As expected, President Bush has nominated attorney and lobbyist Robert McDowell for the remaining open seat at the Federal Communications Commission. McDowell is an Asst. SVP and General Counsel at Comptel, the trade association for competitive phone companies.
McDowell’s nomination (rumored for weeks to be imminent) allegedly doesn’t sit well with the big incumbent telcos. Phone company execs fear that McDowell’s sympathies with their rivals will tilt the FCC toward more pro-competition policies in the telco sectors. But, McDowell works for Earl Comstock, a former chief aide to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK) so the telcos are afraid to make a fuss.
Once McDowell is confirmed by the Senate, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will have a Republican majority at the Commission, which has been laboring under a 2-2 split for quite a while.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 3:13 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Courtesy of Patrick Hynes at The Channel Changer, this article from Ars Technica takes a closer look at the allegations that Verizon plans to keep 80% of its network for itself, leaving only 20% for the open Internet.
As I suspected, this allegation falls more into the category of “scare tactic” than it does legitimate concern. As the article points out, even 20% of a fiber-based network is a whole lot of capacity.
We contacted Dr. Marvin Sirbu, Professor of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and an FTTP expert to see how the numbers really add up. In short, there’s almost no cause for concern that Verizon’s own traffic will relegate other services to the dark alleys of the Fios network. The video is actually being delivered on a separate wavelength from the other services. According to Sirbu, roughly 3.5Gbps of the network’s capacity will be allocated for downstream video. That leaves 620Mbps of bandwidth for ‘Net traffic, which is split up between the 32 users on each Broadband Passive Optical Network node. Once Verizon switches to Gigabit PON, that number will rise to 2.4Gbps. Video on demand will be delivered via IPTV.
If that’s correct, then Verizon’s allocation of 20% to third party uses translates into 19.375 Mbps Internet service per user, and once Verizon switches to passive optical network technology, that capacity increases by at least one-thousand fold. (Can some engineering type fill in the correct numbers for me?)
I’m not being an apologist here for Verizon or the telcos — far from it. But, if you’re engaging in a political fight, at least be accurate with your aim and don’t drum up problems that don’t exist.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 2:49 PM | Print | Comments (2)
Two Senate Commerce Committee leaders, Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) issued yesterday what they call “guiding principles” for federal legislation on the issue of cable franchising. In an obvious bid to thwart the telcos’ push for nationwide or state-wide video franchise laws, the Senators said that local governments are crucial to the franchsing process and that any future legislation must embrace these principles.
The principles are:
1. Establish beyond doubt the prominent role of states and localities in the video franchising process.
2. Facilitate competition by promoting speedy entry on mutually favorable terms.
3. Promote fairness for both consumers and localities on a level playing field for providers.
In his statement Senator Burns said that franchises are important because they enable cities to manage their local rights of way and collect franchise fees.
While maintaining franchises is important, the “principles” seem to give some leeway to the telcos, who have argued that the local franchising process hinders their entry into the video marketplace. The second principle advocates “speedy entry on mutually favorable terms,” an idea that seems to suggest some kind of expedited franchising process. (Maybe akin to the cable industry’s suggested “shot clock.”)
The cable industry, needless to say, is delighted with the new principles. National Cable & Telecommunications CEO Kyle McSlarrow said in a statement
We applaud the leadership of Senators Burns and Inouye for their release of principles that support video franchising legislation which emphasizes the importance of localism. These principles strike an appropriate balance between the desire to speed entry for new providers and ensure a level playing field for all competitors.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:30 AM | Print | Comments (0)
A fabulous little brouhaha cropped up this week involving Wikipedia and several members of Congress (but one in particular). It seems that congressional staffers have been going into Wikipedia entries and editing out bad information regarding their bosses and inputting glowing commentary instead. (What a shock!)
It all started when The Lowell Sun ran an article on how someone on the staff of Representative Marty Meehan (D-MA) deleted from Meehan’s Wikipedia biography references to his broken pledge to stick to term limits and wiped out references to his massive campaign fund-raising.
It seems that Wikipedia was already wise to the Meehan edits and had in fact been investigating other suspicious edits made from the IP address through which all House of Representatives’ traffic flows. For one week in January, Wikipedia actually blocked House IP access.
“I’m not denying it,” Jon Brandt, a spokesman for the Committee on House Administration, which oversees the House computer network, said when asked to confirm House ownership of the address.
Wikinews has this wonderful, in-depth discussion of the whole situation, including a detailed list of all the IP addresses involved in the suspicious changes and chapter-and-verse run-downs of the changes made to each site. As it turns out, Senate staffers made questionable edits too.
While Wikinews just relays the facts of this imbroglio, Wikipedia founder Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales is quoted in an AP article as saying that removal of facts is wrong.
“You don’t delete it,” Wales said. “If they wanted to put in their side of things, that would seem ethically relevant, rather than just omitting it.”
Update: The Washington Post’s Yuki Noguchi has this front page piece on the Wikipedia “scandal” in Saturday’s print edition.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:10 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Damon Darlin has this piece in today’s New York Times talking about the economic ecosystem that has cropped up around the iPod. According to the article, there are 2,000 iPod-related items for sale, and that for every $3 spent on an iPod, consumers spend $1 on accessories, such as iPod cases, car rechargers, baby strollers with built-in iPod storage units, belt buckles with iPod holders and so forth.
But Darlin didn’t go far enough in his piece. We’ve been tracking some of the more outlandish iPod accessories such as iPod underwear (called iBoxers), iPod beds, and $50,000 diamond encrusted iPods.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:01 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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