Catch up with broadband efforts across the US

Thanks to some easy links from the Baller Herbst email list I was able to track down updates for what’s going on with broadband efforts in various high profile communities across the country. Let me just say after perusing the playing field – it’s rough out there.

Chattanooga – Comcast files suit

Comcast of the South has asked the Hamilton County Chancery Court to stop the fiber-to-the-home project planned by the Chattanooga Electric Power Board. Last week the Tennessee Cable and Telecommunications Association tried to file suit in a neighboring County but the court said no go, since the TCTA were not the party that would be injured.

(Read more, read past blog posts on the Chattanooga project.)

New Orleans says goodbye to WiFi

Earthlink is shutting down its WiFi network in New Orleans. (The network was built soon after Katrina.) Apparently it tried to find a buyer, including asking the city to buy – but no one rose to the occasion. The network will be shut down on May 18. Subscribers will be offered other Earthlink broadband options.

It sounds as if Earthlink wants to get out of the municipal WiFi game entirely. They are currently transferring networks in Corpus Christi and Milpitas and are looking to find other arrangements for Philadelphia and Anaheim.

Utopia is falling on hard times

The Utopia and iProvo FTTH networks in Utah are running into problems with lower subscriber rates and revenue shortfalls. With less money coming in, the project wil have difficulty paying back bond payments.

Both networks are open networks, or as TCMNet put it, access wholesalers, and neither network has gotten enough retail partners, nor have the retailers done well enough to fatten either network’s revenue, either on the business or consumer sides of the business.”

(Read more, read some background)

Burlington Vermont hasn’t reached goals yet

Burlington’s city’s chief administrative officer, Jonathan Leopold, reports that Burlington Telecom will not be breaking even by June as earlier projected by previous general manager, Tim Nulty. (There seems to be some disagreements regarding the numbers and culpability here.) Revisions have been made to the business plan and the hope/plan is to compete with other providers to get the necessary subscribers and cut costs where necessarily to be solvent and eventually be in a position to pay back the $33 million it borrowed to build the system.

(Minnesota-based Christopher Mitchell was also recently mentioned in the same publication for his case study on Burlington Telecom for Institute for Local Self Reliance.

LA is going mobile – but not wireless

The Metro in LA has been studying options for providing WiFi to passengers on the Orange Line that runs through the San Fernando Valley and on the subway – but so far it’s a no go. The cost is too high and no providers have jumped at the opportunity.

WiMAX Connecting Rural AZ and FL

Thanks to Bernadine Joselyn for the heads up on the recent article in CNN (Charles Street Partners Selects Nortel WiMAX to Bring Broadband to Rural America).

The headline says it all, Charles Street Partners(CSP) plans to use WiMAX technology from Nortel to bring wireless broadband to U.S. residents in rural areas of Arizona and Florida. The network will offer data and VoIP capabilities to about one million residents and businesses – some who haven’t had access to broadband before.

CSP has found that WiMax provided the lowest cost-per-megabit. It sounds as if CSP works with a number of local providers, so they act as an umbrella organization (parent company) of some sort  but that the last mile support will be provided by local entities. Nortel will provide an end-to-end, completely integrated WiMAX solution that provides operators with everything they need - from devices and applications to infrastructure and services.

Charles Street Partners has secured over $35M in loans to bring broadband to underserved rural markets in the U.S. from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Community Connect Grant Program.

New Spectrum Marketplace

Haven’t heard enough about spectrum these days? Well a new marketplace just opened this week…

LMDSXchange is the first online marketplace that allows government agencies, businesses and telecommunications companies to locate and lease licensed broadband wireless spectrum in the 28-31GHz range, commonly called LMDS or Local Multi-point Distribution Service spectrum, on a nationwide basis. (Not that this is far removed fromt he 700 Mhz spectrum that has been in the news lately.)

According to the site, LMDS spectrum supports the transmission of data at speeds ranging from 1.5 Mbps to 800 Mbps, and can be used by businesses, government agencies and service providers to support a variety of network applications.

Rehash of the Spectrum Auction

Earlier today, I watched the Energy and Commerce hearing on the Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission – the 700 MHz Auction. It was long. I tried to link to prepared speeches when I could and otherwise keep my observations at a very high level. But this is still a long post but I hope this will help you either find the video or save you from having to watch it. If you do watch - fast forward to the last 20 minutes for the exciting part where Dingell grills the Cyren Call folks.

WiFi on the Campgrounds

Last week, I was in Dublin, Cork, Galway and everywhere in between in less than 72 hours. (And then funny enough I was sick for 3 days.) We saw a ton – but we stayed in the same type of hotel each night because I knew they had broadband access. All of my trips and vacations are planned around where I can get a fix of broadband and I suspect the same is true for many readers. Well, a whole new world is about to open up to us…

According to USA Today, state parks around the US are starting to install WiFi. Apparently WiFi is available in 50 of California’s 278 parks, all 17 of Kentucky’s state parks, and 28 states have at least one park with WiFI. Minnesota is planning to introduce free connections at Itasca, north of Park Rapids, in the next month or two. It sounds as if this is a pilot test for other parks.

