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Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2007-09-26 10:18
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-09-21 11:38
Reed Hundt's Frontline Wireless is proposing more changes to the FCC's 700 MHz auction rules upon reconsiderataion -- so watch your wallet!
Per today's Comm Daily:
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2007-09-20 10:20
It seems the "pixie dust" of "free" municipal wifi isn't so "magical" after all.
To quote one of my conservative heroes, the late great Milton Friedman, "there is no free lunch."
- The article chronicles the growing trend that cities around the country are finally learning that simple economic lesson -- which should have been obvious to them from the start.
- But how could the cities forget the economic truism that "there is no free lunch" and let their expectations so far exceed reality?
- The answer lies in how many companies, who routinely expect a "free lunch" from communications carriers (like net neutrality supporters: Google, eBay-Skype, Amazon, Intel et.al), whispered in these cities ears that they could easily have free or very low cost wireless broadband access.
- The problem that these net neutrality/open access proponents brushed under the rug was that building and operating a wireless broadband network, even a lower cost WiFi or WiMax network, still costs a substantial amount of money, and requires substantial resources and expertise to pull off at a minimum quality level.
Bottomline: What I hope cities take away from this painful lesson is what they were taught when they were young: "if it looks too good to be true, it is."
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-09-14 18:15
I am on a Broadband Policy panel on Monday at 4:45 at the Future of Music Summit with a couple of the lead folks who champion net neutrality: Professor Tim Wu, who coined the term, and Ben Scott, of Free Press who has slickly popularized it in close coordination with Moveon.org.
- Should be interesting, the panel appears to be fairly balanced: one against NN (me) and the rest of the panel avidly for it.
- Wish me luck.
Leveling the Playing Field: how does broadband policy affect musicians?
Congress and the FCC are currently working a series of initiatives designed to revise the telecommunications regulatory framework, with everything from spectrum reform, to broadband deployment, to network neutrality on the table. How will proposed revisions impact musicians, citizens and technologists? How does broadband policy intersect with concerns about protecting intellectual property? What would a pro-musician Telecom Act look like?
Charles Bissell Musician, The Wrens
Scott Cleland Chairman, NetCompetition.org
Peter Gordon President, Thirsty Ear
Jason Oxman Vice President, Communications, Consumer Electronics Association
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-09-14 10:56
Google's credibility as a real and reliable wireless carrier has taken a big hit in that Tech Daily is reporting that a Google/Earthlink's "sweeping plan to blanket San Francisco with a high speed Internet network is officially dead."
With much fanfare Google has said it would bring free WiFi to San Francisco at an estimated cost of $15 million with partner Earthlink, which now is experiencing financial problems and layoffs.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2007-09-11 18:05
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-09-07 18:10
Some folks have no shame.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-09-07 10:31
CNET's respected Declan McCullagh produced a sound and fair analysis of what ails net neutrality, which I recommend as a good read on the state of play on the issue. Below is the comment I posted on his piece.
- "Well done Declan. You've produced a sound and fair analysis of why net neutrality has failed to gain traction.
- My only significant quibble is that I would have made more of a point that clearly the issue is not grass roots, but a well orchestrated campaign by Moveon.org and its functional affilliates Free Press, Public Knowledge and the New America foundation -- and its lead corporate sponsor/ally -- Google.
- They have obviously made a political campaign decision to go "dormant" on net neutrality as Mr. Brodsky suggested.
- When the Moveon.org crowd decides to re-unleash their dogs on the issue it will burst back onto the scenes again.
- My most important takeaway on all this is that this net neutrality "dormancy" exposes this issue for what it is: a manufactured bogus policy issue pushed into the forefront by very sophisticated political/policy operatives -- there is zero grass roots groundswell for net neutrality here -- only millions of Moveon.org email-list puppets on a string... and an apparently insatiable appetite for corporate welfare by Google..."
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2007-09-06 19:05
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2007-09-04 18:06
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