Cable providers face increased local government demands to renegotiate franchises for universal access

As cable providers go head to head with telcos to be full service advanced telecommunications players offering video, Internet and VOIP they will increasingly come under pressure from local governments to renegotiate franchise agreements to provide universal coverage. Their constituents no longer see cable as a luxury entertainment service but rather as vital telecommunications infrastructure.

A case in point is detailed in this dispatch from the Shelburne Falls (Massachusetts) Independent.

White paper: Telework constrained by inadequate broadband access, slow speeds

To coincide with Earth Day 2008 as gasoline prices reach new highs on record oil prices, the American Electronics Association (AeA) issued a white paper April 22 encouraging greater adoption of telework, also known as telecommuting.

Notably, the white paper cites the lack of broadband Internet access as a key obstacle to allow information workers to work from their homes at least some of the time rather than commuting to an office.

For widespread adoption of telework,the United States needs ubiquitous broadband Internet access. Much of the potential for enlarging the workforce through telework is by attracting people from rural or isolated areas -- or those who would like to relocate to such places. Yet these are the areas least likely to have broadband access. Additionally, the speed of broadband in many parts of the country is woefully insufficient to support the collaborative applications needed for efficient telework.

Broadband cooperative forming in northern Michigan

A broadband cooperative is forming in northern Michigan to provide residents and businesses in 12 counties with more and better options than dialup and satellite access.

According to the Peteskoy (Mich.) News-Review, organizers including the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance and Northeast Michigan Council of Governments are looking into rural development loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund broadband infrastructure.

History is repeating itself. A century ago, telephone co-ops were created to provide service to areas without it. Provided they can raise sufficient funding, these modern day telecommunications co-ops like the Northern Michigan Broadband Cooperative may prove successful because they cover large geographical areas and thus can leverage economies of scale to their advantage.

More typical and problematic are the numerous scattered broadband black holes that characterize America's incomplete telecommunications infrastructure. They encompass much smaller geographical areas and make it difficult for residents and businesses to take collective action like in northern Michigan. The Communications Workers of America has aptly termed this swiss cheese, crazy quilt telecom infrastructure a "hodge podge" that can result in some folks having state of the art advanced telecommunications services while others just down the road or on the next street are stuck in 1992 and limited to dialup access.

Qwest questions future growth path of wireless broadband

Wireless broadband is seen as a much needed "third pipe" to deliver broadband in areas where wireline-based broadband is scarce or nonexistent. For example, in the vast western U.S. service area of Denver-based telco Qwest.

However, Qwest Chief Technology Officer Pieter Poll doesn't believe wireless can deliver sufficient capacity in the future as bandwidth demand grows. Instead, he suggests its role is that of an interim technology. Here's what he had to say on the topic in an interview with Telephony Online:

If you look at the calculation of what wireless networks can provide in terms of bandwidth, it’s a bit-per-second-per-hertz argument, first of all--the efficiency of how you use spectrum. But ultimately [it’s] finite spectrum. With a number of users. As you build networks, there’s a natural density of cells or reuse that you can get to. I don’t see wireless networks replacing wired broadband networks the way people are thinking about future wired broadband networks. Don’t get me wrong; I’m very excited about what wireless broadband offers today and will offer in the future. But I think it has its appropriate place for the reuse and speed offered. When we start thinking about things we can do in the home with extreme speeds, those are things you will not be able to realistically do over wireless networks, at least at any cost point that an operator would consider feasible.

AT&T claims Internet to reach maximum capacity by 2010; skeptics see ploy to get federal aid

AT&T warns in rapidly growing bandwidth demand will max out Internet capacity in just two year's time -- by 2010. The story on CNET News drew several skeptical comments from readers who see the warning as paving the way for the big telco to ask the U.S. government to help shoulder the cost of expanding capacity.

One commenter wonders what happpened to billions in tax incentives provided under the federal Telecommunicaitons Act of 1996 that were to ensure all Americans had broadband Internet access by 2006. (Millions still don't in 2008 and continue to use the same dial up access they had when the bill was enacted more than a decade ago.) "They just took the dough and put it against their bottom line, screwing the US taxpayer yet again. NOW THEY WANT MORE?????," he wrote.

Another points out only a small fraction of the capacity of the of fiber optic cable installed during the late 1990s dot com boom is being used. "To start running out of bandwidth, this soon, is hard to believe. More likely these companies are creating FUD as an excuse to raise rates and/or cut back on service," the writer says.

Muni fiber growth pains: Utah's UTOPIA, iProvo reconnoiter

Here's a comprehensive account by the Provo, Utah Daily Herald of the challenges that can arise in public-private fiber optic projects designed to bring state of the art telecommunications services to residents and businesses.

Both the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA), a fiber venture begun in 2003 underwritten by 18 Utah municipalities and iProvo, Provo's muni fiber project, are experiencing cash flow problems due to take rates falling short of projections and a low cost federal loan coming in later and with far less money than requested. The finances of both projects are under review as are a number of options to improve the numbers.

The lessons that can be drawn here for such ventures are 1) Making sure there is a committed base of business and institutional subscribers who are hungry for "big pipe" data-intensive services and making connections affordable for small businesses and 2) Getting good estimates of projected demand in residential areas to help prioritize build out to those where demand is highest.

"The initial model was build it and they will come," Paul Recanzone, UTOPIA's project manager, told the newspaper. "The new model is to let the market tell you where the demand is before building out."