WASHINGTON, January 24, 2013 – Whenever a large gathering commences, chances are that, in addition to cramped quarters and long lines, the influx will also mean a major increase in the number of cell phones, laptops and other Wi-Fi dependent devices. As when on January 21, 2013, President Barack Obama was sworn in for his… Keep Reading
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, December 26, 2012 – Many families would like to get an iPhone for their whole family, but the problem is the price. There are lots of families that have kids with iPods (which cost the same price as iPhones, excluding service plans) and lots of parents with phones. Many times, kids also have… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, December 21, 2012 – The Nation Cable and Telecommunications Association, the trade group representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation’s households, on Friday released a statement criticizing the Data Cap Integrity Act introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “Regrettably, this ill-conceived legislation ignores the substantial pro-consumer benefits of usage-based pricing,” according to the NCTA… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, December 20, 2012 – On Thursday Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore. proposed a data caps bill that encourages transparency for customers so they can further understand their data usage and to ensure that innovation is not hampered by a cap on data. The non-profit organization Public Knowledge has championed public attention on, and further investigation of, data caps. They support… Keep Reading
December 18, 2012 – The year 2012 has provided significant progress in broadband within the United States. Whether through policy developments, or through technologies advancing the rate of internet speeds, the business case for making use of those higher speeds is also progressing in a meaningful way. It’s almost as if the presidential and other… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 19, 2012 – The internet policy news and events service BroadbandBreakfast.com held its October 2012 Broadband Breakfast Club “Reforming the Universal Service Fund: What’s Changing?” on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001 from 8 am – 10 am. Nearly one year ago, the Federal… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Thursday, September 20th, 2012 – The internet policy news and events service BroadbandBreakfast.com held its September 2012 Broadband Breakfast Club event “Measuring Broadband Performance: What Have We Learned in Four Years?” on Tuesday, September 18th, 2012 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001 from 8 am – 10 am. You can see highlights… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Monday, September 17th, 2012 – The internet policy news and events service BroadbandBreakfast.com will hold its September 2012 Broadband Breakfast Club event “Measuring Broadband Performance: What Have We Learned in Four Years?” on Tuesday, September 18th, 2012 at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001 from 8 am –… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Thursday, July 26, 2012 – Last week, the fourth year of the Broadband Breakfast Club Series came to an end with a timely panel on “Bringing Broadband Adoption to the Nation’s Underserved Population.” Panelists from the private, nonprofit and state government sectors came together to discuss what can be done to promote broadband usage in… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Thursday July 19, 2012. As part of its July Open Commission meeting, the Federal Communications Commission gave an update of its Measuring Broadband America report. This follow-up was the result of further collection of data from the over 7,000 measurement devices given to volunteers around the United States, and to show how the initial… Keep Reading
June 27, 2012 – Small businesses are the livelihood of any thriving economy. Increasingly, these start-up businesses need access to broadband to drive their products and services. BroadbandCensus.com has been no exception to this rule. BroadbandCensus.com has always been focused on ensuring that the public has access to the information that it needs about the… Keep Reading
ARLINGTON, Va., May 25, 2012 – The new national wireless communications network to serve police, firefighters and other “first responders” may provide a new opportunity to extend broadband stimulus-related activity, a top Commerce Department official said Wednesday. Dubbed FirstNet, this new public safety wireless network was mandated in February by Congress. Lawmakers allocated up to $7 billion that will be dispensed to state entities under the coordination of a new, independent organization at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. States should act fast to develop plans to utilize funding, said Assistant Secretary of Commerce Larry Strickling, who administers the NTIA. “One of the issues [in FirstNet] is how does coverage from this network get into rural areas?” [more...] Keep Reading
April 2, 2012 – I admit to being taken in yesterday by Google’s April Fools prank – Gmail Tap. This priceless video promises to bring Morse code back for the smart phone era. Gmail Tap hit a powerful nerve: how to make smart phones more useful for the things we do besides talking on them.… Keep Reading
