Category Archives: Policy

AT&T Going to Provide a Filtered Internet all in the Name of Copyright Protection?

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David Isenberg talks on his blog about how AT&T is going to filter all of the internet they provide looking for copyright violations. He importantly teases apart the difference between filtering for copyright violations and general network congestion management:

I nominate the end-user to make the decision. If, as I propose above, Internet access providers were to provide explicitly different tiers of service for different, explicitly laid out throughput plans charged at different rates, the user could make that decision. And it would be a free market decision that even a libertarian would love. The carrier would need to decide whether to (a) eat the cost of upgrading its infrastructure to allay the risk of losing customers to bad performance or (b) implement tiered service to save network upgrade costs but risk losing customers who don’t like paying for tiered service. But, hey, that’s business.

Carriers know all this. But, as it turns out, they don’t want to frame the picture simply because they don’t want to be in the Stupid Network business. They’re addicted to adding value. They’ve convinced one class of customers, music and movie moguls, that they can add value for them. Importantly to the carriers, the value they propose to add is network-resident value; the return of the Intelligent Network. Network-resident value is business as usual, even when it imposes huge costs on the rest of society. This is why they persist in framing the two issues as inter-related.

Harold Feld also has weighed in on David Weinberger’s blog:

Which leads to my final point. The very idea of traffic control is that you have to give the ISP the power to decide what is best. But wouldn’t it actually MAXIMIZE network efficiency to treat capacity as a spot market and let users decide? This does not require any great sophistication (assuming the right software). Furthermore, because we keep hearing that it is a relatively few number of sophisticated “bandwidth hogs” that are causing all the heartburn, altering the incentives of these few highly sophisticated actors to change their behaviors will have a substantial global effect.

But the Telcos and Cable Cos do not like this choice, because they want to own the customer.

NYC Broadband Advisory Committee Public Hearing in Manhattan

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On Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 from 1-4pm, the NYC Broadband Advisory Committee will be holding a meeting at the Manhattan School of Music, Greenfield Hall, 120 Claremont Avenue at 122 Street, New York, NY 10027 If you live or work in Manhattan, you should attend this meeting. NYCwireless will be there, representing our work building free, public Wi-Fi.

From Kunal Malhotra, Director of Legislation & Budget, Office of Council Member Gale A. Brewer:

Coming on the heels of successful public hearings in the Bronx and Brooklyn where hundreds of people attended, the New York City Broadband Advisory Committee will hear from policy experts and Manhattan residents and business people in a Public Meeting of the Broadband Advisory Committee in Manhattan. During this official hearing on the borough’s Broadband status, the City Council seeks to answer the following questions: How important is affordable Broadband to businesses and to under-served communities? How will high-speed Internet connections improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers and their families?

“New York is the most dynamic city in the world. But when it comes to the Internet, we’re working to catch up to other jurisdictions,” said Council Member Brewer, Chair of the New York City Council’s Committee on Technology in Government. Brewer sponsored Local Law 126, which created the NYC Broadband Advisory Committee. “I am excited to work with the Mayor’s Office in making New York a place where you don’t have to pay to go slow. We need affordable high-speed Internet connections to bring in jobs, help schools, and make the city safer.”

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 27% of American households are still not using the Internet at all and “those with less education, those with lower household incomes, and Americans age 65 and older are less likely to have embraced broadband than those who are younger and have higher socio-economic status.” Seeking to address these same imbalances, Broadband Advisory Committee Chairperson, Shaun Belle, and CEO of Mount Hope Housing Company said, “Understanding the challenges to Broadband connectivity for the average New Yorker is a primary focus of the Broadband Advisory Committee; exploring and potentially implementing solutions to address these challenges will be the basis of our future planning.”

Andrew Rasiej, an Advisory Committee Member and the Founder of the Personal Democracy Forum and MOUSE said, “These hearings are critical to focusing broad political attention and building consensus for the need to guarantee all New Yorkers an opportunity to participate in the 21st Century economy.”

The New York Broadband Advisory Committee was created by Local Law 126, a bill sponsored by Council Member Gale Brewer. The purpose of the Committee is to advise the Mayor and the City Council on how to bring affordable high-speed Internet connection to all New York City residents, nonprofit organizations and businesses. The public hearing in Manhattan is the third in a series of five being convened in every borough. Queens and Staten Island hearings are scheduled for early 2008.

NYC Broadband Advisory Committee Meeting on March 30 in The Bronx

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On March 30, the New York City Broadband Advisory Committee will meet in the Bronx for the “first of five public hearings to both educate the public on broadband and learn from the public about their experiences, or lack of, with broadband and Internet technology in New York City.” Over the past couple of years, NYC Council Member Gale A. Brewer, based on the testimony of a number of New Yorkers, including NYCwireless, helped create the Broadband Advisory Committee to try to move New York City to the forefront of broadband accessibility and affordability.

NYCwireless will be there to help represent the interests of free public Wi-Fi, which hasn’t had as extensive distribution as midtown and downtown Manhattan. We’ve heard from a number of people and organizations in the Bronx that there’s a tremendous interest in free public Wi-Fi. We’ve been working with Professor John McMullen and his students at Monroe College to build more free hotspots in local businesses.

If you have any interest in helping New York City get affordable, universal, ubiquitous high-speed internet access, you should join us at this meeting.

