The Flaw in Obama’s Wireless Plan

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Main Street in Ten Sleep, WY

Main Street in Ten Sleep, WY

The President hopes an increase in Internet access will result in more economic development. Fiber networks would do that better than mobile broadband

By Brendan Greeley

The residents of Ten Sleep, Wyo., know the meaning of rural. They didn’t have phone service until the 1950s, when Tri-County Telephone Assn., a municipal cooperative, used federal subsidies to string copper wire to every home. In 2005 the co-op upgraded to fiber-optic cable, giving the town’s 300 residents Internet access at 20 megabits per second. For the technically unfamiliar, Chris Davidson, Tri-County Telephone’s general manager, describes this as “smoking fast.”

Even President Barack Obama is impressed. On Feb. 10 he rolled out a national wireless plan, pointing to Ten Sleep as an example of what he wants to replicate nationally: Because of the town’s high-speed fiber network, one company has been able to hire locals to teach English to Asians by video chat over the network. Obama hopes his plan will result in more such economic development by providing 98 percent of Americans with access to high-speed wireless Internet. “Ten Sleep,” Obama mused. “I love the name of that town.”

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NTIA, FCC Release National Broadband Map and Digital Nation Report

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Rahul Gaitonde, Deputy Editor, BroadbandBreakfast.com

National Broadband Map Logo WASHINGTON February 17, 2011- The National Telecommunications and Information Administration in conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission unveiled the National Broadband Map along with an update to the Digital Nation report this morning. The map is available at http://www.broadbandmap.gov/.

The map is the result of over 2 years of work and $350 million government funding. All 50 states, the District of Columbia and 5 territories provided the NTIA with data. The map brings together 25 million pieces of data to provide consumers, policy makers and business with an accurate picture of broadband deployment and availability. Over 1600 unique internet service providers were identified.

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Obama Likens Broadband To Electricity, Rails In Michigan Speech

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Northern Michigan University Seal

Image via Wikipedia

Jonathan Charnitski, Managing Editor, BroadbandBreakfast.com

WASHINGTON, February 10, 2011 – President Obama drew comparisons between high-speed Internet, the railroads and the electric grid during a speech in Marquette, Michigan on Thursday afternoon, commenting on their essential nature to the economy and calling for a renewed investment in broadband infrastructure.

The administration’s Wireless Innovation and Infrastructure Initiative (WIII) comes on the heels of the President’s State of the Union address last month, during which he pledged to facilitate high-speed wireless networks that reach 98 percent of Americans.  The program also aims to free up radio spectrum to alleviate an impending spectrum crunch, create a nationwide interoperable wireless network for public safety and drive innovation in the wireless broadband sector.

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Business strategist: Fibrant needs promoting

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Craig Settles at Salisbury City Hall. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By Emily Ford

Creating a municipal fiber optic network was smart, but now the city must market Fibrant and educate users to realize the system’s full potential, a community broadband expert says.

“You have truly 21st century technology,” said Craig Settles, a broadband business strategist from San Francisco who spoke Friday at City Council’s planning retreat. “Do not hide this digital light under a basket. Talk about it and promote it. It will make a difference.”

Fibrant is the city’s fledgling $30 million fiber-to-the-home utility, which was in development for five years. Fibrant has been operating since November and expects to sign up its 500th subscriber this month. The city aims to have 4,400 subscribers in four years.

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Nulty firm loses Minnesota broadband project

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Freedom to Connect First Panel

Image by AKMA via Flickr

Burlington Telecom concerns spurred county board to review contract issues

By John Briggs, Free Press Staff Writer

Burlington Telecom’s financial woes played a role in the decision this week by the Lake County, Minn., Board of Commissioners to end negotiations with a broadband company run by Burlington Telecom’s former chief executive officer.

National Public Broadband, whose CEO is Tim Nulty, had been in line to build a $70 million federally-funded communications network in rural Minnesota.

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From voice to broadband: FCC redirects its $8.7B in phone bill fees

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By Matthew Lasar

ARS Technica

Can the Federal Communications Commission save a huge government program that overpays carriers to provide old school phone service, overtaxes subscribers to subsidize it, discourages modernization, and doesn’t even offer broadband to the low income and rural consumers it purports to serve?

Yes it can, insists FCC Chair Julius Genachowski.

The Commission’s $8.7 billion Universal Service Fund and Intercarrier Compensation system was designed “for a world that no longer exists,” Genachowski told the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation on Monday. The USF was created “for a world with separate local and long-distance telephone companies; a world of traditional, landline telephones before cell phones or Skype; a world without the Internet.”

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