Category: News

News and other note worthy events

Connect America Fund Threatens Rural States’ Telephone Subsidies

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Aberdeen, South Dakota
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Jonathan Charnitski, Reporter, BroadbandBreakfast.com

WASHINGTON, November 29, 2010 – As the next phases of the National Broadband Plan draw near, states with significant rural area have expressed concern that they may lose funds vital to affordable telephone service.

The plan’s Chapter 8 outlines recommendations to provide affordable broadband internet access to all Americans. Part of that chapter recommends the creation of the Connect America Fund. The CAF would fund deployment of broadband to unserved and underserved populations, much as the Universal Service Fund provided the economic means to provide telephone service to all Americans.

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Could Comcast/Colorado DOT Fiber Deal Accelerate Public/Private Network Partnerships?

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A new agreement announced this week between Comcast and the Colorado Department of Transportation could spur other communications service providers to explore new avenues for obtaining network capacity. Through the agreement, Comcast will lease two strands of a portion of the fiber network that the CDOT uses for electronic sign message control, traffic camera surveillance, travel time detection, weather station monitoring and other forms of communications. The lease agreement is for 20 years.

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Commerce Report Shows Diminishing Digital Divide

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Rahul Gaitonde, Deputy Editor, BroadbandBreakfast.com

WASHINGTON, November 9, 2010 –  After a year of data crunching and analysis, the Commerce Department has released a report titled “Exploring the Digital Nation Home Broadband Internet Adoption in the United States,” concluding that a digital divide still exists but is decreasing.

Yet almost one-fourth of all households did not have a single internet user. The study found that income and education have some of the most significant factors in determining if users have broadband at home. Additionally, cost remained one of the main reasons why users do not upgrade to broadband.

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SoftBank CEO Urges an End to Copper

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Masayoshi Son
Image by Danny Choo via Flickr

Japanese media giant has a bold if somewhat self-serving plan to cover the country in optical fiber

By John Boyd  /  November 2010

Japan has long been regarded as a leader when it comes to providing broadband connectivity and deploying “fiber to the home” (FTTH). Yet entrepreneur Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of telecom and media company SoftBank Corp., is critical of the way broadband technology is being implemented and has urged the government to back his ideas for radical change.

As is the case in most developed countries, the Japanese industry is employing broadband in two ways: over existing copper phone lines using digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, which provides theoretical maximum download speeds of around 50 megabits per second, and over newly laid optical fiber cable with the claim of delivering data at up to 200 Mb/s. Even though SoftBank has the largest number of DSL subscribers—a 38 percent market share—Son says this two-tier deployment strategy is costly and inefficient and is causing Japan to lose its competitive edge.

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A Blazing Fast Muni Fiber Network…Coming at City Council Speed

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The top of the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington

Reprinted with permission from Community Broadband Networks.

If Seattle moves forward on the Community Fiber Network it has been considering, it will be the largest such network in the nation. However, as we recently noted, progress has been slow. Reclaim the Media recently noted progress toward publicly owned fiber in Edmonds and asked why Seattle is stuck in the mud on the issue.

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Shutesbury TM approves broadband proposal

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Shutesbury Town Hall, Shutesbury, Massachusett...
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By Ben Storrow Staff Writer

SHUTESBURY — Shutesbury became the first town in western Massachusetts to act on a proposal aimed at bringing broadband Internet access to every resident in the region at a special Town Meeting Tuesday night.

Voters unanimously approved a plan that would allow the town to create its own telecommunications department and join with other municipalities to establish the fiber-optic network needed to provide high-speed Internet access.

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Global Telecom Group Finds Number of Internet Users Worldwide Doubles in Past Five Years

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International Telecommunications Union, Geneva.

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WASHINGTON, October 20, 2010 -The number of global internet users doubled in the past five years and will surpass the 2 billion mark in 2010, according to new data from the International Telecommunications Union.

The number of people having home internet access has increased from 1.4 billion in 2009 to almost 1.6 billion in 2010. The new data were released on the eve of World Statistics Day, which is Wednesday.

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