tagged w/ Broadband
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The FCC has now failed twice at producing good broadband data. Time to give someone else a try.
By Benjamin Lennett and Sascha Meinrath slate Magazine
Why is it so incredibly difficult to figure out how much of the nation has access to affordable broadband? For the past 15 years, the Federal Communications Commission has been required by law to collect data on high-speed Internet access. For the most part that information has been fairly useless for the public or even for policy types. Up until recently, for example, a telecom company only needed to serve one customer in a ZIP code to get credit for serving everyone. Even so, good luck figuring out which company it was; the FCC's report scrubbed the names of the actual providers. In essence, the FCC was going out of its way to prevent useful information from being publicly released. Attempts by public interest and consumer advocates to get the FCC to release this information repeatedly failed.
So in 2009, the stimulus act allotted an additional $350 million to give the FCC another chance to gather this information and present it in an understandable way. That project, the National Broadband Map, was released last February, and it's a least an improvement over the old effort. But it didn't require all that money to make this happen. All the FCC really had to do to produce virtually the same map was ask better questions in its existing survey of telecom companies and release more of the data. Instead, taxpayers had to fork out another few hundred million in grants to collect much of the same data a second time.
Fortunately, there are ways to collect even better information that are much cheaper and don't require bureaucratic soul-searching. At the New America Foundation, where we both work, we've partnered with the Planet Lab Consortium and Google to offer a tool that lets anyone measure the performance of his or her broadband connection, called Measurement Lab. To date, people have run this test more than a half-billion times, giving us 300 Terabytes of data to work with. (That's more than 150,000 iPod shuffles.) We make all this data public, allowing people to see actual broadband speeds and compare them among countries, U.S. states, and cities.
There are a few reasons why this approach is superior to the FCC's efforts. While the National Broadband Map does offer a snapshot in time of where broadband is and where it isn't, you have to take what you see with a big grain of salt. In much same way that the coverage maps provided by cell phone companies are notoriously inaccurate, the map's information often fails to reflect on-the-ground realities. For example, the FCC reported in its National Broadband Plan that only 4 percent of the country has access to more than two landline-based broadband providers. But users who search the map for broadband service providers at their home address may be surprised find that they potentially have dozens of options. You get these bogus results for two reasons. First, the map relies heavily on self-reported data by the providers, who often paint their coverage areas with a broad brush. Second, it merges residential and business class services, so even if no residential options are available, your area may be considered covered. Together, these shortcomings give the impression of a market filled with lots of choices for consumers.
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What's worse is what the map excludes. The information you get provides the name of the provider and a range of their fastest advertised speed offerings. But anyone who's ever checked their connection speed knows that real-life speeds tend to be substantially lower than what you're paying for. In the U.K., for example, Ofcom—the equivalent of the FCC—found that actual speeds were systematically half the advertised speeds. Even more puzzlingly, the map offers no information about price. According to the FCC's own research, cost is cited among the top issues for not adopting broadband at home. Thus, one would expect the National Broadband Map to provide this critically important piece of information. It doesn't. (more at link to Slate)The FCC has now failed twice at producing good broadband data. Time to give someone... more
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AT&T recently announced the elimination of one of broadband Internet’s most prized features: unlimited use at a flat rate. While the trend toward metered bandwidth is not inherently pro-consumer, ISPs have staked out a singular public rationale: data caps are necessary to limit the consumption of “bandwidth hogs” in order to protect the network experience for everyone else. Such concepts are simplistic and easy to imagine. They are also completely wrong.
In the fixed-cost network model (used by most ISPs here in the U.S.), there’s very little connection between raw consumption levels and the relative cost of serving consumers. The heaviest of users may often be the most profitable customers, depending on when they consume network resources.
Wait. What? Heavy users are the most profitable?
Yes. Because overall congestion, not individual consumption, is the single driver of network costs. It’s not the “how much” but the “when” that really matters.
A fixed-cost network is analogous to a highway system. Highways must be designed to handle peak traffic, which in most cities is rush hour.
