Analysis & commentary on America's troubled transition from analog telephone service to digital advanced telecommunications and associated infrastructure deficits.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
AT&T audaciously claims "broadband access to all of its California service area"
Clearly, that same principle also applies to the numerous broadband telecommunications black holes in California based on a recent AT&T filing with the California Public Utilities Commission. In the introduction to the April 16, 2008 filing, AT&T asserts it "now offers broadband access to all of its California service area."
Apparently the unfortunate residences and small businesses who cannot order wireline-based broadband service from AT&T such as DSL or the telco's next generation U-Verse bundled service offering higher speeds than AT&T's legacy DSL service haven't gotten the message. Of course not. In AT&T's universe, they simply don't exist and nothing can be known about them. Out of sight, out of mind.
Perhaps AT&T is fudging by counting the limited areas where it offers its EDGE wireless network service that provides throughput not much better than the antiquated 1994 Federal Communications Commission "broadband" standard of 200Kbs. No dice. By today's standards, that's not broadband. Ditto satellite, which the telco deployed throughout much of the U.S. -- as if the entire nation was situated in the remote regions of the Arctic Circle -- in 2006 via a reseller agreement with WildBlue.
The AT&T filing objects to proposed CPUC rules designed to reduce California's digital divide and speed broadband infrastructure build out by requiring telcos and cable providers to report by census tract where they provide broadband and delineated by various speed tiers, i.e. less than 1 mbps; 1-5 mbps; and 5-10 mbps. The AT&T filing asserts CPUC has no authority to regulate broadband services because they are information services preempted by Federal Communications Commission jurisdiction.
Report: Comcast considers selling off infrastruture in Maine
According to the newspaper, municipal officials in several Maine towns said they were contacted by Comcast and informed of the possible sale. A Comcast spokesman declined to comment on the report.
Following this report, the Associated Press May 23 reported Comcast plans to sell off its plant in eight states serving between 400,000 and 500,000 subscribers. The states reportedly include Maine, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Virginia, Georgia, West Virginia and California. Comcast is staying mum on the specific locations where it will sell off its assets.
Robert Serrano, an analyst at SNL Kagan in Monterey, Calif., told the AP Comcast is "pruning some of the more outlying areas in order to make a more efficient cluster."
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
AT&T: Aerial copper cable theft at "almost epidemic levels"
Legacy copper cable is also creating a choke point for emerging wireless broadband providers who can't get sufficient backhaul over 1970s era copper T-1 lines that provide a narrow pipe of only 1.5Mbs.
While certainly not by design, the recent rapid run up of the price of scrap copper could help expedite the needed transition from copper to fiber and speed the deployment of fiber. The reason: high copper prices have spawned a wave of theft of aerial copper telecommunications cable that an AT&T official told American Public Media's Marketplace program today is "almost at epidemic levels" and getting worse.
Comcast gets well deserved poor customer satisfaction ranking
Truly surprising given AT&T's dismal track record of over promising -- "Your World Delivered" -- and under delivering is the telco 's score of 75 out of 100. AT&T informs me I'll be able to order its U-Verse bundled service in the next 1-2 months. With the absence of newly installed U-Verse VRADs in my area, I'll withhold judgment as to whether I'd vote to raise the telco's score.
The index is produced by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in partnership with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and CFI Group, and is supported in part by ForeSee Results, corporate sponsor for the e-commerce and e-business measurements.
Qwest petitions FCC for $4.2B in USF funds to defray broadband infrastructure costs
According to the newspaper, current FCC rules make the funds inaccessbile to Qwest.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Big WiMAX deal could have sufficient backhaul due to cableco involvement
The offering, which could provide downloads of 5Mbs on a par with current cable Internet service, isn't likely to encounter backhaul problems since it involves both wireless and wireline players -- the latter being Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Both companies are likely to be able to provide adequate backhaul. But some observers aren't so sure. One notes there are doubts that the cableco partners can provide adequate backhaul capacity without upgrading their infrastructures. Additionally, Google told Unstrung it won't be making available its proprietary fiber to serve as backhaul for the new Clearwire venture. According to Unstrung, for now Clearwire intends to rely primarily on its proprietary microwave network for backhaul.
If the WiMAX technology works as expected and this service is rolled out quickly, in addition to mobile customers it could sign on fixed residential and small business customers located in areas not served by the cable companies or those stuck in the many telco broadband black holes where DSL wasn't deployed in the past several years and where infrastructure for Internet Protocol-based advanced bundled services has yet to be built.
A report released May 7 by the UK-based Juniper Research supports this analysis. Report author Howard Wilcox predicts WiMAX "will be an attractive offer" in areas where there are no wired networks, and in areas where the existing DSL speed is suboptimal, (i.e. 1.5Mbs or less). "WiMAX will solve the broadband access problem for users located at the fringes of DSL coverage," Wilcox wrote.
Friday, May 02, 2008
DirecTV's "premiere" of BPL dies at the box office
The Denton, Texas Record Chronicle reports today the deal is dead and Current has sold its infrastructure to a power company that will use it monitor meters, transformers and other devices on the grid.
Verizon introduces 3Mbs DSL in Western Masschusetts digital ghetto
Nearly two dozen communities are set to get by summer what's increasingly being viewed as basic broadband service: 3Mbs downloads delivered by Verizon DSL, the telco announced May 1.
Verizon said the DSL deployment would reach two-thirds of the 31 western Massachusetts communities identified by the state as having no broadband services. (What about the other one third, the residents of those areas must surely be asking) Verizon added the rollout is in line with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's initiative to bring more broadband to unserved and underserved communities in Massachusetts.
"The governor and western Massachusetts legislative delegation have put the proper focus on the real need for broadband expansion in the region, and we want to do everything we can to address that need," said Donna Cupelo, Verizon region president for Massachusetts and Rhode Island. We look forward to working with our government leaders to explore ways to bring broadband to other areas that are in need in Massachusetts."
This blogger will be watching closely to see if the Verizon's bigger counterpart, AT&T, will make similar efforts to shrink its own sprawling broadband back holes in its 22 state service area.