US senators offer bill to protect municipal broadband

Grok Headline matches for US senators offer bill to protect municipal broadband

Senators back municipal broadband

Senators back municipal broadband 06/24/2005 03:32 PM
In the face of opposition from the telecom industry, some US senators are supporting municipal broadband.

Model Anti-Municipal Broadband Bill

Model Anti-Municipal Broadband Bill 12/22/2004 01:27 AM
Esme Vos has uncovered (and has available for download) the model bill for state legislatures to ban municipal broadband: The inestimable Vos has emerged as a firebrand for fighting back the rhetoric of incumbent teleopolies that have put out the meme that there are unfair tax breaks and unfair advantages that a municipal operation has over private enterprise. This ignores the subsidies provided--estimated at over $700 per person in Pennsylvania over the last 10 years of a failed Verizon development plan, non-refundable--and "taxes" that telcos and cable companies are often able to collect for their own coffers. Vos now posts the bill that someone--she'd like to know the individual--wrote to distribute to various legislatures under the guise of competition. Competition means not taking money from taxpayers, charging them by overpriced tariffs defended to the death, collecting and keeping funds intended for rural or impoverished citizens to have universal access, and fighting for the right to squeeze the pipes to prevent interesting competitive services from rising. Competition does mean building neutral infrastructure paid for by access fees that allow all comers to compete on a level playing field to let the market determine the best use of resources. It's strange how businesses that hate regulation in theory love how it supports their business models. Also strange how many folks who claim to want real markets only really want big businesses to be able to dictate to their markets what things cost. I looked at the innards of the Word doc that Esme posted, but the only secret information it contains is about her computer, not any previous computers. On Monday morning, she posted the list of board members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the group behind the model legislation. Update: Sascha Meinrath calls astroturf on three organizations, including ALEC, that are behind anti-municipal telco/cable/telecom service bills, pointing out that their boards' members are mostly made up of folks that more likely have their own companies' interests at heart despite the mission statements....

The Ups And Downs Of Municipal Broadband

The Ups And Downs Of Municipal Broadband 04/14/2004 11:51 AM
Following last month's Supreme Court ruling stating that state s could outlaw municipal broadband, ZDNet has an interesting interview with Jim Ballmer, one of the lawyers fighting to let municipalities offer broadband, should they want to. Meanwhile, the very large UTOPIA municipal broadband (offering fiber to the home) project in Utah was dealt a huge setback last night when Salt Lake City decided not to support the project, after a fairly intense fight over the issue. Qwest is rejoicing, as they've been complaining about UTOPIA ever since it was first conceived. However, the folks behind UTOPIA are clearing trying to push ahead, and hope that they'll be signing up a few other cities to help out soon. The big questions now are whether or not the other cities involved are willing to foot the larger part of the bill and whether or not they'll be able to find enough subscribers to make AT&T still be interested in being a service provider on the network. Once again, we return to the example of Burlington, Vermont, where a municipal fiber connection with ownership by its own users means much more opportunity for everyone except companies who previously had the local monopoly on providing (much slower) broadband access. A municipal solution that allows companies to sign on as providers builds on the idea of a natural monopoly while still allowing true competitive market pressures to provide people with better services.

Municipal Broadband at SXSW

Municipal Broadband at SXSW 02/07/2005 01:07 AM
Events move so fast, my head spins: a few days after covering the flurry of activity around the New Millennium Research Council's report discouraging municipal broadband, I was asked to moderate a panel on the discussion on March 14 during the South by Southwest (SXSW) music, arts, and interactive festival and conference in Austin, Texas. Esme Vos is also on the panel, from MuniWireless.com, and we should have a rip, and might I add, roaring time. The interactive part of the event runs March 11 to 15; the overall event is from March 11 to 20....

