Daily Archives: November 16, 2008

Broadband Over Power Lines for Rural Areas

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The first time I remember hearing about broadband over power lines was more than 10 years ago. The last time I heard about it was nearly 10 years ago. Well, not really but I hadn’t read much about it for a while until last week.

Here’s the new from the IBEC news release:

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and International Broadband Electric Communications, Inc. (IBEC) today announced the signing of a $9.6 million Agreement to have IBM install Broadband over Power Line (BPL) networks at electric cooperatives throughout the eastern US. IBEC will focus on providing broadband services to underserved residents in rural America.

So that would be cool. I got a little more info from Ars Technica – they had current pricing from IBEC: from $29.95 per month for symmetric 256Kbps up to $89.95 per month for 3Mbps for residential service, and $69.95 to $229.95 per month for the same range for businesses. In early co-op tests, a $99 setup fee includes a BPL modem.

I hope it works out – rural areas could definitely use another player in the field.

FCC Transition Team

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On Friday Obama’s team announced their transtion leads for the FCC. It includes Susan Crawford and Ken Werbach.

Susan Crawford is a communications law and Internet law professor at the University of Michigan. She was on the ICANN board. She’s a champion of network neutrality. She maintains a blog where she’s pretty good about giving her opinions to what’s going on with the FCC, or ICANN, or the Election.

Ken Werbach is an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He runs the Supernova conference. Werbach is also a net neutrality proponent and maintains a blog where he too is very forthcoming with his opinions.

I tried to look around to see what the word on the street was regarding the announcement – but there’s not much out there yet. The Obama supporters are happy; others are maybe not so happy. Wired did have a fun post of the topic, where they point out that,

“The choice of the duo strongly signals an entirely different approach to the incumbent-friendly telecom policymaking that’s characterized most of the past eight-years at the FCC.”

The Municipal and Utility Guidebook to Bringing Broadband Fiber Optics to Your Community

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blog_ftthreportSo I read the new FTTH Guidebook for communities and I kinda like it. (For non-Minnesotans who might be reading this – that’s pretty high praise.) The meat of the work is in 4 case studies of successful municipal FTTH projects.

The case studies are detailed. The talk about the legal, technical, financial and management issues that have come up for the providers. They get at pricing and specific local laws that had to be overcome. I was impressed with the amount of detail provided.

The rest of the guidebook draws conclusions and makes recommendations based on the collective experience of the case studies. I think this would be helpful reading for anyone looking into the option of community-owned FTTH.

But you know what I wish was also there? Maybe a study of a community that wasn’t successful or a study of a community that decided to go another route – just for comparison.