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Production Schedule Change

by Andrew McCaskey
Some changes in the production schedule for SDRNews are going to take the program to three days a week for the next few weeks, as well as some holiday scheduling. Part of the plan is preparation for the coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show, and part of the plan is a change in the business model.

I’ll be sharing parts of the upgrades and information on the Facebook Fan page for SDRNews, and looking forward to your comments there.

On CES, we have some really exciting news : The TPN field team has been invited to produce a portion of our CES coverage live from the NBC-Universal booth on two days during the CES Show. As more details become available, we will be certain to share. Also, the Geek News Central 24 hour podcast is coming up this weekend December 12, and we’ll have some more CES related announcements at that time as well.

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Telco Transition

by Andrew McCaskey
Sooner Than We Think

It’s pretty easy to ignore the oncoming tide in telephony – but the fact that the FCC has asked for comments on the transition from switched telephone service to a totally VoIP based system indicates that we could have a transition on our hands within fifteen or twenty years could make the digital television switchover look like a walk in the park. It might also be a lot easier than we think, as we look at the gradual installation of at least some level of IP based infrastructure that’s being added under our nose.

All that you need do is take a walk through your closest WalMart, Home Depot, Radio Shack or similar retail outlet – and you will see an amazing amount of material that as recently as ten years ago were found only in metro areas. Not ten years ago, any business trip to the Bay Area included a pilgrimage to Fry’s to see the latest wonder, and take it back on the flight home. No more. It’s as available as other consumer technology – and slowly and surely it’s getting installed (more or less) in homes and offices over the country. And with the penetration of some sort of broadband beyond dial-up there’s an ongoing growth of skills if not formal knowledge that was formerly in professional territory.

Like any transition, this one will be gradual – almost on generational bounds. But there’s no doubt that the age of analog comm systems, just like the era of steam in years past are running on borrowed time. {sharethis}

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Power Grab Net Neutrality

by Andrew McCaskey
Power In the Guise of Net Neutrality

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is throwing some wet towels on the FCC’s initiatives on Net Neutrality. Not at all for the concept of insuring equal access to the internet, or preventing ISP’s from artifically introducing tiered services for selected deep pocket customers – but rather how the FCC derives such authority.

Specifically, Congress has never authorized the FCC to regulate the internet. Telephony, yes. Wireless, yes – but the FCC has extended it’s reach on the basis of “ancillary jurisdiction” – and in the words of the EFF ” a position that amounts to ‘we can regulate the Internet however we like without waiting for Congress to act’. That’s a power grab – and it will set a precedent that will live on long after this administration. Net neutrality regulations (something we might like) today, it could just as easily be invoked tomorrow for any other Internet regulation that the FCC dreams up (including things we won’t like).

The EFF goes on to suggest that in the future, politically driven “Internet decency”, or “Lawful Use Only” rulings could slip by, outside of any Congressional mandate.

This is way too important not to have Congress explictly say that the FCC is authorized to regulate in matters of Net Neutrality, but is limited to the will of Congress in other Internet matters.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0 {sharethis}

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Net Neutrality – the Usual Suspects

by Andrew McCaskey
Just like Casablanca

Now that the officail Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is set on the Net Neutrality issue, the net neutrality debate continues and now the heavy lobbying begins. The ISP’s and telcos maintain that the net runs on their equipment, and that they should have the freedom to do what they want with their investment, and maximize the return to their stockholders. Just like the Inspector, all you need to do is round up the usual suspects.

MacLife published an even handed assessment of both sides of the issue:

“One of the ways an ISP could ramp up profits is to make deals with Internet Application companies who would pay more to provide consumers with an optimum experience. If, say, your company streams video you could pay an ISP to ensure that viewers can access your service at the best possible speeds. So the people watching your videos will be happily munching popcorn while your competitor’s viewers are throwing their popcorn at their computer’s screen in frustration.

Pay-for-optimum-play service agreements would also affect small businesses and entrepreneurs. If you are a kid in a dorm room with a few bucks and a plan for the next Google, Twitter, YouTube or Facebook you may find that a big corporation can deliver a less-innovative offering more effectively because they can afford to pay ISPs for first class delivery service.”

The way that is going to end is going to be a triumph of the lobby power on both sides.

Government lobbying has a long and fairly sordid history. And there are a lot of accusations about “astroturf” the political grass roots campaign that’s not quite authentic grass roots. The recent stories about the Communications Workers union, various minorities and a good number of Democratic congressmen coming out against net neutrality have had a bit of “follow the money” flavor.

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Net Neutrality and Open Access

by Andrew McCaskey
Net Neutrality and Open Access Raises the Stakes
Logo for NetNeutrality

There is no doubt that there is going to be a vigorous debate now that the FCC has opened the Net Neutrality topic for public commentary. Add the reopening of the notion of Open Access , and it is going to expose lines and links to lobbyists on both the left and the right.

You are already beginning to see some cracks in the uniform Democratic support for Net Neutrality. Clearly opposed by Republicans from the beginning, it now has opposition arriving in dribbles and drabs from Democrats with strong telco union presence in their districts. Net neutrality opponents are skillfully deploying a variety of pressure points – this time from the notion that minority districts would be hurt by a reluctance of private telcom investment if net access must be equally offered. It’s just not clear why their districts would be better off with infrastructure not built at all.