November 14, 2011 – When the Federal Communications Commission identified six concrete goals in the national broadband plan, the one specific application highlighted by the agency was energy consumption: “To ensure that America leads in the clean energy economy, every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption.” This goal – tracking and managing energy consumption – is right at the intersection of two trends that will be explored at the Broadband Breakfast Club on Tuesday, November 15: "The Smart Grid and Broadband." Click here to register for this event. Keep Reading
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois, August 9, 2011 - It's very easy to take broadband for granted. People want to go online to look up answers on Wikipedia, to watch movies on Netflix, to hang out on Facebook, or to Skype cousins across the globe -- or across town. None of this can be done without broadband. Higher and higher speeds of internet connectivity are necessary to satisfy everyone's demand to do all of these things at once. That's where the Partnership for a Connected Illinois comes into play. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2011- Both AT&T and Verizon taken steps to to deploy their 4G LTE networks in recent months, with Sprint and T-Mobile heavily advertising their existing 4G technologies. With rampant speculation regarding the iPhone 5 industry watchers have predicted that consumers would be clamoring for the faster speeds promised by LTE. "Not so," says consumer research firm Retrevo. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON June 20, 2011 - The market research firm ID InSight released an analysis of the data collected by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for the national broadband map, which shows a high level of accuracy in data collection. “Through our initial analysis of the map, we are seeing very high degrees of accuracy - sometimes exceeding 99 percent when comparing the NTIA map to what we see with Broadband Scout,” said Adam Elliot President of ID InSight. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON June 2, 2011 - Cisco predicted the next four years of global broadband consumption via virtual forum when it unveiled its annual visual networking index Wednesday. Each year Cisco produces a networking index that predicts internet use and broadband consumption for the next five years. While a number of firms produce similar reports, Cisco’s has consistently proven among the most accurate in recent years. Keep Reading
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois, May 4, 2011 - Later today, at 2 p.m. CT, the Partnership for a Connected Illinois will kick off our "Wednesday Webinar" series, beginning with a discussion about the Illinois Broadband Map. Registration for this event is free. PCI feels so passionately about the Illinois Broadband Map because data and information should be central to helping promote sound policies, and because evidence suggests that broadband is a key driver of job creation and economic activity. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON April 20, 2011- National Telecommunications and Information Administration Deputy Administrator, Anna Gomez offered the keynote address Tuesday at this month's Broadband Breakfast panel, opening an event where panelists explored how to best to expand broadband adoption and maximize access. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 25, 2011 - The Institute for Local Self-Reliance unveiled its Community Broadband Network Map and Report on Wednesday. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 24, 2011 - The bipartisan technology policy group TechNet gathered government officials and leading broadband scholars Tuesday to present the first set of academic research using data from the national broadband map. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2011 - The New America Foundation and Google gathered government officials Wednesday to present an overview of the organizations' website that gathers, compiles and maps international broadband connection speed data. The site, Measurement Lab, provides the broadband data for researchers. The site is a collaborative venture between Google, the New America Foundation and the academic consortium PlanetLab. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON March 23, 2011- Broadband voice company, Bandwidth.com, unveiled Monday a nationwide map that displays availability and pricing data for business broadband connections, building on information from the National Telecommunications Information Administration's national broadband map. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON March 22,2011 - The Federal Communications Commission released its annual Local Telephone Competition and Broadband Deployment reports on Monday which show the rapid growth of Voice over IP and the stagnation of broadband adoption. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON March 17, 2011 - On the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the National Broadband Plan, Broadband Breakfast gathered key industry experts to offer criticism and discuss the government’s implementation of the plan.
The National Broadband Plan: A One-Year Update from BroadbandBreakfast.com.
