Bell Labs, a division of Alcatel-Lucent, has found a way to extract more speed over aging copper wire most phone companies still rely on to deliver service.  Its latest achievement, in the lab anyway, proved those wires could accommodate 300Mbps downstream speeds, at least if you were within 400 meters (that’s just over 1,300 feet) from phone company facilities.  Further on, the company was able to achieve 100Mbps speeds over a distance of one kilometer (0.62 miles).

Stop the Cap! reader Jeff writes wondering what impact such improvements have when they are measured in distances more commonly associated with a sprinting event.  Phone companies are well aware of the limitations of their legacy networks.  Some, like Verizon, decided the network designed more than a century ago was destined for the scrap heap.  They began to deploy fiber-optic based networks instead.  Others are trying to extract as much as they can from copper, as cheap as they can for as long as they can.

The problem with copper wiring is that the longer the distance, the slower the data speed those lines will support.  Interference or crosstalk from neighboring cables crammed together into a bundle can also create major problems, especially at longer distances.

Bell Labs says it has devised a way around the crosstalk problem with the testing of its “DSL Phantom Mode” solution:

At its core, DSL Phantom Mode involves the creation of a virtual or “phantom” channel that supplements the two physical wires that are the standard configuration for copper transmission lines. Bell Labs’ innovation and the source of DSL Phantom Mode’s dramatic increase in transmission capacity lies in its application of analogue phantom mode technology in combination with industry-standard techniques: vectoring that eliminates interference or “crosstalk” between copper wires, and bonding that makes it possible to take individual lines and aggregate them.

In the eyes of Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs has found an answer to the dilemma of what role phone companies can play in a 100Mbps broadband future.

“We often think of the role innovation plays in generating technologies of the future, but DSL Phantom Mode is a prime example of the role innovation can play in creating a future for existing solutions and injecting them with a new source of value,” said Gee Rittenhouse, head of Research for Bell Labs. “What makes DSL Phantom Mode such an important breakthrough is that it combines cutting edge technology with an attractive business model that will open up entirely new commercial opportunities for service providers, enabling them in particular, to offer the latest broadband IP-based services using existing network infrastructure.”

Before getting too excited, remember these demonstration tests occurred in a laboratory environment.  No squirrels chewed up the cables. No water leaking into cracks in the cable’s insulation or a connection box caused issues.  No aging splices of corroded copper wiring up on poles since the late 1960s were found.  Your home’s own phone wiring was also never part of the equation.

Distance is still a considerable limiting factor in DSL deployments.  Most of the benefits of this research will go to companies like AT&T, which uses a hybrid fiber-copper wire network in its U-verse areas.  The fiber cuts down the distance from a phone company office to a neighborhood.  Once in your neighborhood, traditional copper wires run the rest of the way, right up into your home.  If AT&T can leverage additional speed from its weakest link — the copper-based phone line — it may be able to use the additional bandwidth to boost broadband speed or accommodate more concurrent applications they cannot support today.

For phone companies still dependent on long distances of copper wiring, the expense of bootstrapping Alexander Graham Bell’s century-old network begins to look silly.

Sometimes it’s better to build anew instead of repeatedly trying to fix the old.  And many are doing exactly that.

Hundreds of small independent telecoms, broadband service providers, municipalities and cable television companies have brought gigabit-enabled, all-fiber service to a total of more than 1.4 million North American homes – about a quarter of all fiber to the home connections on the continent – according to the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council.

The FTTH Council noted in a recent study more than 65 percent of small independent telephone companies that have not upgraded to FTTH said they would very likely do so in the future, with another 11 percent saying they were somewhat likely. More than 85 percent of those that have already deployed FTTH said they would be adding more direct fiber connections going forward.

Surprisingly most of this expansion outside of Verizon’s FiOS service comes from small family-owned companies, cooperatives, and the remaining independent phone companies not snapped up by Frontier, Windstream, and CenturyLink.

“To continue to meet the rapidly growing bandwidth requirements for emerging applications and services, these companies know that they have to ‘future-proof’ their networks by running fiber all the way to the premises – and that’s why we are seeing all this activity,” says Joe Savage, President of the FTTH Council.

“In many cases, these small telephone companies are longtime family-owned businesses that are deeply involved in local affairs and are responsive to their community needs for faster broadband as a key to future economic development,” said Mike Render, president of RVA LLC and the author of the study. “That’s why so many of these companies are looking to get into FTTH or expand their deployments,” he said.

Bachmann

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), appeared on Sean Hannity’s show last night to go way over the top, telling Fox News viewers the Obama Administration was supporting Net Neutrality as part of an effort to censor the Internet.

Oh sure, that’s all they have left now, is they use pejorative terms, hateful terms, against those who are carrying the message. So whether they’re attacking conservative talk radio, or conservative TV, or whether it’s Internet sites — I mean, let’s face it, what’s the Obama administration doing? They’re advocating Net Neutrality, which is essentially censorship of the Internet.

This is the Obama administration advocating censorship of the Internet. Why? They want to silence the voices that are opposing them.

This isn’t the first time this talking point has been used.  Glenn Beck fancies Net Neutrality in much the same world view, helped along by the likes of astroturfers like Americans for Prosperity’s Phil Kerpen.  Kerpen’s group, among others, receives corporate money to drag down consumer protections that would stop Internet providers from delivering less service to you at an ever-increasing price. If it takes suckering Fox News viewers into believing Net Neutrality is an Obama plot to shut down freedom of speech on the Internet, so be it.