Bill would thwart municipal Internet

Bill would thwart municipal Internet 02/01/2005 09:14 PM
Indystar.com - Tue Feb 1, 08:50 am GMT

NRMC Report on Municipal Broadband Is
Out

NRMC Report on Municipal Broadband Is
Out 02/05/2005 09:27 PM
I've read the report, and it's worth downloading and reviewing: The report from the NMRC is called "Not In The Public Interest - The Myth of Municipal Wi-Fi Networks -- Why Municial Schemes to Provide Wi-Fi Broadband Services With Public Funds Are Ill-Advised." I've studied it now and have some comments. Before reading my comments, you should review that report and one that's a predecessor and cited in this report and in some of the advance publicity from The Heartland Institute, which co-produced the report--The Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University's Municipal Broadband in Concord: An In-Depth Analysis. (See also Karl Bode's more irate analysis of the report.) I'm going to back in time to March 2004, when the Beacon Hill Institute report was published because many elements of it are embedded in the NMRC report. The Concord report from Beacon Hill analyzes whether a proposed network in Concord, Mass., has any hopes of producing a good return with low risk. The report looks at four cities, including Tacoma, Wash., and Ashland, Ore., and also examines RCN, a cable operator that tried to offer competitive broadband services in areas with incumbent operators. Some financial details in the report on Tacoma and Ashland date to 2001 partly because financial information isn't readily broken out for these two projects. Based on aspects of the Beacon Hill report, it was clearly primarily written in late 2003 when full-year figures for 2002 were all that would have been available. It's tricky to tease out where they got numbers for Ashland and Tacoma even after studying and following the footnotes and reading reports at the various project sites. For instance, a citation on Ashland borrowing as much as $20 million from other city agencies to make up revenue shortfalls in their fiber network is attribute to a site called Dynacorp-sucks.com that was "last accessed January 28, 2003" in the footnote reference. There is no record of this site at Archive.org, either, which doesn't mean it didn't exist, but means I cannot research what used to be there. On the Ashland Fiber Network site and City of Ashland's site, I cannot find recent numbers on cost and capital expenses, except that in the 2003-2004 budget, income from AFN outstrips expense by about 15 percent ($2.67 million in versus $2.33 million out). There appears to be no primary research in the Beacon Hill report, such as...

Does Municipal Broadband Save Jobs?

Does Municipal Broadband Save Jobs? 04/30/2004 01:33 PM
Just as certain states (at the urging of big broadband providers) are trying to ban municipal broadband offerings, Broadband Reports is looking at whether or not municipal broadband helps create jobs and boost the local economy. It seems like it's a mixed bag - but in a fairly expected way. Obviously, it has the ability to do two things: (1) give jobs to local residents working for the municipal broadband service provider and (2) help create new jobs for those who need broadband. However, it's unlikely (on its own) to suddenly turn any town or city into the next Silicon Valley. Still, with some towns unable to get broadband any other way, it can clearly help towns keep jobs that would otherwise go away. Considering the fact that, these days, many jobs require broadband access, it seems somewhat ridiculous for states to mandate that their towns and cities can't come up with their own solutions.

Podcast: Municipal Broadband Panel
Discussion

Podcast: Municipal Broadband Panel
Discussion 03/17/2005 03:44 AM
Listen to an hour of discussion at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) on municipal broadband: Deep in the heart of Texas, mere blocks from the State House where a bill is under consideration to ban all forms of municipal networking, I led a panel discussion at SXSWi with three people well poised to discuss the issues: Esme Vos of muniwireless.com, Rich MacKinnon of Austin Wireless, and David Isenberg of the SMART Letter. The conversation was fairly focused, and you'll hear the same themes over and over again: disruptive technology is threatening incumbents who are trying to prevent all forms of experimentation and innovation by municipalities because any success on these fronts could produce competitive private businesses. All three panelists agreed the innovation and competition were good, and all four of us at various times agreed that utilities should probably not have anything to do with broadband except in facilitating competition by removing barriers to access to poles and conduits, or by contracting private firms to build neutral networks onto which any provider can roam. The audio quality is mixed: you can hear the panelists quite well, but questioners and commenters from the audience--including well-known quantities like Jock Gill, Dewayne Hendricks, Cliff Skolnick, and Jon Lebovsky--are a little faint. You can download the audio in MP3 format either directly as MP3 [31 MB] or as a ZIP archive [24 MB]. An article in yesterday's Austin Business Journal--in which publication my picture will appear in about two weeks in an unrelated story--points out that even airport-based Wi-Fi and broadband could be threatened because the contract that the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has with Wayport would be banned under the first form of the house bill....

