May 2012

It looks like Google is backing off its commitment to an open fiber to the home network. If so, that would be a blow to those hoping to also offer services over Google’s pipe as well as well as put a stop to using the project as an example of what true broadband competition at the physical level can look like.

According to my recent conversations with sources, a reading of Google’s blog and evasions by the search giant when I asked about its stance, Google’s not as into sharing as it once was. Soon after Google proposed its fiber to the home project in Kansas City, Kan. one of the product managers announced that other ISPs and services could build on top of the future network to deliver their own services. Additionally, in its first blog posting, it stressed openness saying, “We’ll operate an “open access” network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers.” But in the last few days I’ve heard from a few sources in the fiber community that Google has been continuing to back off its open promises, I asked a Google spokeswoman if Google was still committed to opening up its network. She told me, “We are committed to providing the best product for our customers,” and declined to comment further.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration head Lawrence Strickling acknowledged that beyond the technical and administrative hurdles his organization faces, it also confronts a public relations challenge.

In a keynote address at a conference convened by a coalition representing community-level broadband projects, he urged members of the audience to call attention to their projects and highlight their successes. The NTIA charged with disbursing $7 billion in economic stimulus funding to jumpstart new broadband deployments. "We're in an election year," Assistant Secretary Strickling said. "There are people out there who have as their commitment the desire to try to embarrass this program. And they'll be looking at every little thing that you're doing." Just last week, Assistant Secretary Strickling appeared before the House Commerce Committee for an oversight hearing on the broadband grant program. For the first 15 minutes or so of the hearing, Assistant Secretary Strickling said he was quizzed about the cost of routers that one grant recipient in a member's district was using, a level of minutiae that signaled the extent to which the broadband program had been politicized. "There are folks out there who don't want to hear the truth about this. And it's important that every one of you be very vigilant," Assistant Secretary Strickling told members of the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition.

If it seems as if Comcast has acted arrogantly in addressing widespread complaints that it favors its own video streams on its Internet service over those of its competitors, it could be in part because the company so dominates the Internet-service business in the markets where it operates. And that's a lot of markets.

Internet access is the company's biggest area of growth. Comcast lost 37,000 cable customers last quarter, which was more than expected, but that was offset by a 5.7% rise in broadband revenues. That might help explain why the company at first thought it could brush off the loud complaints about its video-streaming policies. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted a diatribe on Facebook last month noting that off all the various streaming services he watched through his Xbox -- Netflix , Hulu, HBOgo, and Xfinity -- only Comcast's Xfinity didn't count against the 250-gigabyte monthly data cap Comcast was imposing on its customers. That seemed to violate at least the spirit of net-neutrality rules, and the FCC said it would look into the matter. Comcast has since abandoned data caps temporarily, and is testing alternative methods of addressing so-called bandwidth hogs. But at first, the company reacted with what many described as supreme disingenuousness. It claimed that because its Xfinity for Microsoft's Xbox service runs on a "private network" that is distinct from the Internet, net-neutrality rules (which demand that ISPs treat all data the same) didn't apply. But in practice, the service is sent into customers' homes via the same pipe as all other Internet traffic, so this didn't fly with critics. Neither did Comcast vice president for video David Cohen's dismissal of the criticism as mere "noise."

Apple CEO Tim Cook got barely any notice when he slipped into the Capitol for a handful of meetings with Congressional leaders. The low-key visit was in keeping with the company's traditional approach to Washington. But the fact that Cook visited at all signals a subtle but significant pivot for the outfit inside the Beltway.

For years, Apple has hewed to a studiously hands-off lobbying strategy, flowing from co-founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs' aversion to tangling with the policymaking process. As his successor begins to put his own imprint on the company, however, Cook wants key players in Washington to know they now have an open line to the chief executive in Cupertino. That was the message aides briefed on the meetings said Cook conveyed in sit-downs with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Cook didn't connect with the top House Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, who hails from neighboring San Francisco, because she was traveling back from an official trip to Afghanistan when he made his rounds. The huddles were brief and largely introductory.