More broadband troubles from down under

I've posted about the ongoing broadband "drought" in Australia. Looks like things aren't much better next door in New Zealand. The government is reportedly considering subsidizing satellite service for about seven percent of New Zealanders who won't be able to get ADSL wire line broadband despite the government's telecom reforms apparently designed to promote wider broadband access.

There are rumours that the Government may consider subsidising the cost of satellite equipment that could be used to deliver broadband to the 7 per cent of New Zealand homes that couldn't be served using Telecom's ADSL network. It is understood some work is under way within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, but suggestions of a major initiative are being played down.

The cost of satellite equipment has hindered take-up to date, though there are other drawbacks to the technology such as latency, which make satellite connections less suitable for delivering interactive applications such as Internet telephony.

New Internet architecture on the drawing board

While many still lack broadband connections to the existing Internet, researchers are planning a new and improved Internet architecture:

No longer constrained by slow connections and computer processors and high costs for storage, researchers say the time has come to rethink the Internet's underlying architecture, a move that could mean replacing networking equipment and rewriting software on computers to better channel future traffic over the existing pipes.

The National Science Foundation wants to build an experimental research network known as the Global Environment for Network Innovations, or GENI, and is funding several projects at universities and elsewhere through Future Internet Network Design, or FIND.

NY legislation would mandate 85% build out requirement

New York Assembly Bill 3980 would create a Broadband Development Authority to increase the availability and quality of high-speed broadband Internet to Empire State residents.

At first glance, it would appear the measure is backed by the telco/cable duopoly since it features a key component of industry sponsored broadband regulatory reforms: preemption of local government authority to regulate advanced digital services and instead putting state regulators in charge of issuing digital franchises.

But telcos and cable companies don't like the bill, which sets a higher build out requirement than the 50 percent or less over six years favored by the industry and enacted in several states such as California's Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act that took effect this year. AB 3980 would instead require that level of system build out be achieved in just three years and 85 percent in six years.

Click here and scroll down to read the report High-Speed Debate in the New York alternative weekly Metroland Online.

Two emerging alternatives to the telco/cable duopoly

AT&T and Comcast are like the big kids on the block prone to bragging and boasting about what they can or are going to do. Ma Bell boasts she's rolling out Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) including HD channels. Comcast says it's introducing digitial voice telephone service in addition to its TV programming and high speed Internet (HSI) services.

Behind the braggadocio, however, there exists a far different and less boastful reality. Fully one fifth or more of AT&T customers can't even get broadband Internet access over Ma Bell's aging copper cable system let alone IPTV. They're told to suck it up and get by with sluggish, impractical dial up connections running at 24kbs or plunk down hundreds of dollars and pay too much for too little from a satellite provider.

The story's the same for many would be Comcast customers who don't happen to reside where Comcast currently provides service. The big cable company doesn't appear to be expanding its service areas, calling into question its strategy of going head to head with the telcos for telephone service. Comcast can't compete with the telcos if it doesn't penetrate their service areas.

The situation won't change unless local governments and/or public utility districts partner with companies with expertise in installing and operating fiber optic-based infrastructure that can form the basis for open access telecommunications networks.

Without these local endeavors, the alternative is back to the future -- a 1984-style federal government ordered break up of the telco/cable duopoly, only this time in combination with a government takeover of the nation's telecommunications system on the principle that it is vital infrastructure that can't be left to the whims of monopolistic private sector providers.

Public utility districts can provide cable TV service, California Court of Appeal rules

In a case of first impression in California, a panel of the California Court of Appeal Third District ruled that the Public Utilities Code permits public utility districts to provide cable television services. The three-judge panel based its opinion on section 16461 of the statute that allows PUDs to "acquire, construct, own, operate, control, or use, within or without or partly within and partly without the district, works for supplying its inhabitants with light, water, power, heat, transportation, telephone service, or other means of communication, or means for the disposition of garbage, sewage, or refuse matter, and may do all things necessary or convenient to the full exercise of the powers granted in this article."

