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July 2005 Archive

Skype for Sale?

PBS | I, Cringely . July 28, 2005 - Skyped If you don't have Robert Cringely's blog on your list, you should add it - even I didn't have it on my list until tonight, but I went ahead and added it to the Pundits and Blogs. His blog is one of the most insightful writing on what is going on in technology and telecommunications - this article is a case in point, where Cringely details the potential purchase of Skype and examines whether it would be hype or a real business value to buy it.

Posted on July 29, 2005 at 09:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Telecom Companies, VOIP, and IPTV

Telecoms, television and the internet | The war of the wires | Economist.com I just love the Economist - some of the best writing in a periodical that you will ever see. This intriguing analysis examines the position of incumbent telecom companies with an unflinching eye. It will make you look at all the hype out there about a Triple Play in a little different light, I suspect.

Posted on July 29, 2005 at 06:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Stick to Your Knitting, Work Within Your Circle of Control

A final word on Ensign-McCain, S. 1504, the Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act of 2005, the latest in a series of bills in Congress to look at rewriting the Federal Telecom Act of 1996 (FTA 96). As if to demonstrate my Tempest in a Teapot message in my blog from Wednesday on this topic, Rumblings in Washington, we have seen a flurry of Internet postings on this piece of legislation in the last 48 hours, with special attention paid to the final section of the bill, which I can only describe as a silly attempt to hog-tie municipally-owned networks.

While most of the blogs and articles lambast this language in particular, and make their case against this bill, I chose to recommend that you check it out, and then get on with your task, which is to build a network and provide for your local broadband connectivity needs. The simple fact is that if you were to just keep your nose to the grindstone and focus on what is in front of you, acting early to get a network in place, it will not matter for you that Congress bans such a network - they will not undo what you have done, as evidenced by the grandfather provisions included in such legislation.

These messages - Stick to Your Knitting and Work Within Your Circle of Control, are, I believe, more compelling than expending any more energy or effort to debunk a bill that has little chance at becoming the law of the land as it is currently written. Bills metamorphosize during the legislative process, and whatever we will get to replace FTA 96 will be a while in coming. So how can you be effective at this juncture? For one, spend as little time on such water cooler talk as possible and focus on the task at hand.

My recommendations in this regard stem from my adherence to the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, which most of you are probably familiar with. I posted two new books on the Recommended Reading list this morning, recognizing the importance of staying focused and not being distracted by all the commotion in Washington, or in your particular state capital, for that matter, should this virus of Legislative-Municipal-Network-Bans-to-Protect-Incumbents spread in your direction.

In my opinion, the best innoculation against such a virus is to maintain a focus on local issues and getting the job done. We can become paralyzed with fear and frustration as we watch the powers that be take steps that would directly and negatively impact our ability to manage our local affairs. Better to let it blow by you as you go about your business, as the people of Lafayette did in passing their fiber plan bond package, or those in Philadelphia, or Minneapolis with their municipal wireless RFPs. Get busy and it will not matter what they do in Washington, because it will be too late to stop you.

You can see that if you were to apply these habits to your network project, you could start to see some results.

A. Personal Independence
1. Be Proactive. (initiative) - Get educated here on this site and elsewhere. Kick off a local campaign by asking your city leaders why you don't have such a project on the books and asking your community leaders what they would do with such a tool.
2. Begin with the End in Mind. (leadership) Take the lead and sketch out a compelling vision for your community. Publicize it.
3. First Things First (Management) Begin a diligent planning process by identifying the steps you need to take to make things happen.

B. Social Interdependence
4. Seek First to Understand, and Then to be Understood (listening) Take surveys and poll the communities that make up your city. Ask what they need and how a broadband communications infrastructure could help them to meet their needs.
5. Go For Win Win Solutions (cooperation) Find a way to incorporate private sector solutions and needs in with your public sector needs and approach.
6. Synergize (creativity) Take the time to design a network that works for all parties, meets all the purposes defined, and can be built for the least amount of money.

C. Regeneration
7. Sharpen the Saw (health and balance) Keep things in perspective and realize that community integration is more important than speed. Better to move as one than to race ahead with a plan that lacks widespread buy-in. Transform your temporary project approach into a permanent means for binding the community and planning for your future.

It all starts with Step One. Do Something.

Oh, the other book I recommended is the classic Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. Given our current political climate, I think we all would benefit from revisting this book written in 1937.

Posted on July 29, 2005 at 07:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Practicing What I Preach

I've been preaching the message of advance community involvement to better understand the purpose of a community network project, before it is launched. That's easier said than done.

It's one thing to preach a general message and to spoon out advice, but quite another to roll up your sleeves and show how the objective can be reached. So, like Dr. Jekyll, I'm going to try out the potion on myself, and let you watch (let's hope that the analogy ends there, and we don't see Mr. Hyde come out anytime soon!). In this section, I will track my progress in working to mobilze Austin, Texas, to get a municipal wireless broadband network.

So stay tuned. Step One will be to participate in a survey of Central Texas non-profit organizations, to assess their technology issues. I referenced this study in my July 9 blog How Do You Mobilize a City to Do Wireless?. As usual, I'd appreciate your comments and suggestions along the way.

Posted on July 29, 2005 at 06:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

VOIP 101 - On Skype, KaZaA, Napster and How We Deal With Change

"I knew it was over when I downloaded Skype," Michael Powell, chairman, Federal Communications Commission, explained. "When the inventors of KaZaA are distributing for free a little program that you can use to talk to anybody else, and the quality is fantastic, and it's free - it's over. The world will change now inevitably."

Fortune Magazine, February 16, 2004

How well did Michael Powell do as a fortune teller, nearly 18 months ago? Well, pretty well, it seems. According to the Skype website, which explains Skype on this page, the program has been downloaded over 142,108,423 times to date - for a company that started only in August 2003, that's a lot of progress in two short years! What kind of impact has Skype had? Well, its raised a lot of eyebrows among telecom companies and arguably influenced cable companies to begin offering VOIP services, for one.

If you haven't tried it, you should check out this tutorial and see for yourself. There is no better way to understand the potential of VOIP than to do as Michael Powell did and dip your toe in the water by downloading Skype. See for yourself.

Back to the The world will change now inevitably prediction. There is still the matter of connecting a call made on a computer to a telephone on a switched network, or vice versa, which has probably blunted much of the impact that Skype could have had to date. There is no getting around incumbent telecom companies if Skype is to be truly competitive as a telecom alternative and not just a voice IM service. And this is where it starts to resemble dragging a parachute behind a sail boat - in nautical circles, they call that a sea anchor, but I digress. So what about the impact on troubled telecoms - well this competitive shot across their bow in August 2003 caused them to gird their loins and prepare for battle with their own VOIP offer, which they had already had under development for many years, given that they are the reigning dominant force in telecom. Oh wait, there I go with my fantasies again! In fact, the telecoms were using VOIP to lower their costs and increase their margins and support their old business model. Under competitive pressure, they turned to Congress and state legislatures for regulatory relief.

Changes in technology necessitate that we update these rules if America is going to be competitive in the face of global competition. Foreign companies like Skype out of the Netherlands did not exist a few short years ago. Skype has signed up 40 million customers - 10 million in the U.S. alone. This is significant because this is a service that is siphoning traffic away from our own domestic carriers. This is a service that we cannot tax, cannot regulate, and cannot control. Make no mistake about it - even if you tried to regulate it - others would pop up to fill the void. This is the same thing that happened to the music industry when Napster was shut down. A half a dozen other peer-to-peer providers jumped up in its place. Skype was created by the founders of Napster. This underscores the need for us to update our laws so our domestic carriers that employ U.S. workers can compete in this world of global telecommunications. The investment in broadband this bill will bring is critical to our competitiveness.

From yesterday's 3-page statement of Sen. Ensign, concerning his new telecom dereg bill, alternately dubbed the Free Market Telecommunications Framework Act of 2005, or in his summary, The Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act. Take your pick.