This establishes the initial cost of building out the highway network. When traffic grows, new lanes have to be built and new costs are added to the equation. It is not the 2 percent of cars using the empty roads at 4 a.m. that creates the demand for new lanes.
It’s the same for your ISP’s network. On your ISP’s network, “rush hour” is called “peak time,” with congestion usually occurring between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. The capacity required to handle these peak times sets the cost benchmark.To continue with the highway analogy, would rationing gas or capping miles on everyone’s odometer solve rush hour traffic?
No, of course not. People would still prioritize use of their car and precious miles to get to and from work. They might take fewer road trips on the weekends when the roads are already clear. Rush hour would still exist, and the road would be no cheaper to build or expand. Likewise, bandwidth caps won’t relieve congestion at peak times.
No one wants a global Internet riddled with traffic jams. Not users and certainly not video-on-demand services, cloud companies, MMO games, or any other services requiring bandwidth. The fact that these services require more bandwidth has been a boon for ISPs. They drove consumer demand for broadband, which is much more lucrative than dial-up Internet. Therefore, we all have a stake in ensuring a healthy Internet.
But if not data caps, then what?
BitTorrent is in a unique position to understand network challenges and usage patterns. It has over 100 million active monthly users in every connected country in the world. This gives us significant insight into network speeds and congestion. Our data indicates the solution is twofold: High-bandwidth services need to be good citizens and peak usage needs to be brought under control.
Yield to Priority Traffic
Since any data traffic that doesn’t induce congestion on a fixed cost network is essentially free; applications can voluntarily play a role in traffic prioritization. And since BitTorrent is a high percentage of global Internet traffic, we have a responsibility to be a part of the solution.
This was the primary motivator around our release of a new protocol a year ago, called µTP. The protocol essentially senses congestion and self-regulates to avoid contributing to Internet traffic jams.
Because µTP can never induce network congestion, it doesn’t contribute to an ISP’s cost. An ISP still has regular network maintenance expenses, but remember, with a fixed-cost network, traffic only becomes an economic burden if it contributes to congestion and forces the need for expansion.
As a result, µTP is exceedingly friendly to ISPs and their business model. µTP is open-source, and we invite application and cloud services providers to work with us directly or in the IETF’s LEDBAT working group in the ongoing innovation and usage.
Voluntary good citizenry on behalf of the industry is a start, but it’s not a complete solution to congestion.
Peak Pricing
One idea is to pursue congestion-based/peak hour pricing. Like the fee to enter London streets during rush hour, congestion-based pricing is a reasonable compromise to alleviate Internet logjams at the times it’s needed most, while letting consumers surf freely the rest of the time. For example, your Netflix movie rental could be set to download overnight if you plan ahead. And if you don’t? Perhaps you pay a premium to download it on-demand on a Saturday evening.
While congestion-based pricing directly targets the incentive structure around the problem, we recognize it would be difficult to implement. The CONEX working group in the IETF — focused on developing a mechanism by which senders inform the network about the congestion encountered — is aimed in this direction but implies wholesale changes to the current Internet economic models. At BitTorrent, we believe any solution targeting the actual problem is worthy of serious consideration.
Ultimately, this isn’t just an ISP challenge.
Keeping the Internet healthy for consumers and a place for prosperous innovation of new services must be the top priority for all of us – ISPs and the technology industry alike. Limitations will stifle the growth and potential of the Internet. Instead, let’s look at real-world technical and business solutions to serve the needs of our mutual customers and protect the infrastructure on which we all depend.AT&T recently announced the elimination of one of broadband Internet’s most... more
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ESPN is an American network that relates to games. ESPN is an abbreviation of Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. The network was launched in 1979 by and his Bill Rasmussen and his son. They started the channel to cover the news of sports in Connecticut, and he bought a 24 hour national wide network. Today ESPN is owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation, 80% and 20% respectively.ESPN is an American network that relates to games. ESPN is an abbreviation of... more
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George Osborne, the Chancellor, has announced that £50 million is now available to local authorities in an effort to kick-start the installation of superfast broadband across 800,000 homes and premises in the UK.
link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8362153/Superfast-broadband-plans-get-50m-government-boost.htmlGeorge Osborne, the Chancellor, has announced that £50 million is now available... more
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12 months ago
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NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a wide-ranging agreement between the Walt Disney Company and Verizon, FiOS TV customers will be able to watch ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Buzzer Beater live online beginning Thursday (Feb. 17). To access the online programming, Verizon customers must subscribe to FiOS TV.