Of Municipal Broadband, Astroturfing And
Figuring Out What The Real Story Is

Of Municipal Broadband, Astroturfing And
Figuring Out What The Real Story Is 02/05/2005 09:49 PM
It's been pretty fascinating to watch this story develop over the past few days. Of course, it's nothing new to find out that supposedly "objective" research was actually carried out to favor a specific interest, but congratulations should go out to Glenn Fleishman for focusing the attention on the real story here. The background is that an organization called the New Millennium Research Council came out with a report which seemed to suggest that all municipal broadband was pure evil (well, not exactly, but that's how the pre-release info made it sound). Glenn took it upon himself to pull back some of the curtain on the folks who were behind the report. eWeek then took that a step further, and suddenly the "story" was no longer about the evils of municipal broadband -- but the sketchy connections between powerful telco interests who have been fighting as hard as they can against any kind of competition and the group that wrote the study. Glenn later gave a thorough review of the actual report, where he notes it's not nearly as bad as it had appeared from the initial leaks, and that it does raise some valid points. However, the real story is the underhanded way in which this report was written, with money being funnelled from a group supported by the big telcos to what appears to be nothing more than a front organization to write up reports that favor its funders. Now, others are picking up on the astroturf attempt, rather than the study itself.

Heavy-Hitters Join Pro-Municipal
Broadband Legislative Battle

Heavy-Hitters Join Pro-Municipal
Broadband Legislative Battle 06/24/2005 10:01 PM
Dell, Intel, Texas Instruments, and others want more broadband to sell more gear to consumers: They've increasingly gotten involved in the ongoing debate over whether incumbent monopolies and duopolies deserve right of first refusal for broadband deployment in their service areas over municipalities because of incumbents' investments, municipalities' tax-free and bond-raising abilities, and the role of government in competing with private enterprise. The Wall Street Journal walks through the issue, starting with a small town in Texas that's building broadband because SBC can't or won't. The Texas legislature was considering a telecom "reform" bill--a bill which removed many public service and oversight controls on telcos--that would also have banned municipalities from participating in broadband. The original bill was so broad it would have banned virtually all private-public partnerships that the FCC and the Bush Administration have stressed for extending broadband into the furthest reaches of the country. The backlash is now coming since Texas's bill hit defeat for a variety of reasons, partly including Dell's founder picking up the phone and calling legislators. You see, computer makers would enjoy selling more equipment and one way to do that is broadband. (Homes with broadband connections tend to buy newer equipment and more computers, among other reasons.) Pete Sessions (R-Texas) has introduced a bill at the national level to pre-empt local legislation (there's that anti-federalism again) governing municipal operation of broadband. Sessions is the representative from SBC: a former employee with huge stock and stock options held directly (not in trust) with a spouse who currently works there. His chief of staff told the Wall Street Journal that "the congressman's ties to SBC do not present a conflict of interest." Except in that he has millions of dollars at stake over SBC's continued performance in the market....

New group urges public/private sector
partnership to facilitate municipal
broadband

New group urges public/private sector
partnership to facilitate municipal
broadband 04/16/2005 05:07 AM
A group called the High Tech Broadband Coalition is encouraging public and private sector partnership to facilitate municipal broadband.

Ricochet Offers Broadband Portable
Internet to Municipal & Public Safety
Workers

Ricochet Offers Broadband Portable
Internet to Municipal & Public Safety
Workers 05/12/2004 05:28 AM
dBusinessNews.com May 12 2004 9:41AM GMT

Broadband National, Inc. Teams with NCC
to Offer VoIP and Broadband Solutions

Broadband National, Inc. Teams with NCC
to Offer VoIP and Broadband Solutions 06/17/2005 03:16 PM
Broadband National Inc. a has teamed with National Communications Contracting, Inc. to offer high speed solutions to NCC customers inquiring about the telecommunication products and services the company offers. NCC will leverage Broadband National’s IBIS (Integrated Broadband Information System) to deploy broadband and VoIP solutions to small, medium and enterprise level customers. Broadband National’s proprietary platform enables end users to instantly compare broadband solutions offered by more than 40 different suppliers, including SBC Internet Services, Comcast, Covad, XO Communications, ITC DeltaCom, SpeakEasy, and Nuvox. [PRWEB Jun 16, 2005]

Senators Try to Break Impasse on
Internet Taxes: New Bill Would Ban
Levies on Service Provider Fees Only

Senators Try to Break Impasse on
Internet Taxes: New Bill Would Ban
Levies on Service Provider Fees Only 02/11/2004 02:43 AM
Washington Post Feb 11 2004 7:14AM GMT

