Uncategorized

Unlicensed spectrum needs clear rules or no rules, not guesswork in between

29 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not just another monkey.

There are no rules against blocking someone else’s WiFi hotspot, according to the two republican members of the Federal Communications Commission. Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly posted dissents to a decision to fine M.C. Dean, a concessionaire at the Baltimore convention center, $718,000 for interfering with attendees ability to connect to their own mobile hotspots.

On the surface, it’s a Catch-22 argument: Pai and O’Rielly are saying that since people who use unlicensed spectrum – Part 15 users, in FCC jargon – have to accept any interference they receive, interfering with them isn’t really interference.… More

Service level agreements are a calculated risk, so make sure you calculate carefully

26 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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When a power failure at the Hurricane Electric data center took this website down for five hours earlier this year, I looked up the Linode service level agreement (SLA) I accepted, and found that I probably made a good cost/benefit choice, but even so it’s worth revisiting at some point.
Upgrading to a platform with significantly higher reliability could be costly though. It means I have to find a hosting company that uses data centers and other infrastructure with a better SLA than Linode apparently has with Hurricane.… More

EU's net neutrality choices favor networks over innovation

25 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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500 gigabits and nothing to watch.

The European Union will implement network neutrality rules that are significantly friendlier to telecoms companies than the ones adopted earlier this year in the U.S. The European parliament rejected amendments –proposed by pretty much the same high tech companies that successfully pushed for the more stringent U.S. rules – that would have closed gaping loopholes.

According to the BBC…

Part of the problem with the rules in their current form, argued Joe McNamee at the European Digital Rights campaign group, is that they are ambiguous.

… More

California broadband grant proposed for FTTH in Nicasio

24 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for a bigger picture.

The western Marin County town of Nicasio is in the hunt for for a $1.7 million grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to build a fiber to the home broadband system. The application was submitted by Inyo Networks, which is involved in several pending CASF project proposals as well as the already operating Digital 395 system. According to the publicly posted summary…

The area is fully “wireline unserved” by the [incumbent telephone company] and is not served by a cable television service provider alternative either.

… More

Big gap between FCC press releases and final enforcement

23 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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I’m coming to get ya. Honest.

The Federal Communications Commission is barking but not biting, according to federal lawmakers in both houses and on both sides of the aisle. According to a Politico article, the hefty fines that the FCC has said it’s imposing on a wide variety of transgressors haven’t been, and may never be, collected.

The problem seems to be that the FCC’s enforcement bureau issues press releases announcing big fines, without having finished its investigations or getting to the point that the money is actually collectable.… More

Tacoma muni fiber upgrade will need city subsidies, and that's the optimistic case

22 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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It’ll be a long time making up the shortfall, if everything goes perfectly.

If the City of Tacoma wants to hang on to control of its municipal cable system, adding broadband to the service – as the city council voted to do – won’t be enough to pay the bills. Financial help from the city will be needed to upgrade the system to gigabit capacity, according to a presentation prepared by a consultant for the Tacoma public utility board, which shares oversight responsibilities with the council.… More

Anza FTTH project approved for funding by CPUC

21 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Desert communities get competing broadband subsidies from California, feds.

The Anza Electric Cooperative will get $2.7 million from the California Advanced Services Fund to build a fiber to the home system throughout its service area in western Riverside County. The California Public Utilities Commission approved the grant at its meeting on thursday. According to the resolution…

This project is economical and provides a wide benefit. The CASF per-household subsidy is $710 per household (based on 3,751 households that will have access).

… More

Tacoma city council votes to double down on muni broadband

20 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Go, but try to keep it in the city.

Tacoma’s municipal cable system will remain city owned and operated, at least for the foreseeable future. The Tacoma city council voted to reject offers made by locally-based broadband companies to lease the system, invest money in upgrades and operate it as a private business. Instead, the council told the city’s municipal electric utility, which runs the system, to come back with a business plan for keeping it in public hands by next April.… More

Don't call Google for a ride home from the bar yet

19 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Good news and bad news about self-driving cars from the California department of motor vehicles. The good news is that the DMV will allow cars to drive themselves; the bad news is that you still need to have a licensed driver in the front seat who “must be capable of taking over immediate control in the event of an autonomous technology failure or other emergency”. In other words, no robotic designated drivers.

The restrictions don’t suit Google, which has been in the forefront of developing autonomous cars in California, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News…

“We’re gravely disappointed that California is already writing a ceiling on the potential for fully self-driving cars to help all of us who live here,” said Google spokesman Johnny Luu in a statement.

… More

Small ISPs get a break from FCC transparency rules

17 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Small and medium sized Internet service providers are getting a year’s reprieve from the Federal Communications Commission. They won’t have to file reports detailing the prices, fees and data caps that apply to the services they offer to public, nor will they have to provide performance data, such as packet loss or peak usage time throughput, or information about network management policies and practices. At least not for the next year.

The requirements – transparency rule, as it’s called – were included in the FCC’s original decision back in February to impose common carrier regulations, up to a point, on broadband service.… More