CPUC's second field test building consistent picture of mobile broadband performance

6 March 2013 by Steve Blum
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Spring up, Fall back.

More mobile broadband performance measurements are available and accessible to Californians, thanks to field testing done by the California Public Utilities Commission and mapping and analysis done by Jim Warner at U.C. Santa Cruz.

Warner, who is a network engineer for the University and chair of the Central Coast Broadband Consortium’s technical expert group, took the data collected in the CPUC’s first and second rounds of mobile data field testing and fed it into Google maps.… More

Here's looking at you, Samsung

5 March 2013 by Steve Blum
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Bogie knew how to do it.

You’ll soon be able to control your smart phone with just a glance. Samsung will introduce eye tracking capability in the latest version of its flagship Galaxy S-IV phone next week, according to rumors circulating today.

It’ll be bigger and faster too – a five inch screen and laptop class CPU power – but that’s nothing new.

New interfaces that just work, though, are much rarer and lead to revolutionary products.… More

San Leandro is a model for the country, says FCC chair Genachowski

“It’s a wonderful thing that San Leandro is doing here, and OSIsoft and Lit San Leandro,” said Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski. “You join a small but important number of communities that share your vision.”
He was delivering a keynote speech at an event last Wednesday celebrating Lit San Leandro and the partnership with the City of San Leandro that made it possible. The video from that event has been posted. You can watch the entire program here.… More

Mobile OS buzz for some, deafening silence for others

3 March 2013 by Steve Blum
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Firefox hasn’t quite landed yet.

Firefox has sharpened the debate over prospects for HTML5. The open source, connectivity-centric mobile operating system developed by the Mozilla Foundation gained a lot of attention at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Sceptical attention, mostly.

When the OS landscape is so thoroughly dominated by two superpowers – Apple and Google – it’s risky to bet on a challenger. Several mobile carriers expressed support, but manufacturers lagged behind. Geeksphone, a small Spanish company, had demo units to show at Barcelona, but missed its February ship date for SDKs.… More

Creativity and technology meet in Salinas

2 March 2013 by Steve Blum
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Robotics from the Naval Postgraduate School, rocketry with NASA’s Science, Engineering, Math and Aerospace Academy, hacking at Coder Dojo Salinas. Plus video production, acting, web design, a planetarium show and more. Those were the afternoon attractions today at the Creative Tech Expo at Hartnell College in Salinas.

A few hundred kids, mostly digital technology and business students from Monterey County high schools, spent their Saturday working their way through a couple dozen exhibits set up by local companies, clubs, schools and non-profits.… More

The business case for Mars

1 March 2013 by Steve Blum
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At least we have each other. And a deodorant sponsor.

Dennis Tito wants to send a middle-aged married couple to Mars and back. No landing, just once around the Red Planet and home. He’s a multimillionaire who began his career as a genuine rocket scientist then applied his math skills to investing, where he made his fortune. He spent some of it becoming the first space tourist in 2001, and he plans to spend even more on a privately funded Mars mission.… More

CASF consortia producing broadband projects


ESCRBC meeting in June Lake last November brought broadband supply and demand together.

Race Telecommunication’s proposal to build fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) systems in four Mono County communities shows how middle mile fiber can make last mile service possible and how the regional broadband consortia funded by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) can bring together the right people at the right time.

Those four small systems would be built along the Digital 395 route between Reno and Barstow.… More

Bay Area cities offer FCC chair a glimpse of the future


FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski sees a gigabit city in San Leandro.

Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) visited San Leandro today, taking a look at the economic progress kindled by the Lit San Leandro project and delivering a keynote speech to local leaders, business people, city staff and proud residents. I’ll have more on his remarks later.

I was fortunate enough to be invited as one of the opening speakers. My assignment was to give some background on efforts in the Bay Area and around California to develop our economy by developing broadband infrastructure:

Here in the Bay Area, we are surrounded by the fattest Internet pipes on the planet.

… More

Race is on for five CASF proposals


Race’s High Desert project area, in the Tehachapi Pass area, west of the town of Tehachapi.

Last October, Race Telecommunications asked for $13 million from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to build fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) systems in the desert towns of Mojave and Boron. The areas proposed were not completely unserved by CASF definitions – as required in the October round – so they’re back with expanded plans.

Race has five projects on the table now, totaling $38 million in grant requests.… More

CASF application stack gets a little shorter

25 February 2013 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) cleaned up the in-box today, putting two more California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant applications into the review process and tossing out two more. The grant request total shrunk to $239 million, still about $90 million more than is currently available from the CASF program.

There’s a smaller revolving loan program. The total requested from it now stands at $1.8 million, bringing the grand total for the February 2013 application round to $241 million.… More