Heavy-Hitters Join Pro-Municipal Broadband Legislative Battle

Grok Headline matches for Heavy-Hitters Join Pro-Municipal Broadband Legislative Battle

Hollywood and the music industry face
off against the heavy hitters of the
high-tech industry in a Supreme Cou

Hollywood and the music industry face
off against the heavy hitters of the
high-tech industry in a Supreme Cou 03/27/2005 03:49 PM
Baku Today Mar 27 2005 5:57PM GMT

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....

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.

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.

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...

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.

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....

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....

US senators offer bill to protect
municipal broadband

US senators offer bill to protect
municipal broadband 06/24/2005 06:54 PM

WASHINGTON - Two U.S. senators have jumped into a growing debate about whether cities should be allowed to create tax-funded broadband services, with the two introducing a bill that would prevent states from outlawing municipal broadband projects.

Fourteen U.S. states have passed laws limiting municipal broadband services, with large Internet providers lobbying against city-offered services.

The Community Broadband Act of 2005, introduced Thursday by Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, would prevent states from outlawing municipal broadband service while requiring cities to regulate their own broadband services the same as they regulate competitors. For example, a municipal broadband service would have to pay the same franchise fees as other providers.

Several cities, including Philadelphia, have explored offering municipal broadband, typically using Wi-Fi technology, in recent months. Late last year, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell signed legislation preventing further municipal broadband projects, but along with the bill came an agreement between the city of Philadelphia and Verizon Communicatons Inc. over a city-run Wi-Fi network.

The Community Broadband Act is needed to meet President George Bush's goal of universally available broadband in the U.S. by 2007, McCain said in a speech Thursday. McCain noted that the U.S. ranks 16th among nations in broadband penetration.

"This is unacceptable for a country that should lead the world in technical innovation, economic development and international competitiveness," McCain said. "As a country, we cannot afford to cut off any successful strategy if we want to remain internationally competitive."

Private investment in the Internet should be protected and continued, he added. "However, when private industry does not answer the call because of market failures or other obstacles, it is appropriate and even commendable, for the people acting through their local governments to improve their lives by investing in their own future," McCain said. "In many rural towns, the local government?s high speed Internet offering may be its citizens only option to access the World Wide Web."

Verizon and SBC Communications Inc., which both offer DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) services, have opposed municipal broadband, as has Time Warner Cable, saying tax-funded services should not be allowed to compete against existing commercial services. A spokesman for Verizon said Friday the company had not reviewed the McCain/Lautenberg bill and had no comment on it. An SBC spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comments.

The two telecom giants, however, helped fund a study released in February that said municipal Wi-Fi networks could have "grave flaws."

The New Millennium Research Council study suggested municipal broadband services could dedicate tax dollars to rapidly outdated technology. The study also noted that municipal broadband networks could be expensive to maintain. "Municipal Wi-Fi networks present a number of serious problems that are being overlooked as cities rush into committing millions in taxpayer dollars to pay for network development and expansion," the study said.

The McCain/Lautenberg legislation stands in contrast to a bill introduced in May by Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican and former SBC employee. The Sessions bill, the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005, would outlaw municipal broadband services in areas where competing commercial services exist. The bill has been referred to a House subcommittee.

Sessions introduced the bill to ?discourage local governments from wasting taxpayer funds on building duplicative infrastructure while at the same time encouraging private-sector companies to offer continually innovating service in underserved areas by removing the specter of government competition" he said in a statement when the bill was introduced.

On Thursday, 40 groups representing local governments, the IT industry and consumers sent a letter to members of Congress asking lawmakers to support pro-municipal broadband legislation. Among the groups signing the letter were the League of California Cities, Public Knowledge, the Rural Broadband Coalition, Consumers Union and the Fiber to the Home Council.

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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.

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

IBM, NetApp Join Forces to Battle EMC

IBM, NetApp Join Forces to Battle EMC 04/07/2005 06:13 PM
In a move the may shake up the storage industry, IBM and Network Appliance have established a strategic relationship to capture market share away from EMC. Under the agreement, Big Blue will sell NetApp's attached storage and NetApp will make IBM its preferred supplier of tape products.

