Christmas Letter VI - House on Fire

October

Yo, I really cranked it up in October, with 34 posts ...

October was also the month we began to process the nine written responses to the San Marcos RFP. Nine - oh yeah...that was exciting to get so many responses...

And, the month I learned that we had been selected as the finalist for the contract with Orange County Business Council to do the wireless broadband assessment of municipalities and ISDs in the OC...

There were several critical posts this month, but given that there were so many, I'll be briefer here than I have been so far...

Phoenix MetroNets, Rising from the Ashes - in which I describe our entry into a new phase of metropolitan broadband - "Emergent Customization," pointing a direction beyond Municipal Wireless

Rock of Ages v. Water of Life - in which I describe the eternal paradox of change - balancing the need to preserve the past while adapting for the future (see also the follow-up Conservatives and Innovators - Wrestling for the Remote).

Where There's Smoke, Parts I-VI - a six-part series on big telecom and big government ...

When it comes to broadband policy and strategy, I don't think we can even begin to talk about these complex issues as a national community without including in the conversation those same government regulators, lawmakers, and large cable and telecom companies who some consider the Root of All Evil. I'm not one of those types, but I do believe in calling things like I see them. We need to start by bringing all this dirty linen out into the open. I'll try to be dispassionate, so bear with me.

We must at least acknowledge that we have an underlying problem with our system. Before we can have an Open discussion on our collective broadband future, or even begin to craft solutions and a policy and a strategy that serve all interests, we first have to have Trust. We have to have Truth as the foundation for our discussion and we have to be Inclusive and engage all the parties. We have to be Honest.

Pure Play MuniFi Morphing Into Intelligent Communities? - in which I suggest a new more holistic focus for Alternate Broadband

Tangled Webs, Wicked Ways - perhaps the best of several posts about telecom immunity and FISA

And Now for Something Completely Different - and two more, about OPLAN - in which I describe a new way of looking at telecom from Great Britain, where the model is less the railroad (ATT) and more the highway (Alternate Broadband).

The Old Telecom Business Model - a scarcity-based business model, where a vertically integrated professional network operator manages a closed network and charge retail service fees to retail consumers in exchange for providing access to a limited commodity - Internet Access (and in many cases, bundled content and applications). In today's case, broadband bandwidth is but one more service to mete out to a starving consumer class, who should be grateful for the services the telecom provides over its proprietary network in a low-competition business environment. This service is more akin to buying a ticket on a railroad line to go from point A to point B.

The New Telecom Business Model - an abundance-based business model, where a neutral network owner (city, pension fund, etc.) manages an open network and charges wholesale service fees to service providers in exchange for providing access to an abundant commodity, local network access on which to run services and applications for resale to retail consumers. In this new case, the provisioning of broadband bandwidth is separated from the retail services, content, and applications. The Open Network brings an abundance of retail service providers and the benefits of bounteous competition, turning bandwidth into a basic commodity and letting consumers pay instead for retail value-added services. This service is more akin to driving a car on a road or highway, to go wherever you damn well please.

October was one busy month, but we went down paths that demanded attention. We have to come to grips with where our devotion to conventional broadband is taking us...so, while I still think its a wonderful life, I have a little more bile in my stomach when I contemplate what's going on...