broadband

Is Broadband No. 1 in America?

February 23, 2009

CircleID takes a look at America's Broadband Score

"Leonard Waverman, the dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, describe a measure he developed called the 'Connectivity Scorecard.' It's meant to compare countries on the extent that consumers, businesses and government put communication technology to economically productive use. Even after deducting the untold unproductive hours spent on Facebook and YouTube, the United States comes out on top..."

What's interesting to me is the comments. How no one can find the US Broadband score is funny. (Heard of Google much?) It isn't so much the score as what the score represents.

We have a few problems to fix:

(1) ISP Competition for one.

Posted in FCC, Internet, broadband, cableco, fiber, politics, spectrum, technology, telco, telecommunications

Hot off the Twitter Press

February 18, 2009

Posted in PBX, TMC, broadband, data center, telecommunications, twitter, unified communications

The Voice of Megapath is a Duet

February 6, 2009

It's a Party! SUTUS, Megapath and Polycom are hosting a seminar about their combined offering on Feb. 24 in San Jose. (Email me for an invite!)

What offering? Well, you know about Polycom's IP Phones, even the HD Voice models. SUTUS offers a piece of hardware that is an office-in-a-box, which is more than just an on-premise IP-PBX.

"The functionality includes wired and wireless networking, file server, email, VoIP PBX, auto attendant, voice mail, internet router, security and access to managed services.

Posted in agents, broadband, channel, sip trunking, telecommunications, voip

Broadband Stimulus Bill details

January 20, 2009

More Broadband Stimulus Bill (and here at TMC) info from Stephen Ronan on the CyberTelecom listserv. (probably in response to the volume of comments from Tom Keatings blog!)

Can anyone provide a pointer to the bill at issue?

The summary of the principal broadband provisions below:

1) $2.825 billion for loans, loan guarantees and grants to be administered by the USDA's Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning, Tele-medicine and Broadband Program.

Posted in broadband, economy, politics, telecommunications

Kushnick on the Broadband Plan

January 16, 2009

Bruce Kushnick of New Networks Institute released a response to the Deloitte & Touche report about New Jersey, Broadband Opportunity - Job Creation, Healthcare, Education.

The report states that Broadband is:

"essential for the State to achieve the level of employment and job creation in that state;
"advance the public agenda for excellence in education,
"improve quality of care and cost reduction in the health-care industry."

The report was written in 1991! Dubbed "Opportunity New Jersey" (a Verizon state), the Deloitte Report details how rewiring the state of New Jersey with fiber optics would be an economic boom and help health-care, employment and education.

Posted in broadband, communications, politics

Broadband Stimulus Bill

January 16, 2009

There has been a deep discussion that started on Tom Keating's blog about the Broadband Bail-out plan (known in various circles as a Bell hand-out, Stimulus package, Information Highway Infrastructure Development Funding).

Attorney Jim Baller has more on the House Stimulus Bill:

$2.825B for USDA RUS, mostly for rural open access broadband grants, 50% to be awarded no later than Sept. 30, 2009;
$2.825B to NTIA, including $1B for Wireless Deployment Grants and $1.825B for Broadband Deployment Grants for the deployment of basic broadband service or advanced broadband service;
$350M to fund state broadband tracking initiatives; NTIA to develop and maintain broadband inventory map of U.S.;
$1.85B for wireline to be split 75% for advanced broadband in underserved areas and 25% for basic broadband in unserved areas
$1B for wireless to be split 75% for advanced broadband in underserved areas and 25% for basic wireless in unserved areas

definitions

"Advanced broadband service"=45Mbps/15Mbps;
"advanced wireless broadband service" = 3Mbps/1Mbps;
"basic broadband service" = 5Mbps/1Mbps
FCC to define "unserved" and "underserved"
Recipients must provide "open access" (except for providers of basic wireless broadband);
bill also lists numerous preferences (text of bill)(House Report)

Coverage and reactions:

Posted in broadband, communications, economy, politics

Effect of Broadband on the Economy

January 12, 2009

Many pundits and pols are pushing the National Broadband Strategy to stimulate the economy. Let's look at the effects of Broadband on the Economy:

First, there is the Lake County Florida case: "Our econometric model shows that Lake County has experienced approximately 100% greater growth in economic activity - a doubling - relative to comparable Florida counties since making its municipal broadband network generally available to businesses and municipal institutions in the county. ...

Posted in broadband, economy

Internet Access Stimulus

December 3, 2008

According to the WSJ, " The federal government's economic stimulus package will include investment in broadband Internet infrastructure and funds to upgrade and repair the national power grid alongside more traditional funding for road and bridge repair, a senior aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday."

It's much needed, since Clearwire/XOHM has decided to slow down (cough!*) its deployment schedule because the $3.2B in cash from Google, Intel, and MSO's, just is not enough to roll out their whole network. Clearwire needs $2B more.

And apparently, VZ only wants to over-build its affluent DSL areas with FiOS. It ignores or sells off rural routes.

Posted in Internet, bandwidth, broadband, economy

The Pain of The Switch

November 24, 2008

Interesting report from Strategy Analytics: More folks would switch their triple play provider if they didn't have to waste a day or two waiting for the install. With that kind of stat, will any of the duopoly companies fix their install process?

People often claim to be satisfied with what they already have. 76% of broadband subscribers in the US suggest they are very or somewhat satisfied with their broadband service. But when they are asked if they would be willing to switch, three in every four say they would do so, depending on the price and performance of an alternative service.

Can't be too satisfied if you would switch.

And really the perception varies greatly.

Posted in broadband, cableco, duopoly, telco, telecommunications

Are You The Next Sue Crawford?

November 23, 2008

If you can't get a position at the FCC, perhaps you can put your talents to use at the other governmental telecom agency, which is looking for a few intelligient people like Sue Crawford help shape the broadband policy of the US:

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking nominations of individuals to represent the business community, public interest groups, and other appropriate groups interested in serving on the NTIA Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG) for a single fifteen (15) month term to commence in January 2009. At the conclusion of the working group's term, the OSTWG will provide a report to the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator and to Congress on ways to promote and to preserve a safe environment for children using the Internet.

DATES: Nominations must be postmarked or electronically transmitted on or before December 12, 2008.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On October 10, 2008, the President signed into law the ''Broadband Data Improvement Act'' (the Act), Pub. L.

Posted in FCC, Internet, broadband, organizations, politics, telecommunications

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