Several CEO heavyweights weigh in on the new pending House broadband bill and how it may affect network neutrality with the following letter... We should all call our Congressman and tell them how we feel about this issue - whether you are for or against it. This issue is too important to ignore and I'm afraid mightly lobbying efforts by the broadband providers could affect the competitive landscape of the Internet and give consumers less choice. I guess you know where I stand on this issue. In any event, here's the letter.
The Honorable Joe Barton
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
We write to express our concern that the telecommunications legislation being considered by the Committee fails to preserve the longstanding openness of the Internet.Without critical changes, the legislation puts at risk consumer choice, American innovation and global competitiveness.
Until FCC decisions made last summer, consumers' ability to choose the content and services they want via their broadband connections was assured by regulatory safeguards.Innovators likewise have been able to use their ingenuity and knowledge of the marketplace to develop new and better online offerings.This "innovation without permission" has fueled phenomenal economic growth, productivity gains, and global leadership for our nation's high tech companies.
To preserve this environment, we urge the Committee to include language that directly addresses broadband network operators' ability to manipulate what consumers will see and do online.It is equally important to pass a bill that fleshes out these consumer freedoms via rules of the road that are both meaningful and readily enforceable.
We look forward to continuing to work with you and other Members of the Committee to protect millions of Americans' legitimate expectations in an open Internet, as well as the innovation and competitiveness that it creates.
Sincerely,
/s/ Jeff Bezos
Founder and CEO
Amazon.com
/s/ Meg Whitman
President and CEO
eBay Inc.
/s/ Eric Schmidt
Chief Executive Officer
Google Inc.
/s/ Barry Diller
Chairman and CEO
IAC/InterActiveCorp
/s/Steve Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corp.
/s/ Terry Semel
Chief Executive Officer
Yahoo!
Cc:Members of the Energy & Commerce Committee
Recently in News Category
How about Google buying a small stake -- 5% -- of AOL? Not all that long ago, the great merger of AOL and Time Warner was going to rock the industry; about the only thing that got rocked was the stock price -- and all those many sad shareholders ...
What is Google going to do next? The phone lines are open ...
According to ABIResearch.com, Verizon, Dell plan to offer Pay-As-You-Go Broadband with Verizon's EV-DO technology embedded into select Dell laptops. Teaming up with Dell is a very smart way for Verizon to shore up their marketshare in the high-speed long-distance wireless broadband arena (WiFi is typically short distance). If I have to buy a laptop I certainly would consider one with integrated high-speed WAN wireless. We have a few "shared" Verizon EVDO cards here in the office and I can't tell you how many times these cards have shuffled hands for sales people and editorial going on business trips. One of these days one of these cards is going to mysteriously disappear. I can almost guarantee it. In any case, check out the news.
Verizon Wireless Offers BroadbandAccess Session Pricing for Customers Using Dell, Lenovo and HP Laptops with Embedded EV-DO Capabilities.
Verizon Wireless today announced the availability of BroadbandAccess pay-as-you-go pricing on the recently announced Dell Latitude D620 and Latitude D820 notebooks with embedded Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) capabilities. Customers sign up for the $15 per 24-hour session service directly from the notebook.
"Session pricing is a very easy way for customers to try Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess before they sign up for monthly service," said Claude Mitchell, Verizon Wireless director -- enterprise marketing. "There is no need for customers to interrupt their work to visit a store or call customer service; they click on the icon, follow the prompts and they're set up. This is especially convenient for the traveler who may be in New York in the morning and in Washington, D.C. in the evening. They can log on as much as they need to within that same 24-hour period."
BroadbandAccess gives customers high-speed access to e-mail, corporate data and the Internet from their laptop anywhere within the BroadbandAccess coverage area. Customers who travel outside a BroadbandAccess coverage area will seamlessly switch to Verizon Wireless' 1xRTT NationalAccess network to remain connected while on the road. There is never a need to seek out public Wi-Fi hotspots.
BroadbandAccess Session Pricing is available on the following mobile PCs:
* Dell Latitude D620 and Latitude D820
* Lenovo Thinkpad Z60, T60 and X60 Notebooks
* HP Compaq nc6140 and nc6320 Notebook PCs
Existing Verizon Wireless customers who have a voice plan of $39.99 monthly access or higher may use the activation icon on the Notebook to sign up for monthly BroadbandAccess service for $59.99 monthly access. Customers who do not have a Verizon Wireless voice plan may also sign up for monthly BroadbandAccess service directly from the activation icon for $79.99 monthly access.
Verizon Wireless leads the wireless industry in next-generation network deployment and its EV-DO network, the most robust high-speed wireless broadband network in the country, is currently available to 150 million Americans coast to coast. The company was the first national wireless provider to commercially launch high-speed wireless broadband services in the United States.