The ruling is significant because it provides solid legal authority for California utility districts to partner with private companies to build open access telecommunications networks over the objections of existing cable providers and telcos who don't want new competitors offering superior broadband services. These networks can provide much needed alternatives to bringing broadband and other advanced digital telecommunications services to areas existing providers choose not to provide and introduce competition that can benefit consumers.

The ruling clears the way for Roseville, California-based SureWest Communications to explore a public/private partership with the Truckee Donner Public Utility District to install a fiber optic-based cable system in the district's jurisdiction, The Sierra Sun reports.

Charter, AT&T draw fire from South Lake Tahoe customers

Charter Communications, the cable provider in the South Lake Tahoe Basin, and AT&T, the incumbent local exchange carrier, are drawing flack over a recent article appearing in the Tahoe Daily Tribune reporting on Charter's service quality problems and poor reception of some TV channels.

One commentator says both companies have left the area in the digital stone ages without advanced digital services and broadband. Another called for Charter to upgrade or get out of the area.

Americans pay 7 times more than Japanese for broadband

Megabit per megabit, Americans pay seven times more than residents of Japan for broadband Internet access. Japanese consumers pay about 70 cents per megabit per second of bandwidth, compared to $4.90 per megabit on average in the U.S., according to Takashi Ebihara, senior director of the corporate strategy department at NTT East Corp. and a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

Why the difference? Unlike the U.S., Japanese government policy views broadband as vital infrastructure and provides economic assistance such as zero-interest or low-interest loans for cities and businesses to deploy broadband as well as tax breaks for the purchase of networking equipment, Ebihara said.

Ebihara, whose company is partly owned by the Japanese government, also credits a more future oriented, patient investment philosophy than in the U.S. "We see the future, and then we do what we feel is right," he said. "[Making low-yield investments is] very difficult for American companies like Verizon and AT&T. They have to answer every quarter to investors."

Sub-broadband option going by the wayside in UK

The BBC reports British Telecom is phasing out Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), a fully digital dial up sub-broadband service. ISDN came on the scene almost two decades ago and features two 64kbs channels and can produce a maximum symmetrical connection of 128kbs if both channels are used to connect to the Internet.

The technology is being rendered obsolete by DSL and other "always on" broadband connections, although broadcasters miss ISDN's rock solid stability and audio quality for remote broadcasts.

California PUC grants AT&T franchise

The California Public Utilities Commission announced it has granted a statewide franchise for high speed, video-capable broadband offerings to AT&T under the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act, AB 2987, that took effect earlier this year.

According to PUC President Michael R. Peevey, "Because AT&T's service territory covers approximately 75 percent of the state, a large part of California can look forward to more choices in video programming and service options as a result of today's action."

Don't hold your breath, especially when AT&T can't (or more accurately, won't) provide broadband at any speed throughout much of its service area in California.

Consumer advocates criticize Japan junket by AT&T, California regulators

The Sacramento Bee published a page one story today reporting consumer groups that watchdog utility companies are raising eyebrows over a week long junket to Tokyo by energy and telecom executives accompanied by California Public Utilities Commission officials and the chairs of legislative committees that oversee the two industries. Kenneth McNeely, president of AT&T California, is among those reported on the week long trip.

The trip is being paid for by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy, a nonprofit that isn't required to disclose its donations and is run by executives including those of California's major telecommunications and energy companies.

While the consumer groups rightly raise ethical concerns the Japanese junket appears too cozy for comfort with regulators and the regulated likely toasting with shots of sake, there is a potential positive upside. The visiting officials and execs will see first hand that Japan's broadband telecommunications infrastructure is light years ahead of California's. That will drive home how shameful it is that the state that once claimed to be an information technology leader is loaded with broadband black holes where residents continue to be relegated to early 1990s dial up Internet access.

Australian labor party wants to sell Telstra shares to finance national broadband expansion

Australia’s Federal Labor has unveiled plans to raid the Future Fund to build a A$4.7 billion ($3.8 billion) national high-speed broadband network, a New Zealand Herald report said.

The report said under the plan, Labor will sell up to A$2.7 billion ($2.1 billion) worth of Telstra shares held in the Future Fund to help pay for the project.

