[Cybertel-Ann] 5.28.8 :: You Cant Handle the Straight Talk! :: Ba' Bye WiFi :: Freakish Bandwidth Gluttons :: Illegal to Link :: Riding BART to play WOW :: Cybertelecom, Now Extra Delicious ::

Wed May 28 06:36:19 PDT 2008

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      Federal Internet Law and Policy
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It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid
than to open it and remove all doubt. – Mark Twain

Large sections of Washington are still not connected
to high speed Internet, Speed Matters
Across Washington, large sections of the state are
still without high speed Internet connections. The
answer to the problem, according to CWA and others,
lies in reliable mapping of which areas are connected,
which areas have a connection that is too slow, and
which areas have no connection at all. Once it's clear
which areas are which, Washington can figure out how
to address its needs.
http://www.speedmatters.org/blog/wa_still_not_connected.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/

Getting 'Naked' U-Verse VDSL - FTTH, customers out of
DSL range get 'Internet only' option
, dslreports
While AT&T has made a big stink about the fact they're
trying to ditch the dated mindset of forcing customers
to bundle services, technically they're still
requiring some customers to order U-Verse TV if they
want U-Verse VDSL service. Users in our U-Verse forum
note that there's a few instances where you don't have
to bother signing up for U-Verse TV if all you want is
a broadband connection:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Getting-Naked-UVerse-VDSL-94751
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/dslnaked.htm

Bye Bye, WiFi? Local Governments Abandoning Network
Plans, Ecommerce Times
Dreams of highly subsidized municipal wireless
Internet access aren't dead, but a string of failed
initiatives is forcing local governments to rethink
the scale and cost of rolling out WiFi access to their
residents. Several years ago, government officials and
executives from private companies hailed municipal
WiFi as a solution for improved public safety
infrastructure, cheaper broadband service and access
for areas with slow or no Internet access. The
assumption was that private service providers could
set up networks with minimal financial burden on
governments.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/63099.html
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/muni.htm

Public transport Wi-Fi is hot: SF BART to be unwired,
Muni
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is
negotiating with Sacramento-based Wi-Fi Rail for the
installation of Wi-Fi access in BART trains that
traverse the Bay Area. BART plans to offer free (with
ads) and paid Wi-Fi service. BART will not be paying
for the network; Wi-Fi Rail will bear all of the
costs, approximately $20 million. Seen that model
before?
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/muniwireless/~3/297315797/
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/muni.htm

Sprint Defends New 5GB EVDO Cap - What are you, some
kind of freakish bandwidth glutton?, dslreports
Sprint EVDO wireless broadband used to have a
competitive edge over Verizon Wireless, because Sprint
offered unlimited data consumption. Last week Sprint
lost a lot of good will when it was revealed they'd be
mirroring Verizon and employing a 5GB monthly cap.
Sprint is apparently soothing angry customers by
telling them that if they consume more than 5GB worth
of data per month, they're a statistical freak. Says
the company to BetaNews:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Sprint-Defends-New-5GB-EVDO-Cap-94771
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/w3g.htm

FCC Discusses Auction to Give You Free Wireless
Broadband - M2Z Networks proposal to offer free
service to 95% of population is revisited, dslreports
In 2007 the FCC considered (and then denied) a request
by M2Z Networks to give the company a chunk of free
spectrum to be used to provide free wireless broadband
to approximately 95% of the country. The FCC is now
considering a new spectrum auction which would be for
almost the exact same purpose as that previously
proposed by M2Z Networks. The new auction would be for
25 megahertz in the 2155-2180 MHz advanced wireless
services band. It would require that a free service
tier be offered to 50% of the population within four
years and to 95% of the population before the end of
the term. The FCC will be voting on rules for this
auction in mid-June at which time more information
should become available as to whether the auction will
take place this year and whether it will have any
impact on the proposed re-auction of the D-block
spectrum that failed to sell in the 700 MHz auction
earlier this year
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/FCC-Discusses-Auction-to-Give-You-Free-Wireless-Broadband-94694
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/wireless.htm

Information/communications services, Susan Crawford
Congress and the Federal Communications Commission
have divided all communications using wires or radio
waves into two categories:  telecommunications
services or information services.
http://scrawford.net/blog/informationcommunications-services/1181/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/esp.htm

Comcast to 'Manage People, Not Protocols' - Watch CTO
speak vaguely about new plan
, dslreports
In a brief video interview with Cable Digital News,
Comcast CTO Tony Werner talks about the company's new
"protocol agnostic" plan to manage bandwidth, by
specifically targeting high consumption users.
According to Werner, the company's planning to "manage
people, not protocols." Translated, they'll be
targeting just high consumption users, as opposed to
the current approach -- which is to throttle upstream
P2P for all users, 24/7, whether they are heavy users
or not (something they've denied, but remains true all
the same).
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-to-Manage-People-Not-Protocols-94670
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