The Bluetooth SIG today announced its selection of the WiMedia Alliance multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) version of ultra-wideband (UWB) for integration with current Bluetooth wireless technology, thus taking the next step in its plan to create a version of the globally popular Bluetooth wireless technology with a high speed/high data rate option. This new version of Bluetooth technology will meet the high-speed demands of synchronizing and transferring large amounts of data as well as enabling high quality video and audio applications for portable devices, multi-media projectors and television sets. At the same time, Bluetooth technology will continue catering to the needs of very low power applications such as mice, keyboards and mono headsets, enabling devices to select the most appropriate physical radio for the application requirements, thereby offering the best of both worlds. VoIP is also a target for this new high-speed Bluetooth. According to Bluetooth SIG their goal is to ensure the same battery life footprint used by the old standard by leveraging new technologies and implementing more efficiencies. They are also aiming for 100Mbits/s within a single room (10 meters) with speeds that scale as you move closer and further away.
From a political perspective, this is very interesting since Bluetooth SIG is a membership group and you have members in both WiMedia Alliance and the UWB Forum. Since Bluetooth SIG chose WiMedia Alliance over UWB Forum's proposed specification, you could have some pro-UWB Forum members dropping out of the Bluetooth SIG. UWB Forum has already developed UWB solutions on silicon, so this would mean they would need to switch technologies to the new WiMedia Alliance specification.
Stated Michael Foley, Ph. D., executive director, Bluetooth SIG: “As a member-driven organization, it is the Bluetooth SIG’s responsibility to ensure it’s attentive to its members’ needs. Having considered the UWB technology options, the decision ultimately came down to what our members want, which is to leverage their current investments in both UWB and Bluetooth technologies and meet the high-speed demands of their customers. By working closely with the WiMedia Alliance to create the next version of Bluetooth technology, we will enable our members to do just that.”
It is critical that the UWB technology be compatible with Bluetooth radios and maintain the core attributes of Bluetooth wireless technology – low power, low cost, ad-hoc networking, built-in security features, and ability to integrate into mobile devices. Backwards compatibility with the over 500 million Bluetooth devices currently on the market is also an important consideration. The Bluetooth SIG is satisfied that MB-OFDM UWB technology, offered by the WiMedia Alliance, is capable of meeting all of these requirements. The two organizations are dedicated to working together to ensure that the combined high-speed solution is optimized for mobile devices with very low power consumption.
“The Bluetooth community has been extremely successful at generating strong brand recognition among users of high volume, lower data rate computer, telecommunications and consumer products,” said Stephen R. Wood, president, WiMedia Alliance and UWB technology strategist at Intel. “The WiMedia Alliance looks forward to providing suppliers of Bluetooth products with a higher speed technology path that will enable the next generation of exciting new portable data applications.”
One of the key components to the agreement between the Bluetooth SIG and the WiMedia Alliance will help UWB achieve global regulatory acceptance. Both parties have agreed to develop a high speed, high data rate Bluetooth solution that utilizes the unlicensed radio spectrum above 6 GHz. This move answers concerns voiced by regulatory bodies in both Europe and Asia.
“Companies working with Bluetooth technology want to stay one step ahead of consumer demand and deliver a wireless technology that meets the global market needs for the personal area network – today and in the future,” said John Barr, Ph. D., chairman of the board of directors, Bluetooth SIG, and director, standards realization, Motorola. “There is now an opportunity for the WiMedia Alliance to work with the Bluetooth SIG to define the Bluetooth technology/UWB implementation that will work for the Bluetooth SIG, our members and end users.”
Next Steps
The Bluetooth SIG Core Specification Working Group Charter and UWB Feature Requirements Document (FRD) have been approved by the Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors, signaling that work may commence. The requirements set by the UWB study group in the UWB FRD define what has to be done to create a solution appropriate for adoption by the Bluetooth SIG. Both groups will immediately begin work together on the specification draft within the Bluetooth SIG Core Specification Working Group. The Bluetooth SIG estimates this process to last approximately one year, with the first Bluetooth technology/UWB solution chip sets available for prototyping in Q2 2007.
Never thought I'd be linking to a political blog, but Drudge has a very interesting news story on NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovering water - and by implication "life" on a Saturn moon. Wow, life in our own little solar system? Here it is in Drudge's glorious font size. My blog feels and looks like the Drudge Report already.
[Update:: Damn the <tt> font tag renders differently on my blog, so doesn't look like the typewriter font on Drudge. Maybe it's a good thing my blog doesn't look like Drudge, depending on your political persuasion]
NASA's Cassini spacecraft may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt in Yellowstone-like geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions about the mysterious moon.
"We realize that this is a radical conclusion - that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. "However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms."
High-resolution Cassini images show icy jets and towering plumes ejecting huge quantities of particles at high speed. Scientists examined several models to explain the process. They ruled out the idea the particles are produced or blown off the moon's surface by vapor created when warm water ice converts to a gas. Instead, scientists have found evidence for a much more exciting possibility. The jets might be erupting from near-surface pockets of liquid water above 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), like cold versions of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone.
"We previously knew of at most three places where active volcanism exists: Jupiter's moon Io, Earth, and possibly Neptune's moon Triton. Cassini changed all that, making Enceladus the latest member of this very exclusive club, and one of the most exciting places in the solar system," said John Spencer, Cassini scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder.
-more--2-
"Other moons in the solar system have liquid-water oceans covered by kilometers of icy crust," said Andrew Ingersoll, imaging team member and atmospheric scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "What's different here is that pockets of liquid water may be no more than tens of meters below the surface."