Bill To Protect VoIP From State
Governments, Now Does The Opposite

Bill To Protect VoIP From State
Governments, Now Does The Opposite 07/22/2004 06:27 PM
A Senate bill that had been designed to get the various greedy states to stop being able to randomly tax VoIP because they feel like it has had a slight amendment added to it, that, well, does the exact opposite. The new amendment calls for everything to remain exactly the way it is right now, which basically defeats the whole point of the bill. As with so much that happens in Congress these days, the reasoning is purely political, rather than what would be in the best interests of the country. The guy who introduced the amendment did so because he was "annoyed" at the time the latest bill was introduced. Governing by grudges. No wonder our political system works so well. The bill also had an additional 911-service requirement amended to it that is apparently more strict than the laws covering existing 911 services. It's amazing how badly some politicians seem to want to kill off VoIP.

IRELAND: EU draws up Bill to protect
children from Internet porn

IRELAND: EU draws up Bill to protect
children from Internet porn 04/23/2004 09:52 PM
New Straits Times Apr 24 2004 1:02AM GMT

AOL UK in sub £20 broadband offer

AOL UK in sub £20 broadband offer 05/19/2004 04:45 AM
No cap for 'Silver' service

AOL UK to offer cut-price broadband

AOL UK to offer cut-price broadband 04/29/2004 07:38 AM
'Plans in the pipeline'

DSL and cable to offer 20Mbps broadband

DSL and cable to offer 20Mbps broadband 04/14/2005 01:42 PM
vnunet.com Apr 14 2005 4:32PM GMT

MCI to offer new satellite broadband
service

MCI to offer new satellite broadband
service 01/29/2004 12:46 AM
A new MCI satellite broadband service, aimed at companies with branches in areas where DSL (digital subscriber line) service is not available, will be commercially available in March, the company announced Wednesday.

Should Broadband Providers Offer
Content?

Should Broadband Providers Offer
Content? 04/19/2004 12:26 PM
Apparently, the talk of a recent broadband conference was on how broadband providers needed to focus on charging for "premium" content to expand their business, which seems to miss the point (once again) of broadband services. The content that draws people is already out there, and bundling it with an internet connection only serves to add one more mouth to feed out of a small pie - and doesn't help anyone make much money. When broadband providers look at providing content, they immediately fall back into the "broadcast" mindset, where users are passive consumers of content that is pushed to them. That's not what people use the internet for. They use it for interactive services (such as email, web surfing, VoIP and file sharing), where they get to choose the content and what they do with it. At the conference, they even had people saying that SBC's latest deal with CinemaNow (to offer downloadable movies) was a huge step forward. This is the same CinemaNow that hasn't received much traction at all and has been reviewed (repeatedly) as being a terrible waste of money. The article quotes CinemaNow's competitor MovieLink as putting the blame for their failures on the broadband providers. They claim that the two movie services "offer up plenty of content," even though reviewers of the service have complained about their "pathetically thin selection." Ignoring that, however, the quote from MovieLink's CEO pins the blame on broadband providers for not making it easier for users to move movies from their PC to their television using wireless connectivity. Of course, both MovieLink and CinemaNow use heavy-handed copy protection that probably has a lot more to do with the difficulty than the broadband service providers and their support of WiFi. Instead of focusing on ways to turn broadband connections into another TV (we already have those), they should be focused on the services (not content) that people want.

Nildram to offer PAYG broadband

Nildram to offer PAYG broadband 05/20/2004 08:45 AM
ISP round-up

Mac-1 Internet to offer UK broadband
services

Mac-1 Internet to offer UK broadband
services 11/17/2003 05:32 PM
UK Mac users in areas that aren't served by broadband have been promised satellite broadband by Mac-1 Internet, according to Macwor ld UK. The company says it will launch its Mac-ready one-way satellite broadband system in the next few weeks.

BT to offer itemised billing for
broadband

BT to offer itemised billing for
broadband 05/26/2004 09:18 PM
newmediazero May 27 2004 0:34AM GMT

Music master Laws to protect music and
movies go too far says Bill Thompson

Music master Laws to protect music and
movies go too far says Bill Thompson 11/07/2003 07:44 AM
BBC Nov 7 2003 7:05AM ET

Mixed messages over cheap broadband
offer

Mixed messages over cheap broadband
offer 04/12/2005 01:56 PM
Huh?

