[Cybertel-Ann] 11.13 :: Astute Choices at the FCC :: FCC Staff Liberated from Gray Padded Cubicles :: Taking Side Bets on the Next FCC Chief :: Fear the Monster ::

Thu Nov 13 15:04:52 PST 2008

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             CyberTelecom News  
      Federal Internet Law and Policy
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Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. - Reinhold Niebuhr

Verizon DSL Customers Getting Free Upgrades - Entry level tier speed jumping from 768kbps to 1.5Mbps…, dslreports
In order to help beat back cable and stem their DSL subscriber losses, Verizon recently updated their DSL bundle packages, adding several new options for the triple and double play. As part of that update, the company said they would be updating the speed of their entry level tier from 768 Kbps/128 to 1Mbps/384kbps. Some users in our forums note that Verizon is updating some 768kbps customers to 1.5Mbps or faster if your loop length is short enough. Customers eligible for the free upgrade should be
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-DSL-Customers-Getting-Free-Upgrades-99002
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/dsl.htm

Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act (KIDS Act), Cybertelecom
The Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protection Act was passed in 2006 and, among other things, created state public online databases of sex offenders and the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website through which all of the state databases could be accessed. Leveraging information technology, the Department of Justice has now put within everyone's reach information about sex offenders in their
http://cybertelecom.blogspot.com/2008/11/keeping-internet-devoid-of-sexual.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/cda/child.htm

CTIA drops lawsuit against FCC's open access rules, CW
A mobile phone trade group has dropped a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission challenging the commission's rules requiring so-called open access rules on a block of valuable spectrum auctioned earlier this year.
http://feeds.computerworld.com/click.phdo?i=d533d79f40c8c4b3832d04159879cdc7
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/cpe.htm

AT&T Thinks Network Neutrality Fight Is Over - Unfortunately for them, the neutrality circus was just napping…, dslreports
Post election with a new FCC boss looming, we're starting to see the network neutrality debate rekindled. It has been confirmed that Congress will most definitely pursue network neutrality legislation next year. Carriers obviously would prefer that the government enforce neutrality on a case by case basis, while many worry that government lacks the competence to draft useful laws. AT&T's policy guru James Cicconi takes the opportunity to claim to PC World that there's a "consensus" that's been
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Thinks-Network-Neutrality-Fight-Is-Over-99061
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

Please Stop Telling Us How Many Emails Fit Under A Broadband Cap, Techdirt
Earlier this year, we pointed out that if you're a broadband provider implementing some kind of broadband cap, and you're hyping it up by showing off just how many emails can be sent under the cap, there's a problem. Obviously, ISPs are using the number of emails as a criteria because emails use up almost no bandwidth -- so no matter what the cap is, the answer is "a lot." But, of course, the number of emails you can send is meaningless. There's no big email epidemic that is what has ISPs claiming they need to put in
http://techdirt.com/articles/20081108/1815552773.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/tiers.htm

HughesNet Widens Cap-Free Window - Users get a little extra download breathing room overnight, dslreports
One forum user notes that there is a rare bit of good news for HugheNet satellite broadband customers this week. The company's FAP FAQ has been updated to note that the uncapped window customers see from 3-6AM has been expanded two hours -- and will now be from 2-7AM starting this week (unless you're a HN9000 modem owner, in which case you'll have to wait a month). "5 hours, I'm actually quite shocked
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/HughesNet-Widens-CapFree-Window-99003
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/tiers.htm

On The Importance Of Unfettered Broadband, Techdirt
A little over a year ago, I tried to explain why metered broadband or capped broadband slows down innovation. However, many have responded that as long as the basic caps are reasonably high, it shouldn't be a big deal, because, "how much bandwidth do you really need?" People note that the only ones who might be using up the 250GB caps announced from Comcast can only be downloading
http://techdirt.com/articles/20081106/0251592756.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/tiers.htm

A Day at the Root of the Internet, CAIDA
Published in the Computer Communications Review in October, 2008.
http://www.caida.org/publications/papers/2008/root_internet/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/

Court Must Vacate Kentucky Court's Baseless Domain Name Seizure, EFF
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) urged a Kentucky Court of Appeals Wednesday to vacate a lower court's order authorizing the seizure of more than 100 Internet domain names associated with websites operating around the globe. The seizure, and the lower court's exercise of jurisdiction over global domain names, threatens free speech across the Internet. In a move to comba
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/11/13
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/

