White space broadband seen more feasible for rural vs. urban wireless broadband

Blogger Jacob Levin of the Washington-based advocacy group Public Knowledge isn't bullish on so-called white space wireless broadband as a way around the wireline telco/cable duopoly on broadband access. But Levin does see white space broadband, which would harness unused or "white space" of the television broadcast frequency spectrum to transmit broadband signals, as having real benefit in less densely populated areas:

While I can’t say all the ways white space will be used, I can say how it probably won’t be: it will not be used to provide the third pipe that will finally break open the last mile bottleneck, thus reclaiming the internet from the ISP gatekeepers and ensuring a dynamic, innovative and generally neutral net. White space may be used to provide last mile wireless Internet connectivity at speeds comparable to DSL and cable, but only in rural areas where broadband competition is worse than the oligopoly city dwellers suffer under. The data transfer speed over white space is closely related to the amount of spectrum available and the number of users. As this study shows, there are vacant channels everywhere, but there are more vacant channels in areas with less population density due to the smaller demand for broadcast licenses in those areas. Because of the great amount of spectrum available, and the small number of people who will be using the spectrum, it is likely that rural wireless ISPs will try using the white space to provide broadband.

Local governments in federal courts to block telcos' end run to the FCC

Telcos adamant to avoid local government broadband infrastructure build out requirements went to Congress last year seeking legislation preempting local government authority to award "video franchises" and place it in the hands of the feds.

When that failed, the telcos then directed their efforts at state legislatures to get the locals off their backs. They have been successful in at least a dozen states, getting legislation with limited build out requirements that allow them to bypass local areas they don't want to serve, effectively making the digital divide law.

The telcos apparently want to buy insurance at the federal level despite their failure to get Congress to go along. So they're doing an end run around Congress by going to the Federal Communications Commission. Earlier this year, the FCC went along with them and promulgated regulations barring local governments from requiring telcos to build out their broadband infrastructure to serve an entire community and also giving the locals a short time frame to act on telco applications for franchises.

Not so fast, a coalition of local government and non-profit groups say. This week, they filed briefs in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit arguing the FCC lacks statutory to do so since the telcos failed to get federal legislation enacted last year.

Media fails to ask what's being done to lower broadband infrastructure costs

The high cost of installing wireline-based broadband infrastructure is cited as the main reason for the lack of broadband access that leaves gaping broadband black holes across the landscape. Providers simply shrug and tell desperate dialuggers and satellite suckers, "Tough, it simply costs too much to serve you."

But why is it among the growing media coverage of the nation's broadband shortcomings no one is asking or discussing what telcos and cable companies are doing to lower costs to make broadband more widely available? It's a major oversight that has led to a one-sided, circular debate that does nothing to solve the problem.

Western Massachusetts towns called "a new kind of ghetto"

The Boston Globe published a story today reporting much of western Massachusetts exists in dial up purgatory with no broadband Internet infrastructure. The story includes a map that shows broadband availability -- and specifically the lack thereof -- in much of the Bay State.

"We have to make sure that all of Massachusetts is open to business -- not just the areas where it is easier or more profitable for certain companies to make available high-speed Internet access to their customers," said Stan McGee, the state's director of wireless and broadband development, at a budget hearing in March.

While communities wait for a statewide policy, they are using the resources at hand.

Telco trade calls for more targeted funding by Rural Utilities Service

“The RUS broadband program is an important resource to ensure that high-speed Internet services reach as many rural areas as possible,” said USTelecom President and CEO Walter B. McCormick Jr. “Unfortunately, the RUS’ recently proposed rules don’t sufficiently target the areas that need help most. We strongly urge the RUS to revise these critical rules to ensure that the program maximizes its important goal of helping to provide broadband service in unserved areas.”

Report: DSL must make way for fiber

Many people fail to understand that the world's most predominant method to deliver residential broadband Internet access -- Digital Subscriber Line or DSL -- is an interim technology and not a viable long term option.

I and others have observed that as broadband bandwidth consumption increases, driven in large part by the proliferation of bandwidth intensive full motion video, DSL capacity will grow increasingly tight. Already there are reports that DSL users are straining the telco network, with users reporting their connection speeds declining or losing their connection altogether, often during night and evening hours.

Like the U.S., Europe and much of the world gets broadband access via DSL. Consultant Frost & Sullivan is out with a report warning Europe must wean itself off of DSL and migrate to fiber optic to the home (FTTH) which offers far greater carrying capacity than copper cable-based DSL.

Broadband black holes plague California, PPIC study finds

The Public Policy Institute of California has issued a study of broadband Internet access in the Golden State that not surprisingly finds broadband access lacking outside of urban areas.

The study, Broadband for All? Gaps in California’s Broadband Adoption and Availability, found California households with high-speed Internet ranges from under 30 percent in the Sierra Nevada (21%) and northern part of the state (29%) to just over 50 percent in the San Francisco Bay Area (51%) and the greater Los Angeles area (52%).

After controlling for individual characteristics such as income and education, the PPIC analysis finds that more than half the regional differences remain, indicating that broadband availability — or more specifically the lack thereof — explains why many residences aren't on line with broadband.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Broadband Task Force, which is expected to issue its own report in October, could help identify barriers to providers’ offering service in rural areas and the state could offer subsidies to providers serving rural areas, the PPIC report suggests.

In addition, it recommends the California Emerging Technology Fund should focus on broadband deployment in rural areas. "Our findings have important implications for broadband policy," PPIC Research Fellow Jed Kolko concludes. "If closing gaps in broadband availability is a policy goal, raising availability in rural areas should be the top priority."

As the study finds, household income and ethnicity aren't germane when it comes to broadband access. Unfortunately the issue managed to make its way into California's DIVCA (the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006) which erroneously assumes broadband providers "redline" poor neighborhoods when in fact deployment of broadband infrastructure is based on residential density. There are people with million dollar homes -- even ones relatively close to other homes -- who can't get wireline-based broadband short of installing business class T-1 lines.

The PPIC study correctly views broadband as vital infrastructure and not as a socioeconomic issue. It's all about availability and build out and not about income or ethnicity.