More Details On Obama $6 Billion Broadband Plan

So I have been reduced to narrow band with my 7m/512k.

Wonder if TW will give me a price cut since I don't have broadband service. Or will this be a reason to raise rates to get the 5/1.

Good, now they can't say no

Everyone within a 50 mile radius of me should have broadband by next year right?

said by Article :

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The bill goes some way towards that, the NTIA portion of the money is tied to benchmarks that define 45Mbps/5Mbps as "advanced broadband," while 5Mbps/1Mbps service is defined as "basic broadband."

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Now I just hope that language makes it all the way through to the end.

No chance in hell. Open access provisions will be stripped too.

I bet you love to run around telling kids Santa Claus isn't real too huh? Thanks a lot buddy!

Seriously though, I am also pessimistic about it.

I doubt the 45/5 provisions will remain. But on the other hand, this may just be the opening position in a negotiation. If we can even see the bar set at something like 10/2, that would be a big step forward for lots of people.

Edit: And you might see some cable companies supporting a definition at that level, given the DOCSIS 3 upgrades they're rolling out this year, especially if it gave them additional marketing ammo in their fight against DSL.

Given that Genachowski is a fan of net neutrality, perhaps there's a bit more of a chance that that will survive.

Here are the "open access" provisions in this bill. The telcos & cable are already starting to lobby to have them removed. The cable & telcos have fought this in the past »news.cnet.com/8301-13578 ··· -38.html and even have a case in Federal Court against the FCC and their "policy statement" on open access.
»appropriations.house.gov ··· 5-09.pdf

It depends on how much Obama wants such provisions in the bill because it's not easy to lobby against a popular president.

How can he be a "popular president"? He's not president yet and hasn't done a thing, good or bad.

This item will be no different. Some will be pleased, some won't, and more than likely the telcos/cable companies will put a knife in it and Obama won't do/be able to do a thing about it. The lobbyists don't care who he is.

So open access hasn't even been defined yet? Are they using the term as a placeholder to include "Net Neutrality" provisions later?

Looks like it. They would be leaving the definition up to Genachowski, the presumed new FCC chair.

Yeah, I mention that in the article above.

You certainly did. Sorry, not sure how I missed that.

Should make mapping a little easier. Lets see the 5/1 leaves out some cable companies most flavors of dsl if not all, and all satellite.

Leaves out a lot of wireless also.

Wireless was INCLUDED in the open access provisions in the bill. See my post:
»Re: Thank God

How does one go about securing some of this grant money to offer rural services?

I don't need millions of dollars to setup something like WiMax in a rural community.

You could do it for a few thousand bucks -- unless you want the community to be connected to the outside world.

I was thinking the same thing.

I would also love to spend a summer running around mapping broadband penetration. $20/hr. Gov't, can you hear me?

About 5/1 and 45/5, let's see who that leaves:

5/1
Comcast (all "usual" tiers)
RR (Turbo/high-end tier, not standard...not available in some areas)
U-Verse (6/1 or higher)
FiOS
OOL
Clear $75/month business plan
Xohm, in some cases
5% of WiSPs (sounds about right)
PenTeleData/ProLog (10/1 plan and above)
Charter (some plans)
Most local fiber outfits

LEFT OUT
All ADSL/2+ services
Most fixed wireless services
Many cable plans, especially low-end ones
All "mobile broadband", most WiMAX

45/5
Comcast ($140 50/10 plan where available)
FiOS ($90-$140 50/20 plan)
A very small number of fiber providers

LEFT OUT:
Everyone else. All wireless operations to date.

Hmm, seems like Comcast had a hand in those specs...they have "advanced broadband" in some places (albeit expensive) and "basic broadband" throughout their footprint.

My definitions for "basic broadband" and "advanced broadband":

3/768 - Basic, at or under $30 including 50+ GB of usage
15/2 - Advanced, at or under $80 including 150+ GB of usage

The above specs have a bit more "teeth" to them, and they're much easier to realize. Speeds must be at that level 99.9% of the time when testing to an off-network major source (Cachefly, Akamai, Panther Express CDN), assuming the off-network sources have that much extra bandwidth at any given time they do).

3/768 can be done over existing DSL infrastructure with no problem. Same for wireless. It'll get providers to actually go with the broadband plan rather than saying "it costs too much, fuhgedaboudit". 15/2 cnan be done over existing cable, as long as you're not overselling your nodes. It can even be done over high-speed wireless (WiMAX if you play your cards right).

