Schwarzenegger names 21 to California Broadband Task Force

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Ellis Berns, Rachelle Chong, William Geppert, Charles Giancarlo, Paul Hernandez, William Huber, Christine Kehoe, Wendy Lazarus, Lloyd Levine, Michael Liang, Bryan Martin, Timothy McCallion, Sunne Wright McPeak, Milo Medin, Peter Pardee, Peter Pennekamp, Debra Richardson, Rollin Richmond, Larry Smarr, Jonathan Taplin and Emy Tseng to the Broadband Task Force.

Click here for news release.

Under the executive order Schwarzenegger signed to create the Broadband Task Force, it is to provide the governor a preliminary report by the end of January, 2007 that identifies "administrative actions that can result in immediate promotion of broadband access and usage within California."

Apparently the governor has opted to appoint a blue ribbon commission to examine the issue. What's missing however is the consumer perspective and particularly the consumer point of view from outside California's urban centers where broadband availability leaves much to be desired.

All dressed up with nothing to sell

Some of you may have noticed that I've opened Eldo Telecom to advertisers. The ads you see are not placed by human beings, but by Google's so-called "ad bots" that seek out blogs that accept advertising based on automatic key words searches. Ads you see appearing here aren't chosen by me and don't necessarily represent an endorsement of what's being advertised -- and certainly no guarantee it's even available.

Take for example Comcast's pitch for its high speed Internet services that has appeared today. Many El Dorado County residents clicking on the link are likely to find Comcast has no such service to sell them. That's because Comcast's marketing is also on automatic, run by cyber robots. Going to Comcast's Web site and typing in Camino's ZIP Code, 95709, for example, will produce a message that Comcast's TV programming and high speed Internet service are available in 95709. Not necessarily true. It's only available in parts of the ZIP Code.

Both Comcast and AT&T advertise as if they can deliver broadband to all of El Dorado County when in fact both cover only limited parts of the county. It's not exactly a formula to win the hearts of minds of consumers and violates the maxim of marketing experts to avoid creating customer expectations that cannot be fulfilled.

WISP “inundated” with service requests

Shingle Springs-based Direct Connect, one of El Dorado County’s first homegrown Internet Service Providers, reports overwhelming demand for its wireless Internet service.

Since becoming a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) in addition to its established wire line-based services earlier this year, the company has been “inundated” by requests for its terrestrial fixed wireless service, Direct Connect President & CEO Ken Garnett reported in a letter to potential subscribers this week. The WISP's service area is growing beyond the small 15-square mile area initially served earlier this year, now reaching to the western edges of Placerville and into Diamond Springs.

It’s certainly no surprise county residents are clamoring for the wireless service given the county’s many gaping broadband black holes where residents face a Hobson’s choice of dialup or satellite-based Internet access.

“With such a huge demand, it is extremely difficult to service everyone in a timely fashion,” Garnett writes. “In order to solve this problem, we are actively raising capital in order to accelerate our deployment capabilities…this will enable us to hire more installers and to more rapidly expand our network.” Garnett also notes that even within Direct Connect’s existing wireless service area, there are many locations that lie in a “shadowed” area unable to reliably receive service and in need of “additional backfilling” for complete coverage. “Expanding our network/service area will occur as rapidly as we are able to raise capital and thereby bolster our resources,” Garnett writes.

The balkanized state of U.S. broadband access

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently issued an executive order creating a broadband task force to identify and eliminate obstacles to making broadband internet access ubiquitous in the Golden State, sees it as the great equalizer.

But throughout more rural parts of California and the rest of the nation, the broadband infrastructure and available service choices are far less equal to that of more urban areas. Ironically, Information Week writer Richard Hoffman notes in his comprehensive article on the state of U.S. rural broadband access, broadband access tends to be least available in the very areas that can most benefit from it as the U.S. continues into a post suburban, penturbian settlement trend.

DSL reportedly in the works for two Pollock Pines area neighborhoods south of Hwy. 50

A resident of the Gold Ridge Forest subdivision off Sly Park Road and Gold Ridge Trail in Pollock Pines reports AT&T crews are upgrading lines for DSL service to the area. The neighborhood is about a mile south of Highway 50.

In addition, an AT&T lineman advised the resident that DSL service is expected to be offered several miles farther south in the Sierra Springs subdivision after the first of the year.

