Month: November 2014

Oops, AT&T makes persuasive case that Title II is better than the alternative

30 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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AT&T spins a cautionary tale.

In the what were they thinking? category, AT&T is trying to slam the idea of common carrier broadband regulation (aka Title II) by posting a lengthy account of a bureaucratic battle it’s fighting over arcane inter-carrier rules (h/t to the Baller-Herbst list for the pointer). True, introducing any kind of regulation makes life more complicated, and companies with the strongest market position will be the hardest hit. Which is the point, of course: common carrier rules exist to provide a counterweight to dominant companies in a monopolised market.… More

Musk takes on another impossible dream

29 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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It’s hard to bet against Elon Musk. He made a fortune as a founder of PayPal, but instead of fading into a life of one-hit wonder obscurity sitting on boards and listening to investment pitches, he doubled down by going weird: electric cars and rocket ships, old ideas with a long trail of broken genius. Each venture had “billionaire vanity project” written all over it. Now, both look likely to revolutionise transportation. We can only hope his Hyperloop daydreaming follows the same path.… More

AT&T tells FCC sorry, we meant to say we're bailing on DSL, not fiber

28 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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Under fire from the FCC, AT&T is walking back a statement by CEO Randall Stephenson that the company will stop building out fiber while common carrier regulation of broadband is on the table. With the exception, Stephenson said, of 2 million homes that were promised as part of AT&T’s bid to get regulatory approval of its purchase of DirecTv.

That statement, made at an investment conference and likely unscripted, provoked a demand from the FCC for AT&T to explain itself.… More

Marriott wants FCC cover for attacks on guests' WiFi devices

27 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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It’s interference, but it’s for your own good.

Lobbyists for Marriott and the hotel industry are asking for permission to use technological attacks to shut down personal WiFi hotspots and other devices on their properties (h/t to the Baller-Herbst list for the pointer). All in the name of security, of course. These are public spirited companies that would never do something so crass just to protect the profits generated from selling Internet access to guests.

As explained by Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth’s ComLawBlog, Marriott combats competing WiFi signals and what it considers misuse of its own network with digital counterattacks…

To address these various problems, Marriott and its friends commonly deploy sophisticated and expensive Wi-Fi network management systems that search for unauthorized or excessive uses of a network.

… More

FCC looks at telcos' copper network retirement by neglect, considers forced sales

26 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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Landline telephone companies are backing off from traditional Plain Old Telephone Service in favor of less regulated and more advanced Internet Protocol technologies. When they invest in upgrades, it’s usually fiber and not copper-based. As a result, there’s a move away from copper networks and associated legacy services.

In a notice approved last week and published yesterday, the FCC is looking for comments on how it should regulate that process. One of the questions the commission wants to answer is what do about de facto retirement of copper plant, where telephone companies simply let unprofitable network segments rot on the poles…

There are numerous allegations that in some cases incumbent LECs are failing to maintain their copper networks that have not undergone the Commission’s existing copper retirement procedures…First, to establish whether there is a factual basis for new rules in this area, are incumbent LECs in some circumstances neglecting copper to the point where it is no longer reliably usable?

… More

Tacoma loses money on muni cable, won't go all in on broadband to make up the difference

25 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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Tacoma, Washington has a municipal broadband network that started out offering cable television service and then later added broadband. The system grew out of a fiber network that was originally installed to support the city-owned electric utility.

Called Click, the hybrid fiber-coax system was upgraded to DOCSIS 3 standards a couple of years ago. It competes with Comcast head-on, and with CenturyLink in the broadband space. Like any small cable system, Click has struggled with increasing programming costs.… More

There's still interest in rural broadband experiments, but no way to judge feasibility yet

24 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Hundreds of companies, communities and miscellaneous organisations, representing just a touch shy of a thousand projects, told the FCC last March that they wanted to take part in its rural broadband experiment program. When it came time to actually submit a bid – it’s effectively an auction process – only 181 applications were received by the 7 November 2014 deadline.

The FCC hasn’t released a list of the bidders.… More

Google's small business gigabit enables e-commerce for a few dollars more

23 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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Click for a bigger version.

An extra $30 or so gets you a commercially usable gigabit connection from Google. That’s the deal being rolled out to small businesses in a few districts of the Kansas City metro area.

The basic consumer price in Kansas City is $70 for a gigabit ($120 with television service). Google’s new small business package is $100 for the gigabit, plus another $20 if you want a static IP address (or 5 for $30).… More

The Blue Screen of Death is still deadly, but only for Microsoft

22 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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Microsoft’s cloud platform – Azure – had a stormy week, but the silver lining is that the company isn’t shying away from the necessary pain involved in transforming itself from a shrink wrapped software hawker to a computing services provider.

The 11 hour outage was the result of a poorly done system update. At the risk of taking a cheap shot, that’s the kind of glitch that the Windows operating system – and its predecessors – have routinely experienced for more than 30 years.… More

Fast track broadband projects proposed in northern California

21 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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Almost 120,000 people – 50,000 households – in 14 California counties would be reached by broadband projects reviewed by the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) at its rural forum in Redding last week.

The list of “projects with some current momentum” was developed with the cooperation, and in many cases active participation, of the regional broadband consortia that represent those areas. The plan going forward is to work with project backers, state and federal agencies and CETF to bundle financing together that will cover the typical 30% to 40% investment match requirements of the California Advanced Services Fund.… More