Nine businesses will invest more than $80 million to install equipment providing broadband service. The projects will reach 261 communities in 63 counties.
Businesses included in the plan are Amery Telcom Inc., AT&T, CenturyTel Inc., DiscoverNet of Wisconsin LLC, Door Peninsula Internet Inc., Lakeland Communications, Midwest Fiber Networks, Northern Net Exposure and TDS Telecommunications Corporation.
Analysis & commentary on America's troubled transition from analog telephone service to digital advanced telecommunications and associated infrastructure deficits.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Wisconsin offers tax incentives to encourage broadband expansion
DIRECTV partners with BPL player for Dallas "premiere"
Today, it announced the "premiere" of the service in the Dallas metro market in alliance with BPL player Current. The companies claim the BPL service, to be offered sometime later this year and early next, provides a faster symmetrical connection than cable but no specific throughput speeds are mentioned.
BPL is considered a dark horse among three possible "third pipe" alternatives to the cable/telco duopoly for providing broadband in unserved areas along with WiMAX-based fixed terrestrial wireless and a venture by a coalition of high tech companies including Microsoft and Intel to use portions of the TV broadcast spectrum to provide broadband over the air.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Microsoft wants FCC to reconsider white spaces prototype interference test
The Washington Post reports one of the coalition's members, Microsoft, wants the FCC to reconsider because it contends a backup prototype worked without producing any interference. The Post reports the FCC is to meet later this week to discuss testing protocols.
This is a major story that deserves close attention because if the devices pan out, they could provide a desperately needed "third pipe" to break the stranglehold of the telco/cable duopoly that has left large parts of the U.S. unwired for broadband.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
America's $200 billion broadband boondoggle
There are no good guys in this story. Misguided and incompetent regulation combined with utilities that found ways to game the system resulted in what had been the best communication system in the world becoming just so-so, though very profitable. We as consumers were consistently sold ideas that were impractical only to have those be replaced later by less-ambitious technologies that, in turn, were still under-delivered. Congress set mandates then provided little or no oversight. The FCC was (and probably still is) managed for the benefit of the companies and their lobbyists, not for you and me. And the upshot is that I could move to Japan and pay $14 per month for 100-megabit-per-second Internet service but I can't do that here and will probably never be able to.
Despite this, the FCC says America has the highest broadband deployment rate in the world and President Bush has set a goal of having broadband available to every U.S. home by the end of this year. What have these guys been smoking? Nothing, actually, they simply redefined "broadband" as any Internet service with a download speed of 200 kilobits per second or better. That's less than one percent the target speed set in 1994 that we were supposed to have achieved by 2000 under regulations that still remain in place.
Mass. telecom czar: Broadband black holes "unacceptable"
Q You just took the helm of the new Department of Telecommunications and Cable. What is the plan?
A I have three hot priorities, one of which is broadband. The idea that in the 21st century we still have communities with no broadband is just unacceptable, and we have to fix it.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Connecticut AG wants to force AT&T to serve entire state with IPTV
Connecticut isn't one of the two dozen or so states that put a statewide franchise law on the books. Nevertheless State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal worries that AT&T will work with the locals to leave much of the state on the wrong side of the digital divide and has petitioned the state's Department of Public Utility Control urging it to require Ma Bell to get a statewide franchise.
"Because AT&T serves virtually the entire state, the company needs to apply for a statewide license requiring it to eventually provide IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) service to all households, Blumenthal said in a press release. AT&T, which already offers IPTV in a few communities, had wanted to provide the service without state regulation and only in selected areas, according to Blumenthal's office.
Don't let the references to cable or video franchises and IPTV confuse the main issue. This issue isn't about TV or video competition. It's all about broadband buildout and closing the widespread digital divide.
Clearwire is missing market opportunity to fill in broadband black holes
Here's more evidence: The Tennessean.com reports today Clearwire is sticking to more populated areas of Nashville. There are more customers to be had there of course but there's also lots of broadband competition from the wireline telco and cable broadband providers. While there are fewer prospective subscribers outside the city limits, Clearwire shouldn't neglect these areas since they face little competition other than satellite Internet, which it can easily outperform from a price/performance standpoint.
Read this lamentation from one prospective Clearwire subscriber who like your blogger is situated on the dark side of the digital divide by only about a mile:
One group of people who may be disappointed with Clearwire is rural residents who don't have access to broadband through AT&T or Comcast. Clearwire is sticking mostly to major population centers in the Nashville area with its service.
George Reynolds hopes Clearwire gets to his house in west Nashville on the Cumberland River.
"Broadband is available on Charlotte (Avenue) and that's one mile from my house,'' he said, adding that he has been trying to get AT&T to give him broadband service for about three years.