Broadband Bytes for 2009-11-28
- Video has driven a big increase in traffic, but better routing away from Tier-1 providers is managing it well. http://is.gd/51iVg #
- As usual, telcos want billions of federal dollars with no strings attached. http://is.gd/51Y3y #
- Libraries are strapped for bandwidth. http://is.gd/52JDm #
- Comparing fiber to rail. http://is.gd/52JE4 #
- We like in-flight WiFI, so long as we don't have to pay for it. http://is.gd/52QvL #
- Is it time to reward Hulu's bad behavior with the cold shoulder? http://is.gd/52Qwm #
- Rural telcos have a diet high in fiber. Over half will offer FTTH to more than half of their customer base by 2011. http://is.gd/53BhU #
- Is there room for more than a single standard? TelephonyOnline makes a case for retiring the VHS/Betamax wars. http://is.gd/53Bk1 #
- Time Warner is trying to enlist customers in the fight against higher retransmission fees. http://is.gd/53BkZ #
- TiVo is dying a slow death as knockoffs and streaming take their toll. http://is.gd/53Bmm #
- Short-haul fiber electronics are about to see a big price drop. http://is.gd/53BoQ #
- ICANN considers a full ban on DNS redirection. http://is.gd/53Ked #
- FairPoint turns to PR to fix their problems. (Hint: try fixing lines, billing correctly, and good service first.) http://is.gd/54R4G #
- Add another pro-broadband coalition to the mix. http://is.gd/54R6p #
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Broadband Bytes for 2009-11-21
- Why wirelss pricing sucks. (Hint: it's our fault.) http://is.gd/4VeHB #
- Cable and DSL modems are perpetuating a DNS flaw that can result in DDoS attacks. http://is.gd/4VBtf #
- Infighting at Hulu causing all kinds of problems. http://is.gd/4WpQK #
- Apparently Mark Cuban is still an idiot. http://is.gd/4Wsws #
- New streaming STB now in beta. It can deliver OTA, IPTV, and cable channels on the cheap. http://is.gd/4WDQw #
- Verizon kicks up the smack talk against AT&T. http://is.gd/4X7Cn #
- WV is the latest state to throw down on the Frontier-Verizon deal. http://is.gd/4XhZE #
- Cable still has the upper hand on video and everyone else is playing catch-up. http://is.gd/4Xi1n #
- Spain copies Finland and makes broadband a legal right. http://is.gd/4Y1Eh #
- Cable company in Ohio starts replacing coax with fiber without any trenching. http://is.gd/4Y1Fb #
- ISPs find sneaky ways to cheat you. http://is.gd/4Y2UH #
- The Pirate Bay's move to trackerless DHT explained. Short version: it's faster and less prone to being shut down. http://is.gd/4Y8uQ #
- Verizon continues neglecting copper infrastructure, the same stuff they're trying to sell to Frontier. http://is.gd/4YhFu #
- Want to hear me on KVNU's For The People? Follow the link (I start at 34:34). http://is.gd/4YtL5 #
- Verizon believes it's FTTH or bust for cablecos and telcos. http://is.gd/4YuG1 #
- Should service providers give away part of the triple-play as a loss leader? http://is.gd/4Z08g #
- FCC may re-adopt line-sharing rules. This could open up FTTH/FTTN networks to competitors. http://is.gd/4ZGVO #
- Is YouTube pulling a Hulu? They're started clamping down on STBs that have no license. http://is.gd/4ZOiJ #
- FreeUTOPIA Podcast for December 2009 on FreeUTOPIA will air 12/11. http://tobtr.com/s/791405 #BlogTalkRadio #
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Spanish Fork Bumping Speeds
Spanish Fork’s telecommunications system, SFCN, is planning on giving customers a free speed boost over the next few months. Customers will have their downstream speeds bumped from 6Mbps up to 12Mbps at no extra charge. Considering that it’s a scant $28/mo in a bundle, that’s not a half-bad deal.
Press Release: Veracity Completes Merger With Broadweave
I just got word that Veracity and Broadweave have completed their merger into Veracity Networks. It’s been all quiet on the Provo front for some time, so it’s good to know that things are still moving. Press release is after the jump.
