[Cybertel-Ann] 2.4.8 :: Mission Accomplished :: Broadband over Chutzpah :: DSL Market Forces? :: Any Licenses Available on eBay :: What's Up w Those Undersea Cables? ::

Mon Feb 4 15:19:15 PST 2008

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             CyberTelecom News  
      Federal Internet Law and Policy
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RSS Feeds : Fed Notices : Blog : Clips : Daily Digest
http://www.cybertelecom.org/news.htm 
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NTIA Says Bush Has Met Broadband Goals - Findings
based on flawed data, dslreports
At the end of 2007, the acting administrator of the
National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) stated that she believed that
President Bush s goal to achieve universal broadband
had been met. That statement was met with serious
opposition.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/NTIA-Says-Bush-Has-Met-Broadband-Goals-91503
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/

George Bush Claims Broadband Mission Accomplished,
Open Left
Yesterday, George Bush's administration claimed it has
largely succeeded in supplying affordable high-speed
Internet access to all Americans. Another mission
accomplished moment? Yep. The real picture isn't
nearly so rosy.
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3571
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/

Developing a Digital Strategy - Where to start?, Cisco
The benefits in economic growth, productivity,
competitiveness, social inclusion, good government
that the power of information and communications
technology (ICT) could create are demanding high
policy initiatives (Digital Agendas or Digital
Strategies) to increase the adoption of ICT and
network connectivity.
http://blogs.cisco.com/gov/2008/02/developing_a_digital_strategy.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/

Shades of NSFNet: EDUCAUSE Proposes 100Mbps Nationwide
Broadband, Peerflow
EDUCAUSE, the association whose mission is to advance
higher education by promoting the intelligent use of
information technology, today proposed bringing the
federal government, state governments, and the private
sector together as part of a new approach to making
high-speed Internet services available across the
country.
http://riskman.typepad.com/peerflow/2008/02/shades-of-nsfne.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/

Chutzpah, They Name Is Wireless Incumbent., Tales from
the Sausage Factory
So here we are in the middle of the most intensely
competitive auction ever. As you can tell looking at
the recent postings by fellow Wetmachiner Greg Rose
this auction has dramatically pushed up the amount of
money paid by bidders for licenses a..
http://www.wetmachine.com/item/1043
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/w700.htm

FCC Faces Wireless, Internet "Neutrality" Demands,
CommLaw
Can a network provider treat its customers
differently, based on the content of their
communications?
http://commlawblog.com/2008/01/29/fcc-faces-wireless-internet-neutrality-demands.aspx
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

BitTorrent Trend Suggests ISPs Need to Improve
Networks - The ultimate alternative to BitTorrent
throttling, dslreports
An article over at TorrentFreak this week took a look
at the alternatives that ISPs can consider to deal
with their BitTorrent problem . The article cites a
number of different suggestions that would be more
customer-friendly than the currently popular ISP
practice of throttling. However, the ultimate
suggestion is that ISPs need to get used to the idea
that BitTorrents are the future and must upgrade their
networks accordingly.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/BitTorrent-Trend-Suggests-ISPs-Need-to-Improve-Networks-91548
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

IPv6 Transition Tools and Tui, Potaroo
If IPv6 really is an inevitable component of our
networked future, then is there something an ISP could
do today, within the scope of a day or two of effort,
that is less ambitious than the full dual stack
deployment across the entire network, yet enables some
degree of useful and working IPv6 support for its
customers? Or, to put it another way, is there a small
step that would at least kick start an ISP into the
area of IPv6 support?
http://www.potaroo.net/ispcol/2008-02/tui.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/ipv6.htm

As IPv6 Deploys, Will We Look Back on NAT as the Ugly
Step Sister or Unsung Hero?, CircleID
The debates are raging over whether or not we should
migrate to IPv6. The strongest argument is the
enormous address space that will allow for everyone
and everything to have a unique public address, many
addresses actually. It is often said that the shortage
of public IPv4 addresses has limited our capabilities
because it led to the pervasive use of private
addressing, Network Address Translation (NAT) and Port
Address Translation (PAT). Though these technologies
remain critical, they are often regarded as stop-gap
measures, and they sometimes create problems. In some
circles, NAT has acquired a very bad name. But is that
a fair perspective of the technology? Let's review the
positives and negatives
http://www.circleid.com/posts/ipv6_address_deployment_and_nat/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/ipv6.htm

Pennsylvania Sues Woman For Selling Goods On eBay
Without A License, Techdirt
A few years back we wrote about states that were
passing inexplicable laws requiring anyone selling
goods on eBay for others to get an auctioneer's
license, something that can be quite costly and
sometimes requires a long-term apprenticeship. It
appears just such a law is being used in Pennsylvania
to go after a very successful eBay seller (via the
Agitator).
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080201/021626147.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ecom/

AT&T To Raise DSL Prices - Just because it can,
dslreports
Coming on the heels of an outage in AT&T's 3G and Edge
network that affected many Midwestern states, the
Chicago Tribune is reporting that the telco will be
tacking on an additional $5 a month for its DSL
service:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-To-Raise-DSL-Prices-91538
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/dsl.htm

