Obama endorses community broadband, tells agencies to support it

14 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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U.S. president Barack Obama plans to use his bully pulpit today to help advance the cause of community broadband. Yesterday afternoon, the white house released a 5 point program to boost local broadband speeds and “support economic growth”, including…

  • Ending state laws that “harm broadband service competition”.
  • Focusing on local leaders, including holding a local broadband summit at the white house in June.
  • Tasking the commerce department with providing technical assistance to local communities that want to develop broadband systems.
… More

Community broadband gets presidential endorsement when Obama speaks in Iowa tomorrow

13 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Ahead of a speech tomorrow by U.S. president Barack Obama, the white house released a ringing endorsement of community broadband this afternoon, and promised at least administrative and political support for local government efforts to build broadband networks (h/t to Gladys Palpallatoc at CETF for the timely tweet). No new money for construction was include or, indeed, anything that would require the cooperation of the republican majority in congress. But direction to the commerce and agriculture departments to assist local broadband projects will be heard, as will a request to the FCC – which has a democratic majority – to override state restrictions on what local governments will do.… More

Santa Cruz companies look for developer love in Las Vegas

13 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Wayne Torres-Rivera, Seebright’s developer community manager, pitches next-gen headset at CES.

There were as many companies from Santa Cruz exhibiting at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as there were from all of South America. And twice as many as Africa. Which is to say, there were 2. One was Plantronics aimed at, among other things, robotics, security and authentication applications, and supported by SDKs for the developers they hope to attract.

The other Santa Cruz company was Seebright, a virtual and augmented reality start-up.… More

Don't expect congress to bust local broadband barriers

12 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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The 1996 telecommunications act is the basic law that governs broadband, telephone and other communication technologies in the U.S. It was written in the days of dial-up Internet access, and didn’t do a good job of anticipating the broadband industry of the twenty first century. So there’s an effort underway in congress – the house of representatives, particularly – to rewrite it.

Legacy barriers to access poles and conduit should be one of the major changes, if and when the 1996 act is rewritten, according to Staci Pies, Google’s senior policy counsel.… More

CES exhibit floor grows in size but not in global reach

11 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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The eyes of the world.

The Consumer Electronics Associations warns journalists that it produces a global technology event called International CES and that none should dare speak the name Consumer Electronics Show. The problem is, it’s still a consumer electronics show and it’s still noticeably weak on the global, if not International bits. At least where exhibitors are concerned.

African and South American participation is painfully slim. South Africa-based Geco Action Cam – was the only representative from that continent: same count as last year and down from 2 in 2013.… More

Lots of solid singles, but no home runs this year at CES

10 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Crystal ball view of Eureka Park.

All the major manufacturers had a range of 4K televisions at CES this year, giving credence to the Consumer Electronics Association’s (CEA) prediction of 4 million sets sold in the U.S. in 2015, with price points dropping below $1,000. No significant 4K content announcements, and DISH was the only company pumping up the volume on the distribution side.

New wearables were everywhere, but the theme seemed to be me too.… More

The FCC can't make 25 Mbps a genuine national broadband standard by itself

9 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Raising the FCC’s definition of acceptable home broadband from the current 4 Mbps down/1 Mbps up level to 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up would certainly be symbolic. The practical effect, though, depends on what the FCC and other agencies – state and local – do with it.

An article on Ars Technica says that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has a draft report under review that would raise the bar to 25/3.… More

CTOs say big companies need to support and be supported by the open source community

9 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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If there’s going to be 50 billion connected devices by 2020 – which is the goal set by Ericsson – then interoperability and interconnection standards will be necessary, according to Ulf Ewaldsson, the company’s CTO. He was speaking at a CES panel session on corporate research and development. Those standards aren’t there yet, but the likeliest path will be through open source collaboration, rather than propriety technology.

“Open source creates both standards and it creates a more rapid development process than before”, he said.… More

Spectrum could be a major limiting factor for the Internet of Things, Ericsson CTO says

8 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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“Radio frequencies are going to become the most scare resource on the planet, more scarce than oil”, said Ulf Ewaldsson, Chief Technology Officer for Ericsson. “Frequencies are scarce because there are better frequencies and less better frequencies”.

Speaking at CES this afternoon, he said that current frequency allocations often reflect policy choices intended to keep particular interests happy rather than making the most efficient use of spectrum possible. Television broadcasters in Europe are one example, he said.… More

FCC considers raising broadband bar to 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up

8 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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The new national standard for acceptable home broadband speeds is on its way to being 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. At CES yesterday, FCC chair Tom Wheeler endorsed raising it from the current 4 down/1up spec. According to Ars Technica, Wheeler is circulating a draft report – the annual broadband progress report required by congress but only sporadically produced by the FCC – that would declare 4/1 unacceptable and set 25/3 as the new minimum.