So, is it an outdated regulatory framework that keeps telecom companies down? Or is it the failure to recognize and incorporate new technologies to increase the value offer to their customers? Regulations did not keep telecom companies from making a VOIP offer and scooping Skype, culture and institutional inertia did. Sure, there's no doubt that telecom reform is part of the picture. But another part of the picture is the structural change that Michael Powell alluded to, and which I highlight in my Whitepaper on Structural Change.

For the record, as impassioned as Sen. Ensign's plea is for regulatory reform to protect the multi-billion dollar telecom Goliaths from start up peer-to-peer Davids, I would be remiss if I were to fail to point out that it was the founders of KaZaA, not Napster, that founded Skype. You see, here in our market-based economy, we managed to nip the start up Napster in the bud to protect the threatened multi-billion dollar recording industry. Roxio, the CD burning software specialist, acquired Napster's assets for $5 million after the peer-to-peer pioneer declared itself bankrupt in the face of hostile regulatory and legal treatment. For an historical footnote on Napster and a description of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing, the technological leap that started us on this path, see the Testimony of Shawn Fanning from October 2000.

After Napster was, for all intents and purposes, shut down by the government, Kazaa sprang up, but this time, the file sharing entity was outside the US and beyond the reach of US regulatory and legal authorities. Call it P2P II, as described in this article, Origins of Kazaa.

Utlimately, the libertine file swapping of Kazaa evolved and made room for the organized, reasonable market-based approach of Apple's iPod and iMusic, which has already spun off the new phenomenom of Podcasting. Vive le Market!

From Napster to Kazaa, to iMusic to Skype, to Who Knows What's Next? This odyssey is the story of the inevitable change that Michael Powell described 18 months ago. The question for all those who would benefit from such innovation is how our political leaders deal with such dramatic change. A Fear orientation exagerates the downside of change (creative destruction), and leaders try to clap a lid back on Pandora's box. Faith in the wisdom of markets and innovation will move leaders to feed innovators and reward them for their pioneering work, provide stimulus to incumbents to change or fade away, and starve inefficient market behavior.

My vote is that Faith in Competition will inevitably conquer Fear of Competition - indeed, as Sen. Ensign says in his summary, "This is a service that we cannot tax, cannot regulate, and cannot control. Make no mistake about it - even if you tried to regulate it - others would pop up to fill the void." Here's hoping that our leaders draw some lessons learned from the evolution of Napster to iMusic and apply them to the telecom reform effort, so our future has more of the innovation of Skype and less of the resistance to change that we see from entrenched incumbents protecting their turf.


Posted on July 28, 2005 at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Rumblings in Washington, Storm Clouds on the Horizon

Sessions Bill....McCain-Lautenberg Bill....and now, today, the Ensign-McCain Bill. There's a chess game going on in Washington, and I'm at least smart enough to know that there's a lot of activity going on behind the curtains, and a lot I don't know. As I sit down to write this blog, a thunderstorm is rolling into Austin, and I can hear the rumblings in the sky outside my window, as if some celestial dog is guarding his bone like he thinks I might want it. So as I prepare to comment on how lawmakers are positioning on telecom reform, I just couldn't help but make the connection.

Sometimes rumbling in the sky means that a storm is about to hit, but sometimes it just blows right by without much to show for all the fuss but a bunch of wind. There is no doubt that a telecom dereg storm is coming, but when will it hit? Telecom dereg is going to be a big, big deal, because FTA 96 is approaching ten years old, and that means it's creaking about like an old man without a cane. Advances in telecom and broadband have begotten so many gnarly details for policy makers to work out, and the stakes are so high, that it will take some time to arrive at a new telecom law. So, while the details get worked out, we get these trial balloons that may or may not end up in final legislation. But their goal is often more to sway public opinion this way or that, so much as to become law. Will you be so easily swayed?

The stakes in rewriting telecom laws are so high that these trial balloons cause considerable intestinal distress, there's no doubt of it. As we wait for Congress to get started on the real heavy lifting, the only game in town is to watch what they do, examine the legislation they file, then comment on how it may or may not impact our plans (if it were to pass and be signed into law, often a very big IF). Thank God for blogs!! Our job as responsible observers is to remain a little bit cold-blooded as we watch and wait, resisting the urge to fly off the handle when our buttons are pushed (which is remarkably easy to do without an editor to keep you in check!). Nothing of note is likely to happen in the very near term (but we can be assured of good theater along the way).

That said, some legislative level-setting is in order here. Some years back, I worked for a stretch in the Texas Legislature, and certain legislative truisms sunk in through my thick skull. For one, co-sponsors matter if you want your bill to go anywhere, in Austin or in DC. It's an early warning sign of some signifcant skepticism if members are not willing to put their name on your bill. Also, members seek key committee assignments so they can be there to influence legislation that would happen on their watch - for causes that matter to them. So, if you're not on the key committee that will hear your legislation, the potential of your legislation drops signficantly, because you're once removed from the action, so to speak.

So with those thoughts in mind, I turn to the news I've seen over the past day or so. Senator Ensign today launched a bill to reform telecom, the Free Market Telecommunications Framework Act of 2005, which includes a final provision tacked on the end that attempts to address munciipally owned networks, yet is so loaded with unanswered questions and vague provisions that it can only confuse the issue for those who would seek to "unwire their cities," my pet cause.

So I urge you to read the actual language, then check out the statement of Sen. Ensign and what Senator McCain, his lone co-sponsor, said:

"I am pleased to be an original co-sponsor of Senator Ensign's bill, the "Free Market Telecommunications Framework Act of 2005." I believe this legislation would promote competition and reduce regulation in order to secure lower prices and higher quality services for consumers and encourage the rapid deployment of new technologies. While this legislation does offer an alterative approach from the one I have advocated for addressing the municipal broadband issue, I still felt compelled to sign on as an original co-sponsor because I believe the legislation is an excellent step toward deregulating the industry. If we are serious about providing Americans more choices and better technologies, this deregulatory bill provides the framework to do so. I look forward to working with Senator Ensign and others to replace the fatally flawed Telecommunications Act of 1996 and to move the nation forward toward achieving the President's goal of "universal, affordable access for broadband technology by the year 2007."

Read between the lines and decide for yourself what this means, but keep in mind that there is a long way for this bill to go to get to a signature by President Bush. The curtain has just gone up and we are barely into Act One. Also, the bill explicitly grandfathers all state and local governments providing communications service "as of the date of enactment of this Act." Given the fact that this bill is unlikely to become law for many years, if ever, UnwireMyCity.com readers could well conclude that the sooner they get a network in place, the sooner they will be protected by this grandfather provision. That is, if such municipal ban features even stay in the final bill that becomes law. So I urge you to keep a level head, and not only to watch what is going on, but also to ACT NOW. Get busy on your network planning and deployment, just in case those dark clouds on the horizon prove to be the real deal.

Posted on July 27, 2005 at 08:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Spectrum Policy Key to "Networking Utopia"

Looking to Spectrum for a Networking Utopia Anticipating a day when bandwidth is plentiful and we all have all the connectivity we need (i.e., networking utopia), consultant Dewayne Hendricks, CEO of the Dandin Group, speculates on what it will take to get there. From his perspective as a member of the FCC’s Technological Advisory Council, Dewayne opines on what is possible with smart radios that can make efficient use of the available spectrum. What's missing is a policy change from the FCC in how spectrum is allocated and managed. I would expect to hear more and more about this key topic in the months and years ahead.

Esme Vos has begun to publish articles from speakers (like Dewayne) at her September 28-29 Muniwireless conference in San Francisco, California. I recommend you keep an eye on her site.

Posted on July 26, 2005 at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Site Shuffling: Applications find a New Home

I'm rearranging furniture, as it were, so I thought I would give you a heads up. I will probably do more of this as I find the right combination to make information on this site easier to find and more convenient. Look for Applications (formerly, Uses of a Municipal Network) under the Leverage heading going forward.

