broadband

S. Derek Turner – The History (and Future) of Internet Policy

Derek TurnerAt the recent Free Press Summit” in Washington DC, FP Research Director S. Derek Turner addressed the topic of Internet Policy. His theme, detailed in his report Dismantling Digital Deregulation: Toward a National Broadband Strategy, was that the deregulatory policies in the 1976 Telecom Act, intended to increase competition, have been so abused by the incumbents as to have had the opposite effect. He argues that the public interest can only be served by a corresponding tilt back into regulation. Transcript | Audio. | Video is below.

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Has Divestiture Worked? – event @ NYU – Fri Mar 6

ISOC-NY in conjunction with the Open Infrastructure Alliance (OIA) is presenting
Has Divestiture Worked? A 25th Anniversary Assessment of the Breakup of AT&T
– a symposium that marks the quarter-centennial of the sundering of Ma Bell.



DATE: FRIDAY, MARCH 6th, 2009 TIME: 6PM-9PM
LOCATION: New York University, Warren Weaver Hall (251 Mercer), Room 109
PRICE: ADMISSION IS FREE. (RSVP requested to: rsvp@bway.net)
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White Space vote nears

The NYC Council Tech Committee recently held a public hearing after the Broadway and TV industries lobbied for a resolution urging the FCC to withhold approval of White Space Devices (WSDs) for broadband access – the concern being that they would interfere with wireless microphones and DTV transmissions

http://nycbroadband.blogspot.com/2008/09/white-spaces-hearing-webcast.html

The FCC, as it now stands, will vote on Nov 4
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-286069A1.pdf

Freepress is strongly advocating the public to encourage the FCC to approve WSDs.
https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?alertId=285&pg=makeACall
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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.

View flash
View: flash | mp4 | wmv | real | 3gp | stills mp3
Download: divx | ipod | wmv | real | phone | mp3

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NYC Broadband report presentation Wednesday

NYC sealOn 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.

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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.