Recently in broadband Category

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. Many places only have one choice for broadband. Many have two - cable or telco. Few have three. It makes download caps and Net Neutrality a hot button that true competition would eliminate. (And please don't give me that 3G is the third rail because guess who owns that - Ma and Pa Bell in the majority just like they own the Internet backbone and the PSTN structure in more than 70% of the country).

(2) A definition of broadband. Is it 256k one way as the FCC has defined it for years? Is it now the new FCC definition of 768k? Or is it 1M x 1M minimum? Or is it 100Mbps? This would certainly help.

(3) Deployment versus Penetration. "When you look at the 2008 ITIF Broadband Rankings report ...the U.S. ranked 15th among industrial nations at a composite score of 10.25. The U.S. is reported to have an average download speed of 4.9 Mbps, which is a far distant behind Japan's 63.6 Mbps. In addition, the report states that the US broadband penetration comes in at 0.57%." [source] Here's the detail: "Composite Score: Each nation's overall score is the sum of its standard deviation score for each of the three indicators: Household penetration or subscribers per household, average download speed in Mbps and price at the lowest monthly cost per Mbps." 

We may have "broadband" deployed in a large swath of America, but the speed is low compared to other countries. Because we are a suburban and rural country, it takes more infrastructure to hit everywhere with broadband, especially very high-speed Internet Access (greater than 3Mbps). And because most places hit are single family homes - we do live in suburban sprawl consisting of McMansions filled with Yuppies and 2.2 kids - it also affects our score at the ITIF.  According to a CWA study, the speed in the US is just over 2Mbps.

(4) Cost! We probably pay more per MB than any other G8 country. We get less speed and pay more for it. That hurts us. Surprisedly, in Wilson NC, the Muni fiber sells 100MB symmetric while TWCable and Embarq just gape at the speed and price. Well, not gape, so much as sue that it's unfair that a city would provide services it refuses to.

So we have cost, penetration, subscriber per household (density), and speed. Can't do much about density, but you can improve speed and cost. Also, there is a Digital Divide in America. Poorer families do not have computers, so do not have a need (or a budget) to buy broadband. It poses a problem that funding broadband for libraries and schools is supposed to throw a rope at. The Pew Report reflects this chasm.

BTW, the Connectivity Scorecard study has been analyzed here and by my favorite snarky blog, TechDirt.

It's amazing the news feed you can get from Twitter.

Broadband Stimulus Plan: High-Speed Access coming to Rural America

Ask our CIO about our UC implementation at Aspect on a Frost & Sullivan webinar tomorrow:

Telefonica, Microsoft Offer Windows Live Services to Latin America

AboveNet is connecting 4 Telx facilities in NY/NJ

Recession is slowing the Death of Dial-Up.

RackSpace is using the Green label to market its hosting service. (IPO's will do that to you).

Apparently, BPL is still a viable option. Go figure.

This is all in about an hour. There's a lot going on. How are you keeping up with the Industry?

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. The Business Central 200 is designed to meet the needs of companies with 25 or fewer employees."

The third party is MegaPath, the merged DLEC of Metifice, DSL.net and Megapath. The company has had a string of announcements since it completed its $11M purchase of DSL.net. "It has achieved Cisco® Powered Managed Service designations for its Managed IP Trunking and MPLS-VPN offerings, " according to a Feb 2 press release.

"MegaPath relies on Cisco's high-performance routing equipment to deliver managed services that enable businesses to consolidate all applications onto a single private network.... Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) virtual private network (VPN) service provides private IP networks with high-quality, high-security, and any-to-any connectivity. The service is based on the Cisco IP NGN architecture, MPLS and Cisco Design and Implementation Guides. The service delivers appropriate levels of latency, jitter and packet loss to help ensure the successful concurrent handling of multiple types of traffic, especially voice and video, from customer site to customer site."

MegaPath rolled out a Voice and Data bundle over T1 and SDSL in its network footprint of 340 Central Offices this month. The voice service called DUET comes in 3 flavors:

Whether you have standard analog phones, a Key System, a digital PBX, or an IP-PBX, Duet can work for you with one of the following products:

• Duet : Use your existing equipment and phones.
• Duet PRI: Use your existing digital PBX equipment and phones.
• Duet SIP Trunking: Use your existing IP-PBX equipment and phones.

The IP Trunking service is a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based trunk delivered by Broadsoft and Acme Packet.

