So yesterday, a 5 member panel of the FCC handed down their so called net neutrality ruling from upon high, and this morning supporters of a free and open internet are mourning their loss.
So what happened? Well if you have been following the enormously expensive lobbying efforts of AT&T, Comcast, Verizon et al. you will know that these mega ISP basically wanted to be the internet’s gatekeepers, and
a) exercise their imagined right to prioritize their own traffic,
b) throttle back or block their competition
c) restrict access to websites they didn’t like
d) differentiated wireless and wire-line treatment
And today the FCC caved!
Here is how it went;
1) FCC now allows ‘reasonable’ packet discrimination ONLY for network management reasons. While this may seem to be OK, the reality is that ‘network management’ is something attorneys will be arguing about for decades. Meanwhile AT&T can block skype or Netflix because they use ‘too much’ bandwidth.
2) Wireless devices and wired devices (picture your smart phone and your home PC) will now be treated by different rules. It not 100% clear what this means yet because it looks like the FCC does not yet fully understand the implications of its ruling, but it looks like wireless carriers (ATT, Verizon etc) can prioritize data (e.g. throttle back packets from YouTube) look for increased data charges coming soon to a smart phone near you.
3) Your ISP will now be able to block websites from you. Even if they are legal. The first ones to go will probably be ATTsucks.com and Comcastsucks.com, but in theory could extend to a restriction on any social, political or religious. Come on everyone say it with me, “censorship violates freedom of speech”
Stay tuned for more as details continue to be released.
Nokia has made legal claims that their proprietary technology that is used to enhance speech and data transmission and get this, antenna innovations for compact devices Read more »
As we have reported before Verizon has put the breaks on its FTTP (Fiber to the premises) project, but continues to focus on MDU (multi dwelling units) not surprising Read more »
So a little start up called Sector Labs has become the latest company to use the term ‘pod’ in its product branding, and obviously apple does not like this very much. Read more »
September 23. The FCC today ruled on white space.
Coogle’s co founder Larry page has called White space WiFi on Steroids! But what exactly is it? White space is the unused frequency gap that exists between analog TV bands between 470 and 698 MHz. It can transmit data faster, Read more »
News from around the world
France
FITH (Fiber directly to the Home) continues to be deployed on a large scale in Europe, as Verizon scales back deployment in US. By the end of June over 38,000 homes will be connected in France. This is up nearly 15% since the first quarter of this year
Malaysia (yes Malaysia)
Telekom Malaysia Berhad a broadband service provider is planning an IPTV rollout and has selected ATEME, to handle its distribution. ATEME is a video compression solutions provider specializing in bandwidth reduction for High definition TV signals.
China
British Telecom have struck up a deal with China Telecom. The details of the arrangement are not well known at the moment but we will keep you posted. Vhina Telecom is China’s third largest Telecom provider (number 1 and 2 are China Unicom and China Mobile)
Canada
Bell Canada has unveiled its IPTV offering. The all digital service will run over fiber optic lines and at the moment is only being deployed in Montreal and Toronto. A spokesman for Bell Canada said that the service could be in 5 Million homes by 2015
The product is called Fibe and uses the Microsoft Mediaroom platform.
As you know we are keeping an eye on the development of the cloud computing fad. The latest news is that Nimbula, a software company specializing in private Cloud infrastructure has raised another $15 Million in Venture Capitol money. The investors have probably been swayed by the fact that the company’s founders are two former Amazon executives; Chris Pinkham and Willem van Biljon. This brings the total investment to $20M, and you can develop a lot of software with $20M, especially when you consider that most of the internet software that have become killer apps and household names were developed by two guys, a hand built PC, 4 square feet of garage space and a crate of Jolt cola!
Following the FCC recent proposal for net neutrality regulation for both Wired and Wireless access, AT&T wasted no time sending yet another letter to the FCC. This time they are attacking Google. They claim that Google’s services should be regulated, and as part of a larger argument they insist that other Internet providers should also be regulated in the same way as traditional telephone companies.
What does Google have to say about this?
Google Voice, they point out, is not subject to the same rules put on traditional phone companies because subscribers only can use it if they have conventional phone service. The FCC’s recent proposal applies only to broadband providers, not internet applications.
This is of course true, but AT&T is still asking the FCC to intervene and penalize their competition – even though the FCC has no authority to do so. Someone should probably call AT&T and explain this to them.
Comcast Corp. spent $3.82 million lobbying lawmakers and regulators during the second quarter of this year in order to sway them in support for its plans to buy 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co
Many Consumer groups do not support this move but never the less, the deal for controlling interest of the broadcasting giant is still expected to close before the end of the year.
This has been a busy lobbying season for Comcasr as they have also been very active in pushing their version of the net nutruality debate.
Internet video is huge. It promises to rival VoIP in usage. The Nielson Company reports that globally 70% of internet users watch video on line. Now keep in mind that this could be anything from a low resolution YouTube thumbnail to a Streaming Blue Ray Netflix feature film, but with 22% reporting that they either own or plan to purchase within one year an Internet enabled TV, it’s not hard to see where this is going. TV over the internet is growing faster than the conventional video delivery model.
Now the Broadband service providers are in a bit of a quandary because of this. Video is very bandwidth hungry, and for a service provider it represents a huge usage demand on their networks. This is great for the Media companies and the providers of content because they soak up all the revenue dollars for providing content, but how does the Service provider get a piece of this action?
Well that’s easy, they simply position themselves to deliver not only internet access but also voice (phone service) and video (TV) packages. Look at the AT&T U-Verse, Comcast Triple play, Verizon’s FiOS and Time Warner’s, bundled product. Having carved up the US geography between them selves, these mega companies are quite happy, but risk lost revenues as more and more people move over to IPTV and V0IP from independent sources. So how do they prevent this?
Enter the net neutrality debate. THey have invested hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to get Net Neutrality laws passed (which in fact are anything but nutrual)
These Companies are attempting to become Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won’t load at all. The theory being that if you don’t subscribe to their packages, Skype and Netflix traffic will be throttled back to degrade the service.They can even promote their own search engines the same way.
Perhaps http://www.savetheinternet.com/resources puts it best
“These companies have a new vision for the Internet. Instead of a level playing field, they want to reserve express lanes for their own content and services — or those of big corporations that can afford the steep tolls — and leave the rest of us on a winding dirt road.”
So yesterday, a 5 member panel of the FCC handed down their so called net neutrality ruling from upon high, and this morning supporters of a free and open internet are mourning their loss.
December 22, 2010 10:28 pm | 
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