On Monday, September 29th at 10:00 AM, Council Member Gale A. Brewer (D-Manhattan), Chair of the Technology in Government Committee, will hold a hearing regarding the FCC’s plans to shutdown the analog frequency in 2009, which will create a huge “white space.â€
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idealist.org interviews NYCwireless
In its latest Community podcast idealist.org interviews Dana Spiegel and Laura Forlano from NYCwireless to hear more about their mission and projects. They look at how NYCwireless is working to bring the internet to everyone in New York City, both in and outside of their apartments. By “lighting up” public parks with free wi-fi access, the organization is helping New Yorkers to connect outdoors–and encouraging a new community of users while they’re at it. They also explore the challenges they face as they strive to make internet access an accepted public service.
Video of NYC Broadband briefing
Diamond Consultants was hired by the New York City Economic Development
Corporation to determine the breadth of the digital divide in New York City
and develop programs and initiatives to provide greater digital inclusion for
all residents. Chris O’Brien, a Partner in Diamond’s Public Sector practice,
detailed Diamond’s findings – and its recommendations for the City’s next
steps – to the NYC Broadband Advisory Committee at City Hall on July 30 2008.
Afterwards members of the Committee and the public made comments.
NYC Broadband report presentation Wednesday
On Wednesday, July 30th at 11:00am there will be a briefing from the Mayor’s Office and Diamond Consultants for the Broadband Advisory Committee regarding the Bloomberg Administration’s plans for bridging the digital divide in New York City.
Diamond Consultants was hired by the New York City Economic Development Corporation to determine the breadth of the digital divide in New York City and develop programs and initiatives to provide greater digital inclusion for all residents. Chris O’Brien, a Partner in Diamond’s Public Sector practice, will be detailing Diamond’s findings and its recommendations for the City’s next steps.
Supreme Court agrees to review ISP suit against AT&T
On Jun 23 the Supreme Court agreed to review a California suit where Linkline, an ISP, had accused AT&T of charging so much for wholesale access that the ISP could not compete. AT&T argues that they are under no obligation. An appeals court found for Linkline. The Bush administration persuaded the Supreme Court to review the case.
The outcome has serious inferences for access competition in the nation.
In Brief
- CircleID reports on Vint Cerf’s views regarding Government’s Role in Internet Broadband Access: “Perhaps the Internet should be treated more like the road system. You don’t have multiple roads going to your house for example. Instead, it is a common resource.”
- ars technica discusses how bandwidth caps could lead to ISPs benefiting from piracy. But they predict that the profits to be made from charging high bandwidth users a premium will also create an incentive for ISP’s to filter content suspected of copyright infringement. They also cover the recent survey results by the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Internet and American Life project suggesting that the US broadband market is edging towards saturation. The study suggests that there are still significant untapped
markets for broadband – but they would require significant investments in
infrastructure or lowered prices. 14% of those surveyed said they simply couldn’t get broadband in their area. By contrast, British Telecommunications (BT) claims more than 99% of British households have access to broadband, although speeds remain an issue for those in rural areas. - Dan Brickley talks about how the recent court decision requiring Google to turn over YouTube user logs in the Viacomm infringement suit has broader privacy implications. With the Social Graph API, a new Google service, personal information from YouTube accounts that
was already public is increasingly accessible to automated processing.
FCC Announces Public Hearing on “Broadband and the Digital Future”
The Federal Communications Commission today announced a public hearing to be held on Monday, July 21, 2008. It will be held at 4:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The hearing is open to the public, and seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
InternetforEveryone.org is launched at PDF Forum
At the Personal Democracy Forum this week FCC Commissioner Michael Adelstein announced the formation of InternetforEveryone.org – a new coalition to advocate universal Internet access in the United States. Headed by Free Press, the coalition involves many and varied organizations including the ACLU and Google. Individuals are also welcome to join.
FCC requests comments on plan for free, censored broadband
We previously reported that the FCC plans to provide universal wireless broadband with content filtering. In a press release on Friday, June 20th they request comments on the plan to license access to the 2.1GHz Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS). The winning bidder must use 25% of the spectrum for free two-way broadband Internet service at a minimum rate of 768kps downstream. They must be able to provide the free service to 50% of the U.S in four years and at least 95% by the end of the 10-year license term. Continue reading
Supreme Court to review case of independent ISP vs. AT&T
There’s been some discussion on the ISOC-NY discuss list as to whether a free market solution or government initiatives are best way to improve broadband access in the U.S. Part of that discussion is the question as to whether there actually has been an open and competitive market for broadband services.
A case where an independent ISP, Linkline Communications, alleged that AT&T charged excessive access fees that prevented them from competing in the broadband market will now be reviewed by the Supreme Court. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had ruled against AT&T but the Bush Administration’s Office of U.S. Solicitor General sided with AT&T, maintaining that federal antitrust laws don’t cover the LinkLine claims. Continue reading
Markey introduces bipartisan telecom accessibility bill
Representative Edward Markey (D-MA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet today introduced the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Rep Heather A. Wilson (R-NM) joined Rep Markey as an original co-sponsor of the bill.
The bill would amend the Communications Act to ensure that new Internet-enabled telephone and video services and equipment are accessible to and usable by people with disabilities and closes existing gaps in telecommunications laws. Provisions include hearing aid compatibility and Internet closed captioning to real-time text support for emergency services.
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