McCaw to Offer Wireless Broadband
Service (AP)

McCaw to Offer Wireless Broadband
Service (AP) 06/02/2004 11:39 AM
AP - Wireless entrepreneur Craig McCaw, who has a mixed track record of spectacular successes and humbling failures, is launching a wireless broadband service.

Earthlink to Offer Broadband Wireless in
Calif.

Earthlink to Offer Broadband Wireless in
Calif. 05/20/2004 11:29 AM
Earthlink will offer Internet access to customers in Northern California through a deal with Digitalpath Networks, a wireless ISP: Digitalpath uses a proprietary system to deliver the access. It had better be a pretty cheap proprietary system because it requires technicians to install antennas on customer homes. The cost of such installs is commonly blamed for the failure of the MMDS market in the '90s. Since then, many wireless ISPs in non-rural areas have targeted the more lucrative business market because of the expense of building and installing network equipment. Earthlink has been one of the most bullish big players to pursue broadband wireless opportunities. It has made similar wireless offerings in the Atlanta area through partners. On a side note, shame on Cnet for this line: "Wireless broadband, commonly called WiMax." Come on folks, not all wireless broadband is WiMax and in fact, WiMax gear doesn't exist. It sounds like Digitalpath is using a technology that is nothing like WiMax....

AOL Joins Movielink to Offer Flicks Over
Broadband

AOL Joins Movielink to Offer Flicks Over
Broadband 01/23/2004 02:26 PM

Virgin.net unveils 'Plan Two' broadband
offer

Virgin.net unveils 'Plan Two' broadband
offer 09/23/2004 11:18 AM
Return of the Plan

Wimax chips to offer long-distance
broadband

Wimax chips to offer long-distance
broadband 09/13/2004 09:45 PM
Computer Weekly Sep 14 2004 1:49AM GMT

Speed limit Plans to get everyone using
broadband may fail says Bill Thompson

Speed limit Plans to get everyone using
broadband may fail says Bill Thompson 11/14/2003 11:29 AM
BBC Nov 14 2003 10:45AM ET

Swedish firm to offer 100Mbit/s
broadband for £70/month

Swedish firm to offer 100Mbit/s
broadband for £70/month 12/19/2003 11:55 AM

Yahoo Partners With Rogers Cable To
Offer Broadband Service

Yahoo Partners With Rogers Cable To
Offer Broadband Service 07/13/2004 06:55 PM
WebProNews Jul 13 2004 11:11PM GMT

Clearwire to Offer Voice, Data Over
Fixed-Wireless Broadband

Clearwire to Offer Voice, Data Over
Fixed-Wireless Broadband 06/04/2004 11:02 AM
Craig McCaw's New Company to Offer Voice and Data over Fixed-Wireless Broadband

YA.COM Signs An Agreement With SES ASTRA
To Offer Satellite Broadband Internet
Services

YA.COM Signs An Agreement With SES ASTRA
To Offer Satellite Broadband Internet
Services 06/04/2004 10:15 PM
EMAILWIRE.com Jun 5 2004 2:10AM GMT

Airbus to offer in-flight mobile phone
and broadband internet services

Airbus to offer in-flight mobile phone
and broadband internet services 07/25/2004 05:33 PM
Utusan Online Jul 25 2004 8:42PM GMT

Clearwire to Offer Voice, Data Over
Fixed-Wireless Broadband (Ziff Davis)

Clearwire to Offer Voice, Data Over
Fixed-Wireless Broadband (Ziff Davis) 06/04/2004 12:08 PM
Ziff Davis - Craig McCaw, founder of McCaw Cellular, the first nation-wide cellular network, has announced that he and other telecom veterans are launching a new fixed wireless broadband venture.

Glaxo gets $5.2B U.S. tax bill; AT&T
Wireless to offer Motorola cam-phone;
NYSE eyes Grasso suit

Glaxo gets $5.2B U.S. tax bill; AT&T
Wireless to offer Motorola cam-phone;
NYSE eyes Grasso suit 01/07/2004 07:08 PM
Forbes Jan 7 2004 2:51PM ET
Grok Description matches for US senators offer bill to protect municipal broadband
GrokA matches for US senators offer bill to protect municipal broadband

US senators offer bill to protect municipal broadband

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