03/15/2010 04:13 PM

Monday Evening Links -

FCC Suggests Federal Approach To Taxing Online Digital Goods, Services multichannel.com
Apple details iPad 3G pricing gauge fiercewireless.com
Judge Rules P2P Legal In Spain Yet Again techdirt.com
AT&T wants to give muni-WiFi network back to Riverside, Calif. fiercebroadbandwireless.com
Member of Canadian Parliament Set To Propose Canadian MP3 Player Tax billboard.biz
No Quick Fix for Telcos, Says Ovum cable360.net
Canada seeing 'failure' on digital strategy cbc.ca
AirWalk Preps LTE Picocell Proto for CTIA lightreading.com
EMC stuns analysts and colleagues with storage pool plan theregister.co.uk
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03/15/2010 02:23 PM

'Lawn Fridges' Attack UK Lawns - Residents overseas don't much like them either...

AT&T's decision to stick with copper VDSL instead of running fiber has more drawbacks than just limiting the bandwidth the telco can offer consumers. Unlike FTTH, VDSL requires the placement of occasional VRAD cabinets, which have caused a number of communities to complain about how the ugly "lawn fridges" reduce property value. Comcast has even run advertising attacking the boxes, and AT&T's been working on deploying smaller cabinets. With British Telecom in the UK now pursuing the VDSL angle as well, we're now seeing the same kind of debate spring up across the pond:

A FURIOUS resident on Wednesday refused to allow a new superfast broadband box to be put up outside his St Albans home. He is one of a number of local residents who feel so strongly about the boxes which are being put up all over the district that they are taking the law into their own hands. Guiseppe Giubba of The Ridgeway, St Albans, was so incensed when workmen turned up to install one of the six ft by four ft boxes that he refused to allow them to fit it.

Here in the States, AT&T has been offering three options to communities annoyed by the boxes. the first has AT&T doing the landscaping; the second involves AT&T paying $2000 per site if it's mutually agreed that landscaping is necessary (the City does the work); the third has AT&T paying $1500 per site regardless if landscaping is necessary.
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03/15/2010 10:53 AM

FCC Gives Final Sales Pitch For Broadband Plan - While saving all the actual details for Tuesday morning...

Our first ever national broadband plan gets unveiled tomorrow, and while we've covered a lot of the leaked details about the plan -- the real specifics have yet to be unearthed. The FCC has been very busy the last few weeks selling this plan without getting too specific -- and the agency continued that trend today with a broadband plan preview (pdf). We've stored a copy of the FCC's full plan executive summary here (pdf) for those interested. The preview again repeats the FCC's goals -- most of which have been already unveiled during various FCC interviews or editorials over the last few weeks:

Above all else, the
plan is a call to action to meet that challenge for our era.

-FCC broadband plan architect Blair Levin

• "Connect 100 million households to affordable 100-megabits-per-second service."

This is repeatedly cited as the "cornerstone" of the FCC's proposal, though the goal is something we've noted could happen organically over the next ten years without the FCC's involvement, largely thanks to Verizon FiOS and DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades (cable passes 125 million homes, most of which can be easily upgraded). This goal is, frankly, show business.

• "Affordable access in every American community to ultra-high-speed broadband of at least 1 gigabit per second at anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals, and military installations."

While projects like Internet 2 already fuel a lot of institutions -- the FCC isn't clear on how they hope to bring these speeds to smaller community buildings and universities. While taxpayers have poured $25 billion into the Universal Service Fund (USF) since it was created in 1998, recent data from the American Library Association indicates that more than 60% of U.S. libraries lack adequate bandwidth to serve visitors. The FCC plan will be revamping the USF, but the USF is very broken, and specifically how the FCC hopes to fix it has yet to be made clear. More on that below.

• "Ensure that the United States is leading the world in mobile innovation by making 500 megahertz of spectrum newly available for licensed and unlicensed use."

The (debate over the national broadband plan) went online with 131 blogposts that triggered 1,489 comments; 181 ideas on IdeaScale garnering 6,100 votes; 69,500 views on YouTube; and 335,000 Twitter followers.

-The FCC

Again, details are murky, however. After a few early debunked rumors that the agency would be forcefully grabbing spectrum from broadcasters to give it to 4G operators (read Sprint, AT&T and Verizon), The agency has only so far proposed a plan that involves broadcasters voluntarily giving up spectrum so it can be auctioned off -- and most broadcasters aren't interested. There's no word on reform that would prevent incumbent operators from dominating said auctions, either.