What do y'all think? 3/768 is plenty for all standard-def stuff, 15/2 if good enough for all high-def stuff. Sure, I'd like more upload, but how about an "Extreme Broadband" option that must be below $150, have 30/5 bandwidth and 500 GB of transfer? Just thinkin'

With 'regular' DSL I had 6/768.
I thought ADSL2+ could handle 1mb upload...at least by spec, maybe not in RL.
Why would that be 'left out'?
KM

I was thinking the same thing. ADSL is limited (technically) to 896k for upload. Does this mean that DSL providers will no longer be able to call their product broadband? What are the further ramifications to that, will the DSL providers still be allowed to even offer their services? I say that forcing providers to make multi billion dollar changes will only be bad for the consumers.......

1 Mbit theoretical, 896k practical. So no, you can't do 1 Mbit of upload over DSL.

What's worse: Qwest. 896k theoretical, 700k practical. Interleave. Lousy 2Wire routers that can't handle a load it seems. Bleh.

just curious what WIMAX platform you think can realistically deliver 15/2?? Not being sarcastic im just really curious cause I havent heard of anything cable of those speeds.

The spec calls for 12.6 Mbit combined at 3.5 MHz, 17.4 Mbps at 5 MHz, double those for larger channel sizes (7 and 10 MHz). So with 7 and 10 MHz channels it's definitely possible. You just have to have decent signal and realize it's a shared system. They're offering 15/2 over DOCSIS 1.1, and WiMAX 10 MHz isn't much behind on capacity comparatively.

I think Proxim has a chart for 3.5 and 5 MHz, maybe 7 MHz for signal/modulation/bitrate details.

The fact that most media doesn't report on is how poor cellular penetration is in the US. The new administration should focus on cellular coverage, including areas that only have carriers providing roaming service while leaving locals without any cellular service. The Rural Service Areas are so poorly served. The last publicly available FCC report reflected only 150 of the 428 Rural Service Areas had any type of cellular coverage. It's about time that conditions start being imposed on spectrum purchases--especially prohibitions on denying local service while facilities to support roaming are installed. No local then no roaming. Until that's done, you'll continue to have carriers purchase spectrum simply to provide roaming service and effectively lock spectrum rights up so locals cannot get service. I see it happening in adjacent counties here. It's an indefensible practice. There should also be a no use then you loose clause that gives a winning carrier a limited window to begin using the spectrum, if a carrier does nothing within that window, then the spectrum should be re-auctioned.

The whole problem with this, is not that you can have a high download. It is upload that really matters. If you where to play an online game, you need to upload data, 1Mbps isn't much. If this was Synchronous 45/45 I would be fine, but there is no reason to limit upload. NO REASON! A friend of mine has 20/20 fios and they only pay like 50 a month. I would rather have 20/20 than 45/1.

How about addressing caps on the service? Can they provide 25/5 service with a 10GB cap and still call that broadband?

The gov't should start supporting small ISP's like mine instead of the large usual suspects. We provide 10/4 mbps connections with no caps, no traffic shaping, and no BS! With just a couple hundred thousand, or maybe even less, I could start selling 20 / 20 mbps wireless connections to residential and even 1 gbps service to businesses (using dedicated PTP links). But I think we all know what will probably happen...billions of dollars will go to just a few companies who will just flush it down the toilet and have nothing to show for it.

President Bush had to go to Congress to get money, yet as I see the media reports on Obama's grand revelations, I get the impression that he is going to conjure the money out of mid air and all his plans are a done deal.

I love how the media ignores the way the federal government is set up and attributes all sorts of power to different areas that is not there. Now it could be that Obama's handlers have told Congress that they pass everything that Obama has his name on, or else..... and the media has knowledge that is going to happen, or the constitution will be re-written and powers attributed to President Bush will become reality for Obama (not if Congress has any say over losing power).

Looks like a nice period of combined inflation/recession coming up. Wonder if we are going to nationalize all our debts and foreign obligations like some countries did to us, or if several other options that come to mind involving certain countries who do not have to worry about stockholders' desire for double digit increases every month and instead plan for the future instead will happen?

P.S. And the look I took at that proposed HR bill link made me think of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (yes, I know that was a pen name). I can see a lot of those funds vanishing and never coming back to help those of us who are paying it out. Typical once you get past the county level (in most places that is).

With what money.

I wasn't aware we had any in America? I thought we were broke and our National debt and budget is ballooning.

I guess they'll borrow this to unless the rest of the world stops loaning us money and they'll print the rest?

People should smarten up anything the government costs you is wasteful and will be used less efficiently and more corruptly then a private business or business man would use their own money.

The government has no money, they have a printing press and the IRS. The government has no money or no wealth. The only way they get money is by taking it from others who produce wealth.

Federal reserve notes (paper slapped with ink) are not real wealth.

This whole broadband plan has INFLATION written all over it.

Communism at it's finest! Brought to you By Barry