Month: January 2014

I got that completely wrong: satellite is allowed with a lower service hurdle by new Californian subsidy rules

21 January 2014 by Steve Blum
, , , , ,

Satellite gets a boost, actually.

Contrary to what I posted yesterday, satellite-based Internet service providers would be eligible for broadband infrastructure subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) under new eligibility rules proposed earlier this month. In fact, the new language appears to makes it easier for satellite providers to qualify for CASF grants and loans. (H/T to Tom Glegola at CPUC for gently pointing out my error).

The draft decision, authored by commission president Michael Peevey, strikes out language now in effect that specifically includes satellite in the list of eligible technologies.… More

Satellite companies barred from California broadband subsidies

20 January 2014 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Update: Pay no attention to the post below. It’s absolutely wrong. Please see my correction:

I got that completely wrong: satellite is allowed with a lower service hurdle by new Californian subsidy rules

Sorry.


Shot out of orbit.

Satellite Internet service providers won’t be able to get subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), if the California Public Utilities Commission approves language buried deep in a draft of new rules governing the program.

I make no excuses: I missed it the first time I read through the draft decision written by commission president Michael Peevey and circulated for public comment earlier this month.… More

Smart home business models proliferate despite need to consolidate

19 January 2014 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Smart homes need a platform, not a box.

Google’s purchase of Nest, a smart thermostat maker, adds one more contender for king of the home automation business models. The prospect – and it’s only that – of a free, ad-supported smart home web portal is attractive, because the growth of home automation products and services depends on an easy and easily understood selling proposition.

It was clear at CES that the home automation market is still fragmented beyond consumer comprehension.… More

If you wait long enough for M2M, you'll be disappointed

18 January 2014 by Steve Blum
, ,

Don’t wait for orders from headquarters! Mount up, and ride to the sound of the guns!
Cavalry maxim, attributed variously to Napoleon, JEB Stuart and Pat Buchanan.


An industry committee could have prevented this.

“Machine to machine” – M2M – is a clear way of describing a rapidly growing high tech sector. It involves two (or more) devices directly interacting with each other, without the necessity of a human or higher level system reprocessing data or interjecting commands.… More

Google positioned to set standards for smart homes


Nest is in good hands with Google.

The quest for a mass market business model for home automation products and services took a new turn this week, when Google announced it’s buying Nest, which makes networked thermostats and smoke detectors. Since it’s unlikely that Google is going to drop $3.2 billion just to make pretty gadgets, the working assumption has to be that it’s developing an online platform to support networked products. Just as it developed the Android operating system, then bought Motorola’s mobile phone manufacturing business as a development tool and to lock down valuable patents.… More

Microsoft CEO candidate understands the danger

16 January 2014 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Vestberg living large at CES.

“It’s normally not given that the winners in the first phase are the winners in the second phase”, said Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson at CES last week. It might be that someone on the Microsoft board was listening hard, because the rumor of the day has Vestberg on the shortlist to be its new CEO, replacing Steve Ballmer, who announced his impending resignation last year.

Vestberg was talking about the challenge in front of Ericsson, which was an early behemoth of the mobile phone business, but has remade itself as it fell far behind in handset manufacturing and its infrastructure business lost ground as voice networks were upgraded to handle broadband.… More

Californians' ground truth begins to paint a better broadband availability picture

15 January 2014 by Steve Blum
, , , , ,

Crowdsourced data has been added to the California Public Utilities Commission’s broadband availability map, along with updated information submitted by service providers and developed by the CPUC’s own mobile field testing program.

The new map takes a long step toward bridging the gap between the advertising claims that carriers make – which is also the basis for what they report to the CPUC – and what consumers can actually buy. The public feedback information – “layers” in mapping jargon – shows locations from where people have filed personal reports about the service they’re getting.… More

Court rules FCC out of bounds on network neutrality

14 January 2014 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Leaving the neutral zone.

The FCC can’t tell Internet service providers how to manage their traffic and pricing schemes. That was the ruling this morning from a federal appeals court that said the commission can’t prevent service providers from blocking subscribers from a particular website or type of service – video streaming, for example – or charging more to access it.

In doing so, the court agreed with the two republican-appointed commissioners, Ajit Pai and Michael Rielly, who said last week that the FCC’s network neutrality rules went beyond what congress had allowed.… More

FCC chair Wheeler says it's time to cowboy up

13 January 2014 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Be careful where the bull throws you.

“This is not my first rodeo. I played in the formulating of the rules for the very first spectrum auction”, said FCC chair Tom Wheeler, at CES last week. “I went around with my hair on fire talking about the end of western civilisation if they don’t do it my way”.

Wheeler was CEO of the National Cable Television Association from 1979 to 1984 and of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) from 1992 to 2004, the Washington DC-based national trade associations for the cable television and mobile phone industries.… More

Consumer electronics collapse into the mobile phone

12 January 2014 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Copernican model of consumer electronics.

Smart phones, tablets and wearable bits of networked silicon dominated the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, as the television was declared dead, high end audio and desktop computers were invisible in the flagship booths of major manufacturers and laptops were indistinguishably grey.

The week began with an analyst with the Consumer Electronics Association – the show’s organiser – projecting that smart phones, feature phones and tablets will, together, account for 45% of industry revenue in 2014.… More