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Monday, July 31
Boston to use nonprofit group to run its Wi-Fi network
by
Mike
on Mon 31 Jul 2006 04:25 PM PDT
Boston to use nonprofit group to run its Wi-Fi network
Separate entity would give city more control over network, but it could take longer to build
Boston officials announced today that they will search for a nonprofit corporation to raise up to $20 million to build and operate wireless Internet services citywide over the next two years.
The unnamed, independent organization will give the city more control over the Wi-Fi network than would an outside Internet service provider, and the hope is to keep Internet service costs lower as well, said William "Bo" Holland, the city's acting CIO, who has met regularly with members of the mayor's Wireless Task Force in recent months.
Holland spoke in an interview just prior to an announcement today by Mayor Thomas Menino and task force members. After two years in the acting post, Holland today was named head of intergovernmental relations for the city, and Menino announced William Oates as the new city CIO.
"We believe the nonprofit route may be the best way to bring low-cost service to every neighborhood while providing a platform for innovation unlike any in the nation," Menino said in a statement. "By keeping the network open, we believe we can create a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity, which will spur economic growth and job creation."
According to the recommendations (PDF format) of the Wireless Task Force, the new organization will oversee construction and technology integration and then own and operate the network.
The concept of using a nonprofit entity to run the service is unique as far as Boston officials can determine and was designed to avoid problems encountered in other big cities weighing municipal Wi-Fi, Holland said.
Holland said he and the task force spent considerable time talking to Philadelphia and San Francisco officials about their approaches to issuing requests for proposals. But the contractors, such as EarthLink Inc., which eventually won the business, told the cities, " 'We don't like the specifications, and we will do it this way,' so the city was stuck with what the vendor wanted to do," he said. "We tried to benefit from their experiences."
None of the major Internet service providers have shown an inclination to provide low-cost services to Boston, Holland said. The plan is that once the nonprofit begins to oversee the building of the network, small and large Internet service providers will use the network to offer Internet access via their sites. "Even a mom-and-pop ISP will be eligible to buy broadband access and remarket and resell it," Holland said, so that even a neighborhood might be represented by a smaller Internet service provider.
Local ISP going offline
by
Mike
on Mon 31 Jul 2006 07:59 AM PDT
Local ISP going offlineLocal Internet service provider HoosierNet will shut down Sept. 1. The not-for-profit ISP announced recently it will soon cease operations after 11 years in the community.
Cheap broadband alternatives have eroded its customer base. And since around 2003, the glut of reasonably priced DSL options has kept away new customers.
David Ernst, executive director for HoosierNet Inc., said the decision is a straightforward matter of diminished revenues. National providers now offer many competing services at lower costs than would be needed just to recoup expenses.
The market for HoosierNet's flagship dial-up service has dried up completely.
HoosierNet was incorporated in 1994 and up and running a year later. It was founded out of a concern that the Bloomington market was too small to attract the investment of for-profit ISPs.
At the time, national providers like Prodigy and CompuServe billed hourly connection fees and required long-distance phone charges.
Though household Internet availability spread quickly and widely in the mid-1990s, HoosierNet continued to thrive in a crowded marketplace. Offering Web site hosting and free e-mail accounts, it grew expansively as the decade wound down.
Though it rolled out its own DSL service in 2003, competition proved too fierce. HoosierNet couldn't price competitively, and its membership base dwindled to about a thousand.
The not-for-profit now focuses on a smooth transition for its loyal customer base. It is now in talks to transfer the domain bloomington.in.us to another host, allowing users to keep their e-mail accounts and Web sites.
Ernst said an announcement should be made in another week or two, as soon as a deal is reached, but he's confident the domain will remain valid.
HoosierNet hosts more than 4,000 e-mail accounts, though many have been inactive for some time. Though it does not endorse any specific Web hosting providers, it points users in the direction of several companies offering local service, including Defcon1 and Dragonpress.
HoosierNet promises technical help with all transition issues and maintains a Frequently Asked Questions advisory on its home page. It promises frequent updates as the situation develops.
"We want this to go as smoothly as possible to thank all our loyal members," Ernst said. "We consider ourselves fortunate to have worked with the community for this long."
HoosierNet employs five staff members, two of whom have already lined up new jobs. It occupies office space on the third floor of the Monroe County Public Library, as part of a longtime partnership.
No plans exist for the space.
