Dear FCC…

By Bruce

IIA has submitted its feedback to the FCC on the National Broadband Strategy. Below are some highlights.

Regarding the state of broadband access in America:

A large number of first-round comments to the Commission started from the premise that broadband in America is an unmitigated failure. We disagree. In roughly one decade our nation has gone from practically no broadband deployment or adoption to roughly 90% availability and 50% adoption. This is an astounding accomplishment. Indeed the Orszag Report found broadband usage in 2008 (66.6 million households) nearly six times that in 2001 (10.4 million households). Cross-platform competition continues to grow between wire line, wireless and cable offerings, with promising new technologies such as broadband over power lines emerging. Market players invest roughly $60 - $80 billion annually in infrastructure upgrade and expansion of footprints, with an even more robust and competitive market for online applications.

As for what the commission’s next steps should be:

Despite the thousands of pages of comments and years worth of reports, there is still plenty that we do not know. Through the broadband mapping, FCC surveys, upcoming Census Bureau efforts and private efforts such as Pew, we will continue to learn much more precise information about where broadband is and is not and who is adopting and who is not (and why). Preliminary actions should therefore focus first on what we do know.

We know roughly 10 million households have no broadband choices. As has been noted previously, the vast majority of Americans with no option for broadband Internet are those living in rural areas, where sparse population density and difficult terrain inhibit private investment. Initial efforts and investment by the government should address these market failures, catalyzing investment in unserved communities where private returns would not justify it. Societal returns from ubiquitous connectivity warrant some measure of public investment, though specific investments must always be weighed against alternatives for reaching other unserved users (such as digital literacy programs in urban centers).

We also know roughly 40 percent of households choose not to invest in broadband. They fail to see the value despite compellingly low connection costs, especially now in tough economic times.  That suggests the need for government efforts to promote digital literacy, lead by example in broadband-enabling government applications and educate consumers about the benefits and possibilities enabled by broadband Internet usage.

Read IIA’s full reply to the FCC (pdf).

More News From the FCC

By Brad

Having originally set the deadline of July 7, the FCC has extended the window for commenting on its national broadband plan until July 21.

You can weigh in yourself at the commission’s website.

Symposium Overview

By IIA

The Internet Innovation Alliance held its biannual Symposium at the Newseum in Washington, DC on June 17, 2009. The Symposium, "Developing a National Broadband Strategy: Deployment, Adoption and the Stimulus," featured Governor Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and NBA All-Star and tech advocate Chris Bosh. For a full list of speakers and panelists, as well as event video, please visit IIA's Symposium webpage.

The Symposium highlighted the importance of broadband adoption, with two panels and three keynotes offering in-depth discussions regarding the barriers and benefits of adoption as well as policy recommendations.

Our first speaker, John Horrigan from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, gave an overview of Pew's latest study on broadband adoption. He highlighted the results of Pew's April 2009 survey, which shows that Americans are increasing their adoption of high-speed Internet despite the economic recession. For more information and to see full results of the study, please click here.

We had two panels devoted to broadband adoption; the first focused on reaching Americans in rural areas, and panelists discussed the economic implications of the broadband stimulus, the need for widespread broadband deployment and adoption to facilitate distance learning and eHealth initiatives. The second panel was devoted to making broadband affordable for all Americans, and panelists explored ways to get minority communities connected and increasing digital literacy. To watch video coverage of these panel discussions, please visit IIA's Symposium webpage.

IIA in the News

By IIA

Minnesota Farm Guide edition:

Broadband access can offer job opportunities, economic development and improved quality of life.

One group helping to lead efforts for universal broadband is the U.S. Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA).

Based in Washington, D.C., IIA is a non-profit organization guided by the principle that any family or business without broadband access is at a disadvantage to those who do have broadband.
 
“There is going to be a lot of talk about broadband in the next one or two years. An integral part of that discussion is what’s happening in rural America - how do we get up to the speed they need to lead a broadband life?” said Larry Irving, co-chair of the U.S. Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA).

