The FCC’s pending ruling against Internet Service Providers who manage their bandwidth in favor of fair access raises some questions. Here’s a list of questions rural ISP operator Brett Glass has raised.
The FCC’s pending ruling against Internet Service Providers who manage their bandwidth in favor of fair access raises some questions. Here’s a list of questions rural ISP operator Brett Glass has raised.
Here’s the video link. (Didn’t hear Congressman Doyle, Martin, or Copps.) Adelstein: (Misstates findings of Pew study on broadband adoption. Price is not really the issue, lack of interest is.) Complains about smackdown by the Third Circuit. Tate: Don’t forget about piracy and the children. McDowell: Don’t dry up the capital. Engineers solve engineering problems, … Continue reading “Liveblogging FCC hearing in Pittsburgh”
Here’s the video link.
(Didn’t hear Congressman Doyle, Martin, or Copps.)
Adelstein: (Misstates findings of Pew study on broadband adoption. Price is not really the issue, lack of interest is.) Complains about smackdown by the Third Circuit.
Tate: Don’t forget about piracy and the children.
McDowell: Don’t dry up the capital. Engineers solve engineering problems, not politicians and bureaucrats. Applause.
Panel 1:
Mark Cuban, Blog Maverick: Special-purpose networks better at what they do than the generic Internet. Multicast is the game-changer for IPTV, but it departs from the generic Internet model. Right.
Continue reading “Liveblogging FCC hearing in Pittsburgh”
The Pew Internet and American Life Project released their latest report on broadband in America today, and it looks pretty rosy. Pew makes a great deal out of the fact that broadband use isn’t rising among America’s poor, but that’s hardly surprising. You sort of need a computer, some education, and an income of some … Continue reading “Pew Study: Broadband is Healthy”
The Pew Internet and American Life Project released their latest report on broadband in America today, and it looks pretty rosy. Pew makes a great deal out of the fact that broadband use isn’t rising among America’s poor, but that’s hardly surprising. You sort of need a computer, some education, and an income of some sort to make much use of broadband, so until those issues are addressed you’re not going to see much change over the 25% broadband use among Americans with household incomes below $20,000. Not many of these people have health insurance either, and I imagine they’d choose it before broadband if you asked. Broadband isn’t growing among the richest Americans either, having reached 85% among $100,000+ households. What are these people doing that’s so much more fun than reading blogs?
Some highlights I found interesting:
* Broadband is getting cheaper:
Overall, home broadband users reported that their monthly payment for internet service was $34.50 – 4% less than the figure of $36 per month reported in December 2005.2 This decline in monthly broadband bills is half the rate (8%) reported over the February 2004 to December 2005 timeframe.
* DSL and cable are losing share to Fiber and Wireless:
* Prices aren’t falling faster because users choose premium services:
One possible reason that users’ monthly broadband bills did not fall as fast from 2005 to 2008 as was the case in the 2004-05 interval is the existence of pricier premium service. Most (54%) of broadband users say they subscribe to basic broadband service, but nearly one-third (29%) say they subscribe to a premium service at a higher price.
* Price isn’t the reason more people don’t have broadband, it’s lack of interest:
Still, one-third (33%) of non-internet users say they are simply not interested in the internet, with another 12% saying they don’t have access. Some 9% of non-users say the internet is too difficult or frustrating for them and just 7% say it is too expensive.
The overall state of broadband in America isn’t nearly as dire as Google’s Internet For Everyone coalition maintains, but they’re going to spin this report to say that it is.