The online rights to the ESPN networks are part of a broader agreement, which also includes the full suite of cable services from the Walt Disney Company: ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney XD and the soon-to-be-launched Disney Junior, as well as retransmission consent for local ABC broadcast stations.
"Expanding our online video content to include the ESPN networks provides our FiOS customers with some of the best in sports programming, right at their fingertips," said Terry Denson, vice president of content strategy and acquisition for Verizon. "Whether watching FiOS on your TV, PC or mobile device, Verizon continues to make it easy for customers to view a growing amount of programming while on the go."
Added David Preschlack, executive vice president, Disney and ESPN Media Networks, "Offering our live networks online further demonstrates our commitment to serving sports fans, and we couldn't do it without the cooperation of forward-thinking distributors like Verizon FiOS. From today forward, FiOS TV customers can choose to watch ESPN on their big screen or on their computer screen – it's a real sea change in our business and an indication of where our industry is heading."
FiOS TV customers will be able to watch ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Buzzer Beater live on their personal computers or laptops – at home or away – using any broadband connection. Buzzer Beater, which features live cut-ins and highlights from numerous top college basketball games during each Wednesday and Saturday of the college basketball season, is normally only available to FiOS TV customers who subscribe to the Extreme HD or Ultimate HD TV packages; but it is currently accessible to Prime TV package customers through a free preview.
ESPN Goal Line, a similar service for the college football season, will become available for online viewing by FiOS TV customers subscribing to the Extreme HD or Ultimate HD packages, when the season begins in September.
Users will have several viewing options for the channels, including picture-in-picture, simultaneous viewing of more than one channel, and full-screen viewing of a single channel. Verizon and ESPN plan to make the programming available on other Internet enabled devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, in the near future.
Using their Verizon Online user names and passwords, FiOS TV customers will be able to access the online programming at either www.verizon.com/fiostvcentral or www.ESPNnetworks.com.
This new content joins part of Verizon's high-quality, online video entertainment, which the company has been delivering since 2005. FiOS also offers a broad collection of programming on TV, with more than 520 all-digital channels including up to 142 HD channels and 19,000 monthly video-on-demand titles. FiOS also provides next-generation interactive services including an advanced interactive media guide; social networking, news and entertainment widgets; remote DVR management via broadband or cell phone; and more.NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a wide-ranging agreement between... more
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The ‘Wall Street Journal’ and ‘The Next Web’ have reported that access to internet is available again in Egypt after almost a week of Internet blackout. Web tracking groups and tweets from Egypt have confirmed this news.The ‘Wall Street Journal’ and ‘The Next Web’ have reported... more
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Alstom
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1 year ago
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The federal regulators have approved Comcast Corp. bid to takeover NBC Universal Tuesday but have imposed certain conditions.The federal regulators have approved Comcast Corp. bid to takeover NBC Universal... more
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Alstom
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1 year ago
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Latest About The iPhone Disappears Over the Verizon The iPhone 4 is coming to Verizon.Many of you probably consider an Apple-Verizon deal the second coming of the iPhone. Perhaps you’ve suffered on AT&T since June 29, 2007, or maybe you’ve been biding your time with that dilapidated Motorola RAZR, waiting for the day the iPhone was to be liberated.Latest About The iPhone Disappears Over the Verizon The iPhone 4 is coming to... more
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kamoo
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1 year ago
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FCC to vote Tuesday on 'net neutrality' rules
Doug Gross
By Doug Gross, CNN
December 20, 2010 7:07 p.m. EST
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is proposing rules he said will preserve an "open internet."