The project will connect 98% of Australians to broadband services with a speed more than 40 times faster than most current speeds, the report said.

Google unveils Toilet Internet Service Provider (TISP)

Touche to the telco/cable duopoly's broadband black hole excrement!

"Dark porcelain" project offers self-installed plumbing-based Internet access

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 1, 2007 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the launch of Google TiSP (BETA)™, a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems. The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.

"We've got that whole organizing-the-world's-information thing more or less under control," said Google Co-founder and President Larry Page, a longtime supporter of so-called "dark porcelain" research and development. "What's interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you - not to mention from you."

Vermont House approves formation of state telecom authority

The state has set a goal of getting reliable cellular telephone service and high-speed computer service known as broadband into every area of the state by 2010. Now, wide swaths of Vermont get no cell signals and computer users must use much slower dial-up service.

The Telecommunications Authority would have the power to float state-backed bonds valued at $40 million to build the poles, towers and other parts of the basic network. It then would lease space on the network to companies that would sell their service to consumers.

The House Commerce Committee was the lead panel in crafting the legislation, which won overwhelming support. Chairman Warren Kitzmiller, D-Montpelier, said the bill "has as much important to Vermont as did the Rural Electrification Act of the 1930s. This bill can have profound impact on every citizen of the state and its economic impact is huge."

Broadband black holes in the Big Apple?

In much of America, market failure and lack of competition have cut off millions from broadband Internet access. It's typically in areas outside of more densely populated urban areas and most acutely felt in rural parts of the nation.

But in New York City, the nation's largest and most densely populated urban center? How can that be? It's apparently so according to this Newsday story that cites aging infrastructure and lack of competition in Big Apple boroughs where the telco/cable duopoly holds the cards.

Broadband over TV spectrum would dramatically alter Internet access

This is the biggest broadband development of the year so far: the potential of using frequencies in the television broadcast spectrum to carry broadband two years from now.

As Eric Bangeman of Ars Technica writes, should tests of the technology being pursued by Microsoft, Intel, Dell and Google succeed, the broadband landscape would be dramatically altered when it comes on the market in early 2009.

"Wireless networks using the spectrum should be relatively easy to deploy, and would provide residents of rural areas easy access to broadband while giving everyone else a third alternative to DSL and cable," Bangeman writes.

AT&T chief's words at odds with company's pathetic broadband deployment efforts

In a recent meeting with AT&T employees in Atlanta, AT&T Chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. admonished them to go the extra mile to serve customers.

“I’m asking you, I’m pleading, don’t let them go until they’re happy,” The New York Times quoted Whitacre as telling AT&T employees. “You just can’t let them go. Hang on till it’s done.”

But rather than hanging in with customers, AT&T has hung out large numbers of them to dry, letting them go years without broadband services and without any meaningful hope of getting broadband anytime soon.

They may be only a mile from existing broadband infrastructure, but Ma Bell won't go the extra mile to provide service as Whitacre as exhorts his workers. Instead, customers are told the system cannot provide broadband because they're too far from a central office, their loop's too long, there's no neighborhood DSL gateway and any number of "no can do" excuses.

While Whitacre may insist AT&T can't "just can’t let them go," that's exactly what it's doing with a sizable segment of its residential customer base.

Analysts question AT&T broadband strategy

Analysts aren't the only ones questioning Ma Bell's broadband strategy, one that can't deliver any broadband services at all let alone IPTV to large portions of her service area.

But there is potential downside for AT&T too, analysts said, particularly when it comes to its closely linked broadband and television strategies. Some analysts assert that AT&T has set itself up poorly to compete in those areas, which are considered essential to the telecommunications product bundle.

In the case of TV, the strategy is called Uverse, and it entails delivering programming over the Internet, called IPTV. But the service has been plagued by delays and glitches and, even now, takes on average more than six hours to install in a home.

"If it cannot be called a complete failure, it's at least struggling," said Phillip Swan, president of TVPredictions.com, a Web site that tracks the television technology industry. He said that if things did not pick up soon, AT&T might have to get back into the acquisition game to buy a TV distributor, like a satellite or cable company.