January 2011

What US Carriers Mean by ‘4G’

With all the wireless industry jargon being thrown around in marketing campaigns these days, it’s still unclear just what each carrier means when it touts its network as “4G.”

Loosely defined, 4G stands for the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. In the narrow terms originally defined by International Telecommunication Union standards, it doesn't count as 4G unless it offers download speeds of 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps. That’s about 100 times faster than any speeds we’re seeing on networks now. If we were to judge the networks available to us now by this standard, none of them would be considered 4G. Luckily for the carriers, we aren't judging that way — at least, not anymore. In December at the ITU World Radiocommunication Seminar in Geneva, the ITU allowed the term “4G” to “also be applied to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMax, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement” compared to current 3G networks. AT&T wasted no time embracing the new nomenclature, relabeling its network overnight. And well it might, as rival T-Mobile has been using the same nomenclature for the same technology since early 2010.

Blackberry Says It Can't Help India on Monitoring

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion reiterated that it can't give Indian security agencies access to its corporate smartphone email service.

While talks will continue, the issue casts uncertainty over the popular service in the world's fastest-growing telecom market. The Indian government fears the heavy encryption on BlackBerry smartphones makes them easy for terrorists to use undetected. The government has been holding talks with the company to find ways of monitoring RIM's corporate email services. It hasn't, however, set a target date for resolving the matter. RIM has argued that what the Indian government wants is physically impossible for it to accomplish. A company official reiterated that there is no technology available that will allow monitoring of the email service, because it's controlled by the servers at the companies that use the service.

Key Republican backs reallocation of valuable D Block for public safety use

Rep Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) -- the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications Subcommittee -- has backed devoting a valuable chunk of the airwaves to public safety purposes, a position endorsed by the public safety community. He says the best way to build a mobile broadband network for police and fire fighters is to allocate the valuable D Block of spectrum to this purpose.

That's as opposed to auctioning off the D Block and asking public safety to share the airspace with commercial providers. “Reallocating the D Block would finally provide an opportunity to reduce the cost and complexity of first-responder communications rather than continuing the costly and ineffective need to operate multiple systems to allow firefighters and police officers to communicate with one another,” Chairman Bilirakis said. Others supporting D Block reallocation include the White House, House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-NY), and Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).

FCC Corrects CableCARD Order

The Federal Communications Commission has issued a bunch of corrections/clarifications to its CableCARD order, including allowing operator-supplied low-cost, one-way set-top boxes to have an Internet protocol interface but only so long as the IP connection isn't used to access a cable operator's video on demand and digital video recorder services.

The FCC adopted rules last October to improve its CableCARD regime while it contemplates mandating a new, universal set-top that would wed online and traditional video. But the FCC conceded in a new order that it left some things unclear and other things out and that now "modifications and clarifications are needed in order to fully and accurately reflect our intent in adopting these rule changes." The FCC also took the opportunity to point out it had also dropped a footnote, and to deny a petition from Public Knowledge, Free Press and others to reconsider an earlier waiver allowing cable operators to offer the limited-function integrated boxes. It pointed out that the CableCARD order mooted that since it provided a blanket waiver for "one-way set-top boxes without recording functionality."

Is Google Biased? Sure It Is. But Good Luck Proving It

[Commentary] Search bias. Search neutrality. Search integrity. The debate over bias in search results has never been hotter. Is Google's ranking system corrupt in favor of its own properties? Maybe, but the task of proving that is a cast-iron bitch and it should be least of your concerns.

AT&T, local phone companies in $38M fight

AT&T is trying to get Minnesota to slash the cost of one of the last vestiges of a bygone telecommunications era, a move some argue could raise phone rates for rural consumers by as much as 50 percent as rural phone companies try to recoup the revenue.

At issue is an estimated $38 million in so-called access charges that firms such as AT&T pay to the local telephone networks to deliver their long-distance calls within Minnesota. The charges were devised by the federal government during the 1980s breakup of the AT&T telephone monopoly as a way to subsidize rural phone companies and their presumed higher operating costs with their relatively few customers spread out over a wide area. But, AT&T says, most rural phone companies don't need the subsidy today and cutting access charges will lower its long-distance rates for consumers. It also argues that, as phone calls shift from land lines to wireless and the Internet, companies such as Sprint and Skype, which pay much cheaper charges, should shoulder more of the burden.

