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.

Australia, El Dorado County share broadband woes

While Australia's a long way from El Dorado County, the two areas face a common problem of an aging copper cable telecom infrastructure that isn't suited to reliably deliver broadband Internet. There are also strong parallels between Austrialia's dominant telco, Telstra, and El Dorado County's AT&T. Here's what's going on down under according to Kenneth Davidson writing in The Age:

While broadband of sorts might work over the copper network while it attracts 30 per cent of customers, by the time the broadband share reaches 60 per cent, interference and cross-talk will severely degrade the service even if the copper is well maintained.

But Telstra's copper network is no longer well maintained. The deterioration in the network would be even more apparent than it is were it not that drought, rather than maintenance, has been keeping water away from degrading the copper connections.

Can you say "diaal up" mate? Like many of their El Dorado County counterparts, half of all Aussies remain stuck in the Internet slow lane with sluggish dialup connections, according to another article appearing in The Age.

Residential customers need "Lots and lots and lots" of bandwidth

Residential customers need "lots and lots and lots" of bandwidth. So says Robin Bienfait, VP Network Operations for AT&T, in an interview at last week's Globalcomm industry trade show in San Francisco, where broadband was a major topic of discussion.

Ironically, large numbers of AT&T customers in El Dorado County might not even be able to hear Bienfait's remarks since they are streamed on a high speed video connection. That's because they have tiny, tiny, tiny amounts of dial up bandwidth since Ma Bell has done little if anything to upgrade her system in the county to support broadband.

To read about the Globalcomm conference and to attempt to listen to Bienfait's interview -- which could take quite a while at El Dorado County miniscule dial up bandwidths -- go to this Light Reading article. Bienfait's "lots and lots and lots" of observation is in video clip 3 under "Related Content."

A wireless broadband lesson from the Australian bush

Australian telco Telstra is hoping to avoid the expense of upgrading its wire line infrastructure to support broadband Internet access by turning instead to wireless broadband.

Sorry, mate, the service is turning out to be "absolutely dreadful" in trials, according to this article from down under in The Age. Back to the drawing board.