Praxis picked to build and run FTTH network in California's Owens Valley

23 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the full map and RFP.

“We’re in contract negotiations with Praxis now, and we hope to have a contract by February 10th”, Brandon Shults, the information services director for Inyo County, announced yesterday at the Eastern Sierra Connect Regional Broadband Consortium’s annual conference in Ridgecrest. He was talking about the 21st Century Obsidian Project, an ambitious effort to build a fiber to the home system down the western half of Inyo County – in other words, the Owens Valley.… More

Glimmers of power innovation at CES, but only glimmers

22 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Next year, you won’t be able to see it.

With power now the primary limiting factor for improvements in wearable devices, smart phones and other mobile devices, expect incremental improvements in capabilities and performance this year, but nothing radically game changing. New energy sources are nowhere near commercialisation, judging from what was on display at CES.

One positive development was the announcement of the merger of two of the three wireless charging standards organisations – Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) and Power Matters Alliance – and an expression of willingness on the part of the third – the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) – to think about joining in.… More

Obama promotes Internet to infrastructure, skips community broadband details

21 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Some Christmas trees actually have fiber.

The five point plan to promote community broadband announced by U.S. president Barack Obama last week was billed as a prelude to last night’s state of the union address. But he didn’t specifically mention it.

More importantly though, what Obama did in his speech is lump broadband in with traditional infrastructure projects…

Twenty-first century businesses need 21st century infrastructure — modern ports, and stronger bridges, faster trains and the fastest Internet.

… More

U.S. supreme court avoids ruling on limits of federal authority over state and local broadband rules, for now

20 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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When your name is Roswell, reality can be subjective.

The U.S. supreme court declined to wade any deeper into the question of how much leeway local governments have to block installation of cellular towers and equipment. In a decision last week regarding a dispute between T-Mobile and Roswell, Georgia, the court ruled very narrowly in T-Mobile’s favor, saying the city didn’t give its reasons for denying a tower permit soon enough.

Federal telecoms law requires local agencies to give a reason when a tower permit application is rejected, in order to provide a basis for the courts to review the decision if there’s an appeal.… More

President Obama’s community broadband initiative follows Santa Cruz’s path

19 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Broadband competition makes local businesses competitive.

It looks like Santa Cruz County is on the White House’s invitation list for a community broadband summit planned for June. President Barack Obama pledged to support the Next Century Cities coalition – the county is a charter member – in a speech last week. He promised to meet with mayors and county supervisors from the coalition to talk about how to better develop broadband infrastructure and service at the local level.… More

Open standards and clear consumer branding will be the cure for CES home automation confusion

18 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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The new good housekeeping seal of approval.

There were plenty of home automation hubs at CES, as it turns out. The first home automation products out of the gate, at the pre-show press events, were primarily one-off gizmo-and-app combos, but the usual suspects eventually showed up.

Lowe’s Iris system was prominent in a demo smart home built on the show floor. Nexia had a presence too. Both have a similar business model: sell a hub and support it through a cloud server for $10 per month.… More

Electric vehicle creativity is built around new business models at CES

17 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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You wouldn’t mistake it for a McLaren, though.

Connected cars were everywhere at CES this year. A hot looking set of wheels was the platform of choice for showing off cutting edge technology. Plenty was written about it and there’s not much I can add. But very few of those vehicles – only 2 that I saw – were innovations in and of themselves.

Gogoro is an electric scooter that’s built around a swappable battery system.… More

New CPUC president emphasises openness and safety at first meeting

16 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Michael Picker set out his goals for as president of the California Public Utilities Commission yesterday, as he opened the first meeting of his term.

“We regulate the industries that build and maintain the services that are key to our daily lives and prosperity: electricity, natural gas telecommunications, rail and transportation and water”, he said. “Over the years we’ve served the citizens of the State of California by making sure that the utilities who provide those services and build the infrastructure use their economic power – that’s our central reason for being – for our benefit and safety”.… More

Municipal broadband development is a local job, with or without presidential backing

15 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Good words, but no new money.

Community-based broadband networks got a ringing endorsement from U.S. president Barack Obama yesterday. You can watch the speech here, or read the transcript prepared by the white house press office.

The question now is whether the speech kicked off a serious policy initiative or just served as the headline issue of the day. It’s very possible this speech or the upcoming state of the union address will be the last we’ll hear about community broadband from the president until he holds a promised summit meeting with mayors and county supervisors in June, which is 1 of the 5 action items that the white house published on Tuesday and Obama reiterated yesterday.… More

Obama criticises lack of broadband competition in Iowa speech

14 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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U.S. president Barack Obama just wrapped up a 20 minute speech that focused on community broadband. He pretty much stuck to the talking points released by the white house yesterday. He talked about tens of millions of U.S. homes that only have 1 high speed ISP available, if they have options any at all, putting them “at the whim of whatever broadband provider is around”. Obama’s solution is to offer cities technical assistance, implement previously approved rural broadband grant and loan programs, ask the FCC to preempt state restrictions on municipal broadband and telling federal agencies to get rid of unnecessary regulations.