Keep ReadingWASHINGTON, March 17, 2011 - Apple’s initial iPad 2 sales and projections for 2011 say while that Apple probably will not face much competition in tablet sales, the competition for wireless data plans for the device are heating up. Apple sold over 15 million of the original iPad, and brisk resales of used iPads on eBay, Gazelle, and other resale sites indicate that the original model is still quite popular. Analyst Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets sees upgrades from the original iPad comprising only a fifth of iPad 2 over the next 12 months. That means that the remaining 80 percent of iPad 2 purchasers will likely be new to the tablet platform. Abramsky projects Jobs and Company will sell 28 million of its new model touchscreen tablet by the end of the calendar year. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 7, 2011 - Ookla, the company that owns and manages the connection testing website, Speedtest.net, relaunched the site Monday with an updated look and new functionality to better record consumer connection data. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON March 4, 2011 – Broadband continued to expand at a significant pace in 2010 despite a struggling economy, according to data released this week from the Leichtman Research Group. According to the data, cable companies added 2.3 million new subscribers while telephone companies added only 1.1 million. At the end of 2010, Leichtman calculated… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON February 23, 2011 - The Federal Communications Commission's national broadband map website received more than 150 million hits and more than 1,000 requests per second in its first day live, according to usage data released Friday by the agency. Keep Reading
SPRINGFIELD, February 21, 2011 - President Abraham Lincoln began his political career here with a passionate interest in infrastructure improvements. America knows President Lincoln today because his belief in equal opportunity. What connects that which we know about Lincoln and that which brought him into public life? Keep Reading
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. Keep Reading
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois, February 17, 2011 - Illinois residents can now discover who offers high-speed internet service in their neighborhood with a single mouse click or touch on a smart phone. They do this by visiting http://broadbandillinois.org, a new site launched Thursday by the Partnership for a Connected Illinois (or Broadband Illinois), a non-profit group based in Springfield. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON February 17, 2011 - Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, Lawrence Strickling, presented a brief preview of the national broadband map and an update on the activities of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the annual winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners on Wednesday. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON – A widely supported program intended to subsidize internet access for schools and libraries continues to fall short of its goals, according to a recent report from the Federal Communications Commission. The E-Rate program offers subsidies for schools and libraries to obtain broadband connectivity, but due to administrative hurdles most recipients respondenting to an… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, December 10, 2010 - The issue of competition among broadband providers has been greatly debated. Some claim that there is a cozy duopoly between cable and DSL while others claim that there is no competition due to lack of access. While it is true that not every area has a truly competitive market, most areas do have at least a single cable and DSL provider. A recent set of white papers by the Federal Communications Commission looks at why users change their ISPs and how consumers feel about their ISPs. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 22, 2010 - Now that all of the broadband stimulus funding has been distributed, its effectiveness can now be evaluated. That was the message at the Broadband Breakfast Club on Tuesday, October 19. Video of the event was released on Friday. While the long term value of the stimulus is still unknown, panelists were able to gauge the way in which the funds were distributed. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 14, 2010 - The internet and intellectual property news service BroadbandBreakfast.com announces the second event in its Fall 2010 – 2011 Broadband Breakfast Club series, “Evaluating the Broadband Stimulus.” Keep Reading
ARLINGTON, Va., October 2, 2010 – Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn emphasized the need for quality research in policy making, particularly with regard to reforming the universal service fund for telephone and internet connectivity. Speaking at the Friday evening dinner session at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, a top telecom research conference here, Clyburn also said that she expected the FCC to propose changes to the USF system, and to propose funding for universal broadband, by the end of 2010. Keep Reading
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois, September 28, 2010 - Broadband high-speed internet services are stimulating the economy, creating jobs and enhancing lives in Illinois through enhanced telemedicine, training, and public safety benefits. On Tuesday, dozens of federal broadband stimulus recipients will gather together in Springfield, Illinois, to celebrate and plan how more than $351 million in federal, state and private investment will be used to build infrastructure and frontline programs to eliminate the digital divide. The historic assembly will be webcast live on broadbandillinois.org at 11 a.m. ET / 10 a.m. CT. The program will also be streamed on the Illinois Channel, and the home page of the State of Illinois. The direct link to the stream is http://www.state.il.us/streaming/broadband-092810.asx (available at 9:50 a.m. CT). Keep Reading