OK, maybe that’s not enough to get me into a tent for “vacation” but I think it’s great. USA Today has comments from people who also think it’s a good idea and others who beg to differ.

They have a list of parks with WiFi for anyone who’s planning a trip. For RV folks, I found a list of RV parks with WiFi too. (There were 2 in Minnesota: one in Grand Rapids, the other in Minneapolis.)

Google on the Spectrum Auction

It’s Friday night in Dublin - but I wanted to send a quick heads up on Google’s Policy Blog and their perspective on the FCC Spectrum Auction. Here’s a excerpt:

Google’s top priority heading into the auction was to make sure that bidding on the so-called “C Block” reached the $4.6 billion reserve price that would trigger the important “open applications” and “open handsets” license conditions. We were also prepared to gain the nationwide C Block licenses at a price somewhat higher than the reserve price; in fact, for many days during the early course of the auction, we were the high bidder. But it was clear, then and now, that Verizon Wireless ultimately was motivated to bid higher (and had far more financial incentive to gain the licenses).

As I’ve said before I have a love/hate relationship with Google. I’m delighted that they posted anything on the behind-doors action but I also wonder what isn’t being said.

700 Mhz Spectrum, and the winner is…

Yesterday the FCC announced the results of the recent Spectrum Auction. The quick facts:

There were 214 qualified bidders
101 bidders won 1090 licenses
One auction didn’t get the necessary bid, which I thought meant they wouldn’t share info on the other auctions but apparently that isn’t the case.

Verizon/Vodafone was the big winner. They got 6 of the biggest licenses and many of the smaller licenses. They spent $9.63 billion.

AT&T didn’t win any of the big licenses but they did win a lot (227) of the medium licenses. They spent $6.64 billion.

Google won nothing. Although many people point out that they won the moment the FCC added the open access conditions into the bidding requirements. The comments on the Google policy blog might second that:

While the Commission’s anti-collusion rules prevent us from saying much at this point, one thing is clear: although Google didn’t pick up any spectrum licenses, the auction produced a major victory for American consumers.

DSL Reports has a nice story on the Auction (Verizon Nabs Most Valuable 700Mhz Spectrum) but the most interesting reading there is comments from readers. One feels let down by Google. One suggests that the winners this time around should not be allowed to bid next time. (I didn’t know a next time was in the works.)

Minneapolis Wireless Update

Thanks to Peter Fleck for sending me a heads up on the latest news on the Minneapolis Wireless Project.

According to TC Daily Planet, the City has covered about 95 percent of the outdoor space and hopes to be completely covered in March. Loring Park has been a challenging area since there are no great places to post signal broadcasters.

Right now 8,000 have signed up for service; they are expecting 10,000.

Peter also tracks a nice article on the benefits of the community-owned network. Any community that is looking into or pursuing a public network should check it out.

Verizon Spent $96 million in MN in 2007

A quick note from today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Verizon Wireless, Basking Ridge, N.J., invested nearly $96.5 million in 2007 to enhance its network in Minnesota. The improvements included building new and upgrading existing cell sites, expanding the high-speed wireless broadband network to new markets and improving existing wireless broadband network speeds.

Ice Broadband

Mostly I have shied away from talking about broadband here in Ireland because well, it’s a long way to Tipperary from Minnesota. Some news is that the plan to help Dublin go wireless was dropped a few weeks ago. Last week Fine Gael unveiled its national broadband strategy. They want to revisit the current plan and upgrade the infrastructure to higher-speed fiber-optic cable and to pass legislation to ensure that underground pipes for fiber-optic cables is installed in all new housing and apartment developments.

Development in Dublin (I can’t really speak to Tipperary or other parts of Ireland) is absolutely amazing. You can’t stand anywhere in the city (or surrounding suburban areas) without seeing a new development going up in at least one direction. So focusing on new building is not a bad start.

Anyways what I really wanted to mention was a great article that my mother-in-law cut out for me yesterday. It’s about Ice Broadband, a company that provides wireless Internet access to 10 rural counties in Ireland.

Ice Broadband was set up in 2003, by Yvonne Rooney an engineer/entrepreneur who is now 25. She had planned to go to internship in the US, but it fell through due to post-911 issues. She and her friends were wary of finding other meaningful internships so they decided to start their own company.

Rooney’s father is quite well off so was able to help in the early stages – and his investment has paid off handsomely. Apparently there was little competition for wireless when they first started. Now there is a lot more buy Rooney claims that’s good because it has heightened awareness and demand and there is plenty of business for everyone at this point.

I think this story interesting to an American audience for two reasons – first, clearly we lost a great opportunity to have this bright spark come to the US because of the post-911 environment. I don’t know if the issue was no jobs, too many visa hassles, or something else. I don’t think it matters – but I think we were and still are losing good people who would be helping us at home.

Second, I love how these guys just did it. They saw a business opportunity to provide broadband and they went for it and now they’re making money. In fairness Ireland is much smaller than Minnesota – but it’s at least as rural. (Sorry I can’t find the article online from February 1 Irish Times– but there’s the gist.)