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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (21420)	5/15/2007 12:48:35 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 46821

Rural Broadband Gets A Plan [FAC: This article, which I lifted from the uplinked Baller-Herbst list, reveals what appears to be, forsooth!, a government-sponsored, rural development sham. For the best read and access to additional story links go to the url below:] dailywireless.org The USDA’s $1.2 billion Rural Utilities Service program, which is tasked with funding rural broadband deployment, was attacked earlier this month by Congress for not doing anything of the sort, notes Broadband Reports. Members of a House committee said earlier this month that the five-year, $1.2 billion Universal Service Fund to provide rural communities with broadband was broken. It missed many unserved areas while channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidized loans to companies in places where service already exists, charged the committee. “If you don’t fix this, I guarantee you this committee will,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.) told James M. Andrew, administrator of the Rural Utilities Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “I don’t know why it should be this hard.” A study found more than half the funds instead went to urban broadband deployment, and just one out of sixty-nine loans went to wiring a region without any broadband service whatsoever. The USDA has responded by issuing a new set of proposed rules aimed at making sure the fund is doing what it was originally designed for. The USDA is also pushing to have the program extended until 2012 as part of the 2007 Farm Bill. Rural Development Under Secretary Thomas Dorr outlined several key elements of the proposed rules today: * Promoting deployment to rural areas with little or no service * Ensuring that residents in funded areas get broadband access more quickly * Limiting funding in urban areas and areas where a significant share of the market is served by incumbent providers * Clarifying and streamlining equity and marketing survey requirements * Increasing the transparency of the application process, including legal notice requirements, to make more informed lending/borrowing decisions * Promoting a better understanding of all application requirements, including market survey, competitive analysis, business plan, and system design requirements * Ensuring that projects funding are keeping pace with increasing demand for bandwidth Currently the Universal Service Fund (”USF”) is financed by telecommunications companies (as a line item on your phone bill). Contributions are a percentage of the interstate and international revenues. The percent is determined on a quarterly basis by dividing the demand for all four USF programs (high cost (telecom), low income, rural health care, and schools and libraries, a.k.a. “E-rate”). Currently, USF funding is available to carriers with a high cost of delivering service. It has helped small rural phone companies and discouraged large phone companies because big city phone operators have a lower cost (on average). That tends to make them ineligible for the subsidy. Currently, universal service funds are allocated by state PUC’s. But, charged Congress, the program is funding duplicate programs or subsidizing carriers who serve urban areas more than rural ones. Related DailyWireless stories include; Congressional Fix for Universal Service?, Statewide/Nationwide Wireless Broadband, Rural Broadband: Handicapping Campaign ‘08, WildBlue -1 Goes Live, Satellite Repeaters: Grounded in Reality?, South Carolina Proposes Statewide Free Wireless, Verizon Makes its Move for Universal Service Fund, Rural Broadband Dying and FCC to Rural Users: 700MHz is the Ticket. Posted by samc on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 7:19 am. ------

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (21420)	5/16/2007 11:39:29 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

Baller Herbst List: 5-16-07 BROADBAND Smithville (IN) Digital fiber optic network "is improving health care in this underserved area" killerapp.com "The Internet not ready for streaming video to the masses" tinyurl.com "Surprise. In the past two years, African Americans have been devouring broadband technology--and the digital divide has shrunk significantly, at least for this group. The share of black households with a cable modem, DSL, or satellite Internet connection climbed to 40% this year, Pew says. That's almost twice as fast as the growth of broadband penetration for the general population, which grew to 47%" tinyurl.com CALEA CALEA compliance deadline passes, reportedly hits VoIP and small wireless providers hard . . . tinyurl.com . . . CALEA panel at Intl. Summit for Community Wireless Networks, May 19, Columbia, MD cuwin.net WIRELESS "WEP is dead" -- "Last month, three researchers... developed a faster attack ... that works with ARP packets and just needs 85,000 packets to crack the key with a 95 per cent probablity. This means getting the key in less than two minutes." theregister.com "It's Silicon Valley vs. Telcos in battle for wireless spectrum" wired.com Minneapolis Wi-Fi from US Internet behind schedule startribune.com Private development offers Dallas' first major ubiquitious Wi-Fi muniwireless.com 802.11n equipment expected to be available this summer usatoday.com VIDEO Latest report from American Customer Satisfaction Index: "the TV sector still has 'the lowest level of customer satisfaction among all industries,' and ... every major company in the TV sector did worse this year than last." . . . dslreports.com . . . "According to the NCTA, there's such "intense competition and innovation" in the industry at the moment (they cite BPL as part of this competition) that the FCC should leave the market alone in all but the most extreme of situations." dslreports.com Tennessee: "AT&T, in its battle against cable companies and local governments to get into the television business, has spent $1.55 to $1.6 million on lobbying expenses" nashvillecitypaper.com OTHER NEWS NCTA president Kyle McSlarrow calls for systematic changes at FCC broadcastingcable.com ------