"As Cassini approached Saturn, we discovered the Saturnian system is filled with oxygen atoms. At the time we had no idea where the oxygen was coming from," said Candy Hansen, Cassini scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. "Now we know Enceladus is spewing out water molecules, which break down into oxygen and hydrogen."
Scientists still have many questions. Why is Enceladus so active? Are other sites on Enceladus active? Might this activity have been continuous enough over the moon's history for life to have had a chance to take hold in the moon's interior?
In the spring of 2008, scientists will get another chance to look at Enceladus when Cassini flies within 350 kilometers (approximately 220 miles), but much work remains after the spacecraft's four-year prime mission is over.
"There's no question, along with the moon Titan, Enceladus should be a very high priority for us. Saturn has given us two exciting worlds to explore," said Jonathan Lunine, Cassini interdisciplinary scientist, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
Mission scientists report these and other Enceladus findings in this week's issue of Science.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology
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| Plantronics CS70 Executive Headset |
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Plantronics Voyager 510s |
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| Plantronics SupraPlus Wireless Telephony Pro |
I spoke with Chuck Yort, VP and GM of Office Solutions at Plantronics who was formerly with Palm, Inc. and he said, "When you talk about cell phones and driving, the purpose of the headset there is really so that you can focus on job number one which is driving while you're doing your phone call so you're not distracted. In the office we find the inverse. The job number one is really the phone call - it's really can I get engaged in that phone call." He continued, "We find that when you cut the cord of the headset and you give them handsfree and give them range of motion we find that they just get more engaged in the call. We've actually done some interesting productivity research where we have seen some productivity gains just from using headsets and wireless."
Chuc also talked about their new line of wireless headsets they are launching. He began by replaying his days with Palm and put the new Plantronics headset in perspective to the Palm V success. Chuck said, "The Plantronics CS70 is what the Palm V did to the Palm Piliot, Palm III arena. I was there when the Palm V came out. Everything else was between $250-$350, but the Palm V was $450 and because it was sleek, executive, rechargeable and had a lot of neat features that a lot of people wanted...That product... we couldn't build it fast enough. I really think the CS70 has that same sort of opportunity to have that same sort of impact on the market. Because of its look and style, sleek looking voice tubes, the comfort. It's just really a product that is going to take the market by storm, especially in the executive realm."
The Plantronics CS70 uses DECT 6.0 technology, has 300 foot range, and approximately 6 hours talk-time and 28 hours standby. It supports remote answering capability using a remote handset lifter which will automatically lift the handset receiver off the desktop phone simply by pressing the handset button. The Plantronics CS70 retails for $399.
The Plantronics Voyager 510s is a Bluetooth version of the product and it provides seemless integration between your mobile phone and your office phone. Plantronics Voyager 510s uses multipoint technology to detect whether either phone device rings, thus when you press the button on the headset it intelligently knows which device is ringing in order to answer the call. Similarly it also knows which call to hang-up when you press the button and then it goes back to monitoring mode. They added "WindSmart" to this new version of the Voyager which helps to block wind as well as echo cancellation, making it perfect for mobile professionals on the go. This is the first Bluetooth product by Plantronics to support both the office and the mobile phone. As far as range, you get 10m from phone and 50 feet from the base since the base has a more powerful antenna. It has 100 hrs standby and 6 hrs talk time. The Plantronics Voyager 510s retails for $299.
The SupraPlus Wireless Telephony Pro is patterned after previous corded models (though it's wireless) and is modular to enable both monoaural and biaural ear pieces depending on user's preference. The SupraPlus uses DECT 6.0 technology and has a range of about 300 feet. The SupraPlus has 10 hours talk time and 50 hours standby time. It retails for around $299.
For more information on wireless headsets, check out TMC's Wireless Headset channel.
Lots of great stuff online about Google's boo-boo about news of its planned GDrive online storage service that will offer Web users a mirror image of the data stored on their hard drives showing up on the Google site.
Check out Computer Reseller News for coverage from Reuters.
Rich Tehrani was quoted today in a New York Times article. Nicely done Rich!
"There's no limit to what they could charge for this high-speed lane and they could make the slow-speed lane as slow as they want," said Rich Tehrani, president of Technology Marketing Corporation, a media company that promotes Internet phone service. "There's no way to know today what the prices might be, but it could be anything, and that's the fear."
Foreboding article in today's New York Times about "The High-Speed Money Line" and where the Internet may be heading -- consumers paying to get online and then paying again.
Seems content providers (Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, etc.) may have to pay the Internet "utility companies" (cable and phone companies) to have their content delivered faster to consumers. Why should we care? Those costs will have to be covered by somebody -- and that somebody is always us. (Nice quote from our own Rich Tehrani on the consumer mindset.)
Read it and weep ...
BREAKING! - AT&T to buy BellSouth for $67 billion. AT&T will soon be the big Ma Bell it once used to be. Ah yes, the glory days of a monopolistic telecom industry. The "Cingular" brand will also be phased out as part of this deal (in favor of te AT&T brand). Verizon, a competitor will be certainly be dwarfed as a result of this huge deal.