Coming Soon: Return of the Podcast
It’s been far too long since I’ve produced episodes of the FreeUTOPIA Podcast. Real life has kept me busy and I spent a lot of time sorting out licensing issues for the intro music. I’m glad to announce that starting next month, I will be recording podcasts again, this time with BlogTalkRadio. It includes a lot of nifty show features like listener dial-in, a chat room, and full show archive. I’m tentatively planning on Friday December 11 around 4PM. If you can’t make it live, be sure to pick up the show on iTunes or via the show page.
Broadband Bytes for 2009-11-14
- Blu-ray bringing managed copies to the party. http://bit.ly/4uC69U #
- Clearwire to get a big cash infusion. http://is.gd/4QY2j #
- Google further consolidates its voice platform by buying up Gizmo5. http://is.gd/4RhRU #
- Connected Nation strikes out in 15 states so far. http://is.gd/4Riyd #
- Rupert Murdoch wants to be the next A&P (and that's not a smart thing). http://is.gd/4RNnH #
- Only one round of broadband stimulus left. http://is.gd/4RXkL #
- Verizon's plan: dump debt and decrepit rural networks onto someone else to pad the bottom line. http://is.gd/4RXRf #
- Bill to install conduit with highways moved forward. http://is.gd/4S5oG #
- Not content just to stick it to RedBox, movie studios go after Netflix too. http://is.gd/4SDK2 #
- FCC names top five barriers to broadband adoption. http://is.gd/4SNqk #
- ISPs are working on rolling out P4P to manage P2P traffic loads. http://is.gd/4SNsu #
- Boxee to introduce an STB. http://is.gd/4TvOH #
- "News": consumers like free media. http://is.gd/4TBP3 #
- Almost half of DTV coupons were never redeemed. http://is.gd/4TBPY #
- Wiretaps could be hit with a DoS attack. http://is.gd/4TBQs #
- New Google project could dramatically speed up web page loading. http://is.gd/4TEPY #
- Statewide franchises score lower prices for CA seniors. And by lower, they mean 26% higher. http://is.gd/4TJPg #
- Comcast's TV Everywhere to launch in December for existing subscribers. http://is.gd/4TRhz #
- Comcast's TV Everywhere will really be everywhere, not just at home. http://is.gd/4UhTA #
- YouTube goes full HD. http://is.gd/4UhU4 #
- Standalone FloTV devices now on the market. Portable TV lives again. http://is.gd/4UhV2 #
- New York has a pop density higher than Hong Kong, yet the latter gets better broadband because of density? http://is.gd/4Uonz #
- Wireless backhaul still a booming business. http://is.gd/4Us66 #
- IPTV making inroads on HFC networks thanks to DOCSIS 3.0 FTW. (Yes, those are all valid acronyms.) http://is.gd/4Utyy #
- One week after being shut down, the MPAA and Sony say "mea culpa" to Ohio muni WiFi network. http://is.gd/4UzPR #
- Verizon to play stooge for the RIAA. http://is.gd/4UzXY #
- Bell Canada's profits surge as they try and justify double-dipping competitors on bandwidth. http://is.gd/4UA1E #
- Om Malik takes Apple to task for its app approval process (or lack thereof). http://is.gd/4UDeo #
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UTOPIA Moving Forward in Brigham City
UTOPIA has obtained the approval of Brigham City to move forward with the plan to create a voluntary SAA to provide services to over 1,600 residences. Reports from the meeting were that the crowd was almost unanimously in favor of approval and the city council voted 4-1* in their favor. This means that residents who have opted in will be able to receive service in exchange for either a $3,000 connection fee up-front or paid over a period of 20 years via a city-backed bond. Anyone who has not signed up for service will not be expected to pay any part of this bond.
The good news is that with the number of homes participating, the entire city will be covered with service. Residents have until early December to opt to participate in the bond. Anyone who wishes to get hooked up after that will have to come up with the money up-front or join up with enough other residents to form a new bond. Best of all, the city will retain ownership of all portions of the network built under the SAA with the potential to get other portions of the network placed under city ownership in the future.
UTOPIA also picked up a new service provider, Brigham.net. They’re the typical dial-up-come-DSL ISP that’s hit hard times as Qwest plays hardball. (While Qwest will deny it, they’ve been using the list of wholesale line orders from other service providers to poach DSL customers.) While it is unclear if/when Brigham.net plans to expand beyond its home town, it certainly is a good thing for residents of Brigham City to have even more competitive choice. This could also bring an additional 145 customers to UTOPIA beyond the 1600 that have already opted in.
