March 2010

Powell to Genachowski: Light Regulatory Touch For Broadband

In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, former chairman Michael Powell said that one key part of the national broadband plan should be a "stable regulatory environment," which he said means "to continue the longstanding policy of a light regulatory touch" when it comes to the Internet.

The letter from Powell -- and Harold Ford, his fellow co-chair of Broadband For America, a coalition of companies and associations, including the National Cable & Telecommunications Association -- argues a robust marketplace with incentives for investment and innovation is the best vehicle for broadband deployment. The FCC concedes that private industry will have to front most of the money to achieve its deployment and adoption goals.

Broadband Growth Slowed in 2009

The nineteen largest cable and telephone providers in the US -- representing about 93% of the market -- acquired nearly 4.1 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in 2009. Annual net broadband additions in 2009 were 75% of the total in 2008. The top broadband providers now account for nearly 71.8 million subscribers -- with cable companies having 39.3 million broadband subscribers, and telephone companies having 32.5 million subscribers.

States' roles will shift in new NHIN landscape

"What is the motivation for providers to join a health information exchange if all they need is NHIN Direct to help them achieve meaningful use?"

The question was put to Dr. Doug Fridsma, the director of standards and interoperability in the Office of the National Coordinator by an audience member who had just heard Fridsma describe ONC's new plan to offer providers the tools to perform a series of basic health information transactions over the Internet. The project, dubbed "NHIN Direct", had been discussed in bits and pieces before last week's Healthcare Information and Management System Society's (HIMSS) annual conference in Atlanta. But the session featuring Fridsma, along with newly named NHIN Direct project manager Arien Malec, was the first time they had discussed the idea in any detail before a general audience.

Many agencies are still anti-social media

Federal agencies have made various forays into using social media, for everything from diplomacy to facilitating Haiti relief efforts. But many agencies are still staying out of the pool.

A survey of federal employees last fall by Market Connections found that only 23 percent of respondents said their agencies use social media (25 percent didn't know) and that 60 percent said their agencies banned social media sites. Agencies within the Defense Department, which has been looking to take a balanced approach, were slightly more active in using social media than civilian agencies.

Why the FCC National Broadband Plan Should Include Public Wi-Fi

[Commentary] Coursey hopes the National broadband Plan will include expanding Wi-Fi as part of improving mobile data access. It appears no amount of repurposed radio spectrum is likely to meet the expanding wireless data demand for very long. Universal free Wi-Fi is an idea whose time has come, not because it would be a nice thing for users but because it can reduce the need for additional radio spectrum for mobile wireless. That spectrum has proven difficult to come by and may be more expensive than offering Wi-Fi for free.

Gay Rights Drives Online News Agenda

Last week, bloggers returned to the hot-button subject of gay rights, a topic that has repeatedly proven to be of more interest to commentators online than to the mainstream press.

From March 1-5, 16% of the week's links in the blogosphere were about gay rights issues in the news, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. This is the second time in a month when the topic has been among the most discussed subjects. During the first week of February, gay issues including the military's policy of "don't ask, don't tell" were a major subject of discussion. It is also the sixth time the subject finished in the top five since PEJ began its New Media Index in January 2009. This past week, several different incidents drove the conversation. These included a protest at a Catholic Mass in the Netherlands, a change in health coverage for employees of Catholic Charities, and the acceptance of same-sex marriage license applications in Washington (DC)

Three Years, Three Stories

The deep U.S. recession -- which erupted into a full-blown crisis with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 -- was the biggest story in the mainstream news media in 2009. It accounted for 20.3% of the overall newshole studied in the News Coverage Index of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Attention to the story peaked in February and March of 2009 (when it filled 40.9% and 40.0% respectively), when the story focused on passage of the $787 stimulus package and efforts to fix the ailing financial sector. That number fell by half (to 20.1%) by April where it continued a slow decline through the end of the year. But the media by and large did not see this coming. Attention to the economy was minimal in 2007, filling just 1.4% of the overall newshole, despite emerging problems in the housing market. Coverage picked up in 2008 -- filling 6.3% in the first six months -- as the housing crisis worsened and the country questioned whether it was heading into a recession. But after the September meltdown on Wall Street, when the magnitude of the crisis was revealed, coverage exploded, accounting for 21.4% in the last four months of 2008.

Tasmania's Great Internet

40,000 homes in Hobart, 30,000 in Launceston and 10,000 in each of Burnie and Devonport (all located on Tasmania, if you're scoring at home) will soon have a better Internet than Chicago, Houston, Boston or nearly all of Europe.

That's about half the homes on the island, with 90% of Australia soon to follow. It's currently GPON, designed for 200-400 megabits but initially selling as 100 megabit. The budget for these 90K homes is about US$1,000/home. Given that everything is new, procedures undeveloped, and people need to be trained, that's consistent with the $600-700 figures from Verizon and France. It should come down significantly. The original estimate of $43B (Australian) was twice as high as the current costs. Australia has decided that 10% of the population is too expensive to reach with fiber, but most of the population is urban and suburban and shouldn't be particularly expensive to reach.

No B-52s in My Backyard

AT&T's customers have long hated the unfortunately named B-52 cabinets and now British Telecom is facing civil disobedience over the ugly 6 foot by 4 foot neighborhood boxes they are deploying. St. Albans said they are totally unacceptable in a "conservation district" and Sandridge parish councillor Chris Hackett has refused to let them dig foundations.

Universal Service Charges to 15.3%

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), which as you may have guessed administers the Universal Service Fund, submitted projections of demand and administrative expenses for the second quarter of 2010. As a result, the Federal Communications Commission is proposing to set the universal service contribution factor for the second quarter of 2010 at 15.3 percent. If the FCC takes no action regarding the projections of demand and administrative expenses and the proposed contribution factor within the 14-day period following release of this Public Notice, they shall be deemed approved by the FCC.

Benton

Search