As we get more and more familiar with broadband networks, as our level of sophistication grows, it becomes less and less compelling to realize that "I can get on the Internet and check my email, wherever I am" and more intriguing to realize "I can do 90% of what I currently do easier, cheaper, and faster by using broadband network technologies, sometimes on the Internet, sometimes on a local network." It sounds like a Dr. Seuss book, "Oh the Things You Will Do With Your Municipal Network" ... once you have a wireless network. So let's assume for a moment that you have your network - what now?

This is in fact a great exercise to go through in your planning phases (i.e., begin with the end in mind, don't start your network without a full understanding of its value to the community).

I asked a pair of knowledgable, experienced high tech salesman last week: "Do you think these networks will sell based on an understanding of the technology, or on the basis of solutions and applications - what you can do with a network?" They barely skipped a beat before answering in unison, "Applications." The solution business starts from the premise that the customer has a problem and wants a solution, not from the premise that the technology is COOL. So while it is typical of a very early stage market that the early buzz would be about the capabilities of the technology, we can expect to see more and more attention paid to the applications, as wired and wireless broadband networks become more accepted as an alternative service delivery mechanism.

A few cases in point concerning new applications, in recent conversations:

* Disaster Recovery Network, fixed or mobile - when nothing else works, your municipal network should, or you should be able to set up another one in a few hours time
* Intelligent Vehicle coordination, traffic light synchronization, parking meter collection, and other traffic purposes
* Emergency Medical services - video delivery to mobile units (X-rays, etc.)

I hope we see more and more of this type of reporting. I will collect articles on applications and park them here. So, please play along with me and let me know when you see a good application - I'd like to collect as many as I can and create more and more subcategories. I think this is where it really gets fun!

Posted on July 25, 2005 at 03:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cable Broadband on Steroids

Daily Times - Site Edition Don't you just love the Internet...take this story about a development in Finland - coming to us from a website that is, you guessed it, "A New Voice for a New Pakistan." Well, anyway, however it gets here, the content is intriguing. Imagine speeds of up to 100 Mbs through your TV cable. Thats what Teleste, a Finnish rival of Scientific Atlanta and Cisco, hopes to bring to market as early as next Spring. Lots of video and just about anything else can go over a pipe like that!

Posted on July 25, 2005 at 03:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Podcasting 101: go to school on this new application

Apple Plants a Seed to Help Raise Podcasting OK, so you've read the definition in the UnwireMyCity Glossary of Podcasting, but it still sounds like some type of science fiction term having to do with invasions and aliens? Need to understand more? Check out this article by Rob Pegoraro in WashingtonPost.com yesterday for a full run down on all the ins and outs of Podcasting. Everything you always wanted to know.

Posted on July 25, 2005 at 11:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Broadband Access: Where are you on the scale?

Broadband News. Is Broadband a Utility? A Right? A Luxury? Here's an interesting dialogue that responds to the posted question: Is broadband access a utility, a right, or a luxury? It's fascinating to read a thread like this, not only for the content - the comments and positions - but also to watch the type of community dialogue that unfolds naturally, realizing that the dialogue is in what is essentially a tool that came about with the advent of broadband, greatly facilitated by broadband access. Sure, you had discussions like this before broadband, but it is the widespread penetration of broadband that is making these types of forums (fora?) more and more commonplace. I recommend you check this out late on a Friday afternoon with a drink in your hand...like, right about now. Not necessarily serious stuff, but certainly thought provoking.

As for me and my two cents worth, I think that once you have used broadband for a time, it becomes hard to imagine doing without it - I mean, who would go back to dial up now? Anybody out there? I think that makes it not a luxury, so rule that option out. I think it fits then easily into what I would call a utility - a commodity that is best provided as cheaply as possible for widespread adoption and penetration. The nature of networks means that the more people are connected, the more value the network has - Metcalfe's Rule. So, we all have an incentive to get more people on the broadband Internet, which should increase the value of that network for all of us. And a utility approach is the surest, quickest route to that goal. Once we have a ubiquitous, affordable broadband network, just sit back and watch the services and content come on the network to take advantage of it. Remember what happened with e-commerce? eBay? Amazon? But we need the network to be widespread before we can expect the content industry to really take off.

Finally, personally, I would never claim broadband access was a right - I wouldn't even put telephone and electricity in that category. Society certainly benefits when they are widely available, but things like clean air, clean water, affordable food, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness - those are what I call rights. The right to find a way to make a living is a key concept in our society. But broadband access is something that you must pay for based on how much value you place on it. Like cable TV, or even, a telephone.

The fact that broadband access is a network service makes it to our collective advantage to have it widely available at a very affordable rate, so as many people as possible will get on the network.

Posted on July 22, 2005 at 04:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

And Then There Were Three ... Feels more like the Final Four

AP Wire | 07/21/2005 | Wireless Philadelphia chooses three finalists Well, the news is out and three groups have made the cut: 1) ATT (with Lucent and BelAir Networks); 2) HP (with Aptilo Networks, Alvarion, Business Information Group - BIG, and Tropos Networks); and 3) Earthlink (with Motorola Canopy and Tropos Networks). A final decision is expected on July 29, a week from tomorrow. I'm excited, aren't you? This feels like the beginning of something big!

Posted on July 21, 2005 at 02:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Florida: From Miami Vice to Miami Nice - Miami Beach, that is

Wireless Miami Beach Check it out - the little town of Miami Beach has a potentially high-profile project that should be worth watching. They may be little, but a lot of money and tourists go through this "hot spot" each year. I can envision some killer tourist applications: Location-based services, maps, city guides, multilingual services, etc. As much excitement there is around deploying these networks, the really good stuff will come when we see new applications that affect how we live.

Posted on July 21, 2005 at 08:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

What's Happening in Europe?

EuroTelcoblog I added this blog to the list because it gives a good perspective on what's happening in Europe. James Enck, European Telecom Analyst and Global Telecom Strategist for Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe Ltd., publishes this blog to track disruptive influences on the telecom industry.

Posted on July 21, 2005 at 05:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

UnwireMyCity Community Update: The Desire to Unwire

While I started posting on this blog a couple of months ago, I only "went public" and made an active effort to publicize this site about 10 days ago. I've enjoyed watching the website statistics roll in - I'm not sure yet how many repeat visitors we've had so far, but we've had nearly 300 unique visitors on the site on any one day over the last 10 days. And I see that we have 94 Registered Users already!

That's a good start for a community and I hope all of you readers who like what you see will go ahead and tell one or two more people to check it out, to help the community grow. For my part, I'm committed to adding more and more useful content over time and I have plans underway to organize this content to make it even more useful for you as a tool to UnwireYourCity. More on that in the near term.

Poll Results - In keeping with my goal to build a community, these polls are meant to be an informal means of interacting on the site. The previous poll question asked, "Are you considering or have you already installed municipal wireless broadband?" Here were the results:
Yes. Considering. 44
Yes. Installed. 10
No. Not at this time. 6

These results confirmed my suspicions that there is considerable interest in deploying wireless networks today - I would have found it curious to get different results!

Notice that I posted a new poll/survey today. I'm curious to know what might be keeping you from acting on your desire to unwire. These results will help me to tailor the content of the site to better answer your questions and address your constraints.

Please let me know what else you would like to understand about community opinions on wireless issues and I'll post a new poll to survey our community.

Thanks for your support and keep coming back!

Best Regards,
John Cooper

Posted on July 19, 2005 at 03:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Whoa, hold the bus...BcN?

Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English About Korea OK, just when you were feeling good about the progress you're making with your municipal network, or the fact that Lafayette was able to beat back Cox Cable and Bell South to get a fiber to the home project on the books, here comes an article from South Korea that makes me wonder just how far back we really are falling.

Read this article about a Broadband convergence Network (BcN) and then imagine this coming over MSNBC about the USA. It has to be years (and years) away for us here in the US, right, because our debate is still about whether the public sector even has a role in broadband rollout? But listen to what they are doing in Korea, where they have blown right past that initial obstructionist argument and are working together on the next generation of broadband, even harnessing the power of competition to drive innovation:

BcN, the fusion of communication, broadcasting and the Internet, is a next-generation information network that the government is pushing to complete by 2010.

