business – Page 6 – Steve Blum's Blog

The problem with FTTH is there's no problem

17 December 2012 by Steve Blum
business, business model, capital cost, dark fiber, demand, feasibility study, fiber market study, ftth, fttp, funding, gigabit squared, municipal broadband, private capital, public private partnership, seattle

It’s not about finding a mass market solution. It’s about finding a sufficiently acute mass market problem.

The struggle to develop a general fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) or premises (FTTP) business model for city-wide deployments doesn’t result from a market failure. Quite the contrary. It’s evidence that the laws of supply and demand are in full effect.

Demand, meet supply.

People generally get the broadband service someone else – a business or government agency mostly – is willing to give them for the price they’re willing to pay.… More

Gigabit Seattle's financial vehicle is still a concept car

16 December 2012 by Steve Blum
business, business model, capital cost, dark fiber, demand, fiber market study, ftth, fttp, funding, gigabit squared, municipal broadband, private capital, public private partnership, seattle

Car of the Future as conceived by Studebaker's Director of Styling, Raymond Loewy, in the August 1950 issue of Science and Mechanics. Loewy wrote about the new styling for tomorrow's rocket age population. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Thanks for the down payment. Just need to find someone to co-sign the loan.

“Gigabit Squared is providing the capital, although details of the financing model aren’t clear,” wrote Stacey Higginbotham in a story for GigaOM following Gigabit Squared’s announcement last May that it had formed a partnership with Gig.U and was bringing $200 million to the table to fund fiber networks in as many as six cities.

The financing model was equally unclear last week when the City of Seattle and the University of Washington blessed a plan by Gigabit Squared to build a demonstration fiber-to-the-premises network in 12 Seattle neighborhoods.… More

Seattle passes the fiber (50 mega) buck

14 December 2012 by Steve Blum
business, business model, capital cost, dark fiber, demand, feasibility study, fiber market study, ftth, fttp, funding, gigabit squared, municipal broadband, palo alto, private capital, public private partnership, seattle

The unveiling of Gigabit Seattle yesterday is just the first step on a long road to building a fiber to the premises (FTTP) service for residents. The City of Seattle and the University of Washington have endorsed a plan by a consulting firm – Gigabit Squared – to “begin raising the capital needed” for a demonstration project.

It’s not small change. The 200 miles of fiber needed to reach 50,000 homes and businesses in 12 neighborhoods will cost something like $50 million to install and light up.… More

Eastern California lights up in July

12 December 2012 by Steve Blum
ARRA, broadband stimulus, BTOP, business, casf, cetf, community networks, cpuc, dark fiber, economic development, escrbc, middle mile, regional consortia, rural broadband

“We have started and we will finish,” said Michael Ort, CEO of Praxis Associates, the company behind the Digital 395 project. “There have been people who have bet against us and that’s a great motivator. It’s going to happen.”

The ambitious, ARRA-funded network will connect Reno to Barstow, in the California desert east of Los Angeles, installing nearly 600 miles of fiber optic cable. Most of the path runs along U.S. 395, down the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada through towns like Carson City, Mammoth Lakes, Bishop and Ridgecrest.… More

Mobile carriers' broadband coverage claims challenged by ISPs

7 December 2012 by Steve Blum
att, business, casf, ccbc, charter, community networks, cpuc, economic development, mobile broadband, regional consortia, sprint, t-mobile, verizon

Availability maps submitted by mobile telephone carriers are a problem for local Internet companies trying to expand and improve broadband service in California’s central coast region.

Representatives from six Internet service providers – Central Coast Internet, Charter, Cruzio, Razzolink, Redshift and Surfnet – participated in a workshop yesterday organized by the Central Coast Broadband Consortium (CCBC). A number of concerns were discussed, including construction permits, funding, and coordination with other utility and local government projects.… More

Consensus on broadband priorities, solutions emerges from CCBC conference

6 December 2012 by Steve Blum
business, casf, ccbc, community networks, cpuc, economic development, municipal broadband, regional consortia

A series of workshops organized by the Central Coast Broadband Consortium drew about three dozen representatives from Internet service providers, local governments, economic development agencies and other companies and organizations interested in improving broadband access and infrastructure.

The first workshop brought together public works, planning and information technology managers from Salinas, Gonzales, Santa Cruz, Seaside, Watsonville, and Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. They reviewed the CCBC’s policy development and infrastructure inventory projects, and discussed how to make it easier to anticipate and meet future broadband needs.… More

Mobile could claim half of online spending in 2013

2 December 2012 by Steve Blum
best buy, business, mobile, mobile broadband, mobile commerce, retailing, Wireless Communications Alliance

“Fifty percent of e-commerce happens on mobile devices in 2013,” said Scott Raney, a partner at Redpoint Ventures, when asked to go out on a limb and predict next year’s big surprise in mobile telecoms at the annual Wireless Communications Alliance’s venture capital evening. His fellow panelist didn’t cut off the limb, though. Quite the contrary.

“A large e-commerce player will get to 50% in 2013,” said Kevin Talbot, co-founder and managing partner of Relay Ventures.… More

Not hot in 2013: mobile payments

1 December 2012 by Steve Blum
business, finance, mobile, mobile commerce, venture capital, Wireless Communications Alliance

“Mobile payments is like waiting for Godot,” said Omar Javaid, managing director of BBO Global, speaking at a recent What’s Hot (and What’s Not) in Mobility 2012 forum in Mountain View. “Every year is the year of NFC but it never happens.” The problem, he says, is that processing payments is a system play. It’s a space that’s controlled by a few big players and they’re not very interested.

Quinn Li, managing director of Qualcomm Ventures, agreed.… More

$13 million CASF grant request for FTTP in Mojave and Boron

8 October 2012 by Steve Blum
business, casf, ccbc, cetf, cpuc, race telecommunications, regional consortia, rural broadband

Mobile broadband availability in the Mojave-Boron area, as reported by carriers to the CPUC.

Another proposal for project funding from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) surfaced over the weekend. Race Telecommunications is proposing to offer fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) service to homes and businesses in the high desert towns of Mojave and Boron, and some surrounding areas.

They’re asking CASF for $6,229,864 for the Mojave segment of the project and $6,780,528 for the Boron piece. The segments are really two halves of the same project, but CASF procedures require separate applications for segments that are not in contiguous areas.

… More

Satellite, DSL projects seek "unserved area" subsidies from CASF

4 October 2012 by Steve Blum
business, casf, ccbc, cetf, cpuc, middle mile, regional consortia, rural broadband, satellite broadband

Two DSL extensions and one satellite project are asking for a total of $651,622 in grant funding from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). The two DSL extensions, proposed by WillitsOnline LLC and its subsidiary company, Rural Broadband Now! LLC, would bring ADSL2+ to homes in the Westport and Boonville areas of Mendocino County. The proposals request $161,500 and $128,000 respectively. Satellite Internet provider ViaSat, Inc. is asking for $362,122 to reach about 700 homes in rural pockets of Monterey County.

… More