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Obama promotes Internet to infrastructure, skips community broadband details

21 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Some Christmas trees actually have fiber.

The five point plan to promote community broadband announced by U.S. president Barack Obama last week was billed as a prelude to last night’s state of the union address. But he didn’t specifically mention it.

More importantly though, what Obama did in his speech is lump broadband in with traditional infrastructure projects…

Twenty-first century businesses need 21st century infrastructure — modern ports, and stronger bridges, faster trains and the fastest Internet.

… More

U.S. supreme court avoids ruling on limits of federal authority over state and local broadband rules, for now

20 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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When your name is Roswell, reality can be subjective.

The U.S. supreme court declined to wade any deeper into the question of how much leeway local governments have to block installation of cellular towers and equipment. In a decision last week regarding a dispute between T-Mobile and Roswell, Georgia, the court ruled very narrowly in T-Mobile’s favor, saying the city didn’t give its reasons for denying a tower permit soon enough.

Federal telecoms law requires local agencies to give a reason when a tower permit application is rejected, in order to provide a basis for the courts to review the decision if there’s an appeal.… More

New CPUC president emphasises openness and safety at first meeting

16 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Michael Picker set out his goals for as president of the California Public Utilities Commission yesterday, as he opened the first meeting of his term.

“We regulate the industries that build and maintain the services that are key to our daily lives and prosperity: electricity, natural gas telecommunications, rail and transportation and water”, he said. “Over the years we’ve served the citizens of the State of California by making sure that the utilities who provide those services and build the infrastructure use their economic power – that’s our central reason for being – for our benefit and safety”.… More

Municipal broadband development is a local job, with or without presidential backing

15 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Good words, but no new money.

Community-based broadband networks got a ringing endorsement from U.S. president Barack Obama yesterday. You can watch the speech here, or read the transcript prepared by the white house press office.

The question now is whether the speech kicked off a serious policy initiative or just served as the headline issue of the day. It’s very possible this speech or the upcoming state of the union address will be the last we’ll hear about community broadband from the president until he holds a promised summit meeting with mayors and county supervisors in June, which is 1 of the 5 action items that the white house published on Tuesday and Obama reiterated yesterday.… More

Obama endorses community broadband, tells agencies to support it

14 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the full report.

U.S. president Barack Obama plans to use his bully pulpit today to help advance the cause of community broadband. Yesterday afternoon, the white house released a 5 point program to boost local broadband speeds and “support economic growth”, including…

  • Ending state laws that “harm broadband service competition”.
  • Focusing on local leaders, including holding a local broadband summit at the white house in June.
  • Tasking the commerce department with providing technical assistance to local communities that want to develop broadband systems.
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Don't expect congress to bust local broadband barriers

12 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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The 1996 telecommunications act is the basic law that governs broadband, telephone and other communication technologies in the U.S. It was written in the days of dial-up Internet access, and didn’t do a good job of anticipating the broadband industry of the twenty first century. So there’s an effort underway in congress – the house of representatives, particularly – to rewrite it.

Legacy barriers to access poles and conduit should be one of the major changes, if and when the 1996 act is rewritten, according to Staci Pies, Google’s senior policy counsel.… More

Lots of solid singles, but no home runs this year at CES

10 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Crystal ball view of Eureka Park.

All the major manufacturers had a range of 4K televisions at CES this year, giving credence to the Consumer Electronics Association’s (CEA) prediction of 4 million sets sold in the U.S. in 2015, with price points dropping below $1,000. No significant 4K content announcements, and DISH was the only company pumping up the volume on the distribution side.

New wearables were everywhere, but the theme seemed to be me too.… More

The FCC can't make 25 Mbps a genuine national broadband standard by itself

9 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the big version.

Raising the FCC’s definition of acceptable home broadband from the current 4 Mbps down/1 Mbps up level to 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up would certainly be symbolic. The practical effect, though, depends on what the FCC and other agencies – state and local – do with it.

An article on Ars Technica says that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has a draft report under review that would raise the bar to 25/3.… More

CTOs say big companies need to support and be supported by the open source community

9 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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If there’s going to be 50 billion connected devices by 2020 – which is the goal set by Ericsson – then interoperability and interconnection standards will be necessary, according to Ulf Ewaldsson, the company’s CTO. He was speaking at a CES panel session on corporate research and development. Those standards aren’t there yet, but the likeliest path will be through open source collaboration, rather than propriety technology.

“Open source creates both standards and it creates a more rapid development process than before”, he said.… More

Wheeler's common carrier plan for broadband doesn't necessarily mean predictable rules

8 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Honest, I meant to do this all along.

Common carrier regulation of broadband infrastructure and the Internet access services that ride on it appears all but certain at this point. Yesterday, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler told a CES audience that new network neutrality rules will be circulated privately at the FCC on 5 February 2015, and voted on by the full commission at its meeting on the 26th. You can bet it’ll be a party line vote in favor of his plan.… More