• "Move our adoption rates from roughly 65 percent to more than 90 percent and make sure that every child in America is digitally literate by the time he or she leaves high school."

The most "feel good" of the FCC's agenda items. The majority of this goal will involve "digital literacy" efforts aimed at informing the public about the benefits of broadband. Though as we've noted -- some of these are little more than taxpayer-funded industry equivalents of the dairy industry's "got milk?" campaign. Recent FCC data indicates that 22% of the nation's 100 million non-broadband adopters say they either don't have the skills to use broadband, or are afraid of the dangers of going online. The FCC figures one way to shore up our adoption numbers quickly without really doing much is simply through industry-driven "digital education" campaigns.

• "Bring affordable broadband to rural communities, schools, libraries, and vulnerable populations by transitioning existing Universal Service Fund support from yesterday s analog technologies to tomorrow s digital infrastructure."

We've heard from numerous sources that the plan will employ a new USF fee levied on all broadband users and used to fund rural expansion, but it's not clear yet how much that's going to be. Estimates have pegged the new charge at $1 per user, though it could be higher once the check comes due. Given the USF's history of poor FCC oversight, the specifics behind the USF reform being planned will be very important (and will probably require a legal degree and 20 years in the sector to fully understand). We will again repeat that AT&T and Verizon have spent much of the last two years lobbying for the kind of USF "reform" that gives less money to small companies, and more money to them -- so draw your own conclusions tomorrow with the final product.

• "Promote competition across the broadband ecosystem by ensuring greater transparency, removing barriers to entry, and conducting market-based analysis with quality data on price, speed, and availability."

As we know some at the FCC are tired of hearing us repeat, while the plan continually makes reference to helping push "affordable" service into communities, early leaks indicate there's no part of the plan that really addresses limited competition in many communities (the primary reason prices are high). The agency has made it very clear that the plan shouldn't really rattle the status quo, and that the agency isn't willing to stand up to incumbent carriers on major competitive issues. A Harvard researcher responsible for a recent FCC-commissioned study that found open access was one solution puts it this way:

"Either you are willing to take the step to get to more competition, or you are engaged in cosmetics."

Barring some last-minute shocker, all indications are that the FCC's solution for competition is very heavy mascara. The "transparency" efforts the agency mentions may include requiring ISPs to no longer advertise "up to" speeds -- but to advertise the connection's median provisioned speed. But transparency itself isn't a magic bullet to help competition. Meanwhile, the $350 million effort to map U.S. broadband spearheaded by the NTIA has been lobbied into paste by major carriers, who won't have to share public data on regional price. That means no publicly-verifiable information on competition -- so...

• "Enhance the safety of the American people by providing every first responder with access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable public safety network."

Given the fairly easy political support for an emergency network that functions outside and beyond the often regionally-congested existing networks, this has been one of the less controversial aspects of the agency's plan. At least until bidding and project building time comes around and the check comes due. The FCC pegs the emergency network's price tag at $6.5 billion just to build, though how this will be fully funded and how the bidding and building process operates have not yet been made clear.

-------

If you're thinking this all sounds well and good but lacks substance -- you'd be right. The primary goal in this preview is to sell the plan to the bailout-weary public, carriers, the press, and to Congress. The FCC tries to appease the public and Congress by proclaiming the plan accomplishes a lot by spending very little. The FCC tries to appease carriers by proclaiming the plan is only aimed at improving government efficiency and "encouraging private activity." From the FCC's executive summary:

Given the plan's goal of freeing 500MHz of spectrum, future wireless auctions mean the overall plan will be revenue neutral, if not revenue positive. The vast majority of recommendations do not require new government funding; rather, they seek to drive improvements in government efficiency, streamline processes and encourage private activity to promote consumer welfare and national priorities.

What the plan really does won't be made clear until the full plan is not only released, but we've all had time to read it. The devil, as usual in DC telecom policy, will be in the finest of details -- and we should finally be getting some tomorrow.
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03/15/2010 08:52 AM

One Wireless Broadband Plan For All Your Devices - One plan to rule them all and in the darkness bind them?