While existing networks could be compared to vehicles or trains that can operate only on roads or tracks, BcN is a new concept of IT environment "convergence" in which highways, rail tracks, and even the sky, sea and rivers could be controlled with one device.

The BcN era appears to be just around the corner as four state-chosen companies competitively work on launching test services.

Can you hear it? That's a different kind of convergence: the sucking sound of jobs leaving the US together with the sound of a wake up call, otherwise known as an alarm...

Posted on July 19, 2005 at 02:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How to Unwire, Part I

Dupont Circle Will Become a WiFi Hot Spot One way to unwire your city is to, well, in the words of a famous sports company, Just Do It. By starting with a public access project like the one described in this article, you gain much more attention and have a focal point to press the discussion about a full city buildout. Whether starting with a pilot in anticipation of a full city network, or starting with a stand-alone Hot Zone, the impact may be the same, to generate interest and demonstrate public support for this new municpal capability.

Posted on July 19, 2005 at 12:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A new way of staying in touch

Net Phone Zone There is a lot to read these days about VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol - telephone using the Internet) and VoWiFi (mobile telephones using wireless broadband), but what is it really like to use it to make phone calls? Moving out of the theoretical and into the practical, this author walks through a personal experience using one of the new handsets to make calls from a Hot Spot. A new perspective. While technologically feasible, it looks like VoWiFi doesn't quite make it yet on the technologically practical scale...we may have to wait for the "ease of use" factor of VoWiFi to catch up.

Posted on July 18, 2005 at 05:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

WiMAX Rolls ... on down the road

Behind the wheel with WiMax In Vancouver, BC, a demosntration project showed the capability of almost-ready-for-prime-time Wi MAX. Seattle-based startup Adaptix Inc. outfitted a sport-utility vehicle with equipment to show what WiMax can do. How about streaming a video, making a phone call, and playing a video game, all at the same time (while rolling down the road at 40 mph)? No mention of chewing gum. Service dropped when the vehicle got a mile away from the access point, indicating its dependence on a robust network. This gives us a glimpse into the not-too-distant future of wireless broadband. It will be about a lot more than high-speed Internet access, that's for sure.

Posted on July 18, 2005 at 04:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Good BPL Comparisons

Are power lines Internet's future? With broadband over power line (BPL) in the news over the past two weeks, this article from the Austin-American Statesman, my hometown paper, is timely for a review of the technology. More importantly, the article provides handy comparisons with DSL, Cable, Fixed Wireless and Satelite - the prinicpal competition for BPL.

One conclusion of this good overview is that while BPL may be coming on strong and hitting its stride, it may prove to be a case of too little too late, given the market penetration of the two dominant technologies, DSL and Cable. But, as usual, there is another perspective.

BPL proponents disagree, of course.

The recent interest from the big tech companies shows that the technology still has plenty of promise, said Brett Kilbourne, director of regulatory services for the trade group United Power Line Council. Along with Google and IBM, Motorola in May announced it was developing BPL technology and said it was teaming up with a rural South Carolina utility to launch BPL broadband service. Last year, Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc. also announced it was exploring BPL technology.

At the same time, Kilbourne and other proponents say, there are still plenty of households - 13 million by some counts - that aren't able to get broadband access because cable and telecom companies don't offer it in their areas.

Also driving interest in BPL are recent court decisions that limit Internet companies' access to cable and phone lines.

See for yourself.

Posted on July 17, 2005 at 01:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Great Background on Why Lafayette Vote is Significant

USATODAY.com - Bells dig in to dominate high-speed Internet realm In this article from January 2005, USA Today author Leslie Cauley does a good job of putting the Lafayette debate in perspective. The bottom line is that Bell companies seek to be both deregulated in treatment from state regulatory commissions and the FCC, but protected from competition by having municipalities, as potential competitors, hamstrung when they seek to build networks to compete with them. Having your cake and eating it too is a good place to be if you can make it happen.

Cauley follows up with an article from July 10 Towns battle big companies to expand broadband to update the artguments and analysis. This succinct quote says a lot about why what happened yesterday in Lafayette is signficant.

Michael Carlini, an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, likens Lafayette's fight with BellSouth to the bitter face-offs between the railroad and riverboat industries that were commonplace right after the Civil War. At the time, the riverboat was king, and the railroads were just getting started.

Carlini says the experience of Chicago and St. Louis is instructive: Trying to curry favor with riverboat operators, St. Louis' political machine imposed severe restrictions on railroad entry. Chicago, in sharp contrast, invited the railroads in.

The result: Chicago flourished, thanks in large part to the influx of commerce from outside the area. St. Louis, less accessible, became a second-tier city.

Carlini sees parallels with broadband. Only instead of fighting over the mode of transportation - riverboats vs. the railroads - it's about infrastructure.

Says Carlini: "We're killing ourselves from a global-competitiveness standpoint so that a few companies (like BellSouth) can keep making money on an obsolete business model."

Posted on July 17, 2005 at 11:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Digital Divide Perspectives: "Let them eat cake?"

Civitium's Weblog: Low-income = Low-value? When told that the peasants were starving in the streets of Paris, Queen Marie Antoinette is supposed to have said, "Let them eat cake!" This quote has become a poster child of indifference to the plight of the masses. As I read the Civitium blog by Greg Richardson and Philadelphia CIO Dianah Neff's response, I couldn't help but think of the parallels between the disconnect of the incumbent telecom companies, who have enjoyed regulated monopoly status for over 100 years, and that historic disconnect that led to the queen losing her head in the ensuing days of the French Revolution.

Richardson and Neff opine on the real perspective of telecom incumbents with regard to bringing broadband to the public in this blog, with shocking quotes on how SBC views the developing broadband market. High-speed access for the "high value" customers and low-to-no access for "low value" customers. Using the words of the incumbents themselves, these informed commenters define why public broadband initiatives are needed in this market.

Posted on July 17, 2005 at 10:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Louisiana: Public's Voice Rings Out "I want my broadband!"

With turnout estimated at 12%, a full 27% of the registered voters in Lafayette actually turned out to vote yesterday. And the results? A resounding 62 percent in favor of having their city commit to a $125 million project to extend fiber to their homes, thus providing a big fat pipe for the content of the 21st Century. Dispelling any doubt about how the public feels about taking control of their destiny and taking a risk on a large public project, the vote says it all: 62% for, 38% against.

The echoes of this vote are likely to be loud and long, as the politicians at state and federal levels debate whether local governments should have the right to bring broadband infrastructure to their constiuencies. The incumbent telecom and cable companies spoke loud and clear by lobbying state legislatures to keep cities out of the picture, in what may come to be deemed Round One of the Great Broadband Revolution. They said, "We have this under control, wait for us to bring broadband to you."

Lafayette voters responded, saying, "No thanks, BellSouth and Cox Cable, we can't wait for you, we're going to do it ourselves." Will Lafayette's popular vote prove to be the bellwether on where this war will go, the "shot heard 'round the world" as at Lexington & Concord 230 years ago?

Only time will tell, but for now, the margin of victory is compelling, and for the people of Lafayette, LA, the results hold the promise of a broadband content-filled tomorrow. Score one for local democracy! This vote puts Lafayette, LA on the map.

Posted on July 17, 2005 at 10:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

DSL: a "Phoney" Broadband Solution?

ePrairie.com: Midwest Technology Business News In this rather harsh look at copper line-based DSL technology, author James Carlini offers a good historical perspective on DSL, but then proceeds to tear down DSL as a valid technology on which to base our Internet connectivity future.

DSL on copper is like putting a vinyl top on a stagecoach. It's still a stagecoach in the age of space shuttles. Trying to repackage a copper-based solution with a new name and slogan just isn't working in today's ever-demanding society.

Check out this article for a good (if skeptical) review of how we got ADSL and for how it may compare to more robust, forward-looking technologies now being deployed. It's not a pretty picture, but it will make you think.

It made me think and I concluded that much of what Carlini says makes sense, but everyone has an opinion, and there are two sides to every coin. Consider another way to make copper work - very high bit-rate DSL, or VDSL. See How VDSL Works in How Stuff Works for a more in-depth look at DSL and an alternate viewpoint. You'll want to read the entire article to get the full picture on the potential of VDSL. This is a bona fide resource for understanding DSL as a broadband resource.

