January 2010

[Commentary] The answer to the question - why did the chicken cross the road - is that the chicken saw sufficient value on the other side of the road to take the trouble and assume the risk of crossing the road. The analysis of why vulnerable populations adopt and sustain broadband/Internet usage involves similar calculations. Prospective users have to see that there are important and practical benefits available through the Internet worth the time, effort and cost of getting online and using the Internet. For senior living communities, once successful adoption programs bring broadband to seniors in their apartments, the buildings can enjoy cost savings and improved operating efficiencies. First, in order to embrace adoption programs, both owners of senior buildings and residents need to appreciate how Internet benefits are meaningful to them. Building owners need to see cost savings sufficient to justify capital investments. Seniors need to experience benefits to warrant the cost of a broadband subscription. These benefits become "sustainable" once continuous and growing benefits exceed costs and owners of senior buildings and seniors themselves pay for the cost of broadband services.

Who has the ear of the White House when it comes to technology issues?

When it comes to tech executives from the private sector, Google and Microsoft have both done well at getting into the White House. Many of the visitors were other government technology people, such as Casey Coleman (CIO of the General Services Administration) and Gopal Khanna (CIO for the state of Minnesota). Some were executives, like Rod Beckstrom, the head of ICANN.

But more interesting were the lobbyists, think tankers, and public interest personalities who attended meetings with various technology policy staff members. Free Press and Public Knowledge, two groups that have learned to "punch above their weight" in DC, have also done well at the White House—no surprise, really, given Obama's early tech picks like FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Susan Crawford. Public Knowledge lawyer Harold Feld, who has been mixing it up with the cable industry lately over Selectable Output Control (SOC), visited twice. Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge's president, also had two separate meetings. Josh Silver of Free Press stopped by one time in July. Robert Atkinson, an Obama transition team member and head of the ITIF think tank, paid a visit. So did Michael Calabrese, who does plenty of work with wireless networks and white space devices over at the New America Foundation (where Eric Schmidt of Google is currently Chairman).

[Commentary] On Friday, Comcast presented oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the company's challenge to the FCC's "Bit Torrent" Order. Comcast and others (including two FCC Commissioners) thought the order was simply wrong, both legally and factually. Some activists insist that Comcast's challenge to the FCC is a fight about network neutrality. That's simply not true.

The primary basis for our challenge, and the basis on which we hope the court will decide this case, is that no federal agency can subject any company or individual to sanctions for violation of federal standards when there was no law in the first place. This is a basic issue of fair notice, regardless of the issue at stake. So it shouldn't matter whether you are for or against "net neutrality" regulation — this is simply not the way the government should conduct its business. If the FCC — or any agency — wants to regulate in an area, it needs first to establish binding regulations and apply them properly, consistent with the process that Chairman Genachowski has now proposed.

So where does Comcast stand on whether net neutrality rules are needed? On Friday Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts endorsed the FCC trying to make clear what the rules of the road are moving forward. But we continue to question whether the record will show a need for new rules — because broadband competition and consumer demand will ensure that the Internet remain open as it has always been — the FCC may decide otherwise. If that is the result, we are obviously better off having "clear rules," as Roberts stated, than with the confusion of having the FCC try to enforce an unenforceable and vague "policy statement." It's truly sad that the debate around "net neutrality," or the need to regulate to "preserve an open Internet," has been filled with so much rhetoric, vituperation, and confusion. That's gone on long enough. It is time to move on, and for the FCC to decide, in a clear and reasoned way, whether and what rules are needed to "preserve an open Internet," and to whom they should apply and how.

In launching the rulemaking, the FCC said that greater clarity is required, and we agree. Comcast will join many other interested parties in making comments to the FCC this week regarding its proposed open Internet rules. Our goal is to move past the rhetoric and to provide thoughtful, constructive, and fact-based guidance as the FCC looks for a way forward that will be lawful and that will effectively balance all the important interests at stake.

Just when the world got familiar with the smartphone, the mobile phone community is starting to talk about the "superphone." Google dropped the superphone title on the general public when it launched its Nexus One phone on Tuesday. Now, at CES, industry analysts and others are describing any mobile phone with 1Ghz processors, or even phones with especially sophisticated design, hardware or software, a superphone. CES gave visitors a glimpse of hundreds of the latest devices and concept designs, but some vendors and analysts also talked about phones that could arrive in two to 10 years.

They envision phones shaped and worn like bracelets or that would make use of augmented reality technology. Others could be squeezed to take simple commands or would project an image or an arrow on the ground to help a traveler make their way through a crowded airport, assisted by GPS navigation.

"We're about to see an explosion in mobile phone innovation," said Will Stofega, an IDC analyst. "The next 10 years are going to be really exciting."