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* FCC to vote Tuesday on open-internet "neutrality" plan
* Plan is designed to keep people who pay from getting better web service than others
* If approved, plan would go to Congress for final approval
(CNN) -- The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote Tuesday on a set of regulations designed to ensure that internet providers grant everyone equal access to the Web.
The "net neutrality" rules, proposed by the Obama administration, would be the government's biggest foray yet into one of the Web's fiercest debates.
In announcing the proposed rules earlier this month, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said they would require high-speed internet providers to treat all types of Web content equally.
The rules would, in effect, keep the companies that own the internet's real-world infrastructure from slowing down some types of websites or apps -- say, those belonging to a competitor -- or speeding up others from high-paying clients.
The commission's agenda says the vote will address "basic rules of the road to preserve the open internet as a platform for innovation, investment, competition and free expression."
If it passes, as it is expected to do, the plan will go before Congress for final approval. That isn't expected to happen until the new Congress, elected in November, takes office next year.
Internet-freedom advocates have called the rules a step in the right direction but say they don't go far enough.
For example, the proposal doesn't set the same set of rules for mobile communications as it does for Web-based ones. And it wouldn't let the government strictly regulate internet providers in the way some advocates would like.
In fact, the proposal is similar to one put forward earlier this year by Google and Verizon, two of the internet's biggest stakeholders.
Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat and one of Congress' most vocal net-neutrality advocates, calls the issue "the most important free-speech issue of our time." In a column Monday for the Huffington Post, Franken said some of the current proposal's language could actually weaken protections.
"[T]his Tuesday, when the FCC meets to discuss this badly flawed proposal, I'll be watching," he wrote. "If they approve it as is, I'll be outraged. And you should be, too."
Michael Copps, a Democrat and one of the commission's five members, said in a written statement that he won't block the plan after weeks of trying to make it tougher.
"The item we will vote on tomorrow is not the one I would have crafted," Copps said. "But I believe we have been able to make the current iteration better than what was originally circulated.
"If vigilantly and vigorously implemented by the commission -- and if upheld by the courts -- it could represent an important milestone in the ongoing struggle to safeguard the awesome opportunity-creating power of the open internet."
Technically, Copps said he will vote to concur, which means not endorsing all parts of the plan but letting it move forward and, theoretically, be tweaked later.
Copps' two fellow Democrats also are expected to concur, while its two Republicans likely will vote no.
One of those Republicans, Robert M. McDowell, criticized Genachowski's proposal Sunday in a Wall Street Journal column.
"Nothing is broken that needs fixing ... " he wrote. "Analysts and broadband companies of all sizes have told the FCC that new rules are likely to have the perverse effect of inhibiting capital investment, deterring innovation, raising operating costs and ultimately increasing consumer prices."FCC to vote Tuesday on 'net neutrality' rules
Doug Gross
By Doug Gross,... more
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A new study suggests that the United States could do better when it comes to home ISP prices. The Technology Policy Institute's latest survey of the global high speed Internet market finds that US residential broadband subscription rates have "remained fairly stable" over the last three years, rising by just two percent.
That's good, of course, since they didn't go way up. But residential broadband prices have fallen in most other countries, the paper notes—in some instances by as much as 40 percent.
The survey also found that prices in the United States for "triple play" plans are some of the most expensive among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member nations.
Why the price gap? The paper emphasizes that "it does not evaluate the policies and other influences that impact those prices," but does note that many other nations require their big ISPs to "unbundle" or open their networks to small broadband providers at wholesale rates.
"Few countries actively regulate retail broadband prices, but every country that mandates network unbundling necessarily regulates wholesale prices," the TPI survey observes. "Wholesale prices are part of an ISP's costs, meaning that wholesale price regulation can affect retail prices. Thus it may not be surprising that the biggest price decreases have occurred in the EU [European Union], where wholesale prices for full unbundled loop access fell by about 10 percent between 2007 and 2009."
