Analysis & commentary on America's troubled transition from analog telephone service to digital advanced telecommunications and associated infrastructure deficits.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Dialuggers have company in high places
According to this item in PC World, Edwards said at a a OneWebDay event in Washington that she hasn't used her home dial-up connection for months. "It's too much of a pain," PC World quoted Edwards as saying. "It's too cumbersome. All of the data, all of the information that really I most want, you can't just handle on dial-up." Very true as many frustrated dialuggers well know.
PC World reports Edwards and Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein called on Congress to develop a far-reaching broadband policy that would accelerate the rollout of faster broadband across the U.S. But what specifically? How about greater financial assistance for communities and local governments to build open access fiber optic last mile infrastructure for starters since the existing telco/cable duopoly apparently can't absorb the required capital expenditures. After all, if the government can come to the aid to the U.S. financial services industry with hundreds of billions of dollars, it seems to me it could also help in the development of the infrastructure over which finance and commerce is increasingly transacted. A bonus would be increased economic activity as indicated by this California study issued last November that concluded the state stands to gain 1.8 million jobs and $132 billion of new payroll over the next 10 years with a 3.8 percent increase in the utilization of broadband technology.
Friday, September 19, 2008
"Behold America's broadband backwater"
Behold America's broadband backwater. For the nation that pioneered the Internet, extending fast connections to small towns and rural areas has proved a daunting challenge. Carriers are loath to build networks where they can't sell service at a profit, and since 2003 more than $1.2 billion in federal loans aimed at helping private carriers serve remote areas has addressed only the most extreme cases. According to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, released in July, only 38% of rural American households have access to high-speed Internet connections. That's an improvement from 15% in 2005, but it pales in comparison with 57% and 60% for city and suburb dwellers, respectively.
The lack of fast Web access is helping create a country of broadband haves and have-nots -- a division that not only makes it harder for businesses to get work done, but also impedes workers' efforts to find jobs, puts students at a disadvantage, and generally leaves a wide swath of the country less connected to the growing storehouse of information on the Web -- from health sites to news magazines to up-to-date information on Presidential candidates. "Broadband is a distance killer, which can especially help rural Americans," says John Horrigan, a Pew researcher. "Broadband is not just an information source for news and civic matters, but it's also a pathway to participation."
Friday, September 12, 2008
Bugged by persistent Yahoo/Firefox browser navigation problem
The reason: a nagging navigation compatibility issue with your blogger's -- and many other folks' -- favorite browser, Firefox 3.0. Clicking on an article link in one of the My Yahoo! modules gets a user to the article fine and even remembers where on the page of the article one left off if one navigates back to the article from the My Yahoo! home page.
But back navigating out of the article back to the My Yahoo! home page takes the reader to the top of the My Yahoo! home page, losing the location of the module containing the article viewed. That requires scrolling up and down the My Yahoo! home page to visually locate the module.
Yahoo engineers say they're aware of the problem but point the finger of blame at Mozilla, Firefox's creator. Mozilla has confirmed the problem and has had an open "Bugzilla" on the issue since not long after Yahoo's "upgrade" but still no fix.
Since Mozilla can't seem to squash the irksome bug, seems to me the best solution here is for Yahoo to simply allow users to migrate back to the previous -- and bug free -- version of My Yahoo!
UPDATE 2/16/09: The problem still continues despite this 10/30/08 email from Yahoo! Customer Care:
Patience, indeed. I imagine for many Firefox users out there, their patience has worn pretty thin by now after months and months with no fix.
We understand your concerns. We are working to resolve the technical issue with your browser not returning to the same position on the page when navigating back to it as soon as possible. While we cannot provide you with an accurate estimate of how long this resolution will take, you can rest assured that we hope to have the issue resolved soon. We appreciate your patience.
Many industrialized nations barely keeping up with Internet throughput demand
According to the survey, that minimum standard is an asymmetrical connection of 3.75 Mbps on the downside and 1 Mbps for uploads -- with latency of no more than 95 milliseconds. However in just three to five years, burgeoning Internet content and applications will require download speeds of 11.25 Mbps and uploads of 5 Mbps even lower latency -- 60 milliseconds or less.
These numbers are sobering and starkly illustrate how fast broadband throughput demand is outstripping capacity, pointing to the need for a major overhaul of the current telecommunications infrastructure. What's more, many in the U.S. where Cisco is based, for example, can't even get throughput anything close to what the survey considers necessary for a decent Internet experience.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Senate Commerce Committee Sets Broadband Hearing
Broadcasting & Cable reports today that the Senate Commerce Committee scheduled a full committee hearing Sept. 16 on the benefits of broadband.
Extending broadband to underserved areas is one of the priorities of a Democratic administration, according to the recently approved Democratic platform, which pledged that the Democrats will "implement a national broadband strategy … that enables every American household, school, library and hospital to connect to a world-class communications infrastructure."
The hearing, "Why Broadband Matters," will examine various areas, including access to government information, education, jobs and telemedicine.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Misgivings in Maryland over Verizon FiOS reach
SouthMdNews.com reports:
‘‘I want to know how we’re improving what we [have] now,” said commissioners’ President F. Wayne Cooper (D). He compared the pending Verizon deal to that of a builder making big promises in order to secure approval for a small project.Sounds like the commissioners need to consider alternatives such as open access fiber lest they end up with angry constituents due to the limitations of the proposed Verizon FiOS project.‘‘This sounds an awful lot like ‘let me build the retail now, and I’ll build the offices later.’”
Again, staff was reluctant to discuss the details of the Verizon agreement on the record. However, Rick Elrod, the county’s consultant for the Verizon deal, admitted that the Verizon project being discussed would not be as broad as the commissioners would like.