Earlier this month we noted how even AT&T admitted that there's not going to be a lot of users willing to shell out an additional $15 to $30 for the bandwidth to fuel the iPad. Especially when you consider many of those users are already shelling out $100 a month for a smartphone voice, SMS and data plan -- on top of whatever they're paying for their home broadband connection. We also noted that with a flurry of tablets, e-readers and other gizmos hitting the market, it seems time for wireless carriers to offer one plan to connect all your devices. Gizmodo apparently agrees:

Imagine a model in which people buy total access to a wireless network, whether it be on a contract or month-by-month basis. Once you've paid for your "unlimited" data connection a word which wireless providers are already comfortable throwing around in relation to single devices you can connect all of your devices to it, be they smartphones, computers, tablets or really, whatever. It's data sold on a per-person basis, instead of a per-device basis.

Good idea! The problem, as we've been saying, is that wireless carriers are worried about a decline in SMS and voice minute revenues in the face of smartphones, push IM clients, and mobile VoIP. As such, they're looking to make more money off of wireless data -- not less- and are busily jacking up ETFs, making data plans mandatory for all phones, while busily dreaming of more expensive pricing models. With carriers looking to make more money, it seems unlikely they'd be willing to offer an all-device inclusive plan.

Perhaps some of the prepaid operators can beat them to the punch?
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03/15/2010 08:11 AM

Verizon Pretends They've Not Been Blocking Broadband Mapping - Elvis killed JFK, and Verizon loves transparent, verifiable broadband data

Last week, John Dunbar, a project director of American University s The Investigative Reporting Workshop, issued an interesting report highlighting how companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying to ensure that the public doesn't get an accurate portrayal of U.S. broadband. Despite the fact that taxpayers are poised to spend $350 million to finally map U.S. broadband, the report notes that companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have successfully lobbied to make sure that data won't include pesky things like price:

The entire premise of this conspiracy theory is inaccurate, fabricated and just plain silly."

-Verizon, talking about their history of blocking accurate broadband mapping efforts.

The government is spending up to $350 million of taxpayer money to create a map that will show where there is high-speed Internet service in the United States and where there is not. Despite the large expenditure of taxpayer funds, it will display no information on price or subscriber numbers. Internet connection speeds will be averaged over an entire metropolitan area and an as-yet unknown portion of the data collected to make the map will be off-limits to the public.

Why don't companies like Verizon want accurate broadband data? Traditionally, carriers have argued that they fight the release of this data because of "competitive reasons." However, carriers spend millions annually on intelligence gathering, and know precisely where competitors offer service -- especially before investing (or not investing) in next-gen upgrades.

The real reason they fight accurate mapping is because the data would show limited competition and high prices across wide stretches of America. That could result in somebody actually doing something about it -- which would mean more competition, and reduced revenue. Accurate broadband data would also highlight how Verizon has essentially hung up on huge swaths of rural America, and have been letting last-generation infrastructure fall apart in a significant number of less-desirable states.

We've been covering for the better part of the decade how Verizon has been fighting people in court who've tried to obtain accurate, independently verifiable broadband data. Verizon has funded an endless litany of think tanks, lobbyists and hired PR guns, all paid to discredit any organization or individual who'd argue that U.S. broadband isn't a shining beacon of competition and prosperity. We've also talked a lot about Connected Nation, a group consumer advocates believe is a carrier-created lobbying vessel aimed primarily at keeping carrier under carrier control. The truth is fairly-well documented.

Despite ample evidence (like courtroom records) that Verizon in no way wants accurate broadband data that could highlight market and deployment failures, Verizon informs Dunbar (and the Washington Post) that this is all simply a "conspiracy theory":

"The entire premise of this conspiracy theory is inaccurate, fabricated and just plain silly," David Fish, a spokesman for Verizon Communications Inc., said.

Verizon's lobbyists and PR folk have a nasty habit of ignoring the fact the carrier has chosen to hang up on roughly half of their customers. Verizon's FiOS deployment has been all but halted, and the company is focusing on selling off millions of DSL users to companies in complicated financial deals that haven't worked out well for consumers. This transformation involves laying off tens of thousands of employees -- who we imagine will tell you this is all very real.

Meanwhile, their lobbying efforts have resulted in a broadband mapping plan that omits important data (like price), and a national broadband plan (to be unveiled tomorrow) that doesn't address competition (or the resulting high prices). There's really no "theory" about it.
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03/15/2010 06:27 AM

Remember Zer01? They've Mysteriously Disappeared - Is 'Global Mobile 1' Buzzkirk's effort at a rebranding?

