Business

BPL gets the nod

The FCC today approved new rules for BPL, or broadband over power line. These rules are meant to prevent signal interruption which could disrupt communications for some critical federal emergency bodies, such as the coast guard. Oh, by the way, airplane radios could be affected too.

With the interference issue near resolution, BPL is one step closer to letting loose and going to market. There are already trial in Cincinnati and some pockets in the South.

The promise of BPL is one day being able to plug in your PC and, voila! Broadband! Sounds too good to be true. In … Read more

FCC gives Bells big win on fiber

Several big broadband rulings from the FCC today. One is a big win for the local phone companies, and will help shape what broadband networks look like for years.

This ruling said that companies such as SBC Communications that are building fiber to the curb networks won??t have to share them with rival ISPs. Fiber to the curb means running fiber up to 500 feet from a house, and using copper phone lines to travel the rest of the way. This was mostly expected ?? the FCC had already said fiber to the home networks could be made entirely proprietary, … Read more

SBC reaches full DSL coverage?

DSL Prime's Dave Burstein reports that SBC Communications CEO Ed Whitacre now claims he can offer DSL to 100 percent of his customers. "We can reach all our customers. It only takes an hour to install," Whitacre reportedly said.

Burstein is politely skeptical, saying that it will be great news for the broadband community when that's actually true. The folks over in the Broadband Reports forums are a little more pointed in saying that SBC still has a way to go before it reaches that 100 percent figure.

Agencies fined if employees lack broadband

The federal government was supposed to offer 100 percent of its employees the ability to telecommute by this year, according to a Congressional mandate. But agencies have offered just 14 percent of employees the option??pointing largely to a lack of broadband connections as the problem.

Some agencies, such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, are paying for their employees' home broadband connections. But that's not just altruism. Congress has threatened to withhold $5 million from each agency's budget if the 100 percent goal isn't met.

I'm all for spreading broadband, but folks, isn'… Read more

It's not all about speed

Business Week has a good article pointing out that ever-faster home connections don??t solve all the broadband problems. Traffic jams upstream in the network often mean that even someone in Japan with an 11mbps connection might actually watch video at less 5 percent of that speed.

That means that companies like Cisco (and Akamai Technologies, and peer-to-peer content delivery companies like Red Swoosh) have their work cut out for them. The entire network, from servers to home connections, need to be studied in order to provide smooth data flows.

Korean broadband killing music biz

Thought the record companies in the United States had problems? According to this article, 95 percent of record stores in South Korea have gone out of business in the last two years. There used to be 8000 CD stores, and now there are just 400.

The country's record store owners blame the widespread availability of broadband (the highest penetration rate in the world), along with file-swapping.

Who's really regulating Verizon's broadband?

Reader Peter Collins provides an excellent rebuttal to Verizon CEO's Ivan Seidenberg. Seidenberg told Jim yesterday that municipal governments shouldn't be in the communications business at the same time they're regulating the phone companies' networks. But for the most part, it's the FCC, not local governments, that regulates phone and cable companies, Collins correctly notes.

It's true that there is some local regulation, particularly of the cable TV business. As Verizon starts offering TV over fiber lines, it will be increasingly subject to this. But is this enough to keep local utilities out of the … Read more

Seidenberg thumbs his nose at feds

LAS VEGAS-- For a second, Ivan Seidenberg reminded me of Tony Soprano.

I'm not suggesting that the CEO of Verizon Communications would go out and whack Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. He communicates like Tony, delivering succinct, direct responses with a prize fighter's punch.

As he walked out of a post-keynote press conference at the USTA convention here in Las Vegas, I shuffled alongside of him to ask him a question. I wanted to get his thoughts about the trend among local municipalities who want to build their own fiber-to-the-home networks.

He stopped, pointed his finger at my sternum … Read more

Get ready to ruuuumble

LAS VEGAS-- The place goes dark. Spinning colored light projections blanket the crowd as U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name," blares. Two gigantic projection screens flash messages to pump up the audience.

I wish I was at an NBA game. Instead, I was being blinded by party lights at the United States Telecommunications Association's annual conference here at the gaudy Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

It's hard not to notice the juxtaposition. For an industry accustomed to preserving and ruthlessly defending its legacy, the introduction to this three-day event borrowed a page from the … Read more