Letter to members of Congress urging support of immediate adoption of a national broadband policy that will lead to universal, affordable access for all Americans to high-speed Internet connections.
Library
FTTH Gives Homeowners a Raise
If you’ve recently placed your home on the market and are one of the lucky few in this country to be served with fiber to the home (FTTH), then you may have a little bonus headed your way. As FTTH deployments continue to escalate across the land, there is growing evidence that points to an increase in home valuation as a result of this ultra-broadband amenity. In many cases, real estate appraisals and selling prices for homes connected with fiber are outpacing their copper-served brethren. If you fall into this category and you didn’t factor an optical fiber connection into the selling price of your home, then you may need to have a talk with your realtor.
Casey Lide’s CUWin CALEA presentation
What You Need to Know About the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. Presentation for the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks.
Scott Cleland, The Precursor Group
“A ‘national broadband plan’ is a codeword for a 1970’s-style government ‘industrial policy’ where the government decides what technologies consumers get and which companies will succeed of fail.”
Senate Resolution 191
SENATE RESOLUTION 191 – Establishing a national goal for the universal deployment of next-generation broadband networks to access the internet and for other uses by 2015, and calling upon congress and the president to develop a strategy, enact legislation and adopt policies to accomplish this objective.
Why the US has no national broadband strategy
The OECD global broadband rankings released earlier this week showed the United States dropped further when it comes to broadband penetration. The politicized and polar response to the report is a prime example of why the nation has no broadband policy in place — we simply cannot agree on how to proceed, much less come to a common understanding that there are issues regarding rural broadband deployment in America that may need addressing. A collection of opinions from the week:
Broadband Boosts Economic Growth in Bristol
Bristol, Va., a community of 18,000 residents in southwest Virginia, is home to the Bristol Motor Speedway for NASCAR events and the Country Music Alliance Museum. The city is one of the first entities in the nation to offer voice, data and video to residents via fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) technology. All this was made possible by Bristol Virginia Utilities’ (BVU) 800-mile and growing broadband network run by the utility’s OptiNet division. The network has been funded with revenue bonds and grants from the Virginia Tobacco Commission’s technology committee.
US Falls to 25th in Broadband Penetration Worldwide
The US fell from 23rd to 25th place in worldwide broadband penetration in the last half of 2006, according to a recent survey by Point Topic. OECD data confirms the slowdown, with the US falling to 15th in broadband penetration among OECD countries surveyed. US broadband penetration grew 0.65 percentage points to 80.81% among active Internet users in March.
Former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchgott-Roth
“In the next few weeks, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will issue its semiannual report on broadband penetration, and America is likely to have a middling ranking (it was 12th out of 30 countries in the most recent OECD numbers of a few months ago). Its standing is fodder for many politicians, including several candidates for president, who say we need a national broadband policy. They are wrong: Industrial policies, including for broadband, are bad ideas.”
“When it Comes to Broadband, U.S. Plays Follow the Leader”
The United States often views itself as a paragon of technology innovation and deployment. In some cases, that view is correct, but not when it comes to broadband deployment, where the country lags considerably behind other major nations. Here’s why.
Esme Vos on the State of US Broadband and the National Broadband Strategy
“As a nation that prides itself on technology leadership, it’s mystifying why the U.S. doesn’t have a clear, well-planned strategy and supporting policies for broadband. No matter what your personal beliefs are as to whether the federal government or market forces should actually provide tomorrow’s high-speed networks, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the lack of a coherent plan for how the country will use bandwidth to enhance its citizens’ lives, and maintain its competitiveness in world markets, is a huge problem.”
MetroNetIQ on Gordon Cook’s post and the National Broadband Strategy
Broadband Leadership? It Starts at Home
Gordon Cook on the National Broadband Strategy
In the absence of Jim Baller’s plan, the US has no initiative to move past status quo. Many informed people have rung the alarm, but he’s the first to articulate the steps necessary to achieve results. Kudos to him. Any concerns expressed should be seen against the backdrop of his commitment. The timing (before the next election) is about right for getting the matter into the political domain.
Rich Tehrani from TMCnet on “Eight Bold Steps”
“A few of my friends have ordered FiOS from Verizon and they seem happy to have broadband access at speeds once unavailable from phone companies. The sad thing is that even though broadband speeds are increasing in the US, the cost of the connections are higher than in many other parts of the world, and the speeds are still only a fraction of what others are experiencing in places like Asia.”
Ed Gubbins on “Eight Bold Steps”
“The Baller-Herbst law firm, a vocal broadband advocate best known as a supporter of municipal broadband, has published an eight-step plan to achieve a national broadband strategy.”