The public hearing will be on March 30, from 10am-12pm at the Gould Memorial Library Auditorium, Bronx Community College, University Ave. at W. 181st Street. Council Member Brewer and Borough President Carrion invite all Bronx residents, nonprofit organizations and businesses to testify about the availability and affordability — or lack of — of broadband (that is, a high-speed connection to the Internet) in their neighborhoods.

Some questions that the Committee has are:

  1. Why is a fast affordable Internet connection important to you?
  2. What do you consider an “affordable” fee to pay for an high-speed connection to the Internet?
  3. If you have a broadband connection, what do you use it for (e.g., help your child do his/her homework)?
  4. If don’t have broadband or if you had a faster connection to the Internet, what would you use it for (e.g., market your business on-line or look for a job)?

The hearing in the Bronx will kick-off a series of five public hearings that will be convened in every borough of New York City. Based on these hearings and with the help of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Advisory Committee will report their findings and recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.

Your Comments on the 900 MHz Spectrum Band Needed

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I just filed the comments to support the Media Access Project and the New America Foundation in fighting for more unlicensed spectrum in the 900 MHz spectrum band. Please add your support by filing comments in the box called Proceeding enter 06-49.

Your comments can be as simple as “I support the Media Access Project, the New America Foundation and community wireless organizations nationwide in advocating for more unlicensed wireless spectrum.”

Here are the comments that I filed:

As a member of the Board of Directors of NYCwireless, a community wireless organization in New York, and a member of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee, I would like to support the comments filed by the Media Access Project and the New America Foundation with respect to the 900 MHz band. Community wireless organizations and municipal wireless projects greatly need access to more unlicensed spectrum in the 900 MHz band due to interference, especially in large urban areas. These wireless networks are key to improving economic development and political participation as well as providing social and cultural benefits to communities nationwide.

Harold Feld provides the following information:

Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 13:39:03 -0400
From: Harold Feld

I’d like to ask for the support of everyone on this list in trying to defend unlicensed access in the 900 MHz spectrum band, and help push to expand availability.

Back in 1999, the FCC auctioned licenses for the Location and Monitoring Service (LMS). The licenses share the 904.00-928.00 MHz band with unlicensed users, subject to power limitations and a “safe harbor” to protect unlicensed users. These limits make the service fairly worthless, as shown in the auction price ($4.5 million for all licenses combined).

The LMS licensees, rather than actually build the service, have sat on the spectrum and whined at the FCC to give them increased spectrum rights at the expense of the unlicensed users. Sadly, because there are no defenders of unlicensed spectrum at the FCc anymore, the FCC has now put such a proposal out for comment. While paying lip service to the concept of protecting the status quo on 900 MHZ unlicensed, the order makes clear that it will not worry too much if improving life for the licensed services harms the unlicensed users.

Yesterday, MAP and New America Foundation filed comments arguing that if the FCC wants to do something to improve the 900 MHz band, it should focus on improving the ability to use unlicensed spectrum in the band rather than improve life for speculators who picked up bargain-basement licenses and now want to get free benefits from the Commission. You can read the comments here:

http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6518357368

I’d like to ask everyone who can to take a minute and file comments with the FCC opposing the proposed rules and supporting our comments. This will only take five minutes and can potentially make a huge difference. Given the current leadership of the FCC, which I would describe as indifferent to unlicensed users, it will require a large number of comments to persuade the FCC that their proposal will have a major impact on people’s lives.

To file, simply click on this link:

http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi

In the box called Proceeding (box 1) enter 06-49.

Fill out the rest of the form. You can either type a brief comment into the window or attach a comment using the template provided.

You do not need to be a lawyer, or even a US citizen.

Harold

Broad Coalition Fights for Net Freedom

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FreePress just launched the Save the Internet campaign and website, where you can find out more about the battle that is being fought to keep our internet freedoms (free as in unfettered access, not free as in no cost). I’d recommend that everyone read and contact their Senators and Representatives in order to make sure that telcos and cablecos don’t restrict our access to information.

Save the Internet

The SavetheInternet.com Coalition launches April 24 to urge Congress to take immediate steps to save the First Amendment of the Internet — a principle called “network neutrality” that ensures that the Web remains open to innovation and progress.

Congress is about to vote on a bill that would ruin network neutrality by letting big phone and cable companies set up toll booths along the information superhighway. Companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are spending tens of millions in Washington to kill any protection of the free and open Internet.

This bill would let these network giants become Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow — and which won’t load at all.

Only giant corporations will be able to afford to pay their toll for speedy delivery. The rest of us will be detoured to the “slow lane” — clicking furiously and waiting for our favorite sites to download. Coalition members are reaching out to millions of constituents in a broad campaign to tell Congress to save net neutrality now:

http://action.freepress.net/campaign/savethenet

Our elected representatives are trading favors for campaign donations from phone and cable companies. They’re being wooed by people like AT&T’s CEO, who says “the Internet can’t be free” and wants his company to decide what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

The best ideas rarely come from those with the deepest pockets. If the phone and cable companies get their way, the open and free Internet could soon be fenced in by large corporations. If Congress turns the Internet over to AT&T, everyone will suffer.

The SavetheInternet.com Coalition was formed to prevent Internet gatekeepers from blocking or discriminating against new economic, political and social ideas. We are mobilizing millions of Americans to urge Congress to preserve the free and open Internet.

We must act now or lose the Internet as we know it.