Analysis & commentary on America's troubled transition from analog telephone service to digital advanced telecommunications and associated infrastructure deficits.
Monday, February 12, 2007
FTC to look into ISP broadband speed claims
Sure enough, it has. The Federal Trade Commission will be look into the issue in a workshop this week, ars technica reports.
Verizon policy exec calls for federal grants, loans to extend broadband access
Tauke also said the nation needs to come up with a better way to determine exactly where broadband is available and where it's not, suggesting like consumer advocates the FCC's current methodology of using ZIP Codes as measurement units is flawed.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Cooperative research project proposed to study "acute and growing problems facing the Internet" in U.S.
On December 12-13, 2006, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) held a workshop to discuss and ultimately propose a collaboration among researchers and networks to simultaneously solve three acute and growing problems facing the Internet: a self-reported financial crisis in the Internet infrastructure provider industry that poses a severe threat to broadband growth and U.S. competitiveness; a data acquisition crisis which has deeply stunted the field of network science; and a dilemma within emerging community, municipal, regional, and state networks, who need (additional) broadband connectivity but face severely limited provider, service level, and usage options.
Project Lightspeed appears headed on failed course of Project Pronto
AT&T’s latest initiative is dubbed Project Lightspeed. Unlike the failed Project Pronto, Project Lightspeed — AT&T’s scheme to offer a so-called triple play menu of services including telephone, broadband and IPTV (Internet Protocol TV over phone lines) contains no self imposed deadlines. That’s a good thing because it’s moving well below the speed of light, BusinessWeek reports this week.
AT&T wants to make all three digital services run over its existing copper cable, and industry analysts are questioning whether copper — designed to carry low bandwidth analog voice services — can provide enough bandwidth to accommodate the huge bandwidth needs of high definition IPTV. AT&T "competitor" Verizon doesn’t think copper is up to the job and is instead committed to doing triple play over fiber optic cable to the doorstep. By contrast, AT&T finds itself caught between its desire to keep up with Verizon and the cable companies in the market for triple play services and its reluctance to let go of its legacy copper cable plant, a reluctance that ensures an early death for Project Lightspeed and make AT&T an also ran in the triple play game.
In a competitive market — the kind of competitive market envisioned by the federal telecommunications reform legislation enacted in 1996 — the stage would appear to be set for Verizon to eat Ma Bell’s lunch. The problem is there is no true competitive market for residential telecommunications services. Verizon refuses to compete in AT&T’s service area and vice versa. So there’s little pressure on AT&T to upgrade its aging copper cable-based system to fiber. Meanwhile, AT&T residential customers suffer, with large numbers unable to obtain even a “double play” of voice and broadband service promised years ago by the not-so-pronto Project Pronto let alone the triple play of Project Lightspeed.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
More than 20 percent of local phone company customers can't get DSL
Local telephone companies didn’t offer DSL in more than 20 percent of their service areas last year, according to recently released data compiled by the Federal Communications Commission. The data are contained in Table 14 of the report, High Speed Services for Internet Access as of June 30, 2006.
States with the highest DSL penetration among incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) include Florida (88 percent), California (86 percent) and surprisingly, Louisiana with 87 percent. Even less densely populated states such as Nevada and North Dakota exceeded the national average of 79 percent, with 85 percent and 86 percent respectively.
The states with the lowest DSL availability offered by ILECs were New Hampshire with 59 percent; Vermont with 60 percent; Virginia, Arkansas and Michigan with 66 percent; and Maine, 67 percent.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Finally some common sense on broadband -- courtesy of Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry
In addition to ending a federal requirement that high-speed Internet rates be equal regardless of population density, Nebraska Republican Congressman Lee Terry’s draft bill would also require the Universal Service Fund, created to subsidize voice telephone service in higher cost areas, be updated to include broadband, according to this ars technica report.
Terry, a member of the Congressional Rural Caucus, is on the right track policy-wise. Broadband Internet access should be universal and allowing USF funding to help make it so is sound policy. It’s also equitable to allow higher costs to deploy wire line-based broadband to be recovered in the form of higher prices.
Achieving universal broadband access is a high cost proposition and will require multiple funding sources. Terry’s bill strikes a reasonable middle ground that’s vitally needed in finding a way to make broadband universally accessible. Otherwise, everyone living outside of densely populated urban areas will remain stuck in the early 1990s with cheap but impractical dial up Internet access or the costly and undesirable option of satellite, which is best left to television programming.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Australian regulator puts ISPs on notice: honest disclosure of broadband speeds needed
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Cable companies face bandwidth crunch
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Internet 2 spawns customer relations nightmare for telcos, cable companies
The reason: In many areas, both still are unable to deliver the Internet at speeds any faster than those that existed in the early to mid-1990s, speeds that are impractical for today’s Internet or even Web surfing. Or in the cable companies’ case, any Internet access whatsoever. Their call center sales representatives are likely getting tired of being asked repeatedly, “When can I get high speed Internet?” and having to tell disappointed would be customers they cannot sell it to them -- and don't know when it will be offered. Ditto repair crews out in the field who find they must double as customer service representatives as well as technicians when they are approached with the same insistent question.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
CWA calls for national broadband effort
The United States should offer all residents and businesses high speed connections of at least 2 mbs down and 1 mbs up by the end of 2007 year and 10 mbs down and 2 mbs uploads by 2010, a CWA policy paper states.