Last summer we skeptically directed your attention to a carrier by the name of Zero1, which was promising users unlimited voice and data on smart phones for $69.95/month, without a contract. The service claimed to use a VoIP application to route all calls. According to the founders, the service tunneled over GSM networks, though Zero1 claimed to have their own IP network -- and claimed to be using interconnect (roaming) agreements to make calls. In short, Zer01 was supposed to be a mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE).

The problem? People started to dig into the operator and notice that it had the light fishy smell of an MLM or pyramid scheme. The company's apparently "floating" headquarters, the lack of product beyond a shiny GUI, and the shady business practices of a few executive partners left most in the telecom press with a bad taste in their mouth. The more people dug into the specifics behind the company, the more people began to notice they quite often made no technical sense.

It was entertaining to see some in the press develop their critical thinking skills and skepticism in hindsight. Laptop Magazine, which was originally so smitten with the unlaunched vaporware they gave them a CTIA award, was ultimately forced to acknowledge the problems and took the award back. According to the magazine, the award was pulled "because of serious ethical questions that have arisen about the company." The award remained prominently featured on Zer01's website.

That was, until last week. Glenn Fleishman directs our attention to the fact that Zer01's website has gone mysteriously offline, and now just redirects to Google.com. The company, which was quick to blame business partners for its problems and threatened to sue news outlets that spoke poorly of them -- aren't responding to requests for comment. Perhaps the company's seemingly-endless throngs of MLM spammers (who flooded every news story Internet wide defending the company) would like to comment?

Update: One user directs our attention to the fact that Buzzkirk Mobile and other partners may have decided to rebrand Zer01 in order to escape some of the recent criticism. We're starting to see some familiar MLM spammers pop up in our forums trying to generate interest in a new carrier by the name of Global Mobile 1 by Buzzkirk Mobile.
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03/15/2010 06:08 AM

Video Relay Scammer Bilked FCC Out Of Millions - Service for the deaf continues to be a home for scammers...

Back in 2004 we explored how IP Relay services used by the hearing impaired have long been abused by both scammers and pranksters. Major carriers haven't done a lot about the abuse -- given they get paid per minute by the FCC for carrying the service traffic. As IP relay has evolved into broadband-powered video relay services for the hearing impaired -- the scams have of course lingered, and The Hill notes how the the FCC's Video Relay Service program of more than $2.5 million, according to the Justice Department:

The former employees of two video relay service companies pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to defraud the FCC's Video Relay Service program of more than $2.5 million, according to the Justice Department. . . Three defendants admitted they "conspired with others to pay individuals to make fraudulent phone calls and to process fraudulent phone calls that were billed to the FCC" through video relay service company Viable Communications, based in Rockville, Md.

The money, which you pay into via your USF fee, gets doled out to carriers to the tune of $6.50 per minute, or $390 per hour. As the FCC looks to reform the USF, hopefully they give IP relay and video relay services a much-needed look. Specifically -- what exactly allows these scammers to abuse these services without either the FCC or the multitude of inter-connected telecom participants -- apparently ever noticing.
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03/15/2010 05:19 AM

Monday Morning Links -

Clearwire's Big Bet on Our Broadband Addiction businessweek.com
Mobile-Phone Companies May Be Winners in U.S. Broadband Plan bloomberg.com
Prepaid wireless market hot in U.S. during recession computerworld.com
Hollywood Howard Berman To Introduce 'Internet Freedom' Bill techdirt.com
Venezuela Next Up To Try To Censor The Internet techdirt.com
Nominet to release super-short domain names theregister.co.uk
Lenovo sees mobile as a money maker fiercewireless.com
.com celebrates 25th birthday theregister.co.uk

03/12/2010 06:38 PM

Podcast for March 2010

03/12/2010 04:45 PM

Friday Evening Links -

RCN Metro to build Mass. broadband backbone cedmagazine.com
Ranking Republican on the House Communications Subcommittee Wants Answers on Cost of FCC Broadband Plan multichannel.com
NCTA Outlines Seven Consumer Principles For FCC multichannel.com
MPAA Brags About How Awesome The Movie Business Is; Right After It Claims File Sharing Is Destroying The Industry techdirt.com
iPad Kindle fighting tech and data limit warning revealed electricpig.co.uk
Broadband for All - America's Best Weapon of Mass Connection huffingtonpost.com
BT bundles voice, broadband and TV for first time zdnet.co.uk
Sprint Picks Up ESPN Mobile TV multichannel.com
Trojan armed with hardware-based anti-piracy control theregister.co.uk
Safari update cages numerous security bugs theregister.co.uk
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03/12/2010 04:38 PM

Weekend Open Thread - Have something to say?