Ambitious tech agenda faces hurdles

The State of the Union address gave the technology community plenty of lip service on areas of importance to them — investment in research and development, tax reform, and expanding the reach of the Internet — but few details on how the rhetoric will translate into practice. In his most concrete commitment to the tech agenda, President Barack Obama laid out the bold goal of making mobile broadband available to 98 percent of the population over the next five years. Telecom experts say the feat is possible, but faces a host of challenges.

In order to expand the reach of wireless broadband, the Federal Communications Commission must free up more airwaves, also known as spectrum, that power mobile Internet devices. But bringing more spectrum to market is no easy task. The process requires jumping through a slew of bureaucratic hoops and threading the needle of the complicated politics that lie behind it. Part of the political challenge will be overcoming the ill will generated by the Open Internet regulations the FCC recently adopted — to the dismay of Republicans. The net neutrality regulations will stifle the private investment needed to build out broadband, the GOP claims. Rebecca Arbogast, managing director at investment firm Stifel Nicolaus, called the five-year roll out plan “ambitious.” “The reason is that it all ends up being buried in the details of what qualifies as wireless broadband,” she said. Much of the current broadband coverage is physical cable, she noted. What’s more, she said, reaching remotely-located houses is not financially attractive for businesses.

Public Broadcasting on the Ropes

The new Republican majority in the lower house of Congress, emboldened by sweeping victories in November, has called for across-the-board cuts in discretionary spending. And although they've been criticized for a lacking specifics, it didn't take long for a few conservative lawmakers to offer them, including Rep Doug Lamborn (R-CO), who introduced a bill his month to eliminate all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization charged with distributing funds to public stations, National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and another bill that would more narrowly restrict any tax dollars going to NPR. "Government-funded broad-casting is now unnecessary in a world of 500-channel cable TV, satellite radio and cell phone Internet access," Lamborn wrote in an op-ed in the Hill on Jan. 12 after introducing the legislation.

Local public libraries keep up with fast-moving tech world

The Loutit District Library and the Spring Lake District Library have expanded along with technology, and are offering patrons a variety of new services - most of which involve the computer.

Kerry FitzGerald, acting director at Loutit District Library, said the Grand Haven library's recent remodel and expansion project has enabled them to do a complete reboot. "Not only have we doubled the size of the Public Computing Center, we've added a computer classroom and program rooms with state-of-the-art projection systems," she said. "Our patrons also enjoy Wi-Fi access throughout the building, outside on the deck, and even in Central Park." Spring Lake District Library has added many new audio options and software programs. "In the last couple of years, the use of e-books and e-audio has grown significantly," SLDL Director Claire Sheridan said. "The Spring Lake District Library was one of the original participating libraries in the Michigan Library Consortium's Overdrive group because we could see this was a future need and wanted to be involved in this new technology as soon as possible."

Haiti community media still struggling

"Community radio stations are very fragile right now. In certain cases they have been wiped out by commercial media which have more resources and better means of recovery", Professor Ary Regis said.

According to Regis, the situation has been exacerbated by the country's fragile economy, political and social unrest. "There are fewer volunteers working in community radio stations because of the bad economy". These and other challenges are hindering local communities from voicing their needs, said Regis in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince. Soon after the earthquake, WACC launched an appeal to raise funds to rebuild community media in the country. Nearly 60,000 Dollars were raised through donations from WACC members and friends. The donations have been used to re-construct and re-equip three community media networks run by WACC partners. They include Rezo Fanm Radyo Kominote Ayisyen (REFRAKA), Medialternatif Group/&Alterpresse and Social Animation and Communication Society (SAKS). Marie Guyrleine Justin, Coordinator of REFRAKA, was grateful to WACC for re-equipping and reconstructing the station. "Thanks to the financial and technical support by WACC, a lot of the work spaces have been re-equipped and re-vamped." The radio station is now operating from a new studio, she said, adding that the network has also conducted radio production training workshops for young people.

Benton

Search