1. Monthly archive
  2. December 2015

December 2015

AT&T's Stephenson: FCC's net neutrality order puts telecom industry into a state of limbo

A top AT&T executive is concerned that the Federal Communications Commission's new network neutrality rules, which are now being challenged in court, create an ongoing air of uncertainty for all members of the telecommunications industry ecosystem. Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T, said the various rulings and challenges on the FCC's order will likely not be entirely sorted out until 2017.

"The byproduct of this is we're undoubtedly going to be in this state of limbo where I don't care if you're a cloud provider, an over the top video distributor, a cable company, or a wireless company, you basically don't know what you're environment is right now," Stephenson said. "You're probably not going to know until this thing gets ruled on next spring, gets appealed to the Supreme Court by somebody, which will then rule on it in 2017 so we're probably well into 2017 before any of the players in this ecosystem have much clarity of what the environment looks like."

San Francisco looking to link its networks of fiber-optic cables

San Francisco (CA) might be considered a capital of innovation, but the technology used by its city government is lagging far behind. The city owns more than 260 miles of high-speed fiber-optic networks that provide Internet connections and link departments. The system, called City Fiber, is housed in tubes and pipes belonging to public agencies and private companies. But there is no clear map marking where the wires are buried and how many miles of conduit house them, a policy analysis report reveals.

“We are certainly the innovation capital of the world, but as it relates to our own government’s technology resources, I would argue that we are lagging far behind,” Supervisor Mark Farrell said. “I think there’s a big difference from the technology and innovation in the private sector to the attention that technology has received within the government.” Not having an overall map of City Fiber blocks the city from expanding that network, Farrell said, especially as the Internet becomes an increasingly necessary utility. Under legislation introduced by Farrell at Dec 8’s Board of Supervisors meeting, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission would be instructed to catalog and map the city’s fiber-optic resources in 2016.

The US Senate Is Still One of the World's Whitest Workplaces

The US Senate is famously known as the world’s most deliberative body, but it has never been its most representative. And that remains true not only of the 100 people elected to serve, but of the hundreds more hired as their top advisers.

Just over 7 percent of congressional aides who hold senior staff positions in the Senate are people of color, according to a new study set to be released Dec 8 by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. That amounts to just about 24 of the 336 people who hold top job titles, and it is a far lower percentage than the country as a whole, where people of color -- defined as African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans -- comprise about one-third of the population. The lack of diversity is particularly glaring among African Americans (0.9 percent of top staff positions) and in the offices of senators hailing from states with large black and Hispanic populations. And it suggests that little has changed in the decade since the online magazine Diversity Inc. called the Senate the nation’s worst employer for diversity.

Google Exploring Fiber for Chicago and Los Angeles

We’re inviting Chicago (IL) and Los Angeles (CA) to explore bringing Google Fiber to their cities. As we’ve explored bringing Fiber to other metros across the US, we’ve worked to refine our checklist and prepare for building our network in different places. Now, we’re ready to use that same process to work with two of the biggest cities in the country.

Home to a combined 6+ million people, Chicago and LA are the two largest metros we’ve engaged with to date. And with the help of gigabit Internet, Chicago and L.A. can boost their creative cultures with Internet speed to match their size. While we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to bring Fiber to Chicago and LA, this is a big step for these cities and their leaders

Comcast’s Brian Roberts: Steve Jobs Pushed For Wi-Fi Via Cable Boxes Years Ago

Comcast is preparing to move deeper into the wireless service business, company chairman-CEO Brian Roberts hinted Dec 8. Roberts said the company was focused on doing more with its existing relationship with Verizon and Sprint to expand its wireless offerings. “We’re going to experiment in that area,” he said, citing the opportunity to “marry” Comcast’s broadband infrastructure with the telecommunication company’s cellular networks. Offering cell phone service would move Comcast into the “quad play” market of offering video, broadband, landline and cell phone services.

Roberts recalled his introduction to the concept of Wi-Fi came when he was in a meeting years ago with Apple chief Steve Jobs. “He told me he couldn’t understand why we didn’t put Wi-Fi into every cable box,” Roberts said. “I went home and said ‘What’s Wi-Fi?’ ” Roberts noted that some 70 percent-75 percent of the bits going over the Internet are being sent via Wi-Fi these days. The focus on wireless and mobile connectivity offers advantage to cable providers because they reach right into the home with a fat pipe. “There’s nobody better to innovate than the in-home provider,” he said.

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