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Expert Opinion - page 3

Broadband Updates/Broadband's Impact/Expert Opinion

Designing, Implementing and Assessing an Internet Adoption Program for Senior Housing

LAKE FOREST, Ill., March 3, 2010 - On Tuesday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced a brief delay for some applicants for broadband stimulus grants. Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program Comprehensive Community Infrastructure projects will have until March 26th to file their applications to NTIA. Applicants for Rural Utilities Service infrastructure projects will have until March 29th to file their applications to RUS. But applicants for Applications in NTIA's two other project categories - Public Computer Centers and Sustainable Broadband Adoption - remain due on March 15th. As regards these latter category of applications, we have found that there are three essential elements in the design and implementation of an effective broadband adoption program for seniors living in senior housing communities and for their surrounding neighborhoods. Keep Reading

Broadband Updates/Broadband's Impact/Expert Opinion/FCC/National Broadband Plan/Recovery Act

Content Distribution Networks Are One Solution to Bandwidth Crunch

The unprecedented success of smart mobile devices like the iPhone has brought on the bandwidth crunch for mobile broadband services sooner than expected. Communications policymakers, regulators, businesses and others are looking at various remedies to alleviate the problem, including Content Distribution Networks. CDNs distribute popular video and other material to servers located closer to the… Keep Reading

Broadband Data/Expert Opinion

The Journey of a Million Miles Begins With Basic Broadband Research

PHILADELPHIA, Penn., February 3, 2010 - Investment in broadband infrastructure, most believe, is essential to our nation’s future economic health. In an information economy, the race is to the swift: those who can quickly access more, better information will innovate, communicate, and transact at a far greater rate than those who cannot. That’s how the argument goes. As our nation prepares to invest billions in broadband infrastructure, it appears that "We the People" have accepted that argument. One nagging question remains: is the argument valid? Keep Reading

Expert Opinion/Recovery Act/Wireless

Wireless Broadband Challenges Include Rolling Up WISPS and Obtaining Stimulus Funding

GERMANTOWN, Md., January 31, 2010 - Two of the biggest challenges facing the expansion of wireless broadband in this country include the disparate number of rural and remaote wireless carriers, and how to ensure that stimulus funding goes to wireless carriers. The Wireless Internet Service Provider Directory lists 1,860 WISPs in the U.S., while another directory includes over 2,500. Notwithstanding, there exist numerous other WISPs that are simply not contained in these directories. Keep Reading

Expert Opinion

Cable Trends: Predicting Stock Value as a Percentage of Division

Cable industry stocks, like all tech stocks, have seen their ups and downs when it comes to performance. The industry has been through periods of high infrastructure spending, acquisitions and divestitures, increased programming costs, higher retransmission costs, and competitive pressures, each playing its own role in keeping values lower. How do industry revenue streams [...] Keep Reading

Broadband's Impact/Expert Opinion/Transparency

Comcast’s impending Regulatory Hurdle: Simple Motives behind a Dream – NBC-Universal

Since announcement of the Comcast/NBC-Universal merger consummated the deal creating subsequent analysis and conjecture about how the new venture will be structured, with its impact on programming distribution and fears of dominance, and anti-trust issues within the marketplace; Comcast is set to go before regulators to convince a skeptical crowd how this union [...] Keep Reading

Broadband Data/Expert Opinion

The New York Times Highlights BroadbandCensus.com and Other Internet Speed Tests

WASHINGTON, January 21, 2010 - Today's edition of The New York Times includes a story about internet speed tests, including BroadbandCensus.com, and the various approaches that each of the major providers take in offering speed tests. The piece, "How Fast is Your Web Connection?" by Peter Wayner, includes ISPGeeks.com, Toast.net, VisualWare, Pingtest.net, and DSLReports.com, along with BroadbandCensus.com. Keep Reading

Expert Opinion/Recovery Act/Universal Service

Reflections on ‘Sustainable Adoption’ for Round 2 of Broadband Stimulus

LAKE FOREST, Ill., January 11, 2010 - Last July when the Round 1 of Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program was announced, Don Samuelson suggested that public housing authorities across the country ought to be applying to BTOP for financial assistance to promote the use of the Internet by their senior residents: “Every public housing authority in the United States should apply for stimulus funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Agency to set up a program to promote the benefits and use of the Internet for its senior housing residents. The goal should be to make the case for the practical benefits of broadband and the Internet sufficiently compelling so that seniors would want a computer and Internet connection in their individual units. The use of the Internet should be as valuable as a TV or a phone. This is a 'value proposition' that remains to be made. ” It appears that no one followed the suggestion. There were no sustainable adoption proposals in the first round of BTOP for senior housing. We’ve since updated our analysis and refined our thinking. Keep Reading

Copyright/Expert Opinion/National Broadband Plan/Net Neutrality

The Hill’s Kim Hart to Co-Moderate ‘Net Neutrality, Copyright Protection and National Broadband Plan’ Town Hall

