Internet Statistics by Alex Goldman

The stimulus won’t actually change the business of providing internet service, but it did demonstrate what the current administration would like ISPs to be doing. Those that got funded were, for the most part, already deeply involved in their community. Many projects were already in the planning stages or had even been partially implemented before they received stimulus funds.

An example is the OpenCape project, which I wrote about here. Planning for it began years ago. It involved local emergency services, educational instutions, and the local small business association.

ISPs should already be working these institutions (if they are reasonable as customers).

Continue reading ‘The Stimulus Is Meant To Change The ISP Business’ »

http://www.tested.com/news/this-is-why-people-hate-the-phone-company-att/60/

” Reading AT&T’s announcement that the nationwide rollout of its femtocell product–called the Microcell 3G–is about to begin called into sharp relief the level at which I expect to get screwed by the phone company. About halfway through decoding the PR doublespeak, I had an epiphany. It was if I suddenly saw the words on the page for the very first time. “

Here’s a draft executive summary.

Here’s a list of whom Forbes expects to win.

My comments, based on what we know at this time, are here.

Today, a significant water line bursts on average every two minutes somewhere in the country, according to a New York Times analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data.

I wish some of the stimulus went towards repairing basic infrastructure.

(h/t Karl Bode’s twitter feed)

“Of course the lesson learned is that in the Internet age, the harder a company works to stifle criticism, the more attention that criticism gets. The better path is perhaps to listen to what your customers are saying about your business practices, and change them where possible if you value your customers,” Bode writes.

The legal documents are here:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/23/magicjack-legal-docu.html

Feld warns that the telcos are really attacking a still-unpublished National Broadband Agenda.

The executive summary of your broadband stimulus application is very important. In Denver, speakers said that some applications were rejected instantly because of poorly written executive summaries.

The best applicants are proud of their executive summaries. Victoria Proffer of St. Louis, Mo.-based ShowMe Broadband said in a press release that she was pleased that the government decided to post her entire executive summary. You can read her company’s executive summary here. As you can see, it clearly describes the history of the company and the purpose of the stimulus application.

At WiNOG, we help you write the summary — and help prepare the numbers too. Continue reading ‘Perfect the First Page of Your Application
– and reapply if you were rejected in round one’ »

The RUS has decided that, in round 2, there will be a specific and clearly defined role for satellite internet service providers.

Satellite service grants will be accepted for specific areas (the map showing those areas has not yet been published).

Satellite service is designed for those areas where wireline and wireless won’t work, where either would cost over $10,000 per home connected.

Continue reading ‘RUS Prepares to Fund Satellite Projects’ »

More areas will be eligible for stimulus grants, as the RUS addresses a complaint made by several people including the influential Rick Boucher (D-VA).

The definition of broadband is 768 / 200 Kbps but there is also a definition of high speed, which is 5 Mbps symmetrical. Any area without high speed service can be underserved, which opens up a large portion of the country to grants. “RUS has determined that rural areas without service at 5 Mbps (upstream and downstream combined) lack high speed broadband service sufficient to facilitate rural economic development as required by the Recovery Act,” the notice said.

Furthermore, the language that Boucher complained about, which said that underserved areas had to be a certain number of miles from an urban area, is also not present.

Instead, the RUS now defines a rural area as “any area, as confirmed by the latest decennial census of the Bureau of the Census, which is not located within: (1) a city, town, or incorporated area that has a population of greater than 20,000 inhabitants; or (2) an urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to a city or town that has a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants. For purposes of the definition of rural area, an urbanized area means a densely populated territory as defined in the latest decennial census of the Bureau of the Census.”

Continue reading ‘RUS is More Flexible in Round Two’ »

Round two of the broadband stimulus was announced on Friday and will be written into the Federal Register this week. The Federal Register will be the official notice, if there are any discrepancies between what was published on Friday on the Broadband USA website and what will be published this week.

Applications are accepted from February 16, 2010 through March 15, 2010.

Round two will have only one step (not two), which sounds great, but it means that the environmental portion of the application that was not due with the initial application in round one will be due at the deadline this time.

The two organizations (the NTIA of the Commerce Department and the RUS of the Department of Agriculture) are dividing up the tasks — RUS will handle last mile applications and NTIA will handle middle mile applications.