Author Archives: Jonathan

Broadband Bytes: Monday Edition

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Broadband Bytes: Weekend Edition

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Today’s Broadband Bytes was brought to you by the letters C, W, and T.

  • Robert X. Cringely has some words to say about Comcast’s new bandwidth caps. He compares today’s caps to the caps he had years ago. Do they match up? Is Comcast offering a better deal than the ISP’s of the late 1990’s? And from Slashdot, “Comcast has filed a court appeal of an FCC ruling that says the company can’t delay peer-to-peer traffic on its network because it violates FCC net neutrality principles.“
  • Australia’s caps make Comcast’s look great.
  • With all the talk about city wifi networks becoming ubiquitous there are some downsides…scalability. Networkworld has an interesting article about the the technical problems with scaling WiFi to meet today’s bandwidth hungry users. As a side note, some users ask the network engineers at my place of employment (higher ed) when wifi will become our primary means of connecting desktops to the network. The answer is always the same: never. They say: “What do you mean I can’t use this new 2.4Ghz phone I just purchased?” Some departments decide to go wireless anyway (usually to avoid the cost of wiring) but later end up having to convert to physical connections anyway.
  • It looks like Comcast’s new caps are around thanks to Florida consumer protection laws. It seems that prior to the 250Gig caps there was no cap. They just cut off the top 1000 users every month. Because consumers were unable to find out how to avoid this in the future the Florida AG became involved.
  • As the Analog TV signals fade out, will you receive the new digital signals? In rural areas you may not!
  • Along those lines I dug up these old articles about Utah getting a jump start on converting the state-wide network of TV translators to digital signals. One interesting tidbit from the article: “It is widely believed that Utah has the largest terrestrial-analog translator network in the world. The system provides rural viewers with over-the-air television in approximately 80 percent of the state.”
  • Speaking of rural communities, two very small communities got federal grant money totaling $1.7 million from the United States Rural Development to build fiber optic networks. Is this different than the RUS funding UTOPIA originally had?
  • Verizon is using Yahoo as their “portal partner” for all their broadband users.
  • We’ve talked about the FCC wanting free broadband before. Here’s a company that wants to make it happen (good details). In a letter to the editor in USA Today, the writer asks, why should broadband be free? (he thinks it shouldn’t be). T-Mobile has been the most vocal opponent to this plan by the FCC to give out free broadband, they say because it could cause interference with other wireless signals. The FCC is trying to put that fear to rest in a demonstration.
  • The Register (based in the UK) has a great piece titled “Why the U.S. faces broadband price hikes” (due to the recent FCC Comcast net neutrality ruling).  But in somewhat unrelated news, others like CNET are talking about broadband price wars brewing. Those price wars could end up hurting consumers though instead of helping them.
  • Cable broadband is growing faster than DSL and tecos, and interestingly, VOIP is a big factor in driving broadband growth and makes up the biggest percentage of broadband value added services.

Broadband Bytes: Thursday Edition

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  • Dish Network has started offering HD and SD content in MPEG4 format. Other providers cable and DirectTV are only providing HD content in MPEG4 format.
  • Qwest is trying to get Comcast taxed as a telco here in Utah.
  • Google says they need more undersea bandwidth and traditional providers can’t provide. So they are building more of their own. From an older article on the same subject “Google has so much cash, it’s now competing head-to-head the world’s biggest telcos.”
  • I wish this study came out when I was still in school. Then I would have had a better excuse for the 2nd phone line for the modem back in the day. Apparently broadband at home helps kids get better grades.

Update: Sorry for the dupe on the Comcast cap thing. I guess I should check the front page before posting.

Broadband Bytes: Wednesday Edition

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  • Popular Mechanics has an article about cable companies recompressing DTV signals. It also talks about bit rates and what makes HD look good or not.
  • Hate being forced to rent your cable box? This guy does to so he filed a class action lawsuit calling it an antitrust law violation. This would be one to watch the outcome here could mean the ability to purchase your HD Cable DVR from the company of our choice. Kind of like how you can walk into Walmart now and pick out a Cable modem of your choice.
  • Just how much bandwidth is enough? Telephonyonline.com has an article with a few metrics. For those of you who read the EDUCAUSE article A Blueprint for Big Broadband these numbers won’t be much different. But a good summerized look at how much bandwidth it takes to push HDTV over that fiber.
  • Wonder what broadband speeds in Utah look like? The Communications Workers of America have their 2nd report out. The data is compiled from the speed test application on their site.
  • This was mentioned in the FreeUTOPIA forums by Capt. Video. It looks like 400 or so residents in Canada are going to own the last mile of fiber to their home. The fiber will terminate at a common peering location. Which they then will be able to choose their provider. The fiber is their’s they can sell it with the house, lease it to the neighbors, even roll the purchase into their shiny new morgage.
  • American Airlines began offering broadband today on flights. Unfortunately, you have to pay $12.95 to use it.

Broadband Bytes: Friday Edition

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While Wednesdays edition news related. Today’s links would be about broadband policy. Where should we be going where are we going and how do we get there.

  • A Blueprint for Big Broadband – This is a document that has been mentioned here before by me (Jonathan). I quite like it because its very comprehensive about why broadband matters and an action plan on how to get there. Written by EDUCAUSE which is a higher education community. Their stated mission is to “promote the intelligent use of information technology.”
  • Speed Matters – This site is run by the Communications Workers of America. With similar goals to promote broadband expansion.
  • The ITIF’s take on broadband policy.
  • What the FCC has to say on the topic
  • This last link is a viewpoint article in BusinessWeek from a few days ago on the topic of broadband policy.

Broadband Bytes: Wednesday Edition

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By: Mike Taylor and Jonathan Karras

The fact that we will be doing a regular feature on broadband news shows that there is a lot of interest in this space.  At a recent Qwest webinar, lots of business attendees mentioned slow network speeds are a major concern.  Many people are supportive of UTOPIA for different reasons and come from different political persuasions, but the one cause that unites us is a desire to bring our communities into the future by supporting advancements in broadband deployments.  We feel it can’t be stressed enough that networks are the railroads of the 21st century.  Those cities that have it will prosper, those that don’t will be left by the wayside. 

Major telecom incumbents have been slow to invest in our communities and bring us faster network speeds that will be crucial for our economy and our quality of life.  In addition, these incumbents have fought and continue to fight efforts by others (like us) to improve broadband even when they themselves refuse to improve broadband speed, quality, and availability.  Our goal is to share news developments and insights pertaining to broadband in the hope that with a more informed community we can make better decisions to improve the availability of fast, consumer-friendly, choice-driven, high-quality broadband.  This kind of broadband is severely lacking in many parts of Utah, though fortunately, UTOPIA is changing that in more ways than one.

Without further ado, here is our first edition of Broadband Bytes:

  • Charter Communications says out with the old and in with the new. DOCSIS 3.0, SDV, and all digital in the works.  (Goodbye analog spectrum)
  • Delta: we love to fly with WiFi. Delta to offer WiFi on entire fleet.
  • Telecom sues Minnesota city for wanting to build FTTH network. Similar to UTOPIA except bonds were not backed with tax pledge.
  • A little older but interesting none-the-less: A firm in the UK to offer 100/Mb service over fiber run through the sewers. Wonder what those splices look like.
  • Qwest wanted to raise wholesale rates charged to competitors using its phone lines in four markets and the FCC said no.  XO Communications and the Arizona attorney general are pretty happy about it.