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Net Neutrality Gets a Chance

by Andrew McCaskey
Moving Fast, Closing Window

Now is no time to be giving high-five’s on the topic of netneutrality. FCC Chairman Genachowski’s speech and the policies rules that are proposed are the opening salvo in a battle that will be fought out for the remainder of this administration’s term. There is simply too much money in play- and with some of the World Class lobbyist efforts now targeting a common foe – the next three years are going to be spent in the defensive mode, keeping the internet free and open.

If the principles and rules are not in place, challenged and resolved with court appeals, final ruling and precedent completed, it is always a danger that progress will be temporary.

Let us hope that now that the pendulum is swinging in the direction that promises a continuation of the innovation at the edge, that there is a long time before it starts to swing back the other way. If not, we are condemning our grandchildren to the equivalent of the 300Baud modem – the sort of innovation that we would have about now if there had not been an opening of the telecom arena less than 30 years ago. In fact 1200 Baud was the high speed option – and maybe that would have been what we could look forward to along the way.

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Setting the Bar Low

by Andrew McCaskey
FCC Gets the Cable ISP Answer

The feedback is coming in for the Federal Communication Commission’s request for a definition of broadband. The cable trade association said that “The Commission should continue to look at maximum advertised speed rather than some measure of ‘actual’ speed,”
The FCC noted that “For example, advertised throughput rates generally differ from actual rates, are not uniformly measured, and have different constraints over different technologies” .

Comcast said “it’s out of our hands” and that ” the actual online experience of any particular consumer at any particular moment in time involves a wide range of factors, many of which are outside the control of the Internet service provider.” Given this, the cable ISP suggests that “the ‘provisioned’ speed

AT&T goes for the functional approach: For residential customers, that minimal set of applications should include the ability to exchange e-mails, participate in instant messaging, and engage in basic Web-browsing,” AT&T says. “It also should include the ability to engage in Internet-based education programs, interact with Internet-based government services, and participate in online energy, healthcare, and public-safety programs.”

If you are planning to aim low and hit, words like “participate in”, “Engage” and “Participate” are just the sort of linguistic cover that will allow for the sloppiest marginal coverage – not much better than the practice of coloring a county as served by broadband if there was one person in the county with some degree of connectivity above dialup.

The rest of the world is laughing and we are content with this sort of competitive posture. We will look back to the “good old days” when the US was #18 in broadband service. We are firmly on the charts at number 18 with a bullet. Fasy moving but unfortunately headed the wrong way.

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White Fi Debuts

by Andrew McCaskey
Closer to Reality

Prototypes are beginning to emerge from the labs at Microsoft – and presumably other partners in the Whitespace Consortium , and the results seem encouraging. Rather than operating in the congested 2.4 and 5.8 Ghz bands common to various WiFi services, whitespace modems operate at a lower frequency (the UHF TV band) that have much superior propagation characteristics. Ranges of a mile or more are possible.

There are numerous technical challenges – the greatest of which has been the legal requirements of combination of spectrum sniffing and a backup database system. If a licensed service like television broadcast or a database problem, the White-Fi device has to take the dive and shift immediately to alternate channels- presumably out of band in the UHF region.

It’s a difficult assignment – but the flexibility of these intelligent modems are going to be critical in extending infrastructure, if WIMAX turns out to be drtangled in the cradle. It’s always good to have a backup plan.

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Hitchcock – iPhone Storyboard App

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Google Listen Not the Podcaster’s Friend

by Andrew McCaskey
May Not Be the Podcaster’s Friend

Right now, the experiment is limited to the Android platform on T-mobile – but if the Google Listen project in Google Labs broadens to the iPhone, it might not be the best news for Podcasters.

The way the system appears to work, a user puts in a keyword or keywords, and there is a search for recent podcast episodes that contain the word. Apparently this is a result of a Google more or less realtime transcript service that moves the audio into written, indexed and therefore searchable form. Google Listen then gives the listener a group of podcasts that contain that episode, and begins to play.

The good news for the podcaster ? Thousands of additional listeners for that episode with the keyword. The bad news ? One download, pulled into the Google system and then pushed out in the Audio stream.

Plus, and unanswered question: If say 50 podcasts have the keyword, which podcast gets the pole position ? First in the queue adds another dimension to paid adwords, the keyword pay per click.

It’s early to say what’s going to happen, but there are a lot of podcasters watching. {sharethis}

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Catching the Wave

by Andrew McCaskey
100,000 Testers Can Be Wrong
Sept 30th is the day for Google Wave to go wide. There are a few thousand developers who will be pulled into the mix in August – but if you check the calendar, it is not too many weeks before the first public release.
Google Wave is either going to be the biggest hit or biggest flop ever. I vote for flop.
No matter how revolutionary the communications vehicle is, or how flawed our email system is at the moment, it’s the system known or trusted with close to forty years of established base. Biggest hit status for Google wave would have 100,000 enthusiastic fans, and say, 2 billion net users that would be skeptical. If you look at the trouble that the Mozilla Foundation has had pushing Firefox past the single digits in adoption, the chances that Google Wave will have the uptake needed to replace the conventional email system. If there were 1 million switchers a DAY you are talking on the order of six years for the transition to occur. 

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