1. Monthly archive
  2. January 2012

January 2012

Australia’s National Broadband Network delayed: target missed by 31,000

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has again slammed the Australian government's $36 billion national broadband network (NBN) project as a waste of money after it was revealed only 4,000 households had been connected to the network so far.

Of those 4,000 just 2,315 premises have begun using the NBN's fiber optic cables for communications. The connection figures, released this week by the government-owned company set up to deliver the network, are well down on NBN Co's earlier projection of 35,000 connections in 2011. NBN expects numbers to ramp up in 2012 as more retail service providers begin offering broadband plans and Australians began migrating to the network from existing services. It's also waiting on an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission green light for its deal with the country's biggest telco Telstra, so it can access the company's underground infrastructure to lay more fiber. Under the deal with the government and NBN Co, Telstra will progressively decommission its copper-based network and allow NBN Co to access its pits, manholes and exchanges, and sell some infrastructure. In return, Telstra will receive $11 billion from the government.

Understanding Google Fiber better

Google's high-speed internet test program is down to a six-month window before it's implemented in Kansas City.

The Social Media Club of Kansas City says since the announcement in March, families are slow to realize the Google Fiber could be in their homes. That's why SMCKC has held a series of community meetings with metro neighborhoods to get them on a consideration list. "When we talk to neighborhood people, there's still a lot of 'what does this mean? How is this going to change my life, why do I want it? Why do I care?' So Give Us a Gig is an opportunity for us to take those opportunities out and educate, engage, and help those communities advocate for themselves to be able to get it," Aaron Deacon with SMCKC said. The Give Us a Gig project gives metro communities a chance to prove themselves worthy of Google's high-speed internet. Google would provide a gigabyte of download speed - nearly 100 times faster than the average provider. SMCKC is not affiliated with Google. The club is a volunteer based organization with a mission to further technology in Kansas City. The club is working with Google on community feedback and interest. Deacon admits Google has not released details about the price or when and where the fiber will be laid. But Deacon says SMCKC wants to help all communities be eligible. "We want to make sure people who can't afford it, we're trying to figure out through grant writing, partnerships, local businesses, where some of the lower income neighborhoods can have access to the service," Deacon said. Google expects to implement the test program by June and has said rates will be competitive.

Gig.U and the next innovation platform

[Commentary] The United States has historically been the leader in the development and use of information networks and the technologies that give them life. The Internet is an American invention, and in the early part of the last decade, we were the leader in developing and adopting wireline broadband -- a leadership position we have since ceded to other countries. While the world is in the midst of the mobile revolution, there is another round of innovation to come in wired networks and this time, the advantage might not be ours. Other countries, such as Korea, Japan and Sweden, have already deployed networks capable of speeds 200 times faster than the speed the average American uses. If that gap persists, other countries will be the ones developing the expertise that leads to the Gigabit Google, Cisco or Amazon.

Gig.U was born and now 37 university communities are in conversation with more than 50 companies, including Google and the major telecommunications and cable companies, about how to improve the business case for next generation deployments in their areas. We should hope for their success. If we can eliminate bandwidth as a barrier to innovation for a good number of students, faculty, and the businesses that congregate in university communities, there is no telling how they will, again, reinvent how we live and work, both in the United States and around the world. It won't happen overnight, but like the foundation laid for 4G a decade before it became commercially available, it will provide new opportunities for the next generation. Gig.U is the next platform by which the United States can take advantage of Carlson's Law. We don't know what a million folks around college communities playing with unlimited bandwidth will develop, but if history is a guide, it will be chaotic, smart, and provide the next generation of innovation that America and the world need.

ACLU sues library for blocking Wiccan websites

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Eastern Missouri sued a local public library for allegedly blocking websites related to Wicca, a modern pagan religion.

Anaka Hunter of Salem (MO) said she tried to access websites about Wicca, Native American religions and astrology for her own research, but the library's filtering software blocked the sites. According to the ACLU, the software labeled the sites as "occult" and "criminal." Hunter said she talked to Salem Library director Glenda Wofford, who unblocked portions of the sites, but much of the material remained censored. According to the lawsuit, Wofford said she would only unblock the sites for patrons who had a legitimate reason to view them and said she had an obligation to report people who accessed the sites to the police.

Hearst Boosts Group-wide Election Coverage

Hearst Television released details of Commitment 2012, the latest iteration of the company’s biannual election-coverage efforts, which began with Commitment 2000 and which have earned a Peabody Award and multiple USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Awards, including six group-wide honors.

Hearst owns stations in Des Moines, Iowa (KCCI), and Manchester, New Hampshire (WMUR), the two markets where the 2012 presidential campaign begins with the Iowa caucuses, and the New Hampshire primary, on Jan. 10. Commitment 2012, the company said, will involve “an intensified effort at the company’s 25 news-producing TV stations, and on their respective local websites and mobile sites, to provide comprehensive local TV news coverage of national, state and local election campaigns on-air, online and via mobile devices.” A cornerstone feature of Commitment 2012 will be “12 in 12” — a pledge of a minimum 12 minutes’ airtime for daily political news and candidate-discourse coverage per weekday and, where possible, on weekends, in the 30 days leading up to the primary and general elections at each of its news-producing stations. Hearst says this represents a 20% increase — or some 25 additional hours for a total of 150 hours group-wide over the 30-day period — from the 10 minutes daily that Hearst first pledged in 2006. In addition, each station will produce a “Virtual Town Hall” or discussion in the 30 days leading up to the election.

