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Battle lines drawn at network neutrality forum

No service providers appeared at the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) second forum on network neutrality, held at Stanford University. Each FCC commissioner used the opportunity to place the issue within familiar ideological frames. Two of the three Republican commissioners – Deborah Tate and Robert McDowell – reliably took an anti-regulatory tack. Democratic commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps advocated for the adoption of clearer and stricter network neutrality policy. Several months ago, companies such as Comcast and Verizon had aroused public ire for actions perceived to be violations of privacy and network neutrality issues. The immediate responses from the FCC commissioners were generally censorious, but yesterday they maintained a more even tone, all acknowledging that service providers have a legitimate need to manage their networks. Censure was the order of the day, however. Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, long one of the strongest voices for network neutrality, lectured the commissioners on the FCC’s historic failures with regard to network neutrality. He generally buttressed the Copps/Adelstein view in his remarks. “We are facing these problems because of a failure of FCC policy,” Lessig said. "The FCC failed to make it clear to the network owners that if they are building the Internet, they need to build it neutrally.” More...

Delivery of Mobile TV Debated at NAB Conference

New standards for broadcasting TV to mobile devices are being tested by the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), official said at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Last Vegas. The group hopes to build an open standard by next year, on the theory that mobile TV can make up for or even surpass recent drops in traditional TV advertising for independent and small-market stations. The group will submit proposed standards to the Advanced Television Systems Committee next month, according to the Associated Press. Ultimately, TV stations should be able to broadcast directly to mobile devices, rather than requiring special mobile-content conversion software, the group advocates. What technology can’t solve are telecommunications operator traditions – such as getting a slice of the enhanced services pie. More...

Is Intel’s “agenda” holding up Sprint?

No Xohm 'Mobile WiMAX'-Certified Gear Before July. The first clutch of products now officially able to be called "mobile WiMAX" has been certified by the WiMAX Forum, according to a curious announcement out of Singapore that also disclosed no certified mobile WiMAX of the type needed for Sprint's proposed Xohm service will be ready before July, if even then. None of the pieces of hardware passing initial muster support the key MIMO or smart antenna technology so highly touted as being key to mobile WiMAX. It appears all of the initial products certified were born out of South Korea's home-brewed WiBro version of the IEEE 802.16e specification. The WiMAX Forum has been working madly to “redefine WiBro as a form of WiMAX” - or "harmonize" the two, as it likes to say - and with the first flush of mobile WiMAX certifications, it looks like it's finally done the trick, a move that enables it to claim there really is a major deployment of mobile WiMAX in the world: in South Korea, where KT launched WiBro service in 2006. More...

Comcast’s Concession to Net Neutrality

On Tuesday afternoon, Comcast put out a vague, jargon-filled press release about working to create a “Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” for users of peer-to-peer file-sharing software. The release has prompted no shortage of criticism on blogs. I was prepared to chime in too. The release was in conjunction with Pando Networks, a company that uses peer-to-peer technology but mainly aims to help lower online distribution costs for big media companies like NBC. It sounded like Comcast was trying to support services like Pando — which have a way to use less network bandwidth and also are friendlier to copyright owners — while still cracking down on the sort of file sharing that is far more common. The reason this all is an issue, of course, is that Comcast had been slowing down file transfers that used the BitTorrent protocol, a move that prompted an inquiry by the Federal Communications Commission. On Thursday afternoon, the commission will hold its second hearing on the subject, this time on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, Calif. More...

Viewers Disenchanted with Network TV : Study

Global Broadcast Consumer Survey: Network-TV Watchers Around Globe More Loyal to Content than to Any Branded Delivery System Network-TV watchers around the globe are more loyal to content than to any branded delivery system, but they are also becoming disenchanted with network TV in general, including ads, and more ready and willing to go somewhere else to get their video.That's according to an inaugural Global Broadcast Consumer Survey of viewing preferences in eight countries that was released Monday by consulting firm Accenture. "Today’s youth are more dissatisfied with the traditional television experience and increasingly excited by the availability of new choices,” Accenture said in announcing the study. Those findings, the study suggested, mean that viewers are ripe for being wooed to other delivery devices and platforms. More...