Payola for the Duopoly, Peerflow
ISP meddling with net neutrality could unite indy
musicians and record labels against the duopoly:
http://riskman.typepad.com/peerflow/2008/05/payola-for-the-duopoly.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

Canadians Rally for Net Neutrality, CircleID
Hundreds of protesters are expected to descend on
Canada's capital on Tuesday to urge government action
on keeping the internet free from interference by
service providers. The net neutrality rally is drawing
together politicians, labor unions, consumer groups
and internet activists, with protesters being bused in
from several locations including Toronto and Montreal.
At issue are the actions of big ISPs such as Bell
Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., who have
been slowing down the internet speeds of customers
using certain applications, such as peer-to-peer
software used for file sharing.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/canadians_rally_net_neutrality/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

U.S. Retail E-Commerce Growth Rate Rebounds in April
after Soft March, comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring
the digital world, today released retail e-commerce
data for April 2008, which showed that the
year-over-year growth rate rebounded to 15 percent,
following an increase of just 9 percent in March.
Further details on April’s retail e-commerce are
provided below and will be presented in greater depth
by comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni and comScore CEO
Magid Abraham during a free, public webinar on Friday,
May 30, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. EST (webinar details
below).
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/comscore/~3/296703519/release.asp
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/data/

New report confirms U.S. is slipping further behind,
Speed Matters
The United States has slipped to 15th in the world in
high speed Internet penetration, with just 23.3
percent, according a new report from the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development. This news
follows an unfortunate down trend—in 2006, the U.S.
was ranked 12th among OECD countries in high speed
Internet penetration and in 2001, 4th.
http://www.speedmatters.org/blog/oecd_report_further_behind.html
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/data/broadband.htm

Internet address space: economic considerations in the
management of IPv4 and in the deployment of IPv6, OECD
With nearly 85% of all available Internet addresses
already in use, experts believe that, if current
trends continue, Internet addresses will run out by
2011. What next? Will the Internet be able to scale to
connect billions of people and devices to the
Internet? This new report focuses on possible
scenarios and on the need to deploy the newer version
of the Internet Protocol, IP version 6 (IPv6).
http://www.oecd.org/topic/0,3373,en_2649_37441_1_1_1_1_37441,00.html?rssChId=37441#40605971
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/ipv6.htm

DNSSEC Adds Value?, CircleID
The recent news that .uk, .arpa and .org may sign
their zones sometime this year is indeed good news.
Each domain is highly significant... As the DNSSEC
registry infrastructure moves inexorably forward --
primarily driven by top level pressure and
considerations of National Interest -- it now behoves
us to clearly articulate the benefits of DNSSEC to
domain owners and registrars. In particular I want to
focus on the vast majority of us to whom cold, hard
cash is important and parting with it requires as a
minimum tangible benefits or, in extreme cases,
surgical intervention.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/852611_dnssec_adds_value/
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/security.htm

Canadian Domain Whois Policy Changes Face Opposition
from Law Enforcement, CircleID
Sweeping changes to Canada's country code top-level
domain, .ca, will put the country on the vanguard of
Internet privacy. But while law enforcement isn't
happy about potentially losing an important
investigative tool, the half-million Canadians whose
personal information is currently publicly available
on the Internet shouldn't rest easy that they are safe
from wired snoops.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/canadian_domain_whois_law_enforcement/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/whois.htm

Comcast 'Pruning' Rural Markets - 46 markets across
eight states...., dslreports
The Associated Press has a little more detail on those
rural cable markets I mentioned Comcast was planning
on selling last week. Comcast is looking to sell about
46 rural markets in eight states (Maine, Kentucky,
Louisiana, New Mexico, Virginia, Georgia, West
Virginia and California), a move that would impact
about 500,000 customers. "It's not about money at
all," one analyst tells the AP. "They are pruning some
of the more outlying areas in order to make a more
efficient cluster." No buyers have been named yet.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Pruning-Rural-Markets-94753
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/comcast.htm

Fios TV moves closer to reality in New York, CNET
A New York commission votes to allow Verizon to offer
Fios TV in the five boroughs.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9952718-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/verizon.htm

NYC FiOS Deal Almost Finished - Only NYC Public
Service Commission approval left
, dslreports
After months of closed door negotiations, New York
City gave the public something almost (but not quite)
resembling actual input into their multi-billion
dollar deal with Verizon last week. Today New York
City's Franchise and Concession Review Committee
(FCRC) voted unanimously to approve Verizon's proposal
to wire the city with FiOS. Verizon is promising to
have the entire city wired by 2014. While the
penalties aren't steep enough to deter the
multi-billion dollar company from wimping out on
deployment to outer boroughs down the line, the desire
for cable TV competition (and franchise revenue) has
city lawmakers doe-eyed with pliant Verizon adoration.
The deal must now be confirmed by the Mayor's Office
(a given) and the New York State Public Service
Commission.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/NYC-FiOS-Deal-Almost-Finished-94765
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/verizon.htm