Speed Matters: Affordable High Speed Internet For All calls on the federal government to actively support the creation of public-private partnerships in each state to expand broadband access and a national broadband map to show parts of the nation that remain on the dark side of the digital divide.
All residential and business customers should be protected by basic consumer and service quality protections no matter where they live, which carrier they choose or what technology is used to provide their services. Telecommunications services should meet the highest
standards of quality, reliability, and safety. Quality service depends primarily on sufficient investment in telecommunications infrastructure and adequate staffing provided by trained, well-compensated career employees.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Watchdog group sues FCC to assess broadband competition
Read ars technica reporter Nate Anderson's story on the federal lawsuit. The telco and cable providers are circling the wagons -- most likely because the withheld data would shine a bright light on the dreadful state of poor wireline broadband access that exists across much of the U.S.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Indiana telecom's goal: "No house left behind"
“Our policy is ‘No House Left Behind,'” Weddell joked Thursday morning at a meeting of the Communications-Technology Committee of Vision In Progress.
Weddell said Cue Connex wants to set up networks to service all of a community's technology needs: high-speed Internet service, Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), videoconferencing, Internet-based television, and eventually video services over a wireless network, as well as many other services.
“We're talking about huge (fiber-optic) pipes coming in,” Weddell said, describing the scale of services the company plans for Indiana. Cue Connex is in the process of purchasing a fiber optic company, he said, but cannot release the company's name until the deal is completed.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Telecommuters less likely to be promoted
It's not telecommuting itself that's the issue but rather how the employer is structured. In recent years, some organizations have abandoned the traditional top down, centralized structure and moved to a horizontal structure organized around projects and teams of workers.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Cell phone fees could subsidize high cost wire line broadband
As growing numbers of Californians move from land line based phone service to cell phones, billions are being generated in state mandated fees charged cell phone users to subsidize land line service in high cost locations outside urban areas. The Associated Press reports that the High Cost Fund B surcharge has generated more than $1.2 billion for California's four largest telephone companies - AT&T Inc., Verizon California, SureWest Communications and Frontier Communications. It's one of five funds in California's Universal Service Fund program, which has received a total of $2.8 billion since 2003 to serve more than 7,600 designated high-cost areas, according to the AP. The state's 25 million cellular subscribers contributed 60 percent of the payments to the B Fund, the AP found, which noted those revenues are likely to increase given the growing number of consumers relying exclusively on wireless communication.
The shift to wireless voice service is occurring at the same time demand for wireline-based broadband is growing. The Schwarzenegger administration should direct the state Public Utilities Commission to reform these funds to redirect subsidies to help speed the deployment of high speed Internet access in higher cost areas of the state.Telcos need to revamp one size fits all broadband pricing
Clearly, telcos need to take a hard look at revising pricing for broadband instead of leaving gaping broadband black holes in much of their service areas. I suspect many folks would be willing to pay $50 a month for a fast, reliable high speed Internet service rather than be stuck with sluggish and impractical dial up service.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
NY governor to map broadband black holes in push for wider broadband access
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Questionable future for AT&T's residential market
The old AT&T as it existed before it was acquired by SBC one year ago abandoned the residential telephone market. It may not be long before the new AT&T does the same, starting in less populated portions of its 22-state service area including California.
Like other telcos, the company is hemorrhaging land lines as residential customers — particularly in more urban areas — give up their land lines and use cell phones as replacements. Last week after it closed its acquisition of BellSouth, AT&T signaled a possible shift away from its traditional residential land line business by indicating that wireless phone services along with revenue from wireless phone ads would be an important future revenue source. "We're about to become a company with wireless at its heart,'' AT&T Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre told The Wall Street Journal after the deal was approved by the FCC. The purchase gives AT&T full control of its Cingular wireless unit.
Apparently hoping to stem some of its land line losses, AT&T is now offering what’s termed “naked DSL” service that allows residential customers to sign up for DSL broadband service as a single product without having to pair it with a traditional land line. However, it remains to be seen if AT&T can profitably provide the service, which it’s reportedly planning to offer for as low as $12 a month for the slowest speed plan.
For so-called “naked DSL,” it’s doubly doubtful AT&T can recover its costs outside of urban areas where the cost of providing service is greater. Nor is AT&T likely spend billions to upgrade its aging infrastructure outside urban areas to support its IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) service currently being rolled in a few metro areas. Taken as a whole, these circumstances point to a questionable future for AT&T’s residential segment, particularly in non-urban regions of its service area. Unless AT&T is able to substantially raise its broadband prices to bring them more in line with delivery costs, it’s quite plausible that AT&T will pull out of the residential market in these locations, deeming them underperforming assets.