A Look Ahead to 2012: NTIA by the Numbers

In the coming year, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will continue its focus on three key areas: expanding high speed Internet access and adoption, freeing up more spectrum for wireless broadband, and promoting policies that preserve the Internet as an engine for innovation and economic growth. Here are some numbers to illustrate these challenges.

  • 80 percent: Approximate amount of Fortune 500 companies that only accept job applications online;
  • 60-plus percent: Amount of working Americans who use the Internet as an integral part of their jobs ;
  • 1 in 3 U.S. households lack high-speed Internet service–that’s more than 100 million Americans cut off from many economic and educational opportunities;
  • 1 in 5 U.S. households don’t use the Internet anywhere–that’s more than 60 million Americans left behind in the 21st century economy.

Thanks to funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, NTIA is investing nearly $4 billion in about 230 projects to expand broadband access and adoption in communities nationwide. These grant projects are building and upgrading broadband infrastructure, expanding and improving public computer centers, and promoting broadband adoption through computer training and other approaches. Together these investments are laying the groundwork for sustainable economic growth, creating jobs, and preparing more Americans for the 21st century workforce.

Grantees report so far:

  • 29,000: Miles of broadband infrastructure deployed or upgraded;
  • 24,000: New workstations installed in public computer centers;
  • 755,000: Hours of training provided in the last quarter alone;
  • 220,000: People who received the training in the last quarter;
  • 230,000: New broadband subscribers.

Map shows co-ops lead charge on rural broadband

Minnesota's new broadband task force filed its first official report.

Some areas of the state already meet the state's 2015 goal for adequate high-speed Internet access for all households. No surprise that the Twin Cities, with its population density and multiple providers, meets the goal. But it's intriguing to see the two large outstate areas in the upper Minnesota River valley and up north. A big reason is the optic fiber work done in recent years by small rural cooperatives like Farmers Mutual in Madison, Federated Telephone in Morris and Paul Bunyan in Bemidji. Folks in those co-ops will tell you in makes a different when the goal is customer-owner service instead of shareholder profit.

5 major changes facing the Internet in 2012

2012 is poised to go down in Internet history as one of the most significant 12-month periods from both a technical and policy perspective since the late 1990s, when this network-of-networks stopped being a research project and became an engine of economic growth. This year the Internet will face several milestones as it undergoes its biggest-ever technical upgrade, from Internet Protocol version 4 to version 6. In addition, key contracts that the U.S. federal government controls for Internet infrastructure and operations are being re-bid.

Taken together, these events could result in monumental changes in both who operates the Internet infrastructure as well as how these operations are handled:

  • The root servers may have a new operator.
  • A new company could operate the .com registry.
  • Up to 1,000 new top-level domains will start being introduced.
  • An additional 10,000 websites will support IPv6.
  • Europe will run out of IPv4 addresses.

Reminder: It’s Really Easy to Pirate TV. Even Live Sports.

The fact that it’s easy to get pirated TV, delivered over the Internet, isn’t new. Still, it’s always worth pointing out just how easy it has become.

It’s particularly important when it comes to live sports, because that’s supposed to be the one thing that keeps everyone — or many people, at least — paying (a lot) for cable. I’d be surprised if the Knicks game looked very good on a big screen TV — when I tried it on my MacBook, it was pretty blurry. But it’s better than nothing, which is your only alternative if you’re a Time Warner Cable subscriber in New York City right now (the NBA’s League Pass subscription service, which is supposed to give you access to every game in the league, has a regional blackout). It’s also worth noting that while Wilson is directing his anger at the cable guys, who are easy and deserving targets, the NBA itself is a supporter of ProtectIP and SOPA, which are designed to make sites like atdhe harder to search for on Google, Twitter, etc.

Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting

Federal Communications Commission
December 12, 2012
01:00 pm

Agenda

The Commission will consider:

  1. a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to broaden its initiatives in unleashing broadband spectrum, promoting technological innovation, and encouraging investment via the creation of a shared access broadband service in the 3550-3650 MHz band for small cell use.
  2. an item on developing the capability for Americans to contact 911 emergency services via text messaging, and providing automatic consumer notification where text to 911 is not supported.
  3. a Report and Order on reforming the FCC’s universal service support programs for healthcare that would expand healthcare providers’ access to broadband, especially in rural areas, while increasing overall efficiency and accountability in the programs.

These items were approved before the meeting:

  • a Report and Order and Order of Proposed Modification to increase the Nation’s supply of spectrum for mobile broadband by adopting service rules for 40 megahertz of spectrum in the 2 GHz band (2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 MHz).
  • a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would implement the Congressional directive in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 to grant new initial licenses for the 1915-1920 MHz and the 1995-2000 MHz bands through a system of competitive bidding.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Wednesday, December 12, 2012:

  1. Enabling Spectrum Sharing and Small Cell Wireless Broadband Services in the 3.5 GHz Band: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to broaden its initiatives in unleashing broadband spectrum, promoting technological innovation, and encouraging investment via the creation of a shared access broadband service in the 3550-3650 MHz band for small cell use.
  2. Facilitating the Deployment of Text-to-911 and Other Next Generation 911 Initiatives: The Commission will consider a Report, Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on developing the capability for Americans to contact 911 emergency services via text messaging. This would be a first step toward additional next generation services offering wider access to 911 responders.
  3. Reforming Rural Health Care Support: The Commission will consider a Report and Order on reforming the FCC’s universal service support programs for healthcare that would expand healthcare providers’ access to broadband, especially in rural areas, while increasing overall efficiency and accountability in the programs.

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