The weekend has arrived, and we're heading back to our recharging station. Do us a favor and talk amongst yourselves in the comment section below until we come back to get you.
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03/12/2010 01:52 PM

Qwest Listens, Partially Drops 'Convenience Fee' - You'll no longer have to pay Qwest -- to pay Qwest.

Last month we reported that Qwest had joined a relatively new trend among broadband carriers: making users pay Qwest -- so they can pay Qwest. The company recently implemented a new $4 fee for users who want to pay their Qwest bill by phone, and a new $1 bill for those who'd like to pay their Qwest bill via credit card at the official Qwest website. As this thread in our forums attests, the majority of users weren't particularly impressed with the new surcharge. According to a new post in our forums, users are being told that Qwest is going to drop the fee, presumably after consumer and media backlash:

Thank you again for you taking the time to write to us about the payment convenience fee. We listened to your feedback, and effective immediately have stopped charging a convenience fee on self service payment options for payments made through our online and automated telephone response system. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve you.

Broadband Reports confirmed the change with Qwest. "Yes, there are no longer fees associated with one-time payments made via the phone using only our automated voice system -- those that do not involve a live agent at any point -- and one-time payments made on qwest.com," Qwest spokesperson Monica Martinez tells Broadband Reports. "There is still a $4 convenience fee for payments made via phone with a live agent," notes Martinez.

It's nice to see Qwest respond to criticism and consumer concerns, even if the convenience charge for speaking to a live human being remains intact. Such fees are something that's increasingly common among several carriers, including AT&T and Sprint. It's one of several ways carriers take the regular cost of doing business and add it via below the line fees, allowing companies to quietly impose rate hikes while keeping advertised prices the same.
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03/12/2010 12:05 PM

So, Is This Where Verizon's FiOS Deployment Ends? - 50% served. Hopefully you got FiOS during the first deployment wave...

Verizon's $23 billion investment into fiber to the home was frankly a bold and brilliant decision, spearheaded by CEO Ivan Seidenberg. Seidenberg understood that he needed to look past the myopic, short-term fears of investors and pour some serious money back into the network if Verizon truly wanted to be considered a next-generation broadband company over the next several decades. Because of that, a significant chunk of Verizon's network is now capable of providing 100 Mbps last mile residential connections -- and beyond. That said, we've always wondered where Verizon's investment would end.

Lately we've been getting some answers to that question. Verizon's investment in fiber ends right outside of cities like Baltimore, Maryland or Alexandria, Virginia. According to Verizon, the company is taking a contemplative pause to focus on marketing the service to areas that are already deployed.

But according to long-time industry analyst Dave Burstein, Verizon's essentially cutting and running on additional deployment plans, leaving a very large chunk of their footprint on last-generation DSL and copper-based voice networks.

Burstein tells Broadband Reports that he doesn't see Verizon expanding any further (with the exception of major cities where they've signed franchise agreements) unless they get money from Uncle Sam (aka, taxpayers). "They want to get on the gravy train, although I think the new, less competitive leadership is the primary explanation," says Burstein when asked why Verizon's shifting tactics. Seidenberg, the driving force behind the first wave of FiOS, is on his way out -- and his replacements aren't quite as bullish on angering investors for the sake of this whole "future" thing.

Verizon's FiOS fact sheet states their FiOS build "passes" (and that means fiber gets close to, but doesn't always necessarily serve) 15.4 million customers, or roughly 48 percent of total Verizon households. Considering the nebulous use of the word "pass," the actual number of Verizon homes capable of getting FiOS could be considerably less. "They've been talking for years about going to 75-80%, and they just threw that out," Burstein says. In his latest industry newsletter, he notes how the city of Alexandria was actually previously on Verizon's install agenda, having been told construction would begin several months ago.