Ask Jeeves, Microsoft join e-mail battle

Ask Jeeves, Microsoft join e-mail battle 06/24/2004 02:46 PM
KeralaNext.com Jun 24 2004 6:47PM GMT

Lobby group seeks to join Microsoft
antitrust battle

Lobby group seeks to join Microsoft
antitrust battle 04/06/2005 08:34 PM
Irish Times Apr 7 2005 12:26AM GMT

TiVo and Netflix join forces for
broadband movies

TiVo and Netflix join forces for
broadband movies 09/06/2004 11:42 PM
TiVo and Netflix are expected to announce a new partnership later this month that will bring the power of NetFlix to the convenience of TiVo.

Japanese Chip Giants Join Forces in
Uphill Tech Battle

Japanese Chip Giants Join Forces in
Uphill Tech Battle 03/20/2003 01:05 PM
Struggling in the face of large losses and heavy competition in the memory and computer chip arenas, Japan's largest semiconductor makers have joined forces to focus on system-on-a-chip technology, no doubt hoping to regain a competitive edge.

Real urges Apple to join hands to battle
Microsoft on the music front

Real urges Apple to join hands to battle
Microsoft on the music front 04/19/2004 11:12 AM

Broadband battle continues

Broadband battle continues 03/31/2005 05:37 PM
USA Today Mar 31 2005 9:31PM GMT

Bells Are Catching Up in Battle for
Broadband

Bells Are Catching Up in Battle for
Broadband 07/27/2004 09:38 PM
The regional Bell phone companies, long dismissed as laggards stuck with a declining fixed line businesses, are coming back into favor again.

Rogers raises stakes in broadband battle

Rogers raises stakes in broadband battle 01/23/2004 02:25 PM
globetechnology.com Jan 23 2004 7:09PM GMT

Baranduda wins battle for broadband
internet

Baranduda wins battle for broadband
internet 09/17/2004 11:38 PM
The Border Mail Sep 18 2004 3:28AM GMT

Father, Son Pitch No-Hitters on Same Day
(AP)

Father, Son Pitch No-Hitters on Same Day
(AP) 04/28/2004 07:27 AM
AP - It seemed all too familiar when Mike Rickert pitched a no-hitter for Bowler High School.

Bush's legislative sinkhole

Bush's legislative sinkhole 07/19/2004 11:23 AM

Heavy shit at end a heavy year

Heavy shit at end a heavy year 12/22/2004 01:09 AM

Mark Pesce - Out Of Control: The Sequel - Hollywood does it again

Adam Rifkin - W eblications (the Web Way and the web as a platform) - this guy just doesn't stop!

Mark Cuban - Hey Chad, get a blog! - in which Mark clues Chad Pennington into how to deal with the media

David Weinberger - Selfless Social Networks - ah, that's why

Barry Diller - Spins off Expedia - 'bout time - DLA for travel

Scott McMullen - Google/Internet Archive, Meet Mr. Event - can you say OpenEvents? Hey Scott - let's do it!

Joi Ito - N o more friends on Orkut - the end game

- New Media timeline - how can you have a New Media timeline without Director? Have they ever heard of Flash? Where do they think that came from? Rob Burgess? Kevin Lynch? Norm Meyrowitz?

Legislative divide focus at Futurex

Legislative divide focus at Futurex 04/20/2004 10:15 PM
Sunday Times South Africa Apr 21 2004 2:40AM GMT

Powell calls for legislative rethink

Powell calls for legislative rethink 07/14/2004 01:23 AM
FCC chair says antiquated communications rules need overhaul.

In The Broadband Battle Between Speed
And Price, Customers Choose Price

In The Broadband Battle Between Speed
And Price, Customers Choose Price 12/09/2003 03:39 PM
Back in October we noted that DSL and cable providers were trying to differe ntiate themselves from each other. The DSL providers were focusing on being the low cost provider, while the cable guys wanted to be the high speed providers. At the time, we pointed out that this was likely to backfire on the cable companies. People like the speed of broadband, but for most applications there's a "good enough" speed - and many people want it more for the always on connection than the speed itself. It's looking like we were right. The latest study shows that, despite cable's commanding lead in the US, many more people are signing up for DSL these days because of the lower price. It's the basic "good enough" argument. What DSL offers is good enough for what most people want to do with their connections now. Also, the speed difference is minimal right now. You don't get that much faster speeds with cable, and there's not much you can currently do with that extra bandwidth. It used to be that people would sign up so they could download songs, but the music industry is cracking down on that enough that it's become less of a draw for many subscribers as well.

