Daily Archives: May 8, 2008

Drawing a map for broadband

Posted on by
Reply

Our fun news of the day is Blandin Foundation President, Jim Hoolihan’s Op-Ed piece in the Pioneer Press.

Jim praises the leadership in the state for their recent decision to create a Broadband Task Force. He offers some advice for the yet-to-be-name task force members:

We commend these principles as a starting point for the state’s broadband task force:

Affordability: Find innovative ways to make broadband affordable in order for all to experience Internet advantages;

Collaboration: Establish public-private collaborations;

Competitiveness: Increased customer choice and innovation are positive outcomes; encourage competition among service providers;

Interoperability: Regardless of the technology used for ultra-high-speed delivery, all systems must seamlessly interoperate with all other technologies;

Neutrality: Ultra-high-speed broadband policy should be promoted regardless of the technology platform that delivers it;

Research: Reward ongoing broadband innovation and continued research;

Symmetry: Provide symmetric speeds (same speeds upstream and downstream) to improve people’s ability to share information;

Ubiquity: Support the concept that eventually ultra-high-speed broadband should be available to every person, business and institution in our state

World class: Settle for nothing less than a world-class ultra-high-speed broadband system.

Net Neutrality Update in US House

Posted on by
Reply

Earlier this week a US House subcommittee met to talk further on Net Neutrality. I have to admit, I just couldn’t watch the whole thing this time around but secondary research tells me that it’s pretty much the same as previous meetings. I did listen to the introductory remarks – which we interesting in that they specifically addressed the bill. Well, it specifically poked holes in or uplifted the bill. But the content was similar to previous meetings.

The ISPs don’t want regulation. They feel regulation will squelch the entrepreneurial spirit that has allowed the Internet to take off as it has. The content providers want regulation or they feel that the ISPs will become the information gatekeepers.

Support for the bill runs down party lines. The 2006 version of the bill was not passed due to Republican Majority. But the landscape has changed in two years and this bill is softened from the original. So, it seems more likely to pass this time.

The big issue is the P2P activity online – but no one really knows how big that activity is or how much of that activity is legal. My guess is that no matter how big it is today, it’s going to be bigger in the future. It just seems that anything that helps consumers become producers is a winner.