Posted on July 14, 2005 at 12:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Canadian Broadband Penetration Trumps US

US-Canadian Broadband Penetration Gap at 20 Points - US Broadband Penetration Crawls to 58.8% in May - June 2005 Bandwidth Report I just read this article and it points out the differences in broadband penetration for the US and Canada. While helpful in providing statistics and raising the issue of global competitiveness (or the lack thereof), I do feel compelled to digress for a moment to talk about comparisons of the US and Canada. This is the kind of article that makes me want to just, well, sigh in frustration, not only because it makes us look bad, but also because its an inaccurate comparison.

Comparing Canada and the US, while it is often done, is not altogether valid. It's a comparison that people want to make, however, because the countries seem so much alike. And they are, culturally. Much more so than say, the US and Mexico. But as they say in the real estate business, they are not really "comps."

I've lived in Calgary as an adult, and in Newfoundland as a child, so I feel like I know Canada well, and I like it a lot as a country. But as much as their culture is aligned with that of the US, it remains a relatively small country when compared to the US. Sure, in land mass it is huge and on the map it looks about like the US in size, but much of that land is under snow much of the time. When you assess population and economies, the differences become apparent (Canada: 2001 Census shows just over 30 million and 2001 GDP was $875 billion v. US: 2000 Census population at app. 282 million and GDP at $10.1 trillion). And comparing land mass is specious, as much of Canada's population is clustered on the two coasts, and most especially along the US border, on the very southern portion of the country.

So, Canada starts to look a whole lot more like S. Korea or Great Britain, with educated populations, but small land mass and dense population clusters. This shines light on the data and helps us to understand such broadband penetration data. It's just easier to get infrastructure deployed in a country laid out like Canada. But don't stop there, just because that makes us feel better about where we are - it's a convenient excuse to say that small countries can move faster on infrastructure than big countries. But its still that, an excuse.

We can do better. We lack the political will and we need slaps in the face like this article, which drives home the point that the US is in a race to wire (or unwire) its country to enable broadband access for all. The fact is, Canada started earlier, focused on broadband infrastructure as a strategic asset, and enlisted government and municipal support. By comparison, the US is not as focused, is not harnessing its assets as well, is not as open to creative solutions, and in general, is not doing nearly as well as its neighbor to the north if the goal is ubiquitous broadband infrastructure (and according to our president, that IS our goal).

This type of article should serve as a warning sign to policy makers and political leaders. For those of you in charge of your local area governments, I hope this data proves helpful to motivate your town or city to go ahead and get active and bring broadband in. You don't need to wait on either technology advances or federal government leadership or approval. The door is open and the time is ripe for action. The clear message is that waiting has a cost attached and we are losing ground with each month that goes by.

Posted on July 14, 2005 at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Muniwireless White Papers

Esme Vos continues to do a great job at Muniwireless.com. She has posted two white papers over the past two days and they are both worth a closer look. I recommend you click over there and read them as background on the potential of high-speed broadband for municipalities. I've placed these in the Food for Thought area because they offer a more general review of where we are today, but they take two different perspectives.

Broadband Strategy for Municipalities: a white paper by Mike Nicosia Archives takes advantage of Mike's perspective as VP of Business Development at Gigahertz. Mike does a good job outlining current broadband technologies and demonstrating how most fall short of providing what will be needed in the near term. He then describes a combination of technologies that cities will need to fulfill the promise of what he sees as the coming age of Ultra High Broadband (UHB) networks.

Going forward five years to the end of the decade and looking back, Civitium founder Greg Richardson outlines in Greg Richardson on the future of broadband and decentralization how events may well unfold to take us into a vision of decentralization discussed at the recent Supernova conference in San Francisco. (See Pundits and Blogs elsewhere on this site for a discussion of Supernova.)

Greg and the folks at Supernova hit the nail on the head when they highlight decentralization as the overwhelming trend that will wash over and influence all of the issues that we discuss on these sites. What they call decentralization I have dubbed structural change. See the UnwireMyCity whitepaper, On Structural Change, where I conclude:

But the nature of this change, unlike change in the past, is to empower the edges – the individuals in the marketplace are gaining the power to do more for themselves, whether it is to produce the creative content more efficiently, or to distribute the information product amongst each other, each of the industries above will see its control of the levers of distribution challenged. Like the recording companies who file suit against individuals for theft, these industries will not go quietly into the night. But the power of change is inevitable, because it is not limited to one government and cannot be controlled. It is Endemic, Pervasive, and Unstoppable and it can no longer be viewed as a unique or temporary phenomenon. It is here to stay. What are we to conclude from this new state of permanence I will call structural change?

I am suggesting that leaders in the public and private sectors consider this paradigm shift. Adaptation to such structural change must become a core competency or organizations will begin an inevitable decline.

Posted on July 13, 2005 at 11:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

WiMAX Update

This in-depth, if somewhat skeptical review in Mobile Pipeline of current events in WiMAX, After The Hype, Where Is WiMAX?, is a worthwhile read if only to sniff through some of the hype that is out there in the WiMAX world. Author Peter Rysavy, president of Rysavy Research, a consulting firm that specializes in wireless technology assessment and integration, concludes that fixed WiMAX is real and will be fast upon us with workable solutions. Rysavy stops just short of dismissing mobile WiMAX, on the other hand, as overhyped and not ready for prime time, but finally concludes that whether mobile WiMAX replaces 3G/4G, is integrated into 3G/4G, or finds a way to coexist with 3G/4G, it will be a fun show to watch in the coming years.

Posted on July 13, 2005 at 10:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Interview with Current Communications Chairman

The Google/Goldman Sachs/Current/Cinergy news story from last week (see UnwireMyCity.com: Shocking Information: Huge Cash Injection into BPL Firm) continues to hold my attention. Here is an interview with the chairman of Current Communications, A High-Voltage Broadband Push, giving a few more glimpses into the potential of utility broadband and the reported $100 million investment by Google et al.

Posted on July 13, 2005 at 10:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What to do if broadband is not around?

In Up the Broadband Creek Without a Signal, ConsumerAffairs.com paints a rather bleak picture for those of you who are located in the pockets of the US without access to broadband. This article does provide substantial hard data about broadband penetration drawn from recent FCC data. The article also lays out the current options and state of broadband, but concludes that for those in underserved, or unserved areas, the options generally come down to satellite (expensive and spotty quality) and dial-up, with this to say about dial-up:

"The Internet is increasingly designed to be used with a high speed connection," said Mark Huffman, a ConsumerAffairs.Com contributing editor who moved to a rural area on Chesapeake Bay a few years ago. "Every site is loaded with rich media. If you are on dial-up, its very hard to use the Internet. It becomes very frustrating."

So, what does one do when one finds oneself up the proverbial creek without a paddle?

I think this is where you start paddling with your hands. Faced with such stark options, this is when you dig down deep inside and find the motivation to solve the problem on your own. That is why I put this web site together, to give you the tools to dig yourselves out of this hole. Look at UnwireMyCity as a paddle for those who find themselves up the creek (or a shovel, for those who prefer the stuck-down-a-hole metaphor).

I draw inspiration from the electric cooperatives started eighty years ago in rural areas. Digging oneself out of that hole required a community to pool its resources, come together and develop a solution that was within their means. They found help from the government in low-cost loans. While government hasn't yet been so helpful to communities lacking broadband, lucky for us technology has provided a solution and that is wireless mesh running on unlicensed spectrum. Such a solution is well within a city's means if the city works together.

So check out the tools on this site and get started on developing a plan to get with the broadband revolution. All you have to lose is your snail's pace dial-up service or your sky high satellite bills.

Posted on July 13, 2005 at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Costs of a Municipal Wireless Network? Less than you would think when you consider the alternatives

Against my better judgment, I'm going to wade in one more time on the Internet discussion on the price of wireless broadband and ROI. For the record, I haven't read the Jupiter report and I believe that as an industry, we are way too early in the game to get down to such specific prognostication.