Kim Hart, a reporter for The Hill covering technology-related subjects, will join with Drew Clark to co-moderate BroadbandBreakfast.com's upcoming National Town Hall Webcast, on "Net Neutrality, Copyright Protection and the National Broadband Plan," on Tuesday, January 19, 2010, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Register to attend in person at http://ipbreakfast.eventbrite.com. Keep Reading

Broadband Data/Expert Opinion/Recovery Act

Broadband Expert Q&A: Dan Hays Talks Broadband Mapping, Grants

WASHINGTON, December 29, 2009 – Dan Hays, director of the telecommunications practice at the management consulting firm PRTM, told Broadband Census News Monday that his company has some serious concerns about the overall direction of a government program to distribute funds to spur broadband penetration across the nation. Hays added that the division of grants and programs by state to gather information that will be used for a national broadband map “is driving unnecessary fragmentation.” Keep Reading

Expert Opinion/Recovery Act

The Rise of the Middle Mile in Obama’s Theory of Broadband Stimulus

WASHINGTON, December 21, 2009 - Last Thursday's announcement of broadband stimulus - even if it was about two-and-a-half percent of the total broadband stimulus funding - was like manna to broadband industry. Whether or not broadband activists and broadband builders believe that the federal government will end up playing a significant part of the telecommunications industry, the tension-in-waiting for action has been palpable and long-building. Keep Reading

Expert Opinion/NTIA/Recovery Act

State Preferred Broadband Stimulus Projects Sweep Day 1

After reviewing the letters from the states to the NTIA, BroadbandBreakfast.com has learned that all of the broadband stimulus projects awarded today were specifically recommended to the NTIA by the states, with the exception of the Rivada Sea Lion project in Alaska and Bretton Woods Telephone Company project in New Hampshire. Alaska did not recommend specific projects to the NTIA, and we are waiting to hear back from New Hampshire regarding their preferred project list. Keep Reading

Expert Opinion

Cable industry: at a Cross-Roads

Cable providers are looking at a cross-roads with the current climate brought on by a new political landscape, a Democratic Congress, with an FCC mandated to change the future of broadband, and a public viewed skepticism of the Cable Industry. This adds up to significant changes which might threaten the status-quo of annual rate [...] Keep Reading

Expert Opinion/Transparency

Cable Industry Executive Quotes to Remember in 2009

Why memorable quotes from Cable Industry executives in 2009 seemed either disconnected or a predictor of the future. Judge for yourself whether these quotes have merit or are they seriously off-track with the mainstream. Only time will tell whether these executives have done their homework, or they are just [in-the-moment] statements. As an [...] Keep Reading

Expert Opinion/FCC/Net Neutrality

A Common Sense Approach to Net Neutrality

There are two compelling sides to the Net Neutrality issue before the Federal Communications Commission that can be solved by cutting through the rhetoric and making a few common sense and objective decisions about what is at the crux of the problem.  First, Internet Service Providers are at the center of the debate, and rightfully… Keep Reading

Broadband Data/Expert Opinion

Report Using Census Block Data Finds Broadband Adoption Rate of 72.9 Percent

WASHINGTON, December 7, 2009 - A new report using an innovative approach to broadband data finds that the percentage of households in the United States that have adopted high-speed internet services is 72.9 percent. The report was generated by comparing the Census blocks in which broadband is available with the number of subscribers that carriers report to the Federal Communications Commission. Keep Reading

Expert Opinion

Comcast Consummates the Deal: Now the Tough Part Begins

It happened, as predicted by some and discounted by others; a Comcast-NBC Universal merger that has wide-ranging implications on both future Content and Internet usage. However, the tough part for Comcast begins now, today, and that is to placate dissenters like the Consumer Federation of America, the Free Press, and tough Federal Regulators [...] Keep Reading

Expert Opinion/Recovery Act

NCTA’s ‘Adoption Plus (A+) Program’: The Significance

The National Cable Telecommunications Association and Kyle McSlarrow must be commended for their creation, in partnership with both public and private sectors, the Adoption Plus (A+) Program, “a comprehensive pilot program to promote broadband adoption in low-income households with middle school-aged children”. The aforesaid program is the kind of cutting-edge solution to Broadband Adoption that… Keep Reading

Broadband Data/Expert Opinion

BroadbandCensus.com Sees Hope in NTIA’s Request for Form 477 Database

WASHINGTON, November 30, 2009 - The news that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration aims to seek access to the Form 477 database is positive news -- providing that the public obtains access to the database, too. Even before the founding of BroadbandCensus.com more than two years ago, the individuals associated with the data side of BroadbandCensus.com have been urging the public disclosure of basic broadband data. We call this the Broadband SPARC: for Speeds, Prices, Availability, Reliability and Competition. Keep Reading

Expert Opinion/Recovery Act

Lessons the FCC Can Learn from the Past!

I think the FCC has to look back at how Broadband proliferation occurred from its beginnings to understand how to move it forward today. By researching and studying The Cable Communications Act of 1984, the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, , and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the federal arm of… Keep Reading

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