[f2c] Municipal wifi

[f2c] Municipal wifi 03/31/2005 02:36 PM
(After a morning with no women speakers or questioners, we now have a panel with a woman on it. Yay.) J.H. Snider moderates. [Sketchy coverage follows...] Varinia Robinson is in charge of Philadelphia's municipal wifi project. You have to get your muni wifi in by Jan. 1, 2006, or else you have go to your local provider. This was done to protect "competition." The city thinks it'll cost $10.5M to build it and $1.5M annually to maintain it. It will cover 45 square miles and provide a mnimum of 1mb up and down. It's an ubiquitous indoor network. To break...

How to Pay for Municipal Networks

How to Pay for Municipal Networks 09/21/2004 02:46 PM
Some municipalities may have already learned some lessons about offering telecom services that they can consider when deciding to build Wi-Fi networks: Some of the most successful municipal offerings of wired telecom services started out with small trial networks and were offered by municipalities that already offer utility services to customers. But beyond whether a municipality has experience with billing and marketing a service, Wi-Fi presents a bunch of additional uncertainties. In the wired example, in many cases the market doesn't have any other option for broadband Internet access and customers definitely pay for the access. In the case of Wi-Fi, in many cases other service providers may already offer wireless access. Plus, cities have to decide whether they want to offer access for free or for a fee. If they want to deliver free networks, they have to decide how to fund it, considering both the initial outlay and ongoing support costs. Ultimately, citizens of communities may end up deciding. In St. Cloud, Fla., the city is trying to decide how to pay for the ongoing maintenance of the network and will likely ask residents to decide on a ballot referendum. If municipalities decide to ask residents to pay for access, they have to hope they can cover their costs. At this stage in the market, based on the experiences of commercial Wi-Fi providers, it's not clear that an operator can make money from for-fee networks....

World warms to municipal Wi-Fi

World warms to municipal Wi-Fi 06/25/2004 04:11 AM
From Taipei to New York, it's wireless a-go-go

Ohio Tries to Suppress Municipal-Fi

Ohio Tries to Suppress Municipal-Fi 12/19/2004 03:18 PM
Esme Vos dissects the latest state bill that caters to incumbent operators: Existing law prevents municipalities--with their tremendous tax-free advantages as opposed to the massive subsidization of telcos and cable operators--from running their own cable TV systems. A modified bill, introduced by a graduate of the colleges of Zig Zigler and Dale Carnegie, adds telecom services to that mix. Esme would like to know which companies are behind this particular emendation to Ohio's law. [link indirectly via GigaOm]...

Los Angeles Looks to Build Municipal
Wi-Fi

Los Angeles Looks to Build Municipal
Wi-Fi 06/24/2004 09:36 AM
The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Project is looking for proposals to build a free Wi-Fi zone in downtown: MuniWireless.com has the RFP (request for proposal)....

New Twist on Municipal Hotspots

New Twist on Municipal Hotspots 06/28/2004 02:42 PM
Manchester, New Hampshire, plans to announce in mid-July that a hotspot will be available downtown for anyone to use free for one hour: It appears that the city decided it wanted a network and put out a request for proposal. Signull Technologies offered to fund and build the network and then offer one free hour per day per user. An hour a day might be useful for folks who may want to check email during their lunch break or for visitors to town. The agreement sounds like a good way for Signull to pull in potential customers and for the city to offer a useful service for visitors and residents....

Let's Ban Municipal Networks Nationwide

Let's Ban Municipal Networks Nationwide 06/05/2005 10:56 PM
Anti-Federalism rears its ugly head with Rep. Sessions's bill: The bill would ban municipal networks where any competitive service existed in the municipal area of governance. A grandfather clause allows existing services to proceed. The language of the "Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005" is so hilariously broad and ill-defined that it could kill all kinds of projects that the incumbent carriers this is meant to protect would support or are involved in deploying. It has such a broad grandfather clause that it could allow massive projects to continue if even a tiny portion of the service was in use. I doubt it will go anywhere because in its current form, it's a shotgun full of buckshot, not a surgical weapon. A broad consortium of businesses and public policy groups will certainly try to get it killed. I doubt it will get many supporters because of its broad sweep. For instance, this bill would kill all future airport Wi-Fi that's not already built out because government entities would be unable to "provide" services if Wi-Fi were operating anywhere else in the airport authority's municipality's domain. It's pretty easy to read that interpretation....