Check out the full interview.

IIA in the News

By IIA

Two items to report. First up is an op-ed from IIA Co-Chairmen Bruce Mehlman and Larry Irving on Roll Call. It’s titled “Making Broadband Dollars Count: Maximizing Our Return on the Feds’ High-Speed Internet Investments,” and here’s a taste:

An effective national broadband strategy will enable the government to partner with the private sector to extend broadband service to every corner of the country, while at the same time raising awareness of its benefits. A national broadband strategy should also evolve as technologies improve and as we learn more from broadband mapping and from the return on initial stimulus investments. The best strategy will start by examining where we stand today and then identify policies to get us where we want to be.

Read the whole thing.

Elsewhere, Bruce Mehlman was interviewed by the Las Cruces Sun-News about the federal broadband stimulus:

“The stimulus money will be doled out in the form of competitive grants and loans. The overseeing agencies are expected to release application guidelines by the end of June.
“I think you’ll see applications by private competitors, by public interest nonprofits, and by government agencies at the state and local level,” said Bruce Mehlman, co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance.

The alliance, an organization that advocates the expansion of broadband connections, believes the majority of the money should go toward unserved areas rather than underserved.
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“It’s more of a triage than a like of one and dislike of the other. If you have limited stimulus dollars, someone with no connection at all has a clear problem, and an understandable solution,” Mehlman said.

Fixing issues in unserved regions is simpler than defining and troubleshooting problems in underserved regions, the alliance asserts.

“What’s underserved is subject to a debate that hasn’t yet happened,” Mehlman said.

Again, read the whole thing.

IIA Broadband Symposium—Live from the Newseum in Washington D.C.

By IIA

Video Broadcast Archive

Watch the IIA Broadband Symposium video from 5/17/09

Real Time Twitter Posts

This event is now concluded, archived Twitter posts are available below, and on the National Broadband Strategy Symposium page.

IIA Broadband Symposium is Tomorrow!

By IIA

The Internet Innovation Alliance presents its Biannual Symposium:

Developing a National Broadband Strategy: Deployment, Adoption and the Stimulus

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
8:45 a.m. - 2 p.m.
The Newseum, 8th Floor

Breakfast and lunch will be served
Please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The Symposium will:

• Examine the steps necessary to bring broadband access to unserved and rural communities
• Address issues of broadband demand and how content can be a driver of broadband adoption
• Discuss the future of broadband Internet, deployment of stimulus funds and impacts on minority and underserved communities

Featuring:

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin III

With panelists:

Sylvia Aguilera, Director, Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership
Becky Collins, Small Business Owner
Howie Hodges, SVP of Government Affairs, One Economy Corporation
John Horrigan, Associate Director, Research, Pew Internet and American Life Project
Craig Settles, Industry Analyst, President of Successful.com
Scott Wallsten, Senior Policy Fellow, Vice President for Research & Senior Fellow, Technology Policy Institute

For those who can’t attend, we’ll be live streaming the symposium right here. Check in tomorrow.

Getting the Full Benefits of Broadband

By Brad

In today’s edition of The Hill, Jason Brennan, a partner in Stream Strategies and an IIA Broadband Ambassador, has an op-ed on how it’s absolutely critical that the $7 billion in Federal funds set aside for broadband be used wisely:

Whether it’s in rural areas or big metro areas, the benefits of access to high-performance, affordable broadband to small businesses are often overlooked. Big businesses can count on multiple providers competing to offer them the best deal on broadband connections. Small businesses like mine don’t get that kind of built-in advantage, and yet small businesses have long been America’s prime engine of job growth.

That’s not about to change in the current economic climate, so the nation in general has a vested interest in seeing small businesses get the best broadband available. Broadband access is the potential great leveler.  It gives small businesses access to the sophisticated online services and data bases that let us compete with much bigger companies, not just in the U.S. but overseas as well. Competitiveness like that creates profits and jobs.

Read the whole thing.