FCC member Michael Kopps calls tepid U.S. record on broadband expansion an outrage

"The solution to our broadband crisis must ultimately involve public-private initiatives like those that built the railroad, highway and telephone systems. Combined with an overhaul of our universal service system to make sure it is focusing on the needs of broadband, this represents our best chance at recapturing our leadership position.

It seems plain enough that our present policies aren't working. Inattention and muddling through may be the path of least resistance, but they should not and must not represent our national policy on this critical issue."

Full op-ed in today's Washington Post.

Broadband coming for Camino's Rancho del Sol?

One of El Dorado County's many broadband black holes may be gone by early next year. That's according to Dan Gallagher, chair of the Rancho del Sol maintenance committee. Dan tells me AT&T has been installing and testing equipment to bring the community of 160 homes located off Snows Road in Camino that has been stuck with dial up Internet access into the digital age.

Earlier this year, Ma Bell promised to offer a number of broadband options to the county by the end of the year. As this blog exclusively reported, DSL was made available to parts of Grizzly Flat this past summer. Dan's report is encouraging because it's further evidence of concrete action from AT&T following years of unkept promises and more recently, AT&T's direct mail promos suggesting that El Doradans instead turn to ill-favored satellite-based Internet access.

If you are seeing indications that AT&T upgrading its infrastructure in your El Dorado County neighborhood or have recently obtained broadband access that wasn't previously available, please email with the details.

AT&T's Homezone misadventure

This has turkey written all over it right out of the box. The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that AT&T is unveiling a new service that bundles satellite TV from Dish Network with AT&T's DSL service. The idea of the so-called Homezone service is to allow subscribers to send movies, TV shows and music downloaded from the Internet to their TVs. It's supposedly to allow AT&T to better compete with the cable providers. It sounds too jury-rigged and complex to ultimately succeed and gain customer acceptance.

Rather than embark on such misadventures, AT&T should stick to the knitting of telecommunications. Ma Bell should concentrate on upgrading her long neglected wireline infrastructure in places like El Dorado County where AT&T is the incumbent telecom provider. There is plenty of work to do to ensure the delivery of reliable phone service and to eliminate the many broadband black holes that exist in the county. Homezone is a distraction and a misguided diversion of resources.

Schwarzenegger issues executive order to expand broadband access

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order to expand broadband access in the Golden State. Schwarzenegger's Press Office says the order, Twenty-First Century Government: Expanding Broadband Access and Usage in California, is to "clear the government red tape for building broadband networks" and "ensure all government agencies are using the best technologies to serve the people." The order also creates a broadband task force to "identify and eliminate obstacles to making broadband internet access ubiquitous in the state." The governor sees broadband as a "great equalizer" when it's accessible to all Californians, an administration source tells me.

Schwarzenegger says expanding broadband access will ensure California's high tech leadership, promote economic growth and enhance government operations through telemedicine for healthcare, distance learning for education, and better coordination of public safety.

While not specifically mentioned in Schwarzenegger's order, expanding broadband in California would also promote telecommuting. That would reduce automobile trips on California's overcrowded and deteriorated freeways and roads as well as fuel usage and environmental pollution.

Broadband becoming an essential utility

Here's a story on some research that illustrates the urgency for rapid deployment of robust broadband Internet in El Dorado County and elsewhere as Americans and Canadians have come to regard broadband as essential as basic telephone service.

The research also found that 85 percent of all broadband household segments are interested in receiving multiple telecommunication services over their broadband connections.

"Blue" California most likely to benefit from AB 2987

There's an interesting political angle to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent approval of AB 2987, the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006, that hasn't been picked up by the mainstream media.

Readers of this blog should be familiar with this legislation that takes effect next year and puts the California Public Utilities Commission in charge of issuing franchises to cable companies and telcos. For the major players such as Comcast and AT&T, the legislation requires the companies to upgrade their networks to provide video services and broadband Internet for only half or less of their service areas by Jan. 1, 2012.

Most likely, residents and businesses located in more densely populated coastal urban areas -- which also tend to lean Democratic and hence are dubbed "Blue" California -- will be in this group. Less densely populated inland areas -- Republican leaning "Red" California -- are likely to be given low priority by the cable and telco providers and left on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Schwarzenegger may have been attempting to make nice with legislative Democrats in this election year by approving AB 2987, championed by Democratic speaker Fabian Nunez. But he left his political base in GOP Red California hung out to dry while Blue California is likely to be first in line for advanced telecommunications and video services.