Verizon has buildout commitments to New York and other cities that will keep some crews working, but had already suggested they might cut FiOS builds by 2/3rds in 2011. This is now a further cutback, canceling areas that for years they had been promising to serve. Verizon's Harry Mitchell sends their perspective. "The bottom line is that Verizon said in 2004 we d build to pass about 18 million homes by year-end 2010, and we re on track to do that with the franchises we currently have. Of course, we will also meet any buildout commitments we made in individual jurisdictions beyond 2010."

People in Philadelphia, Washington DC, or New York City (where Verizon has signed new franchise agreements) should still be seeing new FiOS deployments. In New York, Verizon's agreed to wire 100% of the city by 2014, but as with most of these agreements, there's ample fine print that gives Verizon the ability to wiggle out of obligations if they're not seeing the kind of video subscriber uptake they'd like. These city builds should push Verizon households covered past 50% or even to 60%, though that still leaves a lot of Verizon customers left un-upgraded. Verizon did not respond to a request for comment on what happens next.

Perhaps Burnstein is right and this is where the FiOS build ends. Though it's possible that Verizon wants to use LTE wireless service as their primary play for markets they don't believe are profitable enough for FiOS. If you're in more rural markets, or second and third tier cities, you may be waiting for a while if you're stuck on last-generation Verizon DSL. Given that many cable operators are only upgrading to faster DOCSIS 3.0 speeds if there's FiOS competition in their local market, that could be bad news on the next-generation broadband competition front for a significant number of markets.
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03/10/2010 09:45 PM

March 2010 Podcast is Scheduled

The March 2010 podcast is scheduled for Friday March 12 from 4PM to 5PM. Our guest this month will be Ken Sutton of Brigham.net, one of the newest providers on UTOPIA. Listen in online, join the chat room, and feel free to call in at any time at (347) 838-8025.

03/08/2010 01:18 PM

ConnectedLyfe Officially Launches as a New Triple-Play Provider on UTOPIA

Last month, I reported that ConnectedLyfe would be a new service provider on UTOPIA. Today, the press release is out to make that launch official. ConnectedLyfe has also updated their website with some details as to what they will be offering. It looks pretty run-of-the-mill as far as services and pricing, but this little tidbit [...]

03/04/2010 03:53 PM

"Huval: LUS Fiber 'well above' target"

03/04/2010 03:17 PM

"Cabling America: Fibre in paradise"

03/04/2010 05:40 PM

BREAKING: Gov. Herbert Supports a Google Partnership with UTOPIA

In what is another positive piece of news for UTOPIA, Utah Governor Gary Herbert issued a letter today urging Google to partner with UTOPIA. In his remarks, he referred to UTOPIA as “a good candidate to partner with Google” and praised both “successfully pursued models of deployment” and their “sustainable and reliable model” which has [...]

03/03/2010 04:22 PM

LUS and Deconsolidation...

03/02/2010 01:19 PM

Voonami Offering Virtual Desktop Service on UTOPIA

Voonami shot out a press release today announcing that they are now offering virtual desktops over UTOPIA. Basically, you have a remote desktop session on one of their servers with all of your data and applications which can then be accessed with almost any client. This is the holy grail of cloud services and is [...]

02/25/2010 10:14 PM

UTOPIA Signs Telesphere as a New Service Provider

You heard it here first: UTOPIA has signed a deal with Telesphere to offer business voice and data services. Telesphere specializes in hosted PBX solutions, a nice differentiation between traditional SIP trunks or ATAs sold by most other providers, and has additional presence in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Denver. These kinds of managed services are [...]

02/25/2010 04:25 AM

Cox: Costs too high for high-speed service

02/23/2010 07:50 PM

Dispelling the Rumors: Prime Time Isnât Going Under

I’ve had several people now express concern over recent bankruptcy filings in other states by Prime Time Communications. More than a few people seem to be dedicated to fear-mongering that the entire company is about to fold. Unfortunately for the rumor mill, that’s entirely untrue. Here’s what’s really happening. When a construction company starts a new [...]

02/23/2010 06:32 PM

UEN Awarded $13.4M in Stimulus Money

Utah hasn’t been doing so well in receiving money under the broadband stimulus, but it looks like UEN just scored a winner. According to MuniWireless, UEN will get $13.4M under BTOP to run fiber to 130 elementary schools. So far, it doesn’t look like anyone else in Utah has gotten money under Round 1.