Looks like we're right back in the line sharing debate again. Late last year a Federal Communications Commission study concluded that unbundling works—consumers around the world enjoy better service because of it. Scientific American agrees, while the author of the FCC's National Broadband Plan is a skeptic. These new observations on pricing come from a think tank supported by AT&T and Verizon, and both of them oppose extending the concept here in the US.A new study suggests that the United States could do better when it comes to home ISP... more
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If you fancy the cheapest broadband in the world you need to pack your bags and move to Hong Kong or Romania…The latest research by Point Topic show that people living in Hong Kong pay as little as US$0.028 per megabit for fixed broadband, the lowest price in the world, in a close second comes Romania. Yes, we were surprised too. The UK and US are way down the list, and come in at 24th and 30th respectively, out of 71 countries analysed.The top 10 list is dominated by countries in Europe and Asia, thanks in part to the fact that they have spent a lot of resources on their broadband infrastructures, said Fiona Vanier, senior analyst at Point Topic, which is based in London.
The top 10 cheapest countries to surf the web
Hong Kong
Japan
Romania
Sweden
Latvia
China
Singapore
Russia
Germany
Finland
In these countries the lowest cost per megabit goes from $0.048 to $0.443, according to Point Topic.In the U.K. and U.S. users pay $0.91 and $1.32 per megabit respectively.
If you fancy the cheapest broadband in the world you need to pack your bags and move... more
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Rural areas could get connection of up to 10mbps early next year thanks to Hylas, a new broadband satellite .High speed broadband connections could finally extend to remote rural areas thanks to the launch of a new satellite.
link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/broadband/8162188/New-broadband-satellite-offers-hope-to-rural-areas.htmlRural areas could get connection of up to 10mbps early next year thanks to Hylas, a... more
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The wireless marketing wars rage on as Verizon Wireless claims the "most advanced 4G" wireless network in the world and takes more potshots at rival AT&T.It's not easy to be a consumer these days with wireless operators all claiming to have the fastest and most robust network in the U.S. Verizon Wireless is the latest operator to launch a new advertising campaign that promotes its soon-to-be-launched 4G LTE wireless broadband network.
:http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20023581-266.htmlThe wireless marketing wars rage on as Verizon Wireless claims the "most advanced... more
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suzane
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1 year ago
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Net neutrality has been called the "free market issue" of the Internet. It also represents an issue with a lot of discussion and few rational solutions. Proponents of this issue (e.g. Google) who want all bits of data to be given equal weight are weary of the agencies that could regulate such protection. Wireless carriers (e.g. Verizon) and Internet service providers have claimed that the Internet will be overwhelmed sooner rather than later.
http://www.cyberstudies.org/journal/2010/8/16/the-big-evil.htmlNet neutrality has been called the "free market issue" of the Internet. It... more
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silnan
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1 year ago
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Romania, Latvia, South Korea and Japan all have faster internet speeds than the UK, according to Akamai, a digital content delivery network .The UK has slipped down the global rankings for the average internet speed achieved by web users. It dropped from 23rd to 27th in a list of 201 countries, according to a report from Akamai, a digital content delivery network provider.
link :http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/broadband/7923766/UK-outperformed-on-broadband-speeds.htmlRomania, Latvia, South Korea and Japan all have faster internet speeds than the UK,... more
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We've been hearing wind of a new mobile broadband service coming next month from Best Buy for a few days now, and it looks like the company went ahead and spilled the beans in its own Sunday flyer. The service offers a variety of tiers ranging from a contract-free 250MB per month for $30 all the way up to 5GB monthly on a 24 month contract for $60 a month. Interestingly, 5GB monthly contract-free costs the same $60 monthly -
- you just get the $35 activation fee waived. At this point we don't know what the hardware looks like, but we're told Sprint is providing those bits and bytes wirelessly and that this new service will work with 4G. The employee news image after the break indicates that Connect will be launching on July 11 in all but 75 of the company's stores. Sometimes living out in the country is a drag.We've been hearing wind of a new mobile broadband service coming next month from... more
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