In what Arstechnica is calling “Mega-Merger Mania”, the wireless industry has been a hot topic in the news for the past week.  AT&T announced on March 20th their agreement with Deutsche Telekom to acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 billion.  Though the acquisition still faces the hurdle of the government’s anti-trust review, which could take a year to complete, there has been much debate about the possible consequences of the plan going through, and many have taken a stand against it, including (not surprisingly) Sprint, who said it “will fight this attempt by AT&T to undo the progress of the past 25 years and create a new Ma Bell duopoly.” Read more »

At the 2011 state of the union, Obama began to hint at his plan to “win the future”, which is being called the Wireless Innovations Infrastructure Initiative.  Revealing his plan in more detail at Northern Michigan University on February 10^th, the president’s aim is to build out the nation’s high-speed wireless network.

What is it? The plan has three main goals:

• Expand “4G” wireless coverage to 98% of Americans within the next 5 years
• Reduce the US deficit* by nearly $10 billion over the next decade through the sale of 500MHz of federal wireless spectrum, doubling the amount of spectrum available for mobile broadband
• Invest in the nationwide public safety network for increased efficiency and security

*The White House press release says it will reduce the deficit by $10 billion, but the math does not add up.  The government is projecting that the spectrum auction will generate $28 billion of revenue over an unspecified period of time.  Of that amount, $3 billion will be spent on the Wireless Innovation Fund, $5 billion will be spent on the Universal Service Fund, and $10 billion will be spent on a public safety network, totaling $18 billion.  That leaves $10 billion of revenue, which the press release indicates will reduce the deficit by $10 billion.  This can be read two ways, either the deficit will be reduced by $10 billion each year for the next ten years, or the deficit will be reduced by $10 billion by the end of the next ten years, which implies a steady, consistent decline in the deficit each year.  This seems to be grossly overstating the effect on the national debt, which will actually only decrease by $10 billion. Read more »

UC2B is currently in a situation where it needs to start making decisions regarding its operational structure. Because the University is currently the lead agency and makes the decisions about the construction of the network (but does not want to be involved in its operation) there is debate as to who should be making these decisions and how the network should be run upon its completion. Will UC2B have its own staff to operate the network or will they hire a third party for that function? Though the network is required to be "open access" (meaning all service providers will be allowed to operate over the UC2B network), it is unclear how that will be managed and if UC2B itself will provide service packages.

This is a key issue for the future of the network, and one of the best ways to determine an answer is to research what other communities have done in the past, and how their decisions impacted the effectiveness of their networks.

In a recent Ars Technica article called Tale of the trench: what if your subdivision laid its own fiber?, Philip Palios describes his experience using and being involved in the administrative responsibilities of a community-owned network in Issaquah, Washington, called the Highlands Fiber Network. Read more »

Last Week

Last week, the UC2B Technical and Policy Committees focused their discussion on a report from Eric Lampland, part of Shive-Hattery’s engineering firm team, regarding the design of the UC2B network.  Lampland’s complete design recommendation can be found attached to the bottom of this page.

The Technical Committee forwarded three primary recommendations and one of Lampland’s Strong Suggestions to the Policy Committee for approval. 

Primary Recommendations: Read more »

The role of the internet and social networking websites in the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt is extraordinary.  Despite governmental efforts to shut down communication in both countries, people were able to get the word out about their bloody struggles for democratic leadership, leading to a whole new understanding of the value of websites like Facebook. Read more »

Coming up this week

UC2B IRU/Existing Infrastructure Subcommittee Meeting – February 10, 2011 – 10 AM – City of Urbana Executive Conference Room

• Finalize document for the Technical Committee regarding Outline Issue #6 Use of Existing Infrastructure
• Work on Outline Issue #8 – Indefeasible Right to Use (IRU)/Transport Contracts

UC2B Marketing Subcommittee – Tuesday February 8^th 2011 - 11:45 Champaign Public Library - Library Friends Conference Room (Room 215) Read more »

Last week

IRU & Existing Infrastructure Subcommitee

There was an IRU and Existing Infrastructure Subcommittee meeting held Monday January 24^th to discuss the document they are creating.  The group spent a significant amount of time gathering information, but this meeting focused on what the purpose of the document would be, and then began tailoring it for that use. Read more »

Anyone who has been holding out on joining the social network craze until the Church gave their official approval can now proceed in a “respectful”, “honest”, and “responsible” manner. In his Message for the 45th World Day of Social Communications, Pope Benedict XVI wrote of the “emergence of the internet as a network for communication” and its role in the “cultural transformation” that humanity is currently experiencing.

It was impressive to find the presence of issues like net neutrality and internet privacy in the message, albeit briefly. The pope wrote of the “profound convictions” it takes to “prevent the web from becoming an instrument which depersonalizes people, attempts to manipulate them or allows those who are powerful to monopolize the opinions of others.”

Read more »

The Week In Review

On Tuesday the Technical Committee unanimously voted to recommend using fiber connectors and cross-boring to the Policy Committee because of significant cost savings.   The Policy Committee accepted the recommendations, but there was a lively discussion about the impact cross-boring would have on the community.   [Ed. note: On Friday, Mr. Read more »

On Tuesday, the FCC and the Department of Justice announced the approval of the Comcast and NBC Universal merger, a deal that will be closed by the end of the month. Four of five FCC Commissioners approved the merger, Michael Copps being the only opposing voice.

What will Comcast own? Read more »