Many have expressed disappointment over HoosierNet's dissolution, but Ernst said it has served its purpose and run its course in an evolving landscape.
"It's the state of the market," he said. "I'm sure many of our users will be able to find what they need cheaper."
Friday, July 28
Let's Make a WiMAX Deal
by
Mike
on Fri 28 Jul 2006 12:59 PM PDT
Let's Make a WiMAX Deal Q: What do you get when you combine an über capitalist (Craig McCaw), a heavily hyped network technology (WiMAX), and established corporations (Intel and Motorola) looking to protect and expand their turf?
A: A $900 million deal that could have a huge impact on the future of broadband wireless networking.
In 2003, McCaw, an early cellular entrepreneur, bought Clearwire, which provides broadband wireless Internet using licensed spectrum in the 2.5-GHz band. The company currently offers service in 200-plus cities and towns worldwide and is reportedly capable of reaching more than 90 million U.S. households. Clearwire had planned a $400 million IPO but scrapped that plan in early July when it received investments totaling $900 million from Intel Capital and Motorola Ventures.
What's Intel's angle? It wants to promote Mobile WiMAX (802.16e), a technology central to its strategy to blend Wi-Fi and WiMAX into a powerful wireless mix. Ironically, Clearwire doesn't use WiMAX on its network ... yet. That will soon change thanks to a planned supply partnership with Motorola, which will take over Clearwire's NextNet subsidiary--which serendipitously manufactures proprietary broadband wireless network access gear that overcomes the line-of-sight requirements plaguing earlier-generation products, making service much easier to deploy. We expect Motorola to leverage that technology as part of its own WiMAX product portfolio.
Thursday, July 27
U.S. broadband adoption jumps 33 percent in 2005
by
Mike
on Thu 27 Jul 2006 06:41 AM PDT
U.S. broadband adoption jumps 33 percent in 2005
U.S. high-speed Internet subscriptions soared 33 percent last year to 50.2 million lines, according to the latest data released by the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday.
More consumers signed up for digital subscriber line (DSL) service from telephone companies like AT&T and Verizon Communications than cable modem service from companies like Comcast and Time Warner, the FCC said.
DSL subscriptions jumped to 5.7 million lines versus cable companies' 4.2 million subscribers in 2005, according to the FCC. The cable industry's market share dropped 3.5 percentage points to 57.5 percent, while DSL gained 3.3 percentage points to reach 40.5, the agency said.
DSL is typically less expensive than cable Internet service but offers slower download speeds.
Wednesday, July 26
Google-Watchers Watch Current
by
Mike
on Wed 26 Jul 2006 08:32 AM PDT
Google-Watchers Watch Current A small developer of broadband-over-power-line technology topped a venture capital funding report for the second quarter, sending tea leaves swirling yet again for Google-watchers.
Rochester, New York-based Current Communications raked in $130 million during the April-to-June period, according to a report from Ernst & Young and VentureOne released Monday.
The new capital came from General Electric; TXU, a Dallas-based energy company; Sensus Metering Systems, a provider of metering systems for utilities; and EarthLink, which has partnered with Google to build a Wi-Fi network for the search giant's hometown of Mountain View, California, and is working on the same for San Francisco.
Google, along with privately owned media behemoth Hearst and Goldman Sachs, are among earlier investors who had previously committed $100 million to Current as of mid-2005.
Broadband over power line, or BPL, which lets users access the internet through any regular power outlet, trails cable and DSL respectively in number of users in the United States. BPL is seen as a potential rival to cable and DSL broadband services, but it has faced criticism in the past for its interference with radio transmissions, particularly ham radio.
Current now offers BPL service in Cincinnati, and is working with TXU to provide BPL in Dallas. The company is also part of a consortium, registered as Pop Wireless, that is participating in the Federal Communications Commission's wireless spectrum auctions scheduled to begin Aug. 9. The auction is being closely watched as a step toward more robust wireless data services.
The real problem with implementation of BPL over a large region will be regulatory rather than technical, said industry analyst Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects.
"It's an issue where you've got local regulation that may or may not allow this to occur," Dzubeck said. "This is a very viable technology, but you've still got to get the power lines."
It has been widely speculated that Google is gearing up to become a major player in the ISP game, following its hiring of internet guru Vint Cerf and reports of its acquisition of dark fiber and a large block of internet protocol version 6 addresses. The company has denied it has any such plans.
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