Video: NTIA / RUS Portland BTOP Workshop
The NTIA/RUS have cancelled today’s planned Broadband Workshop in Blacksburg, VA, due to snow. However they have posted video of the first workshop, Jan 26 2010, in Portland OR:
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joly
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joly
Special Report: Why AT&T Isn’t Really in a “Death Spiral”
Dave Burstein’s entire article (original) is repro’d here for readability.
It turns out that AT&T (and almost all wireless companies) have powerful incentive to keep wireline alive because the wired backhaul is crucial to wireless success. Although Randall Stephenson’s first speech as AT&T CEO was “We are a wireless company,†they are backtracking on letting the wired side die. Suddenly this quarter, AT&T and Verizon are massively promoting DSL. Wireless companies, they decided, need the copper to provide more bandwidth to wireless. DSL can thrive in a wireless world.
That’s a crucial transformation that will preserve DSL/fiber’s role long into the future. It’s the path to “Thriving DSL in a Wireless World.†Wireless spectrum has important constraints and a crucial part of the solution is moving as much as possible over the existing wires. 40-50% of mobile calls are from home or office and can be carried via a femto or WiFi gateway. That’s the design of the AT&T, Verizon, and most European networks in the next few years, wildly accepted in the industry.
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joly
Separately, Strickling said that the NTIA would be unveiling the winners of the first round of the $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus grants in the next couple of weeks.
Members of Congress and some applicants for the funds have criticized the NTIA and the Department of Agriculture for not releasing the funds fast enough.
But Strickling said Tuesday that the department has been working hard to make sure that the projects that do get funded are going to use the money efficiently, and that they are going to be sustainable in the long run — meaning that they’ll still be in operation in five years.
The commercial sector, for its part, is littered with failed telecommunications projects, particularly in the area of wireless broadband.
“It’s important that these people have a business case, and that revenues that they’re generating will exceed operations costs,†Strickling said.
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