February 2010

Move over, Millennials. You're not the younger generation anymore. For the past decade, you were the ones to watch. But now, as the eldest among you are fast approaching 30, there's a new group just begging for some attention.

They're still kids, and although there's a lot the experts don't yet know about them, one thing they do agree on is that what kids use and expect from their world has changed rapidly. And it's all because of technology. "It's simply a part of their DNA," says Dave Verhaagen, a child and adolescent psychologist in Charlotte. "It shapes everything about them." To the psychologists, sociologists, and generational and media experts who study them, their digital gear sets this new group (yet unnamed by any powers that be) apart, even from their tech-savvy Millennial elders. They want to be constantly connected and available in a way even their older siblings don't quite get. These differences may appear slight, but they signal an all-encompassing sensibility that some say marks the dawning of a new generation.

Kathryn Montgomery, a communication professor at American University and author of the 2007 book Generation Digital, hears similar stories from her students. "They tell me their younger siblings have different relationships with these technologies," she says. The difference is that these younger kids "don't remember a time without the constant connectivity to the world that these technologies bring," she says. "They're growing up with expectations of always being present in a social way — always being available to peers wherever you are."

As the 2GHz Broadcast Auxiliary Service relocation effort approaches completion, 28 designated market areas (DMAs) were not expected to meet the Feb. 8 deadline and should be given relocation deadlines on a market-specific basis, according to a joint request filed Feb. 1 with the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology. The filing from Sprint Nextel, the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV), NAB and the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) modifies a joint request made Dec. 31, 2009, in which the parties told the commission that nine DMAs would need until Aug. 9 to complete the relocation. Other DMAs would also require an extension, but were expected to complete the project before Aug. 9, the filing said.

If you want a good look at what a non-neutral Internet looks like, take a gander at Australia where bandwidth caps are common. But Australian Internet service providers take the idea one step further by setting up partnerships with entertainment services and music download companies. Any data usage directed at one of these favored services doesn't count against the monthly bandwidth cap. This is quite clearly non-neutral behavior in any sense of the term. ISPs shape traffic when the quota is reached, meaning that all traffic to non-partner sites is slowed dramatically, while the favored services continue at full speed. This isn't an outright "blocking" of other websites, which can be freely accessed until the cap is reached, but the effect is quite similar. How are high-bandwidth services like video streaming going to compete against those services favored by an ISP? How will new players ever gain market share?

The US residential broadband speeds continue to increase, albeit at a slower rate than in 2008. Between year-end 2008 and year-end 2009, downstream bandwidth rose by 28%, reports In-Stat. The average downstream speed of a US broadband connection is 7.12Mbps. More than one quarter of survey respondents also had a mobile wireless broadband connection in addition to their wired broadband connection.