Agents can not only sell the bundle, but can also sell MPLS-VPN and Managed Security. MegaPath offers a network-based firewall to keep it simple for small businesses. The voice service is delivered over the providers MPLS network. It is apparent that MegaPath has grow past its roots of being a straight DLEC (data CLEC based on DSL). In fact, th ecompany told me at the IT Expo that it no longer aggregates BellSouth DSL via RBAN. I guess they have grown their own network with ADTRAN DSLAMs, Cisco routers and switches, Acme Packet session border controllers, and Broadsoft's softswitch platform. Now MegaPath is throwing a party to announce its inter-operability with SUTUS and Polycom. It completes the package. See you in Vegas.

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?

• text of bill
• House Draft Report

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. .... Those funds are for "open access broadband infrastructure in any area of the United States." However at least 75 percent of the area to be served by each funded project must be in "a rural area without sufficient access to high speed broadband service to facilitate rural economic development, as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture." ... Priority is given to projects "that provide service to the most rural residents that do not have access to broadband service" and to project applications from (or including) borrowers or former borrowers under Title II of the Rural Electrification Act. .... 50% percent of the funds are to be awarded not later than 9/30/2009 .... "No area of a project funded" by these funds may also "receive funding to provide broadband service under the Broadband Deployment Grant Program" (see below).

In addition to that USDA program:

2) $2.825 billion for "Wireless and Broadband Deployment Grant Programs" to be administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (in the Dep't of Commerce), of which $1 billion shall be for Wireless Deployment Grants and $1.825 billion for Broadband Deployment Grants (though NTIA would be able to transfer up to 20% of the funds from either program to the other). The grants are intended for "the non-recurring costs associated with the deployment of broadband infrastructure in rural, suburban, and urban areas..." ... Of the $1 billion for Wireless Deployment grants, NTIA is instructed "to the extent possible" to provide 25 percent for wireless VOICE service and 75 percent for "advanced wireless broadband service" (3 megabit per second down by 1 megabit up) to under-served areas. ... And of the $1.825 billion for (presumably non-wireless) broadband, 25% are to be awarded for provision of "BASIC broadband service" (5 megabits per second downstream by 1 megabit upstream) to underserved areas and 75% for ADVANCED broadband service (45 megabits per second downstream by 15 megabits up). .... Services are to be provided on an "open access basis" (that's to be defined by the FCC within 45 days of enactment) and adhere to the FCC's 8/5/05 statement on net neutrality (05-151)

"Factors in grant award decisions by the NTIA will include public safety; state reports on priorities; increases in affordability and subscribership; service enhancement for health care delivery, education, or children; enhancement of computer ownership and computer literacy; and state or local matching funds."

States are required to provide up front to NTIA a report indicating which geographic areas of the State should be considered to have the greatest priority for service (can't represent in aggregate more than 20% of the population or geographic area).

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. In fact, by 2010, 100% of New Jersey is supposed to have 45mbps bi-directional broadband, open to all competitors.

According to Business Week, the Obama Administration is planning on giving $20 to $30 billion in financial incentives, most likely aiding the incumbent phone companies, including ATT, Verizon and Qwest.

In fact, Qwest has just asked for a chunk of the financial incentives as well.

Some other plans, such as the Free Press proposal, want to deploy 'open broadband', but would add $30 billion in taxes by raising the Universal Service Fund, now a corporate slush fund of billions of dollars hard-wired to the phone companies.

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation's (ITIF) plan is incumbent-friendly. They want to simply throw money/perks and let's not worry about competition.

NNI's belief is one of those inconvenient truths --- America is 15th in the world in broadband because RBOC's have already received massive financial incentives state by state-- billions per state --- using the promise of broadband. And the money is still being collected today in the form of cost of service increases and other perks, yet services were never delivered.

Think of it as this, Kushnick writes: We hired a contractor to upgrade the roads. We paid them billions based on the specifications and instead they simply dressed up the place, pocketing billions. We estimate the total to be over $280 billion and growing. By 2009, 113 million homes should have been rewired in the US. Combined, AT&T and Verizon have only 2.2 million upgraded fiber-optic TV customers.

History reveals that we'll just be throwing money at the problem instead of fixing what's broken and answering the fundamental question:

How does America create and pay for ubiquitous, competitive, very fast networks?

This is the question being debated on Tom Keatings blog.

What should be done about the companies who were the caretakers of America's essential infrastructure? Where's the Accountability.

You can read the rest at New Networks Institute website.