Broadband & Healthcare

By Brad

Over at App-Rising, Geoff Daily offers his list of the “top ten applications for bettering healthcare through broadband.” Check it out.

Daily concludes his list with this word of caution:

In terms of what we need from next-generation broadband networks to enable all these applications to establish themselves and evolve the answers simple: we need everyone to have access to the best broadband. We need broadband networks with limitless capacity so as demands increase so can the supply needed to support them. We need broadband networks that we can rely on to always work. We need broadband networks with low latency to enable as close to real-time delivery as possible.

And while the benefits of next-generation broadband to how we administer medical care are profound, they’re only the tip of the iceberg.

As the Obama administration aims to reform health care and bring broadband to every person in America, the two issues can easily become one.

Counting Streams

By admin

Online video content has proved hard to fully track. YouTube has been especially tough to nail down, since Google traditionally keeps numbers quiet. Recently, ComScore released data stating YouTube streams total somewhere around 7 billion videos per month in the U.S. alone, or close to 225 million streams a day.

That’s a lot of video passing through the pipes. But according to TechCrunch, YouTube’s global streams are even more startling:

[T]he real number of streams/day, we’ve now confirmed with a source at Google, is above 1.2 billion/day worldwide. That matches what we’ve heard from other sources. That pretty much means everyone on the Internet, on average, is watching one YouTube video per day.

TechCrunch estimates that the total number of videos being streamed online around the world is now close to 80 billion a month. Think about that: 80 billion videos being streamed over networks each and every month. That’s 960 billion videos a year.

Those numbers aren’t going to go down; they are only going to increase. As the Federal government crafts a national broadband strategy, it is essential that they and we consider the Nets’ rapid evolution to a video platform.

NOI Hoedown

By Brad

Yesterday was the deadline for comment to the FCC on the federal broadband stimulus. IIA’s NOI entry is above. And PC Mag has a handy breakdown of entries from industry heavy hitters such as Google, Comcast, and AT&T.

“We’re All Americans”

By Brad

Today’s USA Today has an extensive article on the pressing need to connect rural America with broadband. Check it out.

Chatting with the C.T.O.

By Brad

The New York Times “Bits” blog landed an interview with new U.S. C.T.O. Aneesh Chopra. The full interview should be checked out, but this section is worth highlighting:

When I asked about his goals for the job, Mr. Chopra walked over to his desk and grabbed one page of what appeared from a distance to be a PowerPoint deck, which he described as “my ‘theory of the case’ document.” It listed Mr. Chopra’s four objectives, as presented recently to Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff. They were:

Economic growth through innovation
Addressing presidential priorities through innovation platforms
Building the next-generation digital infrastructure
Fostering a culture of open and innovative government

Yet more evidence that the Obama administration is serious about bringing broadband to every corner of America.

Save the Date: IIA Broadband Symposium

By IIA

The Internet Innovation Alliance presents its Biannual Symposium:

Developing a National Broadband Strategy: Deployment, Adoption and the Stimulus

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
8:45 a.m. - 2 p.m.
The Newseum, 8th Floor

Breakfast and lunch will be served
Please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The Symposium will:

• Examine the steps necessary to bring broadband access to unserved and rural communities
• Address issues of broadband demand and how content can be a driver of broadband adoption
• Discuss the future of broadband Internet, deployment of stimulus funds and impacts on minority and underserved communities

Featuring:

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin III

With panelists:

Sylvia Aguilera, Director, Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership
Becky Collins, Small Business Owner
Howie Hodges, SVP of Government Affairs, One Economy Corporation
John Horrigan, Associate Director, Research, Pew Internet and American Life Project
Craig Settles, Industry Analyst, President of Successful.com
Scott Wallsten, Senior Policy Fellow, Vice President for Research & Senior Fellow, Technology Policy Institute

Clues from Japan

By Brad

The BBC reports, Japan—once saddled with one of the slowest and most costly broadband networks in the world—has managed to dramatically turn things around:

Seeing the country fall behind dramatically in terms of fixed Internet use the government decided to act: the end result was a seriously fast fibre-based FTTH 1Gbps (gigabits per second) (fibre-to-the-home) network at one of the lowest price-per-megabits anywhere.

