Analysis & commentary on America's troubled transition from analog telephone service to digital advanced telecommunications and associated infrastructure deficits.
Friday, December 29, 2006
San Jose Mercury News calls for national broadband strategy
The newspaper urges Silicon Valley business leaders to lead the charge. "Not only is universal broadband good for society, it's good for the technology business. Intel will sell more chips, Hewlett-Packard more computers, Cisco Systems more routers, Google more ads. Telephone and cable companies see huge profits in delivering TV, Internet and phone service over fast land lines," the editorial states.
The editorial calls for a "cohesive national strategy" to achieve the goal of universal broadband access in the next three years including revamping the Universal Service Fund to subsidize broadband in rural areas and auctioning off television frequencies that won't be needed when TV broadcasters go to full digital transmission in 2009 to help underwrite the cost of making broadband service ubiquitous.
The editorial is part of a growing chorus of doubt that the telco/cable duopoly has the ambition and/or the capital to speed broadband availability on its own.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Wireless can pencil out where wireline fails, Rescue resident says
Rescue resident Tim McFadden doesn’t foresee any wireline based deployment of broadband penciling out for AT&T in much of El Dorado County. The future according to McFadden, president of a company called Comsites that provides real estate services to cellular phone companies, is wireless. The simple reason, he explains, is that it’s far less costly to deploy. He points to wireless providers like Sprint and Verizon which he says are offering a “double play” of voice and data at speeds approaching 400 Kbps. McFadden also notes Craig McCaw's Clearwire is moving into the Sacramento market could be in the eastern portion of the El Dorado County before long.
In addition, if wireless is to be a viable broadband alternative in El Dorado County or anywhere else, it will have to offer higher connection speed. While 400kbs may be considered adequate for some users of portable devices, it barely qualifies as a broadband connection.
WSJ columnist calls on federal government to speed broadband deployment
The Wall Street Journal is America’s flagship newspaper of free markets and free enterprise. It’s not known for advocating regulation and government involvement in business. When it comes to the business of deploying broadband Internet connections, however, a WSJ columnist suggests the business model has failed and can’t be left to its own devices. The federal government should launch an effort to hasten the build out the nation’s telecom system to accommodate more and faster broadband connections on a par with the Eisenhower-era program to build the interstate highway system, WSJ technology columnist Kara Swisher said at a recent Silicon Valley forum. “The government has got to get behind this, like it did with the public highways,” Swisher was quoted as saying.
Another panelist, the WSJ’s Walter Mossberg, a product reviewer and technology columnist, lamented the relatively slow speeds available to U.S. broadband users. “We need real broadband,” Mossberg told the panel, calling American broadband “pathetic” compared to what’s available in other countries.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Tech exec calls for federal universal broadband policy
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
655 Tahoe residents petition AT&T for broadband
The Lake Tahoe basin is one of the most massive broadband black holes in El Dorado County. As this blog reported back in the fall, the residents there aren’t happy about it and are petitioning the incumbent local exchange carrier, AT&T, to get moving on a solution and enlisted Fifth District Supervisor Norma Santiago to help press their case with company officials.
Friday, December 15, 2006
BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau honcho falls into broadband black hole -- in Palo Alto
Thursday, December 14, 2006
AT&T's MultiMedia Studio: An exercise in irrelevancy
For those of us residing in one of El Dorado County's many broadband black holes, the survey for MultiMedia Studio is an exercise in irrelevancy. That's because without a broadband connection to the Internet, server based software such as being contemplated by AT&T is simply useless.
First things first. AT&T should instead be focusing its resources on upgrading its aged infrastructure so it can make broadband available to those without access. Without it, MultiMedia Studio isn't even in the realm of possibilities.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Where the heck's my broadband?
But don't call up AT&T's high speed Internet department and expect to place an order for service considering that year end is just a couple of weeks away. When I did this week, I was told that was impossible because there's no planned date for rolling out service in my broadband black hole not far from U.S. 50.
Par for the course for Ma Bell despite speedy sounding rhetoric in 2002 "Project Pronto" (It wasn't) and AT&T's latest "get ready, it's coming" hype, "Project Lightspeed."
75% of residences have broadband connections
That number is undoubtedly far lower in El Dorado County, which continues to be plagued by gaping broadband black holes where neither AT&T nor Comcast provide service, leaving residents to choose between the unfeasible -- dial up -- and the undesirable -- satellite.
Friday, December 08, 2006
Broadband will determine outcome of cable vs. telco market share struggle
That's doubly true in much of "dark" El Dorado County where neither AT&T nor Comcast offers broadband connections. The first to enter these areas with a robust broadband product will over the short term have the market to themselves to sell bundled services and set the stage to develop long term loyalty among residents who have waited far too long for high speed Internet access.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Caught flat footed by Internet, telcos ponder their future
America's telcos were caught flat footed by the rapid rise of the Internet that has left them pondering what business they are in, according to this Reuters article appearing in VAR Business:
A decade into the Internet era, it is becoming clear to former telecommunications monopolies that they may not have what it takes to operate at Internet speed.
"The integrated telco model is broken. All innovation is coming from the edge of the Internet. It's coming from companies other than telecom companies, from the likes of Google, Amazon," said James Enck, an analyst at Daiwa Securities in London.