Monthly Archives: March 2007

TV Band Internet

A group of companies wants to use unused TV bandwidth for the Internet:
The coalition, which includes Microsoft and Google, wants regulators to allow idle TV channels, known as white space, to be used to beam the Internet into homes and offices. But the Federal Communications Commission first must be convinced that such traffic would not bleed outside its designated channels and interfere with existing broadcasts.

The six partners — Microsoft, Google, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Philips — say they can meet that challenge. Today, they plan to give FCC officials a prototype device, built by Microsoft, that will undergo months of testing.

If the device passes muster, the coalition says, it could have versions in stores by early 2009.

— Tech Firms Push to Use TV Airwaves for Internet, Cable, Phone Companies Watch Warily, By Charles Babington, Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, March 13, 2007; Page D01

Well, that’s an unusual combination of companies. But if it brings some competition to the telco/cableco duopoly, I’m for it. Continue reading →

The Internet is their CBGB

If you happened to be a corporation depending on centralized mass media for your livelihood, this might be what you fear:
…one who has loved rock ’n’ roll and crawled from the ranks to the stage, to salute history and plant seeds for the erratic magic landscape of the new guard.

Because its members will be the guardians of our cultural voice. The Internet is their CBGB. Their territory is global. They will dictate how they want to create and disseminate their work. They will, in time, make breathless changes in our political process. They have the technology to unite and create a new party, to be vigilant in their choice of candidates, unfettered by corporate pressure. Their potential power to form and reform is unprecedented.

— Ain’t It Strange? By PATTI SMITH, Op-Ed Contributor, New York Times, Published: March 12, 2007

If you happened to be a corporation that recognized market demand when you saw it, you’d find a way to promote and capitalize on emergent global Internet dissemination of music and politics.

We’re talking the Reformation here. Do you want to continue selling indulgences and suppressing Galileo, or do you want to be in the middle of a new information revolution?

-jsq

Internet Radio Priced out of Its Market

Internet radio is an increasingly popular service, providing both online feeds of on-air radio stations and eclectic Internet-only services. Internet radio was operating under the Small Webcasters Settlement Act of 2002. On March 7, 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board released new rates. Rates that will end up with the average Internet radio station paying more than it makes in revenue. And the rates increase annually through 2010. Ah, yes, plus retroactive collection for 2006.

Regarding how radio back in the 1920s used to be so cheap and popular that people would run up a mast in the backyard and sgtart broadcasting, I wrote “The trick used with radio of allocating spectrum won’t work for the Internet.” That was the trick that closed down most radio and left that medium to a few big mass media. There’s always another trick, though, and copyright may work for Internet radio.

This isn’t strictly about net neutrality, because it’s not ISPs that are effectively shutting down Internet radio. This whittling away at services will happen much faster without net neutrality, however.

-jsq

Net Neutrality as Status Quo

An article suggesting that Skype’s wireless net neutrality proposal to the FCC would involve a lot of work on the part of the FCC, the carriers, and application vendors such as Skype, there’s this tidbit:
The version of net neutrality the Internet companies are pushing, by contrast, only requires maintaining the status quo by prohibiting broadband providers from changing the way they currently price their services.

— Skype’s Wireless FCC Petition An Uphill Battle, Winning a more open cellular infrastructure will prove a daunting challenge. Robert Poe, VoIPNews, March 2nd, 2007

This is a point that is often omitted from stories about net neutrality. Opponents of net neutrality often try to make out that net neutrality is some innovation that is being imposed on them. History shows quite the opposite: the big telcos and cablecos lobbied the FCC to get rid of net neutrality. Until August 2005, when the FCC changed its rules, we had net neutrality. The only reason we need legislation now to put it back is because of that event. Fortunately, the public is becoming wise to the need for net neutrality. Continue reading →

F2C Followup

I’ve posted a few items about the recent Freedom to Connect conference: OK, that last one wasn’t about a talk or panel, but it was pointed out to me by the participant sitting to my left.

Meanwhile, the conference organizer, David S. Isenberg, is collecting links to everybody’s conference blog posts.

I think it was well worth while.

-jsq

FCC, Time-Warner, and Rural VoIP

Here’s an interesting FCC ruling:
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has ruled that incumbent local exchange carriers must connect to VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services, overruling two state public service commission opinions.

…

The rural carriers had argued that FCC rules don’t require them to connect to the wholesale vendors because they don’t provide direct voice service to residents.

But the FCC said that argument was a misinterpretation of its rules.

— FCC: Local telephone carriers must connect to VOIP, Local carriers must allow Internet telephony service by rivals, contrary to state rulings. Grant Gross, PC World, Sunday, March 4, 2007; 11:10 PM

That seems to be a big victory for VoIP, driven, interestingly enough, by a request from Time-Warner. Continue reading →

Collaboration for Innovation

Here’s a pithy summary of one aspect of net neutrality:
It’s been asserted here that companies who enable collaboration, both within and outside their enterprises, have a better chance of creating important innovations in the 21st century. The most common platform for that collaboration to take place over is the internet. As such, maintaining net neutrality – the ability for everyone to access all web entities fairly and promptly without prejudice by telecom providers – is essential in that endeavor.

Finally a politician who (hopefully) understands net neutrality, by C.G. Lynch, The Collaboratory, Thursday, March 01, 2007

Open communications for open participation. It’s almost like in the old days when Disney drew from previous animation attempts and hundreds of years of folklore, legends, and tales.

-jsq

700Mhz for Public Safety and Wireless Broadband

At Freedom to Connect, Reed Hundt mentioned that his current company, FrontLine Wireless, was making a proposal to the FCC; it was released yesterday:
The plan would enable the FCC to simultaneously advance public safety goals and speed broadband wireless access for all Americans — especially those living in rural areas — all goals to which the FCC has demonstrated a steadfast commitment.
The idea is to license some 700Mhz commercial spectrum for a commercial wireless network, provided that the licensee simultaneously support public safety communications. Continue reading →

Wireless Carterfone

Landline broadband isn’t the only arena in which net neutrality is needed.
A paper published by Columbia University Law School Professor Tim Wu claims that wireless networks don’t play by the same rules that wired networks do and limit consumer choice. Skype, for one, agreed with him and petitioned the FCC to mandate that wireless network operators open their networks to more devices and applications. The CTIA fired back.

Wu stated that the FCC’s Carterfone rules “continue to affect innovation and the development of new devices and applications for wireless networks.” His comments elicited a large response from the industry and refocused the net neutrality discussion, this time on the wireless networks.

Wu went on to argue that the carriers exert too much control over the design of mobile equipment and said, “They have used that power to force equipment developers to omit or cripple many consumer-friendly features.”

Paper Sparks Wireless Net Neutrality Debate, By Eric M. Zeman, WirelessWeek, February 28, 2007, NEWS@2 DIRECT

Skype then filed with the FCC to open wireless networks to non-carrier equipment. Continue reading →