That means a film, for example, can be downloaded in the time it takes to make a cup of tea.

If it can be done there, it can be done here.

Taking it for a Spin

By Brad

For a national broadband strategy to be successful, there needs to be a demand for high-speed Internet. And, as Broadband Census reports, spurring that demand may begin in the country’s libraries:

Speaking at a forum at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Don Means, the co-founder and principal of Digital Village Associates, outlined his proposal to extend high-speed connectivity to all 16,500 libraries in the country.

Titled “Fiber to the Library: Next Generation Broadband for Next Generation Libraries,” the event was an upbeat assessment of the benefits of ensuring fiber-class connectivity to libraries.

Bringing fiber to the libraries, besides being the quickest, cheapest way to provide next generation broadband to next generation libraries, is also a good idea because it gives people experience with fiber-speed internet, Means said.

Encouraging Words

By Brad

Broadband Census points to a recent interview with Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps on C-Span. During it, Copps reiterated the FCC’s commitment to a national broadband strategy.

IIA in the News

By IIA

Telecommunications Online interviewed IIA Co-Chairman Bruce Mehlman about IIA’s mission, broadband expansion, and the federal stimulus. Here’s a taste:

Telecom Engine: In determining what the right speed is for broadband, one analyst recently said it’s like a moving target. Do you think there’s a certain speed by which we can define a service as broadband?

Melhman: First, it’s a shame that we have the order of battle that we do whereby grant rules happen before a national strategy has been laid out. Both happen before broadband mapping to determine to really understand where broadband is and where it is not and why is done. In a perfect world we would probably go in reverse order.

My sense is policy makers can first focus on first principles first by working with what we know. We know that roughly that roughly 7 percent of the US has no access at all, according to Pew’s information and 47 percent that could sign up has as chosen not to get access. We have a 7 47 problem. It would make plenty of sense to do our best to bring any broadband to the 7 percent that have not been yet found by the markets.

Second, we know the private sector is investing $50-$80 billion every year in telecom network infrastructure. Once this $7 billion stimulus funding has gone through we’re going to need ongoing private sector investment to continue build outs, upgrades and to maintain networks. I would think we would not stimulus rules that scare away either current or future investments.

Check out the full interview.

Connecting the Highways

By Brad

With the Obama administration pushing forward on a national broadband strategy, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) has introduced a smart bill tying future federal highway projects to fiber optic networks. Via Broadcasting & Cable:

Rep. Anna Eshoo has introduced the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act, which would require new federal highway projects to include broadband conduits for fiber optic communications.

That will be increasingly important as the FCC comes up with a nationwide broadband rollout plan at the behest of Congress, and the governent hands out over $7 billion to help get broadband service to unserved and underserved areas. Eshoo said in announcing the bill that over half the cost of laying broadband pipe is digging up and repaving roads. This way, the pipe will already be there when the communications provider is ready to install the fiber.

From the Schools to the Nation

By Brad

A new national broadband strategy has been offered, and as GovTech reports, it’s being offered by the nation’s universities:

Last week, 200 universities nationwide offered a national strategy to the Obama Administration “as a first step in realizing (his) vision bringing the benefits of broadband technology to all Americans.”
The plan was offered to NTIA—The National Telecommunications and Information Administration—which has $4.7 billion to help build our national information infrastructure as part of the so-called stimulus plan passed by the Congress earlier this year.

As for the plan itself, Blandin on Broadband nutshells it:

A National Broadband Strategy should begin with America’s colleges and universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, public libraries, hospitals, clinics, and the state, regional and national research and education networks that connect them and extend to reach government agencies, agricultural extension sites, and community centers across the nation.

The full plan—titled “Unleashing Waves of Innovation: Transformative Broadband for America’s Future—is available in pdf form.