As noted earlier, The Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between the United States government and ICANN will have a mid-term review in March. As part of this review, the US government put out a Notice of Inquiry asking for comments on the continued transition to the private sector.
ISOC has issued a draft statement that recommends, contrary to ICANN’s desire to complete the process forthwith, that the agreement be allowed to run its full course. Continue reading
The Internet Corporation for the Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) made the plea in a lengthy report sent to the US Department of Commerce.
The report will be the focus of a meeting to consider ICANN’s progress on objectives the US government set it in preparation for independence. Continue reading
The Benton Foundation today notes a number of recent critiques of USA national broadband policy, or the lack of it. Continue reading
 A new report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) explores broadband options available to communities. It concludes that municipal investment in fiber is a must. Continue reading
While other big cities’ municipal Wi-Fi plans are foundering, that of Minneapolis appears to be succeeding. With 30% of the city covered already, the provider US Internet expects to complete it’s network by February, and be breaking even shortly after based on the current 5% subscriber take-up rate. Continue reading
Tony D’Agata, vice president of federal sales for Sprint told InternetNews.com that Sprint is ramping up some specific IPv6 offerings that are expected to be ready in the second quarter of 2008.
“We are IPv6 enabling our network and actively pursing putting IPv6 on our peerless IP network,” D’Agata said. “We also have plans to implement IPv6 on other assets.” Continue reading
The anonymous blogger in question was a hospital employee in Paris, Texas who dished conditions at his workplace. Quoting from Public Citizen: “the requirement of presenting evidence provides an important measure of protection for employee whistleblowers and other anonymous critics of powerful corporations, political figures and others.”
Full Statement of Paul Alan Levy, Attorney With Public Citizen http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2566
An article –The Team That Put the Net in Orbit – in today’s NY Times notes the recent 20th anniversary of the launch of NSFnet, a precursor to the Internet. Originally constructed to tie together the nation’s five supercomputer centers, by the time the academic network was shut down in 1996, it connected 6.6 million host computers and extended to 93 countries.
A critical decision was to adopt the then as unproven TCP/IP protocol. TCP/IP served as a vital lingua franca between previously incompatible computer networks.
Continue reading
Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced the formation yesterday of a state panel to develop strategies to allow all New Yorkers to get access to high-speed Internet service. The panel, the New York State Council for Universal Broadband, will recommend ways to extend high-speed access beyond traditional methods and to extend broadband connections to underserved rural and urban areas, the governor said.
In his speech, Spitzer set targets: affordable universal access @ 20Mbps statewide, with 100Mbps in metro areas, by 2015.
One of the Council’s first actions will be to distribute $5 million in grants. Continue reading
In May 2007, after UK Health Protection Agency head Sir William Stewart had recommended that mobile phone masts should not be sited near schools without consultation with parents and head teachers, the BBC program Panorama reported that radio emissions from a school laptop were 3 times that of a mast located 100 meters distant. After complaints a BBC Editorial Complaint Unit has concluded that the program was ‘misleading‘. Continue reading
Comcast’s recent efforts to throttle file transfers using the BitTorrent protocol have led, perhaps predictably, to a renewed call for Congress to enact stiff Net neutrality laws. But even some supporters of new laws–meaning enacting antidiscrimination regulations aimed at broadband providers–are now reluctantly conceding that the proposals that have been circulating in Congress for more than a year may not do much to stop Comcast. Continue reading
In a proposal designed to increase broadband in rural and high-cost areas, the $7 billion Universal Service Fund would be split into three new pools with $300 million annually dedicated to high-speed networks. The other two pools would be used for wireless services and traditional telephone service. Continue reading
The cable’s industry largest trade group is opposed to rules that would require Internet Service Providers to forward email to the new email address of a former customer for a period of six months. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association said such rules were unnecessary, expensive, and beyond the regulatory authority of the Federal Communications Commission to impose. Continue reading
Despite EarthLink’s exit from the market, municipal wireless is alive and well in the U.S., mostly in small-to-midsize cities, and it’s beginning to spread to Europe, said Esme Vos, founder of MuniWireless. Vos said the predominant economic model today is for the municipality to guarantee a minimum annual contract for municipal services to provide an economic anchor for the network. It then can sell excess connectivity to businesses and private individuals. Continue reading
Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) plans to introduce legislation in December to set the stage for congressional debate in 2008 on the ability of telecommunications companies to restrict content carried over their wireline and wireless high-speed Internet networks. His network neutrality measure would be part of a multi-pronged effort to shift the issue back into the spotlight. It is expected to include hearings in both chambers. Continue reading