Tag: Federal Communication Commission

Telecoms want to stop high-speed internet spread, but not Google Fiber this time [sic]

  By

This is another poorly written article that may just be news instead of an editorial. What caught my eye was the quote below.

But for some internet service companies, the deployment of faster internet “must be” regulated, and more specifically in some areas where internet businesses are protected by laws.

Although the sentence does not make sense, I believe that they are supporting regulating Internet Service Providers (ISP). Why is it a foregone conclusion that the Internet must be regulated? The Internet has grown organically with little to no regulation. Unlike the statements made in this article, there are ways to provide competition in the broadband services market. The only reason that the so-called press wants regulation is their proclivity towards government control and to preserve their industry. Traditional media is dying and having the government regulate the Internet helps to preserve their business.

I agree that municipalities and localities need to be in control of their broadband future, but not at the expense of taxpayers. I do not agree with the state laws preventing cities from entering into business relationships that can increase their broadband penetration, but I also do not think that they should compete with commercial enterprises. Once again open-access broadband infrastructure is the answer.

Internet Connection

Who doesn’t want to stream faster Netflix videos? Access Facebook seamlessly, or watch YouTube videos in 4K resolution? The bottom line, there’s a demand for cheap, but very fast internet connection.

See Google Fiber as one of the best examples out there.

Google Fiber is the search giant’s popular but very expensive to build internet service with a 1-gigabyte-per-second internet connection. The Mountain View, California-based search and advertising company is already serving three markets in America, Kansas, Provo and Austin, and could expand to nine others in the near future.

And while the mobile phone market is growing and computers are getting cheaper, consumers are now demanding for faster and affordable internet speed. Luckily, faster internet is not limited to mega cities only, or cities selected by Google, AT&T or CenturyLink.

But for some internet service companies, the deployment of faster internet “must be” regulated, and more specifically in some areas where internet businesses are protected by laws. These business giants are now asking the FCC to stop the expansion of — well, not Google Fiber this time, but the city-operated internet services.

Continue Reading
Related articles

AT&T Sends Mixed Messages on Paid Prioritisation

  By

AT&T partially has the right idea by supporting traffic prioritization at the users’ request but they present it as selling more bandwidth instead of guaranteeing maximum latency and jitter. The user should be able to specify if they want their traffic prioritized whether they pay a service provider for that option or whether they purchase an option to label certain traffic from the ISP. AT&T wants to use this as an opportunity to sell a higher tier of service so they can drive up ARPU instead of selling a guaranteed maximum latency and jitter rate that is much less expensive to provide. Is AT&T being disingenuous or are the people presenting the public face truly ignorant on the subject of traffic management? I am beginning to wonder.

AT&T

AT&T (Photo credit: MrVJTod)

U.S. telco in favour of enforcing net neutrality under section 706 but wants to give customers option to pay for Internet fast lanes.

AT&T has somehow managed to simultaneously support a ban on paid prioritisation while at the same time recommending that prioritisation agreements should be permissible.

In a blog post late Thursday, the U.S. telco came out in favour of reinstating the Federal Communications Commission‘s net neutrality rules “including banning paid prioritisation – where an ISP prioritises packets over the consumer’s last mile broadband Internet access service without being directed to perform that prioritisation by the consumer”.

Continue reading

Mayors: Every classroom needs Wi-Fi

  By
Highlighting Broadband Access at Kent Island H...

Highlighting Broadband Access at Kent Island High School (Photo credit: MDGovpics)

Editorial:  The USCM is asking the federal government to address a local problem unless they would like a federal takeover of education like Common Core has started.  Education is a local issue and should be addressed at the local level just like broadband access.  The mayors state that broadband access is just as important as a “chalkboard and textbooks” but the federal government doesn’t purchase those supplies either.  School districts should work with their city and county governments that grant franchises to telephone and cable companies to provide inexpensive broadband access to schools.  Instead of continuing the outdated concept of Community Access Channels, they should redirect that money to low-cost educational access.  Another alternative would be to build their own municipal broadband infrastructure, and build in the cost of educational use into the least price of the network.  There are several solutions that municipalities can implement without resorting to asking the FCC to add another tax on communication services.

A group of mayors is urging the Obama administration to bring high-speed Internet to more schools and libraries around the country.

Students at every U.S. school should have access to Internet speeds of 100 megabytes per second right now, and one gigabyte per second by 2017, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) said in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The mayors also called for each classroom to have Wi-Fi connectivity. 

Continue reading

Amid political pressure, FCC to propose Net neutrality fix

  By
  Marguerite Reardon
by  | February 11, 2014 3:33 PM PST

FCC Commissioners in 2014

As politicians put on the pressure, Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler says he’s about to reveal his plan for keeping the Internet open for everyone.

On Monday during a speech at the University of Colorado Law School, Wheeler said that the FCC, which suffered a legal defeat last month when a federal appeals court threw out its Open Internet rules, is working on a plan that will re-instate Net neutrality protections. Wheeler indicated that the agency was encouraged by the court’s decision, which rejected the regulation on a legal technicality, but upheld the agency’s authority to regulate broadband networks to encourage adoption and investment. He said details would be made public soon.

“In its Verizon v. FCC decision, the Court of Appeals invited the Commission to act to preserve a free and open Internet,” he said. “I accept that invitation, and in the coming days, I will be outlining how I propose to proceed.”

Continue reading