Australians pull plug on BPL

Broadband Over Power Lines has short circuited in the land down under, ZDNet.com reports. The problem is the same that afflicts DSL only on a larger scale: rapid signal degradation over distance, necessitating signal boosters:

The case for BPL wasn't helped, either, by rollout costs that would have quickly spiralled due to the need for a repeater station to be installed every kilometre along Australia's tens of thousands of kilometres of transmission lines.

Throw in the need for utilities to manage the telecoms infrastructure and enlist a carrier partner -- one that would also want a cut of the pie -- and it's clear that BPL, despite its promise and technical feasibility, is no longer compelling enough to be attractive for Australian utilities.

U.S. broadband forecasts sweep pathetic state of access under the rug

A couple of reports are out this week that would lead their readers to believe that U.S. broadband access and speeds are “exploding” as one tech press account put it. Or about to.

Don’t believe it. It’s essentially telco/cable duopoly propaganda designed to make the number of people who have access to advanced services appear to be large and growing fast. The apparent goal is to sweep under the rug the ugly reality that very large numbers of Americans are still accessing the Internet the same way they did when a young former Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton was assuming the presidency and are likely to do so for some time. Only now, some have option of using satellite, a crippled and costly alternative that’s not much better than dialup and doesn’t provide true broadband connectivity.

One of these reports was issued this week by research firm Parks Associates. It projects by 2012, close to 33 million U.S. households will have broadband services with speeds of 10 Mbps or higher, capable of streaming high-definition video. The U.S. Census Bureau projects there will be about 177 million households by 2012, meaning many folks won’t. “If high-bandwidth broadband services fail to reach mass-market consumers, the United States may lose its competitive edge in the next round of technology innovation,” the report warns. "Such a scenario would be unpleasant.” Based on these numbers, it appears the U.S. is in for a lot of broadband unpleasantness.

Also this week, another research outfit projected that by 2011, of those who can get service at this speed, more than 9 million U.S. households will subscribe to telco-provided Internet Protocol TV service. The Yankee Group’s report, From Gorillas to Guerrillas, IPTV Changes Everything, sharply departs from reality in suggesting that IPTV technology will change the stodgy, accounting and lobbying driven Bell System culture that still rules telcos.

“IPTV will also forever transform how telcos operate,” Yankee Group declares in a bout of apparent wishful thinking. “It will take the service providers from being highly centralized, giant corporations to become decentralized, flexible entities that can respond much more rapidly to the specific needs of the communities they serve. The phone company of the past—the 800-pound gorilla—is dead. IPTV will transform telcos from the market-dominating gorillas they once were, to street fighting guerrillas."

That assessment is so out of touch it’s laughable. The telcos and especially the dominant player, AT&T, behave like arrogant, aloof government bureaucracies, not unlike the old Soviet phone company where customers had to wait five years just to get phone service. Consider the many folks who are stuck with POTS-based dial up that AT&T has been telling for years "We'll get to you when we get to you" and "Maybe and that's final" when they've asked (and often begged) for advanced services. They don't even have DSL let alone IPTV and aren't likely to see the latter for many more years — all the while relegated to early 1990s era dialup and satellite. And forget about the myth this problem is confined to rural areas; there are plenty of folks within metro areas who are still on dialup.

To suggest the entrenched, centralized, top-down telco culture can change in just two years' time to a "guerrilla marketing" culture simply defies common sense. It will likely take at least a decade and likely far longer. Only a major external event like another government ordered divestiture would likely alter that timetable.

Fed up with dial up, 20 Vermont towns give green light to fiber infrastructure

Residents of 20 Vermont towns have had it with dial up Internet access that was state of the art when Bill Clinton was starting his first term as president and are sick and tired of waiting for an alternative from an unresponsive telco/cable duopoly.

In nearly unanimous voting Tuesday, March 4, the townspeople approved nonbinding resolutions to create a subscriber-funded fiber optic infrastructure provding Internet, telephone and cable television opportunities in central and southern Vermont.

Qwest bullish on residential broadband, plans $1.8B FTTN deployment

Dow Jones reports today that Denver-based telco Qwest Communications International plans to spend $1.8 billion to build fiber to the node (FTTN) infrastructure serving 1.5 million homes in its top 23 markets.

Qwest joins AT&T in adopting the lower cost FTTN fiber/copper hybrid architecture, which AT&T is deploying as Project Lightspeed in selected areas to support its triple play IPTV video/Internet/voice bundle marketed under the brand name U-Verse.

By contrast, the nation's second largest telco, Verizon, has opted for a costlier Fiber To the Home (FTTN) architecture that offers residential customers higher throughput speeds, greater potential for expanded service offerings, and reduced risk of technological obsolescence.

Qwest estimates the FTTN deployment will run about $175 per home -- far less than FTTH. Qwest says about 60 percent of its upgraded homes will have speeds up to 7 Mbs.

Broadband black holes in Brooklyn?

Surprisingly so, according to this item on the New York City Broadband Advisory Committee appearing today in the Queens Chronicle:

The committee working to bring high speed public Internet access to New York City will be holding a hearing in Queens on Monday, March 3 at 1 p.m. The New York City Broadband Advisory Committee will convene at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City. The public is invited to attend and testify.

The committee, headed by Councilwoman Gale Brewer from Manhattan and including Councilman James Sanders from Springfield Gardens, will hear testimony from local officials and Queens residents about the accessibility and affordability of high speed Internet in Queens.

The committee has held hearings in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn already and was surprised to learn that some areas of Brooklyn have no cable or Internet access, according to Brewer. Sanders speculates that the same situation probably exists in parts of Queens.

Somerset County PA commissioner warns of broadband access crisis

From the Somerset County (PA) Daily American:

Somerset County has a way to go in its quest to connect every resident and business using broadband as the tool.

County commissioners are not daunted by the task, making it a priority for 2008. Last fall, while running for a third term of office, Commissioner James Marker made the first campaign promise in his eight-year career as a commissioner, stating he would do everything possible to achieve a high-speed Internet connection in the county.

His mind has not changed since he took office in January. If anything, it has intensified, he said. If the county does not meet the challenge soon, “we will have to face a real crisis,” Marker said.