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:

• Wall Street Journal: "So much for the broad- band tax breaks" 
• Declan McCullough: "Democrats sneak net neutrality rules into 'stimulus' bill" 
• BroadbandCensus
• Telephony Online
• Broadband Reports
• Ars Technica
• Exchange

NATIONAL BROADBAND STRATEGY "President-elect Barack Obama may want broadband for all, but it's not going to happen just with the $800 billion economic stimulus plan being debated in Congress right now...the economic stimulus package is meant to address very short-term goals, and should not be read as including provisions for addressing the long-term goal of universal broadband." [exchange mag]

BTW, a Draft UK government plan "will guarantee broadband coverage with minimum download speeds of 2 MB per second to every household that wants it." [Inquirer]

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. ... The Bureau of Economic Advisors estimates that for each $1 invested in broadband, the economy benefits nearly $3."

In another report, Measuring Broadbandʼs Economic Impact - Final Report Prepared for the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, "The results support the view that broadband access does enhance economic growth and performance, and that the assumed economic impacts of broadband are real and measurable. We find that between 1998 and 2002, communities in which mass-market broadband was available by December 1999 experienced more rapid growth in employment, the number of businesses overall, and businesses in IT-intensive sectors, relative to comparable communities without broadband at that time."

The latest study I could find was published in 2007: The Effects of Broadband Deployment on Output and Employment: A Cross-sectional Analysis of U.S. Data by Brookings Institute. The results include the following: "for every one percentage point increase in broadband penetration in a state, employment is projected to increase by 0.2 to 0.3 percent per year. For the entire U.S. private non-farm economy, this suggests an increase of about 300,000 jobs, assuming the economy is not already at "full employment" ... Because broadband is an important basic infrastructure that is expected to produce spillover ... they estimated that Internet business solutions will add 0.43 percentage points to future productivity growth through 2011 ... We find that non-farm private employment and employment in several industries is positively associated with broadband use." That says a lot: You want to Stimulate productivity and job growth? Deploy More Broadband!

The problem that Brookings sees is that "States have few policy levers that affect the overall demand for broadband. However, given that the demand for broadband is price elastic, the most effective policies are likely to be those that contribute to lower prices. The surest route to lower prices is provided by increasing competition in the delivery of broadband services." This is the exact opposite of the recent FCC decisions - whether it was in TRRO, Forbearance actions, or radio spectrum, the FCC has continually coddled the Duopoly at the expense of competition, innovation, and the Digital Divide. What has this cost us in terms of Productivity, Jobs, and Economic Growth?

There was a study just in the state of California: A rising tide: Measuring the economic effects of broadband use across California. "This research estimates the economic effects of broadband use across 39 California counties between 2001 and 2006. The surveys were conducted in California counties twice each year from 2001 to 2006. Estimates from panel regression analysis demonstrate that increased broadband use within California has had a positive and significant effect on growth in employment and total payroll. [The report is priced at $31.50 and can be purchased at Science Direct]. The conclusion was: "The
results show that the broadband share and the migration from dial-up to broadband each have a positive and statistically significant effect on growth in employment and total payroll, inclusive of county fixed effects."

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.

TWC and AT&T are moving to tiered broadband pricing plans. Heck, TWC is even raising its rates on stand-alone Internet. TWC is also vulnerable to customer switching. In recent bundles from former BellSouth, I did not see a DSL price under $30. What happened to Naked DSL at $20 and DSL Lite at $10 (merger conditions)?

The next ones to ask for a bail-out will be the wholesale Internet backbone companies like Level3, Cogent, Global Crossing, Qwest and Savvis, according to this report on Circle ID.

According to the CWA (telecom union), it's all about new jobs.

Mr. Cohen said 100,000 jobs could be created by immediately investing in more high-speed Internet networks across the country. "Jobs is the best single stimulus," he said.  The demand for services created by broadband Internet access could create another two million jobs, Mr. Cohen argued.

[Editorial note: * As if Clearwire had an aggressive roll out strategy. $3.2B should be enough IF you actual bring in profitable revenue per tower. I know, not a usual business plan for public internet companies.]

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. In Tampa Bay, I have used Bright House for broadband for 10 years at home and at the office. Rock solid. Someone on Twitter was complaining today about the Verizon install. In the course of the conversation, she mentioned that she hates BH. Me? I don't want to give Verizon a dime, but I want that one POTS line for my business - which they keep charging me more and more for - almost as if they were forcing me to switch. (If they would stop mailing me something every single day, they could lower my rates!)

I think the surveys are flawed. Or people don't understand what satisfied means.

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. No. 110-385. Section 214 of that Act directs NTIA to establish the OSTWG to review and evaluate:  READ here...

Who is Sue Crawford? Read her bio here. Besides being a law professor, she is on the board of ICANN. Her writings are very articulate and logical - until the ramblings you read from me. I understand that she is part of the Obama transition team, but I can't confirm that.