Google says Microsoft takeover of Yahoo 'threatens'
internet, America's Network
Google has launched an attack on Microsoft's attempt
to acquire Yahoo, claiming it threatens the openness
of the internet.
http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/Daily+News/Google-says-Microsoft-takeover-of-Yahoo-threatens-/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/488806?ref=25
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/yahoo.htm

A Giant Bid That Shows How Tired the Giant Is, NYT
The proposed Yahoo deal is a confirmation that
Microsoft has become exactly what Bill Gates used to
fear — sluggish and bureaucratic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/technology/02nocera.html?ex=1359867600&en=cddc9292dc8e114f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/yahoo.htm

Deal That May Create More, Not Less, Competition, NYT
Advertising and media executives said that Google has
become so dominant in the online advertising market
that a combined Microsoft and Yahoo might be the only
way to produce a legitimate competitor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/technology/02google.html?ex=1359867600&en=e69057b7b2ac5aba&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/yahoo.htm

Google Uses Oldest Trick in Book to Counter Microsoft,
IP Democracy
For a company that only recently came up to speed in
Washington, Google is playing by the rules spelled out
in the unofficial big company lobbying handbook. The
search giant has launched a swift and seemingly
all-out effort to thwart Microsoft's $44.6 billion
acquisition of Yahoo!, including the old standby:
hobble competition by inviting government
intervention.
http://www.ipdemocracy.com/archives/2008/02/04/#002865
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/yahoo.htm

Did The Warranties Just Run Out On Undersea Cables?,
Techdirt
If you've never read Neal Stephenson's epic article
from Wired magazine in 1996 about the laying of
undersea fiber optic cable, I highly recommend you set
aside some time to do so. Just a warning: set aside a
lot of time. The article is almost book length, and
it's hard to stop reading once you get into it. He
goes into quite a lot of detail about FLAG, the
Fiberoptic Link Around the Globe.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080203/223211162.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/me.htm

Iran is not disconnected!, Rensys
We have gotten a few queries about why we did not
highlight Iran in our review of the network outages
that resulted from the cable breaks. (See here, here
and here.) Like most countries in the region, the
outages in Iran were very significant, but for the
most part they did not exceed 20% of their total
number of networks. Now 20% is a significant loss, but
in the context of an event where countries lost almost
all of their connectivity, such a loss did not place
Iran into the top 10 of impacted countries. So we
focused most of our attention where the losses where
the highest.
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2008/02/attention_iran_is_not_disconne_1.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/me.htm

The Internet’s Weakest Link—Submarine Cableheads,
TeleFrieden
No description
http://telefrieden.blogspot.com/2008/02/internets-weakest-linksubmarine.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/me.htm

Mediterranean Cable Break - Part III, Rensys
Our first two blog entries on this topic focused on
the events of 30 January 2008, when two submarine
cables systems were damaged. These systems provided
much of the capacity into the Middle East and the
Indian subcontinent from the west. Although some
countries were hurt more than others, the loss of
connectivity was extensive and very widespread. Some
countries and a few providers were almost completely
knocked off the Internet. As Day 1 came to a close, it
was clear that the damaged cables were not going to be
repaired anytime soon and the impacted parties would
have to look for alternatives to waiting it out.
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2008/02/mediterranean_cable_break_part.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/me.htm

Fourth Undersea Fiber Cable Cut - Underwater bogeyman
strikes again
, dslreports
A fiber cable running between the Qatari island of
Haloul and the UAE island of Das has been cut, the
fourth such instance in roughly a week. The first
three, located in the Mediterranean and Persian gulf,
were ripped apart by dragging boat anchors and
resulted in widespread connectivity headaches
throughout Egypt and India. This fourth instance
appears to be power related:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Fourth-Undersea-Fiber-Cable-Cut-91576
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/me.htm

Another FISA Monday, Isen.blog
Seems that Monday is FISA day in the Senate. That's
the day some Senators argue that we should forgive the
telephone companies, as Vice President Cheney says,
"that have worked with us and helped us prevent
further attacks against the United States." (Big news.
Cheney says they did it. if you haven't seen this
Keith Olberman clip, stop reading this and click
through.)
http://isen.com/blog/2008/02/another-fisa-monday.html
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/fisa.htm

T-Mobile Sued For Forcing People To Accept (And Pay
For) Text Messages, Techdirt
It's not too hard to remember the day when a lot of
people couldn't receive text messages on their mobile
phones. I still sometimes ask people to see if they
use text messages. Apparently, if they're on T-Mobile,
I shouldn't even bother. Even if you don't want to use
text messaging, T-Mobile requires users to accept
messages... and to pay for them. That's resulted in a
class action lawsuit against the company for unfairly
forcing people to pay for text messages they don't
want. While it may not be a huge issue right now, if
SMS spam picks up, it could become a very important
issue.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080131/172655145.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/spam/email.htm

Good for Obama: He favors parental empowerment over
censorship, Tech Liberation Front
In case you didn't catch it the debate last night,
Sen. Obama had some very encouraging things to say
when asked about the role of government when it comes
to media content. "[T]he primary responsibility is for
parents," Obama said. "And I reject the notion of
censorship as an approach to dealing with this
problem." He then stressed the importance of making
sure that parents have the tools to make these
determinations for their families (something I've
spent a lot of time stressing in my work):
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techliberation/~3/227550545/043305.php
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/vote/2008.htm

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