December 2009

Comcast on Tuesday announced the launch of a pilot program for its Internet customers to keep track of how much bandwidth they're using. The company is finally introducing a Web-based metering program, which will let users check these numbers from any browser. This comes a little more than a year after Comcast began enforcing a strict 250GB cap on download bandwidth, exiling those who went over twice for an entire year before being able to get Internet service again. In the interim the company had offered no official tool for customers to see how close they were getting to that limit, outside of a free McAfee Security software program that needed to be installed on each computer sharing that connection. The new online meter is coming first to customers in Portland (OR) as part of a pilot project, which could be expanded to other parts of the country beginning next year.

TV screens live all around us now, on the walls, on our desks, in our cars, and, increasingly, in our pockets. Individual networks and stations are seeing their ratings decline in the crowded, multiscreen environment. But the bottom line is that home entertainment is thriving. People are watching more, in more places than ever. Don't worry about hand-held gizmos taking over from the set in the living room anytime soon. "The primacy of the TV platform is clear," according to Peter Stern of Time-Warner, in spite of the changing habits of young people on Facebook, YouTube and the rest. Stern reminded a cable convention in Denver recently that 97 percent of viewing is still on TV; the average person consumes 4-5 hours of TV a day, but only 2-6 minutes of online video a day. The average American home has many more TVs than people. Stop chasing "the next shiny object," Stern advised, and give customers what they want to watch on TV.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said he wants to overhaul the Universal Service Fund, $7 billion/year federal phone-subsidy program, and reallocate more airwaves to wireless carriers as part of a strategy to improve US broadband Internet availability and affordability. The Universal Service Fund is a federal subsidy program funded by consumers through a charge on their phone bills. The fund subsidizes phone service in rural areas and for low-income households. FCC officials want to change the plan so it funds new broadband Internet lines in rural areas. Proposals to revamp the fund have in the past provoked resistance from rural phone companies and their congressional allies. Smaller rural phone companies depend on the fund for operating revenues. "USF is a multi-billion dollar annual fund that continues to support yesterday's communications infrastructure," Chairman Genachowski said. "We need to reorient the fund to support broadband communications." The agency is also trying to identify airwaves that might be taken away from current holders and auctioned off for more wireless broadband service. A proposal floated recently by FCC officials to take airwaves from TV broadcasters has been met with sharp resistance by station owners. Broadcasters don't use all of their airwaves but they are reluctant to give any up. Some broadcasters have begun offering more free digital channels and others are considering using airwaves for mobile TV service, designed to allow consumers to watch TV on their cellphones and other wireless devices. Broadcasters' airwaves are highly coveted because signals travel easily across them and they carry through walls and around trees. Most of the airwaves used by wireless carriers aren't that strong, which means that companies need more towers to provide strong signals for subscribers.

[Commentary] There's been a lot of buzz around the benefits and relative viability of wiring all community anchor institutions (schools, libraries, hospitals, etc.) with fiber as the way to get the best bang for the broadband stimulus buck. But with any broadband policy it's dangerous to assume that an idea is universally good as the devil's always in the details. If we were to just go and build fiber networks to meet the needs of community anchor institutions then it's actually more likely that these networks won't be useful for future deployment. The reasons for this are manifold. Their might not be enough capacity designed into the network, either in dark fiber or spare conduit. Their won't necessarily be an easy to way to physically access this capacity even if it's there. The network likely won't be engineered in the optimal way in terms of its layout to facilitate universal broadband as community anchors aren't evenly distributed, especially in rural areas. And even if the network is designed the right way, there needs to be a fair system with clear rules for how deployers can get equal access to these networks.