Russia - Independent media threatened in Ingushetia -
27.05.2008, rsf
No description
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27196
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/

Kazakhstan - Letter to Information and Culture
minister about blocking of Radio Free Europe website -
27.05.2008, rsf
No description
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27194
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/

Internet freedom' bill targeting China cooperation
faces rough road, CNET
Proposal waiting for a floor vote in the House saying
U.S. firms may not place certain servers in repressive
nations faces opposition from the Bush administration
and others.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9952815-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/china.htm

U.S. convicts 15th in largest music piracy case, CW
A federal jury has convicted a member of the
Apocalypse Production Crew for pirating
not-yet-released music and distributing it online.
http://feeds.computerworld.com/~r/Computerworld/News/~3/299360474/article.do
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/ip/copyright.htm

Unlawful Content or Hyperlink to It: What's the
Difference?, Techlaw
The small body of law pertaining to hyperlinks grew a
little last week with a military appellate court's
decision that the act of distributing a hyperlink to
an online source of child pornography did not subject
the defendant to criminal liability for distributing
the child pornography available at that address.
http://pblog.bna.com/techlaw/2008/05/unlawful-conten.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ip/link.htm

Problems Arise With DTV Converter Boxes - People can't
find them, can't pay for them or don't know they need
them, dslreports
People who rely on analog signals to get their
television service are going to need to make an effort
to convert that signal to a digital signal before
analog television service shuts off in February.
Although some will do this by subscribing to cable or
satellite television, many will be getting converter
boxes to make the switch. Unfortunately, there seem to
be some problems arising with these boxes. The main
issue is that the boxes are difficult to find; major
stores like Best Buy aren t carrying them so consumers
seem confused as to where they can get them. An
additional problem is that the first batch of coupons
sent out to people to purchase these boxes are now
about to expire and the NTIA hasn t decided whether or
not re-application for coupons will be allowed. And
worries continue that there is still the problem that
people aren t even aware their service is going to
shut off.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Problems-Arise-With-DTV-Converter-Boxes-94704
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/media/

Study: Web-video viewers to top 1 billion by 2013,
CNET
Should the sector see this kind of growth, Google's
YouTube will be sitting pretty.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9952659-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/media/

Connecticut Blogger Not Subject to Texas
Jurisdiction--Healix Infusion v. Helix Health, Tech &
Marketing Law
Healix Infusion Therapy, Inc. v. Helix Health, LLC,
2008 WL 1883546 (S.D. Tex. Apr 25, 2008) I've...
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2008/05/connecticut_blo.htm
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/notes/juris.htm

Google Docs used in latest spam attack, CNET
Spammers find legitimate way to evade corporate and
desktop spam filters.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-9951535-57.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/spam/

Yahoo Files Suit Against Lottery Spammers, NYT
Yahoo filed a lawsuit against an unknown group of
defendants it alleges tricked consumers into thinking
they won a lottery or prize offered by the Internet
company.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Yahoo-Lawsuit.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/spam/enforce.htm

Minnesota moves toward a high speed future, Speed
Matters
The Minnesota state legislature passed a bill last
month creating the Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task
Force, which will develop high speed Internet goals
and strategies for the state.
http://www.speedmatters.org/blog/minnesota_taskforce.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/states/mn.htm

Mobile VoIP cuts free from Wi-Fi, CW
One service gives users free or cheap calls over the
cellular network when they're away from hotpots, and a
rival service has launched.
http://feeds.computerworld.com/~r/Computerworld/News/~3/299149582/article.do
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/voip/

McCain Not Giving Straight Talk on Warrantless
Wiretapping, EFF
On Wednesday, a McCain campaign spokesperson outlined
a surprisingly reasonable position on whether to hold
telcos accountable for illegally spying on millions of
Americans. EFF applauded his position at the time.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/john-mccain-straight-talk-wiretapping
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/vote/2008.htm

Internet key to Obama victories, BBC
The Democrats seem to have a decisive advantage in
using the internet as a campaigning tool in the
presidential election.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/technology/7412045.stm
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/vote/2008.htm

Let the Obama v. McCain in Silicon Valley Stories
Begin
, The 463
Amy Schatz of the WSJ is the first out of the gate
with a Obama v.
McCain-for-the-hearts-and-wallets-of-Silicon-Valley
story. (Previous pieces hedged with other candidates).
http://463.blogs.com/the_463/2008/05/let-the-obama-v.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/vote/2008.htm

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