Telecommies

Another Failed Utopian Idea

Governing bodies are uniquely talented at throwing good money toward bad ideas. Today Earthlink reminds us that technology is no exception.

Earthlink’s announcement that it was throwing in the towel on an ambitious plan to bring public Wi-Fi to the entire city of Philadelphia marks the end of a glorious, but doomed experiment. The promoters of free municipal Wi-Fi hoped that optimistic techno-utopianism would somehow trump engineering and economic realities. They were, of course, wrong. (… read full)

Source: BusinessWeek

Some people might ask, ‘Well, at $500 a share, why can’t Google pay for special treatment?’ The reality is that at $500 a share Google can afford to pay. Yet the reality is that this is precisely the wrong question to ask. Instead, the question is whether Larry Page and Sergei Brin — the two young founders of Google — could have paid when they were mere grad students launching their idea. (Betanews)

-Congressman Markey (D-MA) rationalizing his bill to regulate the internet last week

Good news congressman, web hosting is way below $500… on the downside, unlike your bill, the internet still requires a good idea.

For more, see Reason’s More Net Neutrality Nonsense.

Have It Your Way - Verizon is the Burger King of the Cell Phone Market

Verizon took another bold step towards consumer choice yesterday, by embracing linux on cell phones. The Tribune reports:

Verizon became the first U.S. wireless carrier to join what’s called the LiMo Foundation, a group of companies pushing to create an open, Linux-based operating system for wireless products. The now 40-member group also includes phonemakers Motorola, Samsung and LG…

Over the coming year Verizon previously announced plans to remove restrictions on the types of cell phones compatible with their wireless service. Moving this direction, allowing consumers to alter their phones’ operating system, is a natural extension of their new open wireless service business model.

(crossposted from PC Mag)

Eighty percent of net subscribers use less than ten percent of the overall bandwidth. Do ISPs have a right, in light of this, to put limits on users? Dvorak and the cranks convene.

Rep. Markey’s Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 (HR 5353) ironically does just the opposite, opening a Pandora’s box of bureaucratic regulation and internet governance.

Currently the internet is open and free. There are many options for consumers to get online, some are faster while others are cheaper. In hindsight one of the distinctive differences between the old telephone industry and the internet lays in enormous innovation and competition, possible only in a non-regulatory environment. A critical congressional colleague complains:

Markey is trying to turn the Internet into a highly regulated industry like the waterways and railroads of the 19th century, according to Republican Reps. Cliff Stearns, ranking member of the subcommittee, and Fred Upton of Michigan.

In defense, Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, claims there’s an urgent need for internet regulation.

Free Press supports the right to network management, but draws the line at discrimination based on content or a particular application, like BitTorrent, Scott said. “That’s the kind of targeting and selectivity that should be left to the consumer.”

But should it? BitTorrent software is uniquely designed to gobble up bandwidth, and as a side-effect can harm the internet service of other customers nearby (see yesterday’s post). Comcast shouldn’t have initially lied about not managing internet traffic, but that doesn’t mean what they did is wrong. Comcast had a legitimate grievance.

If two of my neighbors decide to pirate the whole Star Wars movie collection simultaneously with BitTorrent, tying up the internet to such a degree that I can’t check my e-mail… where’s the justice in net neutrality there? Strict net neutrality could restrain an internet service provider (ISP) from protecting it’s own customers.

Preserving a free internet means thumbs down for HR 5353. Markey has a strange vision that the internet will fail to produce great new ideas without government protection. Government… bureaucracy is where good ideas come to die. This bill will empower bureaucrats to change the internet; and bureaucrats only go one direction, red tape.

Bill Toland of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asks, “Is it traffic management or is Comcast just being a bully?”

Massachusetts courts may close a property tax loop hole for the telecommunications industry, specifically regarding poles and wires over public property. Local officials are delighted with this new taxation target. The problem is, 5,000 other businesses benefiting from this same loop hole would remain unaffected.

The expanded tax would supplement pre-existing property taxes paid for such utility lines stretching over private land.

Ironically electrical lines, virtually identical in nature, enjoy no such loop hole. They must pay comprehensive property taxes over all land. However poles and wires for these traditional utility lines are instead, exempt from sales taxes.