Xpress Municipal & Utility Clearance

Xpress Municipal & Utility Clearance 11/03/2003 11:13 AM
11/03/03 - Server Ready

Municipal Wireless Goes Beyond Internet
Access

Municipal Wireless Goes Beyond Internet
Access 07/29/2004 05:22 PM
Wi-Fi Planet Jul 29 2004 8:18PM GMT

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

Free municipal WiFi in Jerusalem

Free municipal WiFi in Jerusalem 09/05/2004 11:56 PM
Xeni Jardin: Following up on last week's post about the city of Philadelphia considering free wireless 'net access for all, BoingBoing reader cyphunk says, "Pfff. Jerusalem (Israel) is already rolling out free wifi for the ENTIRE city -- starting with major commercial areas." Link to news story.
Grok Description matches for Heavy-Hitters Join Pro-Municipal Broadband Legislative Battle
GrokA matches for Heavy-Hitters Join Pro-Municipal Broadband Legislative Battle

Three Municipal Wireless Networks
Foreshadow Future

Three Municipal Wireless Networks
Foreshadow Future 06/24/2004 06:11 PM
Bob Brewin dives into three cities that are deploying large-area Wi-Fi networks for public-safety-only and mixed-use purposes: Spokane has unwired 100 city blocks, Rio Rancho claims over a 100 square miles, and Cook County ultimately expects nearly 1,000 square miles of coverage for public safety in Chicago and surrounding areas. The movement shows that municipal Wi-Fi has moved from a curiosity explored without many concrete goals--let's bring more people into downtown and see what happens, for instance--into a critical part in managing emergency response for fire, police, and medical personnel. When major incidents hit, the critical question is how well these networks perform, especially compared to cellular, landline, and proprietary (and expensive) public-safety band equipment. Spokane and Rio Rancho will offer public access to the network, while Cook County is focusing purely on public safety. Cook County's routers can switch to cellular or satellite networks as needed....

Verizon Poised to Deliver First Set of
Services to Customers Over Its
Fiber-to-the-Premises Network.

Verizon Poised to Deliver First Set of
Services to Customers Over Its
Fiber-to-the-Premises Network. 07/20/2004 11:02 PM
Verizon Poised to Deliver First Set of Services to Customers Over Its Fiber-to-the-Premises Network. Of course they picked asymmetric BPON equipment instead of cheaper, faster, symmetric EPON equipment. Then, adding insult to injury: "Our approach to FTTP recognizes that broadband is a truly interactive technology, with upstream capabilities playing just as key a role in consumers' online activities as downstream speeds."

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]

Wireless broadband has developed into a
truly versatile broadband communications
medium while the national local loops
experience ongoing access problems

Wireless broadband has developed into a
truly versatile broadband communications
medium while the national local loops
experience ongoing access problems 07/08/2004 03:39 AM
Research and Markets are delighted to announce the addition of 2004 Global Wireless Broadband Report to their offering [PRWEB Jul 8, 2004]

Corban Networks, Inc. Acquires Broadband
on Demand and Optimum Network Services,
LLC

Corban Networks, Inc. Acquires Broadband
on Demand and Optimum Network Services,
LLC 09/23/2004 05:53 PM
Corban Networks, Inc. acquires Bod Wireless and its communications facilities as part of its strategy to deploy WIMAX last mile and middle mile services along its network of 650 towers across rural America. The company will deploy a WISP OSS and support municipalities with metro pricing and upstream services which are not readily available in smaller cities. [PRWEB Sep 23, 2004]

Pelephone Selects Nortel Networks as
National 3G Provider; CDMA 1xEV-DO
Network to Provide Broadband Mobile Se

Pelephone Selects Nortel Networks as
National 3G Provider; CDMA 1xEV-DO
Network to Provide Broadband Mobile Se 05/19/2004 02:53 AM
Stockhouse Canada May 19 2004 7:11AM GMT

Cisco Powers Hong Kong Broadband
Network's 100Mbps and 1Gbps Residential
Broadband Services

Cisco Powers Hong Kong Broadband
Network's 100Mbps and 1Gbps Residential
Broadband Services 02/01/2005 09:50 PM
Investors Business Daily Feb 2 2005 1:50AM GMT

