Grant Guidelines and Old Man Winter

By Bruce

Yesterday the Agriculture and Commerce departments released guidelines for receiving a portion of the $7.2 billion set aside for high-speed Internet expansion in the federal stimulus. From July 14 to August 14, private companies, non-profits, and state and local governments can apply, with the winners expected to be announced in November.

Covered in the guidelines is the required speed of at least 768 kilobits/second downstream and 200 kilobits/second upstream. Underserved areas are defined as having no more than 50% broadband penetration in households.

While any progress is good progress when it comes to bringing high-speed Internet to more Americans, the timing of the grant awarding means that many projects—especially those in the northeast—could be delayed until the ground has thawed enough for trenches to be dug. This, unfortunately, might slow job creation, which was one of the major goals of the stimulus plan.

The Deepest Digital Divide

By Brad

As America works towards bringing high-speed Internet access to every doorstep, a new report from TeleGeography (via Ars Technica) finds the digital divide is far deeper around the world. Looking at Internet penetration in 127 countries, the study finds only 10 countries have broadband penetration over 80%, while 64 countries are well under 20%.

Then there’s this sobering fact:

“Broadband represents the most extreme example in the gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’,“ said TeleGeography Executive Director John Dinsdale. “Less than 2 percent of African households have broadband compared with 68 percent of North American homes.“

Talking About a National Broadband Plan

By Brad

While the deadline for comments on the national broadband plan has been extended to July 12, new FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has announced that won’t be the end of the discussion. In fact, public meetings are being planned across the country—and, fittingly, online—up until the final plan is presented to Congress on February 17, 2010.

Online Crime &  Punishment

By Brad

A hacker from Boston has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for his online shenanigans. Reports eWeek:

Matthew Weigman, 19, also known as “Little Hacker,“ was accused of being part of a gang of telephone hackers that made more than 60 fake emergency calls and broke into the phone network to make it appear as though the calls came from somewhere else.

Weigman pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, victim or informant as well as one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud. According to Wired, which has interviewed Weigman in the past about his activities, the FBI had been chasing the hacker since he was 15, and at times treated him as an informant. As part of his plea, he admitted to conspiring with other hackers to place bogus emergency calls that sent SWAT units to the homes of their unsuspecting victims.

Curious footnote: Weigman is blind.

Keeping Tabs on IT

By Brad

The Washington Post reports on a new government website:

Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, on Tuesday announced a new Web site designed to track more than $70 billion in government information technology spending, showing all contracts held by major firms within every agency.

The revamped site, USAspending.gov, was launched early this morning, and Kundra unveiled it at the Personal Democracy Forum conference on technology and politics. The site shows detailed information about whether IT contracts are being monitored and budgets being met.

The new website is the product of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which required the government to provide a searchable website detailing every Federal award.

The New House Calls

By Brad

Via Wall Street Journal, a look at the rise in online doctor-patient consultations:

This year, 39% of doctors said they’d communicated with patients online, up from just 16% five years earlier, according to health-information firm Manhattan Research, a unit of Decision Resources Inc. So far, the most common digital doctor services are the simplest ones, like paying bills, sending lab results and scheduling appointments.

The number of patients offering online consultations is still small, but it’s expected to grow steadily, especially as more and more insurance companies start covering online consultations.

More information online health care is available in the IIA Broadband Fact Book.

You Can’t Keep Spam Down

By Bruce

Google has released its quarterly spam report, and for those of us—as in, all of us—who hate sifting through annoying pitches and messages and in our inboxes, the news isn’t encouraging. According to the report, spam levels were up 53% in the second quarter, with the much-welcome 70% in the wake of last November’s shutdown of the malicious McColo ISP now a distant memory.

Meanwhile, a separate report from Symantec’s MessageLabs finds that over 80 percent of spam is originally sent by non-human botnets.

Broadband Benefit Tour

By Brad

With $7.2 billion in federal dollars earmarked for broadband expansion in rural and underserved areas, members of the Obama administration are hitting the road to tout the benefits of being wired.

Today Vice-President Joe Biden is making stops in northwestern Pennsylvania, while Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is in Cleveland.

IIA Video: The Impact of Broadband

By IIA

At our recent Broadband Symposium, NBA all-star Chris Bosh talked about how broadband has impacted his life, his career, and the Chris Bosh Foundation.

America’s “Bandwidth Boom”

By Brad

Bret Swanson of Entropy Economics (he’s also an IIA Broadband Ambassador) has released a new report on America’s communications capacity, specifically the rise of bandwidth between 2000 and 2008. And despite the doom and gloom often accompanying reports on our country’s rank in worldwide broadband penetration, Swanson finds that we’ve actually experienced a boom. From the report:

Moore’s law, combined with smarter regulatory policies and big infrastructure investments, yielded dramatic gains in consumer bandwidth over the last decade. Over the eight-year period:

• Total residential bandwidth grew 54x.

• Total wireless bandwidth grew 542x.

• Total consumer bandwidth grew 91x.

• Residential bandwidth per capita grew 50x.

• Wireless bandwidth per capita grew 499x.

• Total consumer bandwidth per capita grew 84x, for a compound annual growth rate of 74%.

The report credits heavy investment in America’s digital infrastructure as key to this explosion in bandwidth. In 2008 alone, $455 billion was poured into communications and technology investments, and between 2000 and 2008 the number totals over $3.5 trillion.

Still, while the number are impressive, Swanson’s report cautions that investment must continue in order to keep up with demand:

[B]andwith must grow if we (1) merely want to accommodate the bandwidth-hungry applications already in the pipeline; and, crucially, (2) want new generations of unpredictable innovations in software, services, applications, and devices that all use bandwidth as a key resource.

Given the effect new innovations such as the iPhone are already having on overall Internet traffic, it’s hard to argue against Swanson’s point.

Check out Swanson’s full report, “Bandwidth Boom: Measuring U.S. Communications Capacity from 2000 to 2008 (pdf).