02/19/2010 06:24 PM

Want to attend NAB2010 in Las Vegas? Readers can go for free

I’m very excited to announce a special deal for blog readers: admittance to NAB2010 for nothing at all. The National Association of Broadcasters holds an annual convention in Las Vegas to showcase all of the latest and greatest in content production and distribution for television and film. This year, they have an exhibit area on [...]

02/19/2010 05:08 AM

LUS/Lafayette to apply for more stimulus funds

02/18/2010 03:01 PM

The Forum is Down Until Further Notice

I noticed that the forum wasn’t working properly earlier today. Both the RSS feeds and permalinks were broken without notice. An attempted upgrade to a newer version of bbPress did not resolve it (and, in fact, made the problem worse). I’ll let you know when it’s working again.

02/14/2010 10:53 AM

"LUS: Fiber on right track"

02/13/2010 08:05 AM

Regional Fiber UltraBroadband Network in Lousiana?

02/12/2010 08:54 AM

Wi-Fi, Buses, and Student Productivity

02/11/2010 04:51 PM

Google Hires Baller for I Gig Job

02/10/2010 12:45 PM

Google To Fund 1 Gig FTTH!

02/09/2010 03:44 AM

Fiber, FÃªte and Florida

02/07/2010 07:03 PM

"LUS: Fiber schedule, meetings, software and more

02/02/2010 06:28 PM

LUS wins rate increase, smart grid

02/02/2010 03:55 AM

LUS Fiber - SaintsReport Community Forums

01/28/2010 06:36 AM

The Bad: St. Mary council demands Internet, cable service for all

01/27/2010 05:35 PM

The Good: Fiber To The Home...in Morehouse Parish

01/20/2010 04:01 PM

Acadiana "Program aiming at tech gap"

01/15/2010 04:42 AM

WBS: "LUS Fiber: Already running a network"

01/12/2010 05:06 PM

"Dore clarifies position on LUS rate hike"

01/07/2010 05:34 PM

LUS rate hike returns

01/07/2010 04:04 PM

"Municipal fiber needs more FDR localism, fewer state bans"

12/20/2009 04:13 AM

Getting His Fiber

12/18/2009 11:16 AM

"LUS sacks Cox with Saints vs. Cowboys game"

12/14/2009 06:26 PM

On "Broadband is not a Utility"

12/03/2009 05:51 PM

FUD..It's the same all over

11/02/2009 04:45 AM

Fiber Cable Products - Fibre Patch Cables, Fibre Trunk Cables

All our fibers cables are made to meet EIA/TIA standards and in fact some network manufactures use our cables for performance testing. Our fiber cables come with a part & serial number at each end.

11/02/2009 04:45 AM

Gigamon GigaVUE-2404 Network Data Access Aggregation Tool

Data Access Aggregation Tool for 10G data center networks. Aggregates, replicates & filters traffic flows across multiple passive monitoring tools.

11/02/2009 04:44 AM

Dual Bi-Directional WAN Emulation & Network Simulation

Gigabit WAN emulation and network simulation. Network emulator accommodates the following IP interfaces: 10/100 Ethernet, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet T1, E1, DS3, OC3, and OC12. More...

11/02/2009 04:43 AM

Storage Emulation for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Fibre Channel and SAS

The industryâs most advanced storage emulation solutions for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Fibre Channel & SAS. Highly configurable systems have unique ability to emulate actual storage devices.

11/02/2009 04:42 AM

Gigabit Network Access TAP System

Network TAPs, Fibre TAPs, Copper TAPs, Aggregation TAPs - The 2U High Density Chassis provides the high density of TAPs and the configurable flexibility you need in an enterprise Access Solution.

11/02/2009 04:42 AM

Gigamon GigaVUE-420 Network Access Aggregation Data Access Tool

A cost effective way to secure/monitor data centers. Network Engineers who have problems of multiple network segments to monitor, many tools to deploy, too few SPAN ports/TAPs can solve these issues.

11/02/2009 04:41 AM

NextGig Systems, Inc.

NextGigSystems.com provides industry leading network connectivity, monitoring and test solutions for IT professionals and storage development engineers.

11/01/2009 05:00 PM

Free Testing FCoE Designs Webinar Series

Course: 20 Oct 2009 - 3 Nov 2009, Web Based All Are Welcome, United States.

09/15/2009 01:13 AM

4 Channels BNC To Fiber Video Converter

09/15/2009 01:12 AM

8 Channels BNC To Fiber Media Converter

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