WiMAX, LTE - Fact or Fiction, You Decide

True broad Internet everywhere, at home, at the office, in the field, everywhere! That's the promise of Personal Broadband technologies like WiMAX. By seamlessly bridging broadband Internet everywhere, users will have the same broadband access everywhere they go, making time and distance a non issue when needing to communicate. With WiMAX, tomorrow’s device will provide same connectivity as the cellular phone of today. Couple this hyperconnected world with the rising use of high-bandwidth applications based on video (being further accelerated by online social networking) and one arrives at a single conclusion: WiMAX is the only technology available today that is 3 - 5 times faster and 5 times more cost effective than existing 3G technologies that can also support the rising capacity demands. So that’s the promise, but how real is that promise? More...

Auction winners lay bare 700 MHz plans

Verizon outlines how open-access, LTE and new spectrum fit together. AT&T plans Evolved HSPA and later LTE. Google comes clean. Cyren Call fights back With Auction 73’s anti-collusion rules lifted, the big 700 MHz license winners began detailing their plans for the spectrum. The two lead bidders AT&T and Verizon Wireless are doing exactly what everyone expects them to do with their spectrum, deploy future Long Term Evolution networks, but Verizon also detailed how its open-access and fixed mobile convergence plans would fit into its 4G plans. AT&T had a surprise of its own, announcing it would deploy advanced 3G services in the new frequencies. Verizon officials said the company would it begin field trials with VZW’s part-owner Vodafone and international partner China Mobile in 2008, network. In 2009 it would select vendors and begin rolling out networks in the second half of the year in preparation for a full commercial launch in 2010. But a lot of the groundwork for the business case of that new network is going on today as Verizon pursues its open development initiative, which would open its current 3G networks to third-party devices and applications, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said. More...

The Double-Edged Sword Of Flat-Rate Wireless Plans

The recent efforts by all major U.S. wireless carriers to craft flat-rate, all-you-can-eat pricing plans as a way of reducing customer churn and attracting new subscribers have been succeeding, but one research firm warns of the risks such plans pose to network and backhaul capacities. "Flat-rate plans will test the limits of 3G networks, raising new challenges for operators," says ABI Research Senior Analyst Nadine Manjaro. "Operators need to pay close attention to the capacity limitations of their 3G networks and the true cost of 'all-you-can-eat' data plans." These challenges affect multiple parts of the networks. Increased usage of SMS can flood the network and impact its ability to deliver voice signaling, which may impact voice calls, Manjaro adds. Another concern is that unlimited plans may spur text message spamming. Instant Messaging and "picture mail" usage may also increase under flat rate plans. More...

Superfast internet may replace world wide web

The internet could soon be made obsolete by a new “grid” system which is 10,000 times faster than broadband connections. Scientists in Switzerland have developed a lightning-fast replacement to the internet that would allow feature films and music catalogues to be downloaded within seconds. The invention could signal the end of the dreaded 'frozen screen’, when computers seize up after being asked to process too much information. The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the internet, the grid could also provide the power needed to send sophisticated images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call. More...

Mobile data backhaul’s true bottleneck

Flat-rate price plans pose serious network challenges for operators, study says increased utilization of 3G networks, more so than the impending 4G requirements, is driving the need for higher capacity backhaul, according to a report released this week by ABI Research. Sprint changed the backhaul landscape when it followed Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile in offering a flat-rate, all-you-can-eat service-pricing plan. Instead of just voice -- or voice and text messaging in the case of T-Mobile -- Sprint also threw in data, a “simply everything” wireless plan. The struggling carrier hopes to reduce its customer churn and attract new subscribers with the new offering, yet if successful, ABI warns, the net effect may prove taxing on Sprint’s backhaul. More...

Carriers keeping hands on the reins

Over the last few months, mobile operators have been falling over each other to profess their networks as "open," but a closer look at what they're really doing suggests they have a long way to go. Traditionally, mobile phone operators have kept a tight grip on their networks. They have determined which phones could be used, what applications could be accessed, which features were enabled, and where subscribers could go on the Internet. But over the past year, Internet companies like Google and Skype have joined with consumer groups to lobby lawmakers and the Federal Communications Commission to force wireless carriers to loosen their restrictions and open their networks. Amid threats of regulation and new legislation, operators have begun changing policies and introducing services that they claim makes their networks more open. More...

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