The $15 billion broadband bonus

[Here is a good paper referenced in the Cook Report that demonstrates the impact of broadband on GDP. While most other studies have done a lot of waving about the impact of broadband, this paper is the most analytical I have seen in some time.

As governments talk about economic stimulus, what this paper demonstrates is that the biggest bang for the buck will probably be in broadband deployment. While digging sewers and building bridges is important, the leveraging of such investments in terms of creating new economic opportunities is nowhere close to that of broadband deployment.

But its also important that we make the right investment in broadband. It cannot and should not reinforce existing duopolies. It must enable a competitive environment and a level playing field. That is how we will maximize innovation and economic leverage.

Brough Turner gives several good example of this type of investment through customer owned networks in a recent talk he gave at Emerging Communications Conference
Slides at: http://www.slideshare.net/eComm2008/brough-turners-presentation-at-ecomm-2008
Audio at: : http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3719.html

Also FreePress, a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media, argues for the same solution for the US through a $5 billion investment to “. An innovative idea that has been successful abroad, this proposal is designed to deploy world class fiber-optic networks which are shared by multiple competitors. This program would award higher levels of investment tax credits and accelerated depreciation to entities that deploy more than a single strand of fiber to an end user for the purpose of selling the fiber to a competitive provider. In addition, the program would allow all taxes on sales of the additional fiber to qualifying third parties to be completely deferred for five years. This approach would spur competition in the broadband market, encouraging demand and innovation
http://www.freepress.net/node/46686


The $15 billion broadband bonus
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/greenstein/images/htm/Columns/broadband%20bonus.pdf

Customer Ownership of the Local Loop: Its Effects on Competition

[Here is an excellent web site on the regulatory and competitive aspects on the advantages of the customer owning the last mile. Although the arguments are couched in terms of telephony service, they equally apply to internet connections as well. Thanks to Alfredo Bregni for this pointer – BSA]

http://pb.freeshell.org/its.html
Full competition in telephony requires the solution of numerous problems, some of which appear truly intractable. This paper deals with three of the most serious difficulties that competition in telephony must overcome: interconnection among local exchange service providers, interconnection between local exchange and interexchange service providers, and the transition from monopoly to competition. This paper shows that customer ownership of the local loop provides an elegant, uniform solution to these problems; it causes each of these problems to virtually disappear. The paper also discusses the likelihood that customer ownership of the local loop will create a competitive loop construction industry. This does not directly solve an obvious problem with competition in telephony, but it is clearly desirable, because it permits loop construction to be demand driven rather than supply driven. The paper concludes with an explanation that customer ownership of the local loop does more than solve several individual problems with competition in the provision of telephony. Rather, it constitutes an elegant, integrated solution to many of the problems with competition in telephony.
For more information also see:
http://free-fiber-to-the-home.blogspot.com/

Google policy paper
Home with tails – what if you could own your Internet connection
http://free-fiber-to-the-home.blogspot.com/2008/11/home-with-tails-what-if-you-could-own.html

Swisscom to deploy multiple fibers per home to enable competition

[Kudos to Swisscom for recognizing that multiple strands of home run fiber is a far better solution than xPON for delivering future proof broadband. It also enables competitors with new business models such as “homes with tails”. Excerpts from Lightwave. Thanks to Harvey Newman for this pointer—BSA]


Swisscom touts "fibre suisse" project
)


Over the next six years, Swisscom is planning to invest some CHF 8 billion in the Swiss telecommunications and IT infrastructure, with 35% of this sum earmarked for fibre-optic expansion.

To enable potential cooperation partners to expand their own fibre-optic infrastructure after the construction work has started, Swisscom will be laying several fibres per household in all areas. One fibre will be used by Swisscom, while the others will be made available to the cooperation partners. The multi-fibre model will prevent the creation of a new network monopoly in Switzerland and also meet competitors' requirements for full access to the local loop.

At the end of July, Swisscom invited potential cooperation partners from the telecommunications, cable, and utilities industries to work with it on building the fibre-optic network, with the aim of implementing the network more quickly and cost-effectively in conjunction with several partners. Moreover, this collaboration will generate competition among different types of networks, boosting investment and innovation and maximising the benefits for customers and home owners, says the carrier.

While laying several fibres per household entails marginally higher investments, it guarantees competition at the technology and service levels. Limiting fibres to one per household would be impractical, says the carrier, since it would endanger the dynamic nature of the market and the technological innovativeness of the telecommunications industry over the next 30 to 50 years.

Find more FTTx news at /Lightwave/'s FTTx Resource Center .

Home with tails - what if you could own your Internet connection

[If you can, I highly recommend attending this event. As many of you know customer owned networks is a concept I have been advocating for some time. I also believe that such networks can be paid for almost in their entirety, at no cost to the customer, through carbon offsets or voluntary carbon taxes, especially if most of your electricity comes from coal plants. The carbon footprint of a traditional carrier VDSL or PON network is orders of magnitude larger than a customer owned home-run fiber network – BSA]

Homes With Tails
What If You Could Own Your Internet Connection?


Friday, November 21, 2008
12:15 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.
New America Foundation
1630 Connecticut Ave NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20009



America's path to becoming a broadband leader is uncertain. Few dispute that deploying fast, universal, and affordable broadband is imperative, but the costs of robust network infrastructure are daunting for the private sector and governments.

In a forthcoming New America Foundation working paper, authors Tim Wu and Derek Slater propose an innovative way to drive broadband deployment: a model that encourages consumers to purchase and own the "last-mile" connection that runs into their home. By purchasing their own fiber optic connections, consumers would be able to connect to a variety of service providers. This model holds the potential for higher broadband speeds, greater competition, and lower Internet service prices.