As I've said before, in a sense, every municipal network is a custom network, so quoting a price per acre or a price per square mile in general and attempting to apply that price or draw conclusions from that analysis to any particular project is at best a potential waste of time, and at worst a misleading exercise that will lead you astray.

I would prefer to approach the price/cost/ROI/risk issue by first acknowledging that metropolitan wireless broadband networks are a relative bargain when compared to a) DSL; b) cable; c) fiber; d) BPL; e) 3G Cellular. That awareness should be enough to lead prospective buyers to drill down on the potential cost for their particular network, whose price will vary depending on population density, topography, RF environment, foilage, available backhaul, proposed uses of network, maintenance scenario, project finance mechanism, etc. Prospective buyers should also evaluate how wireless solutions fit as a component in an integrated city-wide solution. A municipal broadband network is more likely to look like a fruit salad, so watch out when comparing different technologies as if they were all apples.

As a buyer moves into any new purchase experience, one of the first questions they are likely to have is "how much is this going to cost me?" (and its corrollary, "can I afford this?") Salespeople are trained to dodge this first meeting question like the tap dancers I saw at the Riverdance production with my wife recently.

The risk for salespeople is that a price quoted prematurely will either set expectations for the ultimate price too low, in which case the buyer will suffer sticker shock when an actual price is submitted at the point of purchase and head for the hills, OR, set price expectations too high and send the prospect packing immediately because it is out of their price range. Rock and a Hard Place, so we buyers get the averted glance and the salesman shuffle when we ask, "How much?" or you may get a rookie saleperson error of a firm, low price quote, because that's what they think you want to hear.

The recommended parry for such an early, curious buyer question is to respond, "well, it depends." Preferably, followed by a price quote in a broad range, and an explanation of the variables that drive the cost/price. The point the salesperson seeks to make is that the price will depend upon the costs built into the solution and the value the buyer places on the solution. The role of the salesperson, in the perfect world, is to drive sufficient information into the process and raise the value of the end solution in the eyes of the buyer. The lament of the salesperson is that buyers are too ready to see every purchase as a commodity, in too much of a hurry to negotiate a low price and "win", and too busy to spend the time to fully understand what they are buying ... You can almost hear the salesperson mutter, "If they only knew us better, they would just love us. I just know it. Sigh."

When it comes to evaluating metropolitan wireless for your city or town, please do not fall into the trap of listening to a siren's song about a remarkably low price, or on the other hand, letting the solution get so complex that it inflates the price unreasonably. Beware of buying into information that makes broad-brush price comparisons that you would then apply to your project. I urge you to take the time to understand enough about your own project to assess whether it is in your budget and to work with project design and community involvement to get just what you need at just the right price.

If you invest up front in such a process, the odds are in your favor that you will have a workable ROI and break even, and your project will be one of the sound ones that is a success and reflects well on all those involved. The way to reduce risk in a municipal broadband network project is not necessarily through hard negotiation on price points and beating the vendor down (although it can be a load of fun to drive a hard bargain and win!). Rather low risk and high success rates are found through sound planning and prudent decision-making. In the end, there is no getting around the hard work that you will need to do to get the right solution for your town or city.

Posted on July 12, 2005 at 11:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

France: Parlez-Vous Wi Fi? ... Oui, Un Petit Peu

It is amazing how physical distance disappears out on the Internet. I came across MunicipalNet, a French municipal wi fi site because they referenced my new website. Using Site Tracker, a software for managing websites, I found a reference to my site a week or so ago on MunicipalNet. This is part of the continuing, amazing journey of publishing a website and finding oneself a part of a larger community that you did not know existed.

I wonder how many other international sites there are out there? I'll begin a search and catalogue effort. There may well be some convenient resources out there, but it may also take a little time. Even though English has become the international business language, I'd like to find non-English sites for those who would prefer same. Please let me know and I'll start an international (foreign language) section on this site, OK?

By the way, I've communicated with Bruno Formi, Technical Director at Atawad Networks and author of the blog, and he's informed me that the French market for Muni Networks is very difficult, as it's limited to 100mw for Wifi, and for Wimax there is no license free spectrum option as there will be in the US. Forni explained that the situation is changing slowly for the better, as a new law authorizes a town or region to be a telecom operator and he predicts that the 5 GHz spectrum, now owned and controlled by the military, may be opened up by the end of year.

So if you prefer a francophone perspective, be sure to check out MunicipalNet! Allons-y, mes amis! Vive le Wi Fi!

Posted on July 12, 2005 at 10:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

New Voice in the Muni Blogosphere

Greg Richardson, founder of Civitium, pioneer in driving the creation of this new industry, author of the Best Practices RFP Tool, and tireless consultant to large city deployments, has decided that 14-hour days are not enough and so he's launched a Civitium Weblog to complement his corporate consulting practice and website.

I welcome Greg's voice to the blog publishing arena and I think we will all be better for it. I presume we can also expect to hear from his colleagues at Civitium, co-founder Matt Stone and senior partner Patrick McCamley. Together, these voices of experience in RFP planning and deployment consulting hold great potential.

I admire and respect these guys for what they have done in these early days of municipal wireless networks. Please join me in welcoming them and watch their site over the coming weeks as they gather steam with their new blog.

Posted on July 12, 2005 at 10:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A Personal Account of BPL

Electrifying Ease, if Not Speed BPL is in the news lately, with the Google et al investment in Current Communications, and the announcement by Centerpoint and IBM of their BPL trial in Houston. So it is timely that a user describes his personal experience with BPL in Manassas, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC. The bottom line: like a utility, the writer found BPL slow to get going and a little frustrating to work with, but on balance, quite affordable and reliable.

In reading this article, I couldn't help but think that one answer to the series of delays in deploying BPL that the user experienced would be to complement the deployment with a wireless broadband deployment. That way, the city, utility, or third party provider could begin to offer broadband service almost immediately, and then bring in the BPL for longer-term system stability, cost reduction and added bandwidth. I'm starting to think that BPL and wireless broadband may go together like peanut butter and jelly...as an alternative to a steady diet of submarine sandwiches (DSL), hamburgers (Cable), and pizza (3G cellular)? Let's hear it for the balanced diet!

This is an enlightening perspective and I urge you to take a look.

Posted on July 12, 2005 at 09:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Feature, a popular web blog, exits stage left

The Feature Says Goodbye I enjoyed reading this blog, with good articles written well. The number of alternatives out on the Net has grown considerably, however, so while I will miss it, I'm consoled by all the other alternatives to keep me up to date on mobile wireless issues. Adios and Gracias, The Feature.

Posted on July 12, 2005 at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Newsweek weighs in on Muni Broadband Debate

Pulling the Plug on Local Internet Technology writer Steven Levy gives a general overview and concludes that the fight is only just beginning, and that the more awareness there is, the more the case of local control will make sense. He concludes by urging local consituents to check the voting records of their representative officials, and see if they have the interest of telecom incumbents or local broadband user wanna-bes at heart.

Posted on July 12, 2005 at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Texas: Houston's Centerpoint testing BPL with IBM

WOAI: San Antonio News - Houston Testing "BPL" Internet Service Add yet another major electric utility expressing serious interest in broadband communications, specfically broadband over power lines or BPL. On the heels of the $100 million investment this week by Google and others in Current Communications, a BPL-oriented service company working with Cinergy in Cincinnatti, this Houston electric utility has indicated its desire to understand better the potential of BPL to help with meter reading and outage management. The estimated $200 million price tag, however, means that a BPL solution would still be a ways off for Centerpoint. This is one more indicator, however, of the interest and potential of BPL and utility broadband in general.

Posted on July 10, 2005 at 06:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How do you Mobilize a City to Do Wireless?

I hope you're not disappointed if I don't tell you in this blog how to mobilize your city to do wireless. I don't have all the answers, but I'm getting closer. Instead, I'm really asking you that question and I hope you will help me to find the answer. In my last blog, I talked about the importance of Community Involvement and I'd like to drill down on that issue herein. Let me give you a little background.

