The Federal Government is currently taking public comments on how to distribute the $7.2 billion in the stimulus package allocated to improve broadband access and speeds. … Read More
Fiber opportunity is worth the risk in North St. Paul By Christopher Mitchell, originally published in St. Paul Pioneer Press, February 20, 2009 Come Tuesday, North St. Paul residents have the opportunity to become the first metro-area community with a nextgeneration network connecting every home and business. This network will offer a unique experience in the … Read More
Come Tuesday, North St. Paul residents have the opportunity to become the first metro-area community with a nextgeneration network connecting every home and business. This network will offer a unique experience in the Twin Cities, an advanced broadband network similar to what tens of millions use on a daily basis across the rest of the developed world.
North St. Paul has asked its citizens to approve $18.5 million in bonds to build a fiber-to-the-home network called PolarNet. Bonds will be repaid by the revenue from citizens subscribing to phone, television, and its blazing fast Internet connection provided by an established company based in Minnesota.
In a misguided column entitled "Congress Approves Broadband to Nowhere," L. Gordon Crovitz suggests other countries have been more successful than the U.S. in expanding access to fast broadband but then rejects the approaches they took and encourages more of the same policies that have led to U.S. downfall.
In response, I submitted the following letter to the editor at the Wall Street Journal:
The U.S. has fallen behind other countries both in the percentage of our population that has access to high-speed Internet connections, and in what we consider “high speed.” Almost all homes and businesses in Japan and South Korea have access to connections that are literally thousands of times faster – for which they pay considerably less than do we.… Read More
One year after FCC Chair William Kennard introduced a tentative plan to legalize low power FM stations, the FCC finally enacted rules for microradio on January 20, 2000. "Every day it seems like we read about more and more consolidation in the broadcast area…what low-power FM radio will do is create an important new outlet and spark a whole new outlet for creativity and and new ideas and new music that we don’t often hear on the radio." FCC Chairman Kennard proclaimed after the decision was announced.… Read More
The Internet as we know it developed within a framework of "open access" or “common carriage.” That is, people could choose their own Internet service provider (ISP), view any web site, and transmit any information they desired. The phone company owned the phone lines but had to offer wholesale access to competitors.
Open access did not happen by chance, but rather by regulation. Many years ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required that, for a reasonable fee, local phone companies allow their wires to be used by competing ISPs. … Read More
Rules to encourage wireless networks – offering both universal and hotspot coverage. Some are owned by the local government, other are groups of citizen activists organizing to solve their own problems.… Read More
App-Rising.com sits down with Christopher Mitchell to discuss the merits of open networks and how they shift the focus of competition from the characteristics of last mile technologies to the merits of the services being offered.… Read More
