Sony picks in-house OS for wearables and survival


Used to be staying alive was innovation enough.

Google’s try at adapting its Android operating system to specifically support wearable devices isn’t getting much love from manufacturers. Following Samsung’s lead, Sony has decided to make its own Android mod for wearable products, instead of using Google’s Wear platform. It’s a necessary gamble if Sony still wants to be Sony.

The company is trying to remake itself into a mobile-oriented, innovative brand. Like it used to be when Sony launched the Walkman 35 years ago.… More

Gonzales mayor makes the case for Salinas Valley broadband


Maria Orosco addresses the CPUC yesterday.

Gonzales mayor Maria Orosco and city manager Rene Mendez spoke on behalf of their community, the Salinas Valley and the entire central coast region yesterday, as they urged the California Public Utilities Commission to approve an $11 million grant to build a fiber optic broadband backbone system.

Mayor Orosco spoke to the Salinas Valley’s need for twenty-first century broadband infrastructure and the benefits it would bring…

Good morning, my name is Maria Orosco, mayor of the City of Gonzales.

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Salinas Valley fiber optic project gets CPUC support, but final vote postponed


Click to see presentation.

“I think this is a great project and I want to see it happen”, said commissioner Michel Florio, as the California Public Utilities Commission discussed an $11 million proposal to build a fiber optic backbone down the Salinas Valley. “I drive through that areas regularly. I know the geography, it’s the 101 corridor. It is in many respects a low income area”.

But he wasn’t completely sold on the numbers, questioning the length of time it would take for the applicant, Sunesys LLC, to see a return on its investment in the project, if 83% of the construction cost was subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).… More

CPUC considers Salinas Valley fiber project tomorrow

26 March 2014 by Steve Blum
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Building better infrastructure.

An $11 million proposal to build a fiber optic backbone connecting the Salinas Valley to Silicon Valley, by way of Santa Cruz, goes in front of the California Public Utilities Commission tomorrow morning. A decision might or might not come. Commissioner Michel Florio has asked that the vote be delayed until next month, although that could change as the proposal is discussed.

CPUC president Michael Peevey is proposing to subsidise 83% of construction costs – grants from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) are usually limited to the 60% to 70% range – because of the social and economic impact the project would have.… More

Sorry CenturyLink, businesses do need a Lamborghini


Don’t ignore the business model.

“It’s like having a fancy sports car. It might go 200 miles per hour, but what good does that do if the speed limit is 60?” said Jim Schmit, CenturyLink’s vice president and general manager for Idaho, as quoted in the Idaho Statesmen. He was trying to explain that he’s not worried about the threat posed by Google Fiber or other gigabit competition, because homes and businesses don’t need that kind of speed.… More

Cash offered to big incumbent ISPs to upgrade bandwidth

24 March 2014 by Steve Blum
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The fight over who pays for the Internet has moved deeper inside the network. Cogent and Level 3 are two companies that provide much of the backbone transport for major last mile Internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon. They’re accusing the big ISPs of, in effect, holding millions of consumers hostage in order to force others – backbone companies and content providers like Netflix, in particular – to pay the cost of upgrading their systems to support the continuing boom in Internet traffic.… More

Broadband grades depend on copper and glass

Examples of how the grading was done.
The grading system I developed to rate and compare the broadband infrastructure available to communities east of San Francisco – Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano Counties – focuses on primary, consumer wireline networks because those are the base upon which all service is built…

Even wireless systems must connect to wireline networks at some point, usually directly after the first “hop” from a subscriber. Consequently, the level of broadband connectivity in a region is primarily determined by the quality and extent of wireline facilities.

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Faster speeds collide with costly caps in Alaska

22 March 2014 by Steve Blum
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Click for a bigger map and more details.

Consumer broadband service is getting faster in Alaska, although data caps and a high cost for exceeding them will still limit its usefulness. GCI is the largest cable company in Alaska, and it just announced a no cost upgrade of its flagship Red service to 200 Mbps download speeds, starting in Anchorage. GCI’s plan is to hit a gigabit by the end of next year, at least in the neighborhoods where it decides to invest in fiber-to-the-home deployments…

GCI will prioritize the neighborhoods to get the new 1 gig service, based on the number of homes that have expressed interest…Recruit your neighbors.

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Tizen out to prove one invisible OS is as good as another

21 March 2014 by Steve Blum
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Enough treats to attract developers.

Samsung is following Google into the wearable operating system space. Its Android alternative – Tizen – now has a software developer kit available specifically for wearable devices, including, of course, the Samsung Gear smart watch. The release came close on the heels of the announcement of 64 winners of the $4 million app development challenge the Tizen Foundation launched last year.

The contest was particularly aimed at HTML5 developers, who were offered $50,000 bonuses on top of the regular prizes, which ranged up to $250,000.… More

Don't expect fiber upgrades as telcos transition to IP-based networks


It’s about avoiding the mess.

There’s no cosmic plan to replace copper telephone wires with glass. That’s the clear message coming out of a panel discussion at the Comptel trade show in Las Vegas this week. In an article for Fierce Telecom, Sean Buckley reports that executives from AT&T, CenturyLink and Frontier agreed that there are no plans in the works for wide scale replacement of copper with fiber, but they will look at ending support for plain old telephone networks on a case-by-case basis…

‘Today, we have retired some copper, but where we have done it is very, very rare,’ said Bill Cheek, president of Wholesale Markets Group for CenturyLink.

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