Austin is a sizeable city, but still has a small town feel to it. The University of Texas is a world class institution, recently ranked No. 3 in the US and No. 15 in the world, if I remember correctly. UT plays a large role in our community, but it's a little like Vatican City in the middle of Rome. At times, it feels like UT is a city in itself, right in the middle of our city. This is an area of growth for our community, to get UT better integrated into Austin society.

So, I was excited last fall when I was asked to be part of a new community advisory committee: UT has a new program and academic discipline, dubbed Science, Technology, and Society, or STS. The STS Community Advisory Committee is made up of about 20 some odd community leaders who meet every three months with faculty and graduate students to advise them on curriculum and community interface issues.

For instance, we met this spring to have a Q&A on Nanotechnology and its implications for society. While a lot of the discussion went right by me, I understand that our input was helpful to UT in moving forward in a competition for grants in this important technology area.

It seems that a new thing in academia is something called a Societal Impact Statement, akin to the Environmental Impact Statement that we have become familiar with on construction projects. Grant-making institutions are starting to ask academics about the impact of a technological pursuit on society before granting funding for projects. It has become the role of groups like the STS Advisory Committee to provide such community perspective. Also, we can help UT to better integrate and relate with the local community, a long-held need in Austin.

For example, last month we were asked to help provide the PhD candidates in the STS program with a two-week applied aacademic study that they could work on, and then we would all sit for a presentation of results in early August.

I submitted a project that focused on how a community might raise community awareness on the potential of and means for a metropolitan wireless network in their own community. The scope of the project would be to develop a methodology for integrating community input into city leaders' planning for a metropolitan wireless network.

I will meet with a PhD candidate on Tuesday, July 26, to kick off this study and two weeks later, I'll see his or her presentation on how we might mobilize the Austin community to get a wireless network. It's a question dear to my heart, as I've sought to mobilize Austin for the past two years to create a city-wide network. Now, as we have recently been recognized as the No. 1 most-wired city, I see it as a special challenge for me to help Austin to become a model unwired city. I have a lot of irons in the fire in this regard, and I see this STS project as one more tool in my toolbox.

I would ask you informed readers and visitors to this website to advise me in the next nine days. What would you tell the PhD student, and how would you design a two-week study to mobilize a community? I'd appreciate your comments by emailing me at your convenience. Please let me know your thoughts on community mobilization, and what you would like to find out. I will share the results with you as they become available.

Posted on July 09, 2005 at 10:14 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Wired? Unwired? What's the Difference? It's All About Connectivity

Wired and Unwired. These terms get used a lot these days, but I believe they mean different things for different people. I remember when I was in college, wired meant something altogether different, but that's a rabbit trail I'd rather not go down. Back to the topic at hand, I believe the common definition for both terms has to do with the concept of connectivity.

A recent study by Forrester Research, cited in Thursday's Austin American-Statesman (my hometown paper) Keep Austin Wired: We're nation's No. 1 sets Austin as the standard by which other cities are rated when it comes to being wired. The study looked at the most wired cities in the US, ranked by a composite of PC ownership, proportion of residents who go online, and how many use broadband at home, among other things. The surprise at number two was Hartford, Connecticut, and Austin's city list doppelganger, San Jose, CA, came in at number three.

Living in a town where the airport has a sign welcoming visitors to the "Live Music Capital of the World" and where the University of Texas lights up its tower with a number one symbol every time one of its teams wins a national championship (which is amazingly frequent, though alas, not yet for football - Go Longhorns!), we tend to take these lists and rankings perhaps a little more seriously than we should. But what does it mean, to be at the top of a Most Wired City list, short of putting another arrow in the Chamber of Commerce quiver? I've been pondering this topic for two days, given that I have this new blog that seeks to help cities to unwire.

Starting from the unwired perspective, I Googled most unwired cities. At the top of the list was Intel's 3rd annual survey released June 7, Wireless Internet: Intel Ranks the 100 Most Unwired U.S. Cities, which ranks cities by greatest wireless Internet accessibility (the number of commercial and public or "free" wireless access points (hotspots), airports with wireless access, and broadband availability). Hot Zones and metropolitan wireless broadband networks can be expected to contribute heavily to Intel's 4th annual survey next year. The top three (hold on to your hats): 1. Seattle-Bellevue-Everitt-Tacoma (which is a pretty long name for a city); 2. San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland; and 3. Austin-San Marcos.

The Intel press release trumpets Seattle Is 'Most Unwired City' In America and makes two key points. First, the association between wireless access and quality of life. "Wireless is becoming a fundamental part of how we live," said Bert Sperling of Sperling's Best Places, which conducted the surveys. "The ability to access information and entertainment when and where you want it is simply irresistible to business people seeking greater productivity and consumers who live an on-the-go lifestyle."

When it comes to Hot Spots, something tells me there is a correlation with the number of coffee shops, which I hear Seattle has a few of. While I don't get out to Seattle (short name version) or the Bay Area all that often, I do know Austin like the back of my hand. We earn that wireless ranking not only by the use of broadband, but also by the number of Hot Spots we have - seriously, you can't swing a cat without hitting a hot spot in this town. You grow used to it and it really smarts when you go on the road and have to, well, actually work at finding a Hot Spot. Still.

The other key point the press release makes is that public wireless is appearing in more diverse locations, citing these locations:

* Legacy Golf Resort - Phoenix
* Kansas Speedway - Kansas City , Kan.
* Chelsea Piers - New York
* Loveland Ski Area - Georgetown , Colo.
* SBC Park - San Francisco
* Dirtwood Skatepark - Houston
* King County Library - Seattle
* Waveland Bowl - Chicago

Let's go back a couple of years for some perspective. This April 29, 2002 article in Realty Times cited a survey by The Media Audit, which found the number of adults logging on the Internet increased 8.5 percent last year (i.e., 2001) in the 85 metro markets surveyed by the firm. Media Audit also reported that the median age of Internet users is increasing, and the median income is decreasing.

"It's looking more and more like a very essential utility for people of all ages," said Bob Jordan, cochairman of The Media Audit, in a company press release. Media Audit's report determined how "wired" cities were by how many adults have access to the Internet.

According to survey results, the top three cities were:

1. Madison, Wisconsin - 73.4 percent
2. Washington, D.C. - 73.4 percent
3. Ann Arbor, Mich. with 70.2 percent.

But the article goes on to contrast adults with Internet access to households with Internet access, citing a May 2002 Forrester Research study. Now the top three change, and Madison, DC, and Ann Arbor fall out of the Top Ten.

1. San Francisco, CA - 78.8 percent

2. Austin-San Marcos, TX - 76.5 percent

3. Oxnard-Ventura Counties, CA - 72.9 percent

But, there's more, as the article goes on:

Using a variety of metrics, including population, number of business domains, net use, user expertise, and local available content, Yahoo! Internet Life composed its own list of the most wired cities. The top three?

1. San Francisco,CA

2. San Jose, CA

3. Austin - San Marcos, TX

Time for analysis and conclusions. The first thing that pops out to me is that these cities tend to have more young people and universities and to be more on the cultural leading edge, which connotes vibrancy and weighs heavily as an indicator for quality of life. When it comes to economic development, quality of life matters. But its not as linear as all that. It's not like you can put up a wired or wireless network and you will get quality of life and a strong economy. Just like you could not expect cities to be functional without a good transportation network, increasingly, the same can be said for high-speed Internet connectivity. These networks are a tool. But just because you have a hammer and nails, doesn't mean that you have a new kitchen cabinet.

So, do you want a wired network or an unwired network for your city? In the end, telecommunications networks are about bringing people together, and the technology is just a means to an end. The advent of affordable, scalable wireless solutions has caused us all to take a closer look at wireless as a connectivity solution, and that's what led me to launch this site. But when it gets down to the brass tacks of business planning and developing a business case, two things stand out: 1) what do you want to do (what is the business purpose?) and 2) what's the most effective combination of technologies to help you reach your business goals and objectives?