The idea of customer-owned fiber may seem odd at first, but buying items like personal computers, answering machines or even telephones was also unheard of only a few decades ago. Home fiber could someday become a must-have technology.

Join the authors for a presentation and discussion of this new proposal, and learn more about "Homes With Tails."
Featured Speakers:
Tim Wu
Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Fellow, New America Foundation
Co-Author, Homes with Tails

Derek Slater
Policy Analyst, Google Inc.
Co-Author, Homes with Tails

Sascha Meinrath
Research Director, Wireless Future Program, New America Foundation

Moderator
Michael Calabrese
Director, Wireless Future Program, New America Foundation

To RSVP for this event, click on the red button or go to the event page: http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/homes_tails

For questions, contact Cecille Isidro at (202) 986-2700 x 141 or isidro@newamerica.net

Networked ESCOs

An Alternative to Con Ed Revs Up Its Sales Force
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/nyregion/01ambit.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=nyregion

The business model — or ground-floor opportunity, as Mr. Montie put it — is not unlike Amway, Nu Skin and other multilevel marketing businesses: Average Joes and Janes sell friends a product or service (who, in turn, sell friends a product or service) with each seller getting a slice of the recruit’s spending in return. Only instead of pushing soapsuds or vitamins, Ambit evangelists sell gas and electricity.

The approach is a novel and perhaps inevitable byproduct of utility deregulation that began a decade ago, with broken-up monopolies now facing competition from alternative energy service companies, known as ESCOs. Hundreds of ESCOs have sprung up — and some have folded up — in recent years, promising to supply gas and electricity cheaper than giants like Con Edison, which still delivers the power. In New York City and Westchester County, ESCOs have nearly 600,000 customers (Ambit officials refused to say how many customers it has locally or nationally).

Direct Energy Services, IDT Energy and many other ESCOs — eager to capitalize on fears over high fuel prices — use mass mailings, Web sites and door-to-door salespeople to recruit customers from Con Ed by promising they will save 7 percent on their supply cost for the first two months, and avoid taxes on the delivery of that supply. Direct Energy reckons that customers in a typical New York City apartment can shave about $6.50 off their monthly electric bill.

Companies offer perks, too. Energy Plus gives customers bonus miles on various airlines for every dollar they spend on electricity.

Ambit, which was founded in Texas in 2006 and came to New York in June 2007, is one of a handful of ESCOs experimenting with the network-marketing model, betting that people are more likely to buy electricity from someone they know than from a stranger at their door (and that sales agents who earn residuals from those they enlist will be more motivated than those who work for a salary or straight commission).

Mr. Chambless declined to discuss Ambit’s finances because it is privately held. But he said he and the company’s chief executive, Jere W. Thompson Jr., had a lot of experience in deregulated markets. Mr. Chambless added that Shell Energy Trading, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, had also agreed to sell energy to Ambit, a major endorsement of the company’s prospects.

A new model for fiber deployment

http://app-rising.com/2008/08/a_new_model_for_fiber_deployme.html

Last week I had the great fortune to learn about a potentially revolutionary new model for deploying fiber from Bill St. Arnaud, senior director for advanced networks at CANARIE and long-time industry visionary.

How Fiber to Home helps Canada's First Nations retain their culture

[Excellent series of articles in PC world on the benefits of Fiber to the
Home for various broadband applications serving communities around the
world. Thanks to Matt Wenger for this pointer-BSA]



>From the PC world article:



http://www.pcworld.com/article/147907/broadband_innovations_part_2_fiber_opt
ics_reaches_the_tipi.html

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, the indigenous Ktunaxa
people of British Columbia had a
thriving culture going back 10,000 years. Following more than a century of
abuse and mistreatment at the hands of the Canadian government, however, the
Ktunaxa's language and culture have been all but eradicated.

Now, innovative uses of cutting-edge broadband and digital recordings of
tribal elders are enabling younger members to hear the sounds of the
language, giving Ktunaxa leaders hope for its future.

"With no prospect of the infrastructure in our traditional territory
improving, we took it upon ourselves to develop our own
broadband network in order to
make use of these important language-training resources," says Maki.

In March of 2007, the mission was accomplished. The Ktunaxa Nation now has
North America's only native-owned open-fiber-to-the-home network, providing
speeds of 100 megabits per second to each home.

"We're now wired like no other community in North America. Everything we do
is based on connectivity. Not many people get a chance to change the course
of predicted history, but with hard work and fiber, we will," Maki says.











Matt Wenger writes:



Interesting four part series of articles in PC World highlighting

"groundbreaking broadband uses, and the people who employ the technology to

preserve the past, reshape the future, and fulfill their dreams." To quote

them.





Of particular interest to many of you will be part 2, the feature on the

Ktunaxa nation fiber network in Canada.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/147907-15/broadband_innovations_part_2_fiber_
optics_reaches_the_tipi.html





In terms of the other three articles:



The first article on gaming as Olympic sport this year can be found:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/147903/broadband_innovations_part_1_the_21st_

century_athlete.html



Part 3: "The Film Editor's Dream" A well-known Swedish film editor fulfills

his dream of working remotely while living in a rural area, thanks to a

superfast fiber-optic broadband connection.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/147904/broadband_innovations_part_3_the_film_

editors_dream.html



Part 4: "The Doctor Isn't In But Can See You" In the final installment,

focuses on how NorthWest Telehealth is delivering quality healthcare

remotely. http://www.pcworld.com/article/147905/article.html





What I like, is the emphasis on what is ACTUALLY being done rather than what

could maybe one day happen. There may be good contacts here for many of you

to follow up with to learn more about what they did and how they did it.