As part of the launch, the long-delayed white label video product will be ready to go. (It’s about time since it was starting to feel like the Duke Nukem Forever of fiber networks.) Apparently the hold-up was Turner. UTOPIA wanted to transport the video signal over a secure fiber network to their headend and Turner was the only programmer who would have none of it. After much negotiation, UTOPIA had to get a dish to bring in Turner networks like TNT, TCM, CNN, and Cartoon Network. The packages are only going to come in a few basic flavors and I wasn’t able to get details on what VOD options, if any, will be included with it. The channel lineups are currently posted on their website if you want to take a look; it appears to be pretty complete to me.
So how is Qwest reacting? Just as you would expect them to. They have filed a GRAMA request with Brigham City to obtain the documents forming the SAA and may take legal action to stop it from forming. The problem here, though, is that UTOPIA is just a contractor in the middle of it all. Qwest will have to sue Brigham City to stop the SAA to, in effect, tell them that they can’t let their residents buy a fiber optic network of their own. (Yes, it’s as dumb as it sounds.) I sincerely hope Qwest will back off on this one.
(*Unsurprisingly, Ruth Jensen was the lone no vote and continued to parrot telecom talking points. She was also reportedly excessively harsh and unprofessional with the UTOPIA representatives at the meeting to the point of being called out by some residents. I’m also a bit concerned that she apparently didn’t know the difference between a voluntary SAA and an involuntary SAA. Isn’t that the kind of thing that a city council member should know?)
Broadband Bytes for 2009-11-07
- (@elforesto) Verizon stalls FIOS in Boston as revenge for not caving. http://is.gd/4L4S1 #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Cable rate hike season arrives. http://is.gd/4L8Pc #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Unlimited streaming iTunes video for $30/mo? It could happen. http://is.gd/4LlSR #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Remember how the DVR was going to kill TV? Yeah, apparently it did the opposite. http://is.gd/4LmjU #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Best Buy wants a slice of the streaming pie. http://is.gd/4Mb1e #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Bondholders are pretty ticked off at FairPoint. http://is.gd/4MkYa #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) New international copyright treaty wants to make ISPs into copyright cops. http://is.gd/4MXmr #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) A voice standard for LTE emerges. http://is.gd/4NaP0 #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) AT&T agressively pushing Ethernet across their entire network. http://is.gd/4NzjR #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) False fiber advertising. http://is.gd/4Nz9g #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Congress pushing for ISPs to do a better job at anti-phishing. http://is.gd/4OWVi #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Comcast doing such a good job at throttling fairly that you didn't even notice. http://is.gd/4OWRW #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Cable's future is in growing voice. http://is.gd/4OWQS #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Screw the recession, gimme my smartphone! http://is.gd/4OWWc #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Internet users aren't social dummies. http://is.gd/4OX3u #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) The frustration of jumping from one incumbent to another. http://is.gd/4OX1T #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Cox joins rate hike season. http://is.gd/4OX9p #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Lack of middle mile competition leads regulators to reconsider special rates. http://is.gd/4OX8U #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Regulators in OR and WA see little benefit to Frontier-Verizon deal. http://is.gd/4P16z #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Warner shows that the MPAA doesn't need to block analog outputs. http://is.gd/4P18y #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Verizon gets into the pre-paid mobile broadband game. http://is.gd/4P17u #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) In America, companies meet consumer demand. But in Soviet Comcast… http://is.gd/4P4sP #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Hey UTOPIA providers? You have better service and a better product. Charge like it. http://is.gd/4P4yD #freeutopia #
- (@elforesto) Cable wants USF reform. http://is.gd/4P7am So does Rep. Boucher. http://is.gd/4P7aK #freeutopia #
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Clarifying UTOPIA's Financing Models
While I was on KVNU’s For the People tonight, a caller expressed concerns about how UTOPIA is financed. It became clear to me that this caller had confused the various funding models and bonds UTOPIA has been and is currently using. I thought I should clarify how exactly UTOPIA got its money and who is on the hook for what. There’s a lot of confusion about how UTOPIA is backed and financed and this is because there have been two rounds of bonding under one financial model and new potential rounds of bonds under a new financial model.
Today on KVNU For The People
I’ll be on KVNU 610AM today on the For The People program at 4:40PM. We’ll be talking UTOPIA and possibly a bit of net neutrality. If you’re not in the Logan area to pick it up over the airwaves, you can always listen online.