If your dream is to see your city at the top of one of these lists, I recommend you start with your communities, because those people will tell you what they would use a network for. Don't get too far out in front of your communities of interest in your network planning. By engaging with the communities that make up your city or town, you will find out what gaps can be filled to raise the quality of life, and where a network can contribute.

This blog is already too long, so look for my next blog on Community Involvement, coming soon.

Posted on July 09, 2005 at 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

600 Mbs over Wireless Networks? Huh?

802.11n holds greater promise than we thought Hold on. Did I read that correctly? Unstrung reports that the IEEE committee on the 802.11n standard, which had been indicating a doubling of speeds to 108 Mbs when they conclude their standardization work, has been understating the case. One committee member, Bill McFarland from Atheros, anticipates over 600 Mbs, which should provide ample room for video, voice, data applications, and an elephant or two.

McFarland says that the combined proposal will have four main elements. Spatial multiplexing, which involves using multiple antennas to send and recieve signals, improves the speed and accuracy of transmissions. Using 40MHz channels rather than the 20MHz channels currently used "will double the amount of data that can be transmitted at one time," McFarland says. And packet aggregation and packet bursting techniques are supposed to improve performance, especially on busy wireless networks.

This should raise a few eyebrows.

Posted on July 07, 2005 at 06:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Ohio: Shocking Information: Huge Cash Injection into BPL Firm

Google invests in power-line broadband CNET News.com analyzes reports issued today that Current Communications, arguably the leader in broadband-over-powerline (BPL) has received a massive cash infusion from Google and other investors. It appears that Google doesn't do anything in a small way, as the investment was to the tune of $100 million.

What does this mean for Current? All good (hey, it's $100 MILLION, that's eight zeros after a one). Now they will have more time to wait for the slow-moving BPL market to catch fire and for their business plan of engaging electric utilities to unfold.

What does this mean for BPL? Perhaps 2005 will be its year after all. The timing is perfect, as cable and DSL networks appear to be closing off to third parties.

What does this mean for Google? Here's an opportunity to drive the broadband infrastructure market from a different angle and stake a claim in a new distribution arm for high bandwidth content.

What does this mean for Verizon, SBC, Comcast, and Time Warner and all the other incumbents, still enjoying the events of last week after the Brand X decision protected cable infrastructure? Hold on to your hats, folks, we will have some competition in this market. This move by Google and company is one more indicator of the structural change I've referenced on this site. Digital content will be distributed over the Internet and more and more, it will complement, or even displace current distribution methods.

Something tells me that the second half of 2005 is going to be even more interesting!

Posted on July 07, 2005 at 05:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Comprehensive Article on Citywide Broadband

Cities brace for broadband war CNET News.com produced this comprehensive article a couple of months ago - great for an overview and backgrounder. See also the Municipal broadband and wireless projects map

Posted on July 07, 2005 at 04:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty? It Depends

50 Percent Success Rate for Current Wireless Network Initiatives is Indicated While most headlines will trumpet a 50% failure rate, as the study by Jupiter Research suggests based on break-even analysis of current municipal network projects, I thought I would tilt the perspective a little with this title and suggest a 50% success rate.

Preliminary discussion on Daily Wireless: Jupiter Research: Half of City Clouds Will Fail and Muniwireless: Jupiter Research report: 50% of muni projects will not break even opine on the prediction that half of current networks will fail and ponder whether that is a valid analysis.

There are many points and perspectives to consider. I would open discussion with the caveat that this is a very early assessment and so has limited value as a prediction (although it will most certainly sell some reports). I would also highlight the conclusion that Public-Private Partnerships are indicated in the face of such risk. That's a conclusion I've drawn elsewhere on this website. Finally, I think that other industries might look favorably on a 50% success rate. And finally (one more time), it may be that some projects that "fail" are actually considered successes if they provide services that would not otherwise be available, even at a loss.

Not having read the report, I would go out on a limb and offer my perspective that these networks are a risk to the degree that the owners and or operators, be they public or private, neglect to nail down anchor tenants that will help them to cover as much costs as they can with long-term contracts. City government, utilities, and state agencies are just a start as anchor tenants. It's not unlike the way that Southwest Airlines creatively fills its planes to capacity, while other airlines fly planes half empty and risk bankruptcy. Success in this market will go to those savvy operators that figure out how to fill up the bandwidth that they make available, at a decent margin. I don't think that good business sense and creativity are located exclusively on either the private or public sector side. Whoever ends up running these networks will need to be sharp to be successful, but the risks of these projects should be kept in perspective: compared to fiber projects, wireless projects are helped along by the relatively low costs.

Posted on July 06, 2005 at 09:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Excelsio's Practical Pointers on Municipal Wireless RFPs

As the municipal broadband network trend grows, the RFP is gaining more attention as a means for cities and towns to procure a wired or increasingly, a wireless broadband network. Karl Edwards, VP of Operations at Excelsio Communications, has provided UnwireMyCity.com with this guide of practical pointers for municipal wireless RFPs. I recommend you look here before going any further with your plans for an RFP! (HINT: also, click on the lime green Request for Proposals above this article to go to the RFP section!)

Posted on July 05, 2005 at 05:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Securing the Cloud

Daily Wireless: Securing the Cloud Daily Wireless has a good write up on wireless security, and this article, published this morning, has good links. Security Begins at Home.

A no Wi-Fi policy does not guarantee security, as intruders can enter through laptop clients. Virtually all laptops now include Wi-Fi. Individuals, businesses or municipalities that think they can eliminate wireless threats by eliminating WiFi may be mistaken.

The growth of municipal WiFi networks will likely increase illegal activities on wireless networks if for no other reason then they'll be more of them. An e-Week editorial thinks Municipal Wi-Fi plans like Philadelphia's are security disasters in the making. [But at least they have a plan].

Protecting private citizens must be given the highest priority. Cities can't afford lawsuits, either.

I recommend you hop over and check it out. For later reference, you'll need to look this up in Archives under July 5.

Posted on July 05, 2005 at 04:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

VO Wi Fi On the March

IT AsiaOne - News - Linksys pleased with VoIP's positive market reception Linksys, now a division of network equipment giant Cisco, is excited about VOIP. VOICE-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) is hot, and Linksys founder Victor Tsao has been coolly surprised by the market acceptance for the technology. Voice telephony, people talking to one another, is the quintessential "killer app," something we cannot do without. VOIP is exciting because it lowers the cost and expands the potential of voice services. Imagine getting your voicemails as files right next to your emails on your computer. Simple with VOIP. Now imagine supplementing or even replacing your cellular service with Wi Fi VOIP, a possibility that is moving rapidly to a probability as metropolitan networks are established.

Posted on July 05, 2005 at 02:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Muni Broadband attracts attention

2theadvocate.com: News - LUS plan 'great ... venture' 07/01/05 Municipal Broadband is getting attention. As this article describes, Silicon Valley is watching municipal broadband deployments with great interest because of the impact it can have on the technology world. More and more applications will be available once networks are in place, and municipalities have the potential to drive this deployment.

Scott McNealy, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems, said LUS's plan to build an ultra-fast fiber-optic network to each home and business in the city is "progressive and a great innovative venture."

"It's the talk of the Valley right now," McNealy said, adding that Sun's chief scientist is probably the "biggest evangelist (for the LUS plan) around the world."

LUS will ask voters on July 16 to approve up to $125 million in bonds to build the network, which will be used to provide low-cost phone, cable and high-speed Internet service.

Posted on July 02, 2005 at 08:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Nevada: Wireless Gambling in Las Vegas

Even Poolside, Casinos Entice by Hand-Held - New York Times This has a sense of inevitablity to it. Internet gambling is moving to the handheld unit. While some will no doubt view this as evidence of our progress towards ever more personal freedom, and others will see one more slip down the slippery slope of moral decline, I prefer to note it as part of the inevitable march towards making more content available on the Internet and making more content available over mobile platforms. While this article talks about mobile applications inside the casino Hot Spot, it is evidence of a compelling application moving to a smaller and more mobile platform.

Posted on July 02, 2005 at 08:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack