EarthLink profits from broadband black holes

The New York Times (registration required) reports ISP EarthLink is transitioning into a telecommunications company and is sitting on piles of cash generated by high margin dial up services to finance the shift in strategy. EarthLink made and still is making buckets of money off the massive broadband black holes that exist in the service areas of the big telcos and cable companies.

EarthLink's current broadband strategy is based on leasing lines from telcos and cables. It is running into difficulty getting lines from the cable companies. And it won't be able to access telcos' fiber optic lines since a federal appeals court ruled this week telcos don't have to share their fiber with ISPs like EarthLink.

It would be richly ironic if EarthLink did an end around around the cable companies and telcos with the gobs of money it makes in dial up thanks to the slow as molasses speed at which the telcos and cable companies upgrade their networks and invested in its own proprietary fiber optic system.

PG&E talks with BPL provider short out over money

El Dorado County's electric utility provider, PG&E, confirmed it has had discussions with Maryland-based Current Communications, a provider of Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) services. However, a PG&E spokesman said that while the investor owned utility is interested in an alliance with a BPL provider, the talks have snagged over money.

Current Communications, which has attracted some $100 million in investment capital from Goldman Sachs, the Hearst Corporation and Google, wants PG&E to share in some of the start up costs to deploy BPL over its electric distribution system. No deal, PG&E told Current Communications.

Google is reportedly keenly interested in pursuing BPL as an alternative to relying on telcos like AT&T to carry the large amounts of data it sends over the Internet -- an understandable strategy given AT&T's suggestions that big media companies like Google pay access fees to use its system.

The San Francisco Chronicle story also provides a good account of AT&T's short-lived interest in BPL in 2004.

US Court of Appeals: Telcos can keep proprietary fiber optic to themselves

The U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled the big regional "baby bell" telephone companies -- of which El Dorado County's provider AT&T is among the largest -- don't have to share their proprietary fiber optic cable infrastructure with other providers such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs.)

ISP Earthlink went to court to challenge the exclusivity rule, adopted in 2004 by the Federal Communications Commission. The telcos say they need to limit access to providers of competitive services in order to protect their investment in the next generation wire line technology.

Story by Reuters via Yahoo News.

Local governments build fiber networks

Local governments lacking faith that private sector providers are able or willing to serve their citizens' telecom needs are building their own fiber optic networks, according to this AP story.

Tahoe area supe wants to hear from constituents on Internet access

This item was published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune (registration required) on Aug. 9:

El Dorado County Supervisor Norma Santiago is requesting residents of Lake Tahoe in El Dorado County wanting DSL service to contact her with specific reasons why they want the high-speed Internet option.

Santiago wants to use the information to help bargain with AT&T officials when she meets with them later this month. The county board of supervisors is not meeting with AT&T officials in a closed session as previously reported.

Specifics are requested, such as if DSL service will help those who are visually or hearing impaired, run a home-based business or to upload certain reports or videos for work.

A campaign to bring the high-speed Internet service to county areas has been started by Patti Handal, a resident of Mountain View Estates near North Upper Truckee Road.

Santiago can be contacted via e-mail at bosfive@co.el-dorado.ca.us. She requested those who do send e-mails include their physical address. The deadline for the e-mails is Aug. 18.

No meeting on Aug. 21 between supes, AT&T

I've been informed by the office of El Dorado County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sweeney that yesterday's Tahoe Daily Tribune (registration required) story reporting that the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a closed door meeting on Aug. 21 with AT&T officials regarding expanding DSL service in West Slope neighborhoods is incorrect.

Tahoe area Supervisor Norma Santiago's office however reports a meeting is in the works involving her office, the county's IT director, Jackie Nilius, and AT&T representatives about expanding DSL service in Santiago's district.

Stay tuned for further updates.

El Dorado Supes set Aug. 21 meeting with AT&T

William Ferchland reports in today's Tahoe Daily Tribune (registration required) that the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a closed door (why closed?) meeting on Aug. 21 with AT&T officials regarding expanding DSL service in West Slope neighborhoods.

Instrumental in getting things moving is Tahoe-area supervisor Norma Santiago who said addressing the need for high-speed is a priority issue for her. Adding to Santiago's cause is a petition from constituent Patti Handal, a resident of Mountain View Estates near north Upper Truckee Road, that the newspaper reports is being circulated in Mountain View Estates, Angora Highlands, the far end of South Upper Truckee Road and Echo View Estates.

Readers of this blog should also be aware of the petition calling upon AT&T to upgrade its wire line infrastructure to fiber optic or divest itself from the county at www.ipetitions.com/petition/EldoTelecom/

Stay tuned to this blog for details on the scheduled meeting between AT&T and the county supes.