was established to make broadband a national priority and to empower the populace with the communications infrastructure that will "create good jobs, foster entrepreneurship, spread new ideas and serve as a leading engine of economic growth," the group's Web site explains.

InternetForEveryone.org hopes to put the United States back near the top of the broadband rankings instead of the dismal 15th. Providing everyone with broadband services would certainly up the penetration rate. The group's aim is to foist a national campaign on Congress to connect the country with quality and cheap broadband services.

The group wants you to have your cake and eat it too. To serve up this broadband cake, the group's Web site says that everyone must play their part.

"America's digital decline is a troubling problem that must be faced now. Putting America back on top and bringing open, high-quality, affordable Internet connections into every home will require a comprehensive and innovative approach. It will require input from federal, state and local governments, businesses large and small, nonprofit organizations and public advocates, civic groups, churches and schools. Everyone must play a role."

And, presumably, if we all play our part, we'll each get our just desserts. As Marie Antoinette most famously didn't say, "Let them eat cake." Perhaps with a piece of broadband cake, the American people can make a little bread and help pull the United States out of its current economic woes.

A national broadband policy would go a long way in closing the Digital Divide. But what is the first step in making such a policy a reality? And is it possible to have both high quality and low cost? Let us know what you think in the comments.

The Federal Communications Commission has stopped dragging its feet, taking a step toward updating its antiquated definition of "broadband." Hitherto, the commission defined broadband as Internet speeds of about 200 kilobits per second. Kilobits? Do they still have those?

I've hemmed and hawed about this issue in the past. Finally, as Ars Technica reports, the FCC has rebooted its broadband notions. The commission announced a tiered definition of broadband, which still includes the 200 Kbps as "first generation data" services. I guess that's in case we get nostalgic for that slower era.

Here's how the FCC breaks it down:

• "First Generation data:" 200 Kbps up to 768 Kbps
• "Basic Broadband:" 768 Kbps to 1.5 megabits per second
• 1.5 Mbps to to less than 3 Mbps
• 3 Mbps to less than 6 Mbps
• 6 Mbps to less than 10 Mbps
• 10 Mbps to less than 25 Mbps
• 25 Mbps to less than 100.0 Mbps
• 100 Mbps and beyond

Well, look at that! The FCC even planned for a beyond. It's nice to see some forward thinking in a nation that ranks below many European and Asian countries in broadband. (Although, Verizon president and COO Denny Strigl pooh-poohed that notion at NXTcomm in Las Vegas last week when he said that the United States leads the world in broadband connections if not penetration.)

Broadband deployment could be a warm elixir in these cooling economic times by facilitating better communication and better commerce. Having a jumping off point of broadband service levels allows citizens, communities and service providers better understand the market demands.

Do you think the FCC's standards are suitable? Do these standards go far enough? How do you think this will affect the broadband market in the United States?