Agencies Issue Final Rule to Implement Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, Cybertelecom
Press Release November 12, 2008 HP-1266Agencies Issue Final Rule to Implement Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Washington - The Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board today announced the release of a joint final rule to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The Act prohibits gambling businesses from knowingly accepting payments in connection
http://cybertelecom.blogspot.com/2008/11/agencies-issue-final-rule-to-implement.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ecom/gambling.htm

Judge Rules Against White House in E-Mail Case, NYT
A federal judge ruled against the Bush administration in a court battle over the White House’s problem-plagued e-mail system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/washington/11brfs-JUDGERULESAG_BRF.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/egov/

Google D.C. Talk next Thursday: Tech Agenda 2009, Google
Earlier this week we announced that Google CEO Eric Schmidt will be in Washington next Tuesday to deliver a speech on the intersection between technology and the economy.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GooglePublicPolicyBlog/~3/452247554/google-dc-talk-next-thursday-tech.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/google.htm

Vonage Still Struggling With Defecting Customers - As cable VoIP continues to eat their lunch…, dslreports
Back in July, Vonage tagged former AT&T (technically Cingular) executive Marc Lefar to be the company's new CEO, replacing Vonage founder and interim CEO Jeff Citron, who was playing the role since April 2007. Lefar's primary job was to reduce customer defections, by improving the "customer experience." However, according to Vonage's third quarter earnings, while the company did narrow their net loss on the quarter, the company's "churn" or turnover rate remains unchanged at 3%. At that rate,
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Vonage-Still-Struggling-With-Defecting-Customers-99007
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/vonage.htm

FCC Staff Liberated!, Spectrum Talk
But the real surprise was not noticed by many because it was a little subtle: about 10 FCC employees were present. A few years ago this would have been normal and unremarkable. But for the past several years such attendance by FCC employees has required explicit a priori approval of the Chairman's Office which was hard to come by and indirectly discouraged.
http://spectrumtalk.blogspot.com/2008/11/fcc-staff-liberated-normal-intellectual.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/notes/fcc.htm

How an Astute Choice at the FCC Could Begin to Solve our telecom Infrastructure Disaster, Cook
Few things seem as intractable as the incumbent’s stranglehold on our communications future. At the FCC would be disposed to clean house and start over. Yet from a pragmatic point of view that might well take much more time and produce less desirable results. The following outlines the possibility that President Obama, by one or two appointments at the FCC, could set in motion forces where the FCC could begin to make positive changes in our miserable telecom environment. And let these forces work while he tackles the other very grievous issues we face
http://gordoncook.net/wp/?p=279
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/notes/fcc.htm

Study: DDoS attacks threaten ISP infrastructure, CNET
Arbor Networks finds that DDoS attack sizes doubled last year and were more diverse in nature, taxing the IT security resources at most Internet carriers.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10093699-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/dos.htm

ISPs Fear Monster 40Gbps DDoS Attacks - Attacks getting more sophisticated, while resources getting strained…, dslreports
Several readers write in to note that Arbor Networks has released their 2008 Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report, which picks the brains of roughly seventy engineers from tier 1 and 2 ISPs. Engineers were asked 90 questions about everything from backbone capacity to their workloads, and for the fourth straight year noted that the majority of their security resources and time are spent fighting DDoS attacks,
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ISPs-Fear-Monster-40Gbps-DDoS-Attacks-99017
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/dos.htm

Spam plummets after Calif. hosting service shuttered, CW
The volume of spam worldwide dropped by more than 40% after a California-based hosting service was cut off from the Web, according to IronPort, a messaging security company owned by Cisco Systems.
http://feeds.computerworld.com/click.phdo?i=2504fc083eaa34dc1f298881e109fcfd
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/spam/

Spam declines after hosting company shut-down, CNET
Experts say McColo-hosted sites may have been responsible for as much as 75 percent of the spam on the Internet.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10095730-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/spam/

Spam Volumes Dropped by Two-Thirds After Major Spam Hub Shut Down, CircleID
The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide plummeted on Tuesday after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations engaged in spam activity was taken offline, reports Brian Krebs of The Washington Post today.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/spam_volumes_dropped_two_thirds/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/spam/

Google CEO Says 'No Thanks' to Obama CTO Job, Internet News
Obama adviser Eric Schmidt takes his name off the list for government tech czar. Who's left?
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InternetnewsRealtimeNewsForItManagers/~3/kXx9etT1N8g/3784021
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/vote/obama.htm

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