Forecasts for Higher Bandwidth Broadband
Services - New TFI Telecom Market
Research Report

Forecasts for Higher Bandwidth Broadband
Services - New TFI Telecom Market
Research Report 12/17/2004 06:31 PM
According to a new report by Technology Futures, Inc. (TFI), by 2006, one-half of U.S. households will subscribe to broadband access, and a shift to much higher data rates in the range of 24 Mb/s to 100 Mb/s will have begun. By 2010, U.S. broadband penetration of 75% is likely, and 10% to 20% of U.S. households will subscribe to very high-speed-broadband. In the process, most of the local exchange carriers current investment in copper cable will be made obsolete.The new study, "Forecasts for Higher Bandwidth Broadband Services," authored by Lawrence K. Vanston, Ph.D. (President, TFI), forecasts how bandwidth requirements will increase over time and addresses the applications requiring higher speed. In doing so, it reviews what is happening in South Korea (where broadband penetration already exceeds 70%), Japan, and Italy - current leaders in the migration to higher data rates. [PRWEB Dec 16, 2004]

Research and Markets : Global Forecast
from 2004 to 2009 On OSS Investments and
Forecast Data On Broadband and
Residential VoIP Subscriber Growth

Research and Markets : Global Forecast
from 2004 to 2009 On OSS Investments and
Forecast Data On Broadband and
Residential VoIP Subscriber Growth 04/06/2005 02:07 AM
Research and Markets (researchandmarkets.com/reports/c15068) has announced the addition of VoIP and its impact on OSS to their offering. [PRWEB Apr 6, 2005]

St. Louis Telecom, LLC Now Offers
Broadband Voice Services to the Local
Small Business and Residential Market

St. Louis Telecom, LLC Now Offers
Broadband Voice Services to the Local
Small Business and Residential Market 06/27/2004 03:01 AM
St. Louis Telecom, LLC announced today the release of a leading edge Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) product suite that is specifically designed for the small to medium sized business as well as the residential customer - currently available in 24 states. [PRWEB Jun 27, 2004]

Has Your Broadband Had Its Fiber?

Has Your Broadband Had Its Fiber? 09/06/2004 12:50 PM
Falling costs, new technology, and competition, with a nudge from regulatory changes, are bringing fiber closer to homes in the U.S. just a few years after the idea seemed all but written off. Verizon Communications, the country's largest regional carrier, is scheduled to launch commercial fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service by the end of the third quarter to about 100,000 potential customers in the Dallas area. The other two major incumbent carriers, SBC Communications and BellSouth, are pursuing their own strategies to get fiber into homes or neighborhoods and deliver a multi-megabit bandwidth boost to DSL.

Though U.S. carriers use fiber-optic cable for long-haul connections and some enterprise links, they serve most homes and businesses via copper lines up to several miles long. Partly as a result of that, typical DSL services provide less than 2 megabits per second. Putting in fiber instead of copper opens the door to services measured in the tens of megabits per second, enough to easily deliver multimedia services such as video programming and online games.

View: The full story
News source: PCWorld

Read full story...

Has Your Broadband Had Its Fiber? (PC
World)

Has Your Broadband Had Its Fiber? (PC
World) 09/06/2004 05:23 AM
PC World - Alternative form of high-speed Internet access makes its way to U.S. homes.

Fiber Means Cheap Broadband

Fiber Means Cheap Broadband 06/05/2005 11:21 PM
Damien over on SiliconValleyWatcher writes about Verizon's pricing on their fiber connections. 5 Mbps down /2 Mbps up = $39 15 Mbps down /2 Mbps up = $49 30 Mbps down /5 Mbps up = $199 Need I say more? Other than "SIGN ME UP!" that is... :-)...

How much would you pay for Fiber to you
Premises

How much would you pay for Fiber to you
Premises 07/20/2004 04:39 AM

Seems Verizon is serious about having 1 million homes connected to the net via fiber with up to 30 MPS connections. I am standing on top of my chair saying, wire me up. They are set to rollout the service later this summer. Slashdot has some really good discussion on this. [Slashdot] [News.com]

Riding China's broadband wave

Riding China's broadband wave 03/08/2004 11:27 PM
Chinese online retailer Dangdang is hoping to become China's version of Amazon.

Heavy-Hitters Join Pro-Municipal Broadband Legislative Battle

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