Get out of town to see new broadband horizons

One trend to watch for in 2013 is consolidation and growth in rural broadband in the U.S. AT&T and Verizon are backing – sometimes running full speed – away from the wireline business in less densely populated markets. That's an opportunity for entrepreneurs with rural telecoms experience to create their own kind of economies of scale.

Frontier Communications is well down that road, with five million phone lines under its management nationwide. Like Google, Surewest is looking to Kansas as a growth opportunity.… More

Software isn't rocket science

30 December 2012 by Steve Blum

Parallel processing, Apollo style.

There’s more software in your car “than on the first spacecraft in the Seventies” according to Sanjay Poonen president of technology and innovation products at SAP, a keynoter at MobileCon 2012.

Actually, your phone – smart or not – has more code in it. Maybe even your wristwatch. The two Apollo guidance computers (one each in the Command and Lunar Modules) that went to the Moon each had the rough equivalent of 4 KB of what we’d call RAM and 64 KB of ROM.… More

Shouldn't it be One Tablet per Child?

29 December 2012 by Steve Blum
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And the hits just keep on coming.

Forbes has made it official: the tablet killed off the netbook. Better late than never.

It was obvious to anyone at the CES Unveiled 2012 event back in January. The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) display was mobbed, as they demonstrated a $100 tablet that replaced their original $100 computer project. Which, by the way, was the genesis of the netbook.

They never quite got their computer down to the target price point, but so many people who saw the prototypes said “I want one” that manufacturers such as ASUS and MSI jumped on the opportunity.… More

Amtrak hasn't punched out yet

28 December 2012 by Steve Blum
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Tools of the trade.

Score a win for AT&T. On recent train trip through California, I confirmed that Amtrak is indeed using a wireless bar code scanner to manage passengers, even if conductors haven’t given up their ancient badge of office, the ticket punch.

Confronted by a confused passenger who was certain he’d purchased an e-ticket but didn’t know quite what that meant, the conductor smiled and whipped out his new smart phone-sized gizmo. A couple of taps and he found the ticket.… More

Metro broadband: without the political cards, you're not playing with a full deck


Political value: the need for speed at the San Leandro public library.

There’s an argument to the effect that the prices charged for broadband service by telcos and cable companies in urban areas are higher than necessary to provide that service and make a reasonable profit.

It’s not crazy talk. You can make a case that more densely populated areas have lower per household costs – opex and capex – and that more affluent areas have higher profit margins.… More

Simon out, Peterman in at CPUC

26 December 2012 by Steve Blum
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Commissioner Timothy Simon

Timothy Simon’s last day on the job at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as a commissioner is Monday. Appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007, Simon’s term is coming to an end, and Governor Jerry Brown has decided not to reappoint him for another six years.

Instead, Brown has tapped a rising star from the California Energy Commission to take Simon’s seat. Carla Peterman is 34 years old and has spent time in both private business and the non-profit world.… More

Five Geek ways to celebrate Boxing Day

25 December 2012 by Steve Blum
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Like a calm, sunny morning after a hurricane, Boxing Day is a time to wallow in the luxury of nothing so urgent to do as yesterday and dream of the future without worrying about tomorrow.

Some don’t look at it that way, preferring instead to run frantically around the beach tidying up. Let them be.

The day after Christmas is a day off work in much of the erstwhile British Empire, originally an occasion to give gifts to people who work for you: a Christmas box of hand-me-down clothes and left over food bestowed on grateful servants by the lord of the manor.… More

TURN for the better, but not the worse among CASF hopefuls

The Utility Reform Network (TURN) likes the idea of making California Advanced Services Fund subsidies available to more than just traditional telephone companies. But not to just anyone, saying “TURN shares the Commission’s concerns…that ratepayer money used to fund the CASF program must be protected from waste, fraud and abuse.”

The Commission’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) echoed those concerns, calling for safeguards if CASF eligibility is expanded.

TURN’s answer is to apply the standards set by the CPUC three years ago when it gave CASF matching grants to successful applicants funded by the federal stimulus program (ARRA).… More

Performance, not passion, builds broadband projects

Most of the opening and reply comments about expanding eligibility for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) subsidies, my own included, can be summed up in three words: gimme, gimme, gimme.

Grant writers want to write grants, public agencies want to back fill budgets, independent ISPs want to play like the big boys and the big boys – telephone and cable companies – want to keep it for themselves. No surprise.


The road to broadband is paved with competence.
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The weather is here

22 December 2012 by Steve Blum
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A stormy morning on Monterey Bay got me thinking about Blueseed, a plan to anchor a high-tech haven twelve nautical miles off the San Mateo County coast, in international waters.

It looks like a floating city in conceptual images, but if it actually puts to sea version 1.0 would have to be a converted cruise ship. If it takes off, then maybe enough capital will be there for custom ship building. For now, they’re working with a six-figure seed fund.… More