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Broadband Communities Summit program on Broadband and Economic Development

Building on last year’s successful program on Broadband, Economic Development, and Job Creation, Broadband Communities is presenting a more extensive multi-disciplinary program this year. BroadbandUS.TV will video webcast the entire day-and-a half event live, including several special interviews and videos of other key events at the Broadband Summit. Jim Baller will participate in most of the program, which he organized, and Marty Stern will emcee the webcast.

How Three Communities Built Next-Generation Networks

Frustrated by ever-increasing prices for telecommunication services and the reluctance of incumbent providers to upgrade their networks to meet 21st century needs, more than 150 communities have built their own citywide cable and FTTH networks. Against great odds and in the face of ferocious opposition by the existing telephone and cable companies in the courts, at the legislature, and in the marketplace, the vast majority have succeeded

Economic Impact Estimate: Professional and Technical Services Sector

The economic benefits and return on investment from driving the implementation and utilization of e-solutions are clear and compelling. SNG has calculated two scenarios with different scope for targeting the Professional & Technical Services Sector in Virginia. The ratios of economic impact to investment are quite high — over 26 times return to GDP and over 2.8 times return to taxes.

Primer on Pole Attachments

Since the enactment of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, requests for attachments to utility poles, ducts, conduits, and rights of way have increased dramatically. As a result, electric utilities have had to balance their own need to maintain and operate their utility systems in a safe and reliable manner with the often competing needs of a variety of attaching communications entities.
These efforts were complicated by imperfections in the federal pole attachment rules, as interpreted by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or “Commission”).

Spectrum Reform Under the 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act

In February, Congress enacted the most significant piece of spectrum legislation in almost 20 years. The new law has sweeping provisions providing billions for public safety broadband and for repurposing and repacking broadcasters through reverse auctions. It frees up spectrum to be auctioned for wireless broadband and encourages expanded use of white spaces and wireless towers. With the ink barely dry, significant disagreements have emerged over the meaning of many of the key provisions of the Act and over the respective roles of the FCC, NTIA, the First Responder Network Authority, and state and local governments. Stakeholders are also struggling to understand the complex multi-dimensional procedural steps through which the Act will be implemented, including the timing of key rulemakings, auctions, and the roll-out of the public safety broadband network.

Fiber critical for growth in Dan River Region

By Tara Bozick, Go Dan River

High-speed broadband infrastructure is key to future growth for Martinsville and the region, economic development leaders say. Over the past 10 years, Martinsville expanded its Martinsville Informational Network or “MINet” to more than 20 miles of fiber optic cable throughout Martinsville and Henry County.

Retransmission Consent, Round Two

The latest cycle of retransmission consent negotiations is drawing to a close. The negotiations  have been acrimonious, with significant rate hikes on the horizon.  Cable and DBS continue to call for FCC retrans rules with some teeth, while broadcasters question why negotiations over broadcast carriage should be treated differently than other programming.  In the meantime, the FCC has failed to issue its long-awaited new rules but it is now examining joint negotiations by unaffiliated stations.  How will cable operators implement the rate increases, and how will consumers react?   Do blackouts remain a possibility?   Is action by the Commission or Congress necessary or desirable?  What effect will the new carriage rates have on the future of television?  Co-hosts Jim Baller andMarty Stern have reassembled their highly popular panel of experts on retransmission consent for another lively debate on the economics and politics driving these issues.

The Employment Effects of Advances in Internet and Wireless Technology

Continuing investments to upgrade the wireless broadband Internet infrastructure, including the transitions from 2G to 3G wireless technologies, and now from 3G to 4G, had produced cascades of innovation. Based on previous advances, the current transition to 4G technologies is likely to spur significant new job creation and growth which could help the American economy restore gains in incomes and business investment. New econometric analysis set forth in this study shows that the investments and innovation entailed in the transition from 2G to 3G wireless technologies and Internet infrastructure spurred the creation of some 1,585,000 new jobs from April 2007 to June 2011.

Rural Broadband Report Q1 2012

Each quarter, Calix shares a snapshot of the previous quarter’s Internet traffic and applications utilization based upon data aggregated from a subset of Compass Flow Analyze deployments at different sized wireline communications service providers serving rural America. For this Q1 2012 snapshot, over 50 service providers from every corner of the U.S. provided data, drawing information from over 100,000 subscriber endpoints. Networks monitored consisted of both copper and fiber access infrastructures, and access technologies deployed in these networks included ADSL2+, VDSL2, GPON, and point-to-point gigabit Ethernet.

State Developments 2011