Big telcos see shift from DSL to fiber

Telecommunications Industry News reports big telcos such as AT&T and Verizon anticipate a movement away from copper-based Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) broadband service and toward fiber optic-based infrastructure, citing a similar trend in heavily fibered East Asia.

El Dorado County's incumbent telco, AT&T, hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment on industry reports that Ma Bell has ceased deployment of all new copper cable DSL infrastructure in AT&T's 13-state service area to focus exclusively on fiber installations.

Former FCC chair calls for "full scale policy debate" on U.S. digital divide

Excerpts from an op-ed by former FCC Chairman William E. Kennard in today's New York Times:

"The nation should have a full-scale policy debate about the direction of the broadband Internet, especially about how to make sure that all Americans get access to broadband connections."

"As chairman of the F.C.C., I put into place many policies to bridge the narrowband digital divide. The broadband revolution poses similar challenges for policymakers. America should be a world leader in broadband technology and deployment, and we must ensure that no group or region in America is denied access to high-speed connections. "

Hilary Clinton takes up broadband access cause

In the late 1960s, the federal government devised the Internet. Now it's time for the feds to speed its deployment in areas of the U.S. that lack broadband service, argues blogger Pretson Gralla.

Gralla puts in a plug for legislation by Sen. Hilary Clinton, who frames the issue in the context of helping her upstate New York constituents, many of whom live in broadband black holes. However, given Mrs. Clinton's former first lady status and much rumored presidential ambitions, her championing efforts to bridge the digital divide could put the issue in the national spotlight.

Mrs. Clinton's bill would create an Office of Rural Broadband Initiatives at the Department of Agriculture to provide grants and loan programs to spur investment in broadband infrastructure in underserved rural areas. It would also create a Rural Broadband Innovation Fund which would invest in broadband services to rural areas including satellite, fiber, WiFi, and broadband over power lines (BPL).

AT&T sends mixed messages on broadband service

I recently blogged about the seeming arbitrariness of one El Dorado County neighbor with access to wireline high speed Internet while one nearby or even next door can’t get it. Most vexing.

There’s another huge annoyance. How many of you have seen or heard advertisements by AT&T for DSL on sale — as low as $12.99 a month — as if broadband connections were so plentiful Ma Bell would basically give them away cheap?

The pitches are seemingly everywhere. In full page newspaper ads, on television, and on the Internet where AT&T has teamed up with Yahoo. Even on the outside of the phone bill. They’re misleading and unrealistically raise customer expectations. One has to read through gobs of dense fine print to find the disclaimer: “Not available in all areas.” More accurately, it should read not available in many areas and not available in most areas of El Dorado County.

In other words, service is available. But maybe it isn’t. Here’s a striking example of AT&T’s Orwellian doublespeak excerpted from a news release the company issued today headlined AT&T Simplifies Residential Broadband Pricing and Adds New Speed Tier.

“AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet service is available in the company's 13-state incumbent local exchange areas,” the news release states. Then in the same sentence comes the qualifier: “where high speed Internet service is available...”

Like Ma Bell says, it’s available…but then again it really isn’t.

Schwarzenegger signs AB 2987 into law

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office announced today the governor has signed into law the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006.

Your blogger's analysis of the legislation found it would reinforce California's digital divide between urban and non-urban areas by not requiring telephone and cable companies to build out their digital networks to serve all customers, leaving many in El Dorado and other counties stuck in the early 1990s or earlier without access to wireline-based broadband Internet services. (On an interesting political note, many of these counties are in "red" California representing Schwarzenegger's Republican voter base)

Schwarzenegger however insists that AB 2987 will "help speed the spread of new and innovative technologies across the state." Perhaps it will after decades have gone by. In the meantime, much of non-urban California will slide into the telecommunications equivalent of third world nation status.

Internet boom leaves rural areas disconnected

Here's an excellent article in today's New York Times (registration required) that illustrates how the Internet boom is colliding with reality in rural areas of the United States that still rely on sluggish, impractical dial up Internet access that was state of the art when Bill Clinton was entering the White House in 1993.

The article details declining economies of scale as major telcos sell off land lines, inconsistent federal subsidies, and impatient capital that discourages private sector investment in rural telecom infrastructure.