Broadband Developments

The music industry’s requests for more personal information regarding the identity of several accused file-sharers have been shot down by a federal judge. Judge Nancy Gertner quashed a subpoena this week in the infamous London-Sire v. Does 1-4 case, saying that the IP addresses of three anonymous Boston University students could not be handed over because the university had “adequately demonstrated that it is not able to identify the alleged infringers with a reasonable degree of technical certainty.”

The legal system has been chipping away at the London-Sire case all year, starting this spring when Judge Gertner said that making files available on a P2P network does not equal copyright infringement. At that time, she also noted that IP addresses can’t always be traced to a particular individual and that, if Boston University were compelled to turn over a list of possible infringers, it could give a green light to RIAA fishing expeditions.

More from ArsTechnica

Ok I am very excited by this move by Obama recent appointment for the FCC transition team. Two good friends of mine who I’ve known for many years were just appointed to the Obama FCC transition team.

Meet the new guard - Kevin Werbach and Susan Crawford. Both are industry experts in the area of policy, technology, and innovation. More importantly they both have a global view. Both Kevin and Susan have long been proponents of ‘broadband everywhere’ and the impact to innovation and global leadership.

I’m excited to see this announcement and throw my hat in as a volunteer to the efforts of Kevin and Susan. This is a fresh change and a big day for broadband and all the innovation behind what broadband offers.

Crawford is a professor of law at the University of Michigan, teaching communications law and Internet law. She was a partner with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) until the end of 2002, when she left to become a legal academic. Crawford recently ended her term as a member of the board of directors of ICANN.

Werbach is an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the organizer of the annual Supernova technology conference. His research explores the legal and business dynamics of information and communications technologies. During the Clinton administration, he served as counsel for new technology policy at the FCC.

“The teams will begin their efforts today, and will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in,” the Obama transition office said.

Now this is a huge development in Broadband (Broadband Developments). As you all know I am a huge supporter of the white space intitiative.  Now that the broadcasters are migrating up to the digital channels this freed up spectrum will enable MASSIVE innovation in wireless broadband.  Why?  Two major reasons (there are many others but these are the most relevant imo) 1) battery capacity and 2) antenna technology.

Both of those areas will be able to thrive in the white spaces.  Signals range and strenght are critical to capacity and the white spaces and other frequencies are key.  I can’t wait to see the startups come out of the woodwork to deliver on this new area.

Kudos for Google (and others) to really support this and get behind this to make it happen.

BROADBAND FREEDOM !!

Here is Larry Page’s Post

Posted by Larry Page, Co-Founder and President of Products

All eyes are on the presidential election today, but another important vote just took place at the Federal Communications Commission. By a vote of 5-0, the FCC formally agreed to open up the “white spaces” spectrum — the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels — for wireless broadband service for the public. This is a clear victory for Internet users and anyone who wants good wireless communications.

The FCC has been looking at this issue carefully for the last six years. Google has worked hard on this matter with other tech companies and public interest groups because we think that this spectrum will help put better and faster Internet connections in the hands of the public. We also look forward to working with the FCC to finalize the method used to compute power levels of empty channels adjacent to TV channels (we have a number of public filings before the commission in this area and it is a vital issue in urban areas).

I’ve always thought that there are a lot of really incredible things that engineers and entrepreneurs can do with this spectrum. We will soon have “Wi-Fi on steroids,” since these spectrum signals have much longer range than today’s Wi-Fi technology and broadband access can be spread using fewer base stations resulting in better coverage at lower cost. And it is wonderful that the FCC has adopted the same successful unlicensed model used for Wi-Fi, which has resulted in a projected 1 billion Wi-Fi chips being produced this year. Now that the FCC has set the rules, I’m sure that we’ll see similar growth in products to take advantage of this spectrum.

As an engineer, I was also really gratified to see that the FCC decided to put science over politics. For years the broadcasting lobby and others have tried to spread fear and confusion about this technology, rather than allow the FCC’s engineers to simply do their work.

Finally, I want to applaud and thank FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, the other commissioners, and the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology for their leadership in advancing this important issue. And, thanks to the more than 20,000 of you who took a stand on this issue through our Free the Airwaves campaign, the FCC heard a clear message from consumers: these airwaves can bring wireless Internet to everyone everywhere.

Posted by Larry Page, Co-Founder and President of Products

How Bad Is US Broadband Deployment? by Scott Bradner, Network World is worth a read - please support this. Scott has been writing about networking for as long as I can remembering reading Network World (which is a great trade magazine).

Face it we need better Broadband (hence the name of this blog - Broadband Developments).  As an aside I am looking for regular contributors to this blog in this area - please email me if you want to contribute information (no PR releases) - john at g mail dot com

Scott posts:
Congress has passed — and the president has signed — the Broadband Data Improvement Act. It may now be possible to get some useful information about where the United States sits in the world when it comes to the deployment and adoption of broadband Internet services. If this turns out to be the case, it will be the first time we would have any real idea.

For reasons best known to itself, the FCC has for years adamantly refused to collect the data necessary to understand the true state of the deployment of broadband Internet service in the United States. Earlier this year the FCC, under the threat that Congress would order it to change its ways, did say it would collect better data in the future.

(See “FCC: Consistent to a fault, but there is a (small) hope”.) Even with the somewhat better data there was no good reason to think that the FCC would produce more useful statistics, considering its track record. Now Congress has acted and there is some additional reason to hope.

The recently adopted law is aimed at improving “the quality of Federal and State data regarding the availability and quality of broadband services and to promote the deployment of affordable broadband services to all parts of the Nation.”

The law mandates some useful ways to attain the first goal but does not do anything useful towards the second other than enable regulators to shame broadband service providers that are not doing a good job.

The law requires the FCC to compile a list of poorly served parts of the country. I guess this is so carriers in those areas can be publicly chastised for their poor behavior.

Here are Congress’ findings where it is cited as the `Broadband Data Improvement Act’.

The Congress finds the following:

• (1) The deployment and adoption of broadband technology has resulted in enhanced economic development and public safety for communities across the Nation, improved health care and educational opportunities, and a better quality of life for all Americans.

• (2) Continued progress in the deployment and adoption of broadband technology is vital to ensuring that our Nation remains competitive and continues to create business and job growth.

• (3) Improving Federal data on the deployment and adoption of broadband service will assist in the development of broadband technology across all regions of the Nation.

• (4) The Federal Government should also recognize and encourage complementary State efforts to improve the quality and usefulness of broadband data and should encourage and support the partnership of the public and private sectors in the continued growth of broadband services and information technology for the residents and businesses of the Nation.

If you love a political, technical, and sometimes religious debate head over to Om Malik’s post on metered broadband. Read the post and then jump into the comments. Good stuff.

I love Om when he gets back on his broadband horse. His post and comments are worth bookmarking and taking your time to read and revisit.

Highlights:

In an effort to burnish his public image, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has taken up a populist and politically lucrative crusade against the evil cable company Comcast and its nefarious efforts to block certain kinds of traffic.

The reality is that all this talk is nothing but hot air, a diversionary tactic that taking the attention away from a bigger, more evil problem that’s emerging for the U.S. Internet: metered broadband.

If Martin wants us to believe in him as one of the people, the 21st century Robin Hood who is looking out for the U.S. Internet consumer, then he should start by putting an end to this metered broadband nonsense right now.

Enjoy the post. This is certainly a great conversation to hear from the experts.