Of course, Bachmann’s tirade is the opposite of reality.  She is either clueless about the concept, or has cynically bought a ticket on the PsychoTalk Express, delivering fear-based, fictional talking points about online freedom.  Net Neutrality preserves freedom of speech on the Internet, even for misinformed folks like Michele Bachmann, in at least two ways:

1. Your Internet Provider cannot shut down your website if they oppose your views;
2. A provider must assure access to your website unencumbered by speed throttles or other impediments they say can be removed… for the right price.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Fox News Michele Bachmann Net Neutrality 4-20-10.flv[/flv]

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s views on Net Neutrality were aired on Sean Hannity’s show last night.  (1 minute)

Average measured connection speed (All graphics courtesy: Akamai)

America is marching backwards with a gradual decline in broadband speeds, according to a new report issued today.

Akamai’s State of the Internet Report for the final quarter of 2009 (report only available with permission from Akamai) rates America 22nd fastest in broadband connections, averaging 3.8Mbps, and declining.  Speeds dropped 0.9 percent for the quarter, 2.5 percent for the year.

Still on top are South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan, now joined by former Soviet bloc countries Romania, Latvia, and the Czech Republic — all rapidly improving broadband speeds by double digit percentages.

Within the United States, among the top 10 individual states — five rated increased speeds and five measured lower speeds.  Some attribute this to network congestion, others suspect some customers have downgraded service in a poor economy.  But the biggest reason for the speed drop comes from wireless broadband.  Some Americans are increasingly relying on broadband service delivered to smartphones or other wireless devices over slower speed networks.

Overall, 31 states saw average connection speeds increase in the fourth quarter – up from 25 in the prior quarter. Notable gains included South Dakota’s 18 percent jump to 4.5 Mbps. Fourth quarter decreases in average connection speeds were seen in 19 states and the District of Columbia, and included Virginia’s 13 percent drop to 4.0 Mbps. Akamai believes that the significant decline in Virginia was likely due, in part, to increased traffic seen from lower-speed mobile connections that entered the Internet through gateways within those states.

Increased speeds year over year were seen in 29 states, with Hawaii growing 33 percent to 4.7 Mbps.

South Korea’s introduction to the iPhone drove their average speeds down by a whopping 24 percent.  KT (formerly Korea Telecom) is at fault here — the national wireless carrier has slow wireless Internet speeds.

Stop the Cap! readers  in Rochester and Austin should notice both cities made the top ten fastest list, measured by Akamai.

[Thanks to Stop the Cap! reader Rob who sent us details.]

Fastest American Broadband Cities by Unique IP

Fastest Broadband States

Best Average Measured Connection Speeds (not suprisingly most are college towns)

Top 10 States

Why would bloggers imply a relationship between Rightnetwork and Comcast?

Simon, a frequent reader of Stop the Cap! dropped us a note to let us know reports that Comcast was backing a new right wing cable network might be premature.

Talk about passing the buck.  Comcast this morning issued a statement on their company blog denying any involvement in the Rightnetwork project Stop the Cap! and other blogs reported over the weekend:

Over the weekend there were some stories on a number of blogs about a new network called Right Network, and some of these rumored that Comcast might be involved as an investor, partner or distributor. Here is a statement from Comcast to clear up any confusion:

“The blog reports that Comcast is an investor in, or partner of the Right Network are inaccurate. We have no partnership with this venture and have no plans to launch or distribute the network. As we have done with hundreds of other content providers, we have met with the network’s representatives. We do carry a number of independent networks on Comcast representing a wide variety of interests and diverse viewpoints.”

"Through partners including Comcast..." prominently appears in Rightnetwork's own promotional literature (click to enlarge)

How could we have been so wrong?  🙂

1. The network’s founder is Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, whose parent company is guess-who?
2. Rightnetwork’s own promotional “lookbook” (which they took down this morning, but which you can still get from us right here) says, “On television, through partners including Comcast….”

Somehow, Comcast forgot to call out Rightnetwork for making claims they absolutely don’t want to have associated with their company at such a politically-sensitive time, what with the Comcast-NBC merger on the table and all.  It was much easier to blame the bloggers.

It’s not as if the idea of Comcast launching a right wing network comes straight out of fantasy land.  In fact, Politico got David L. Cohen, Comcast’s executive vice president to toy with launching its own right-wing network to compete with Fox News:

A major Democratic donor and fundraiser, Cohen — who oversees the company’s Washington operation spent last week pitching the deal to regulators, editorial boards and reporters —described himself as “a news junkie” who watches MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. He didn’t dismiss out of hand the possibility of launching a right-leaning network to compete with Fox News, and he said Comcast wouldn’t tamper with NBC or MSNBC’s operations (Olbermann told POLITICO, “I’m confident they know exactly what they’re doing and exactly how valuable a commodity MSNBC has become”).

Cohen explained that Comcast’s job is not “to shape the content that people receive. It is our job to facilitate the delivery of a diverse set of voices and opinions to consumers, and we believe it’s up to the consumer to decide which of that content he or she would like to listen to or watch and which of that content he or she would like to avoid.”

Rightnetwork has remained silent on the matter, so we’ll apologize on their behalf for misleading you.

Get out your tiny violins.  Telephone and cable companies that have ignored your neighborhood for years are decrying attempts by the federal government to fund projects that would finally extend broadband service to rural America.  Companies ranging from tiny Eagle Communications in Kansas, to major regional telephone companies like FairPoint Communications and Windstream, are upset that new providers are on the way to deliver broadband service to bypassed homes or communities stuck in their broadband slow lane.

The Associated Press reports coast-to-coast complaints from incumbents who have refused to deliver service or force customers to accept 1-3Mbps speeds indefinitely.

From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Great Plains, some local phone and cable companies fear they will have to compete with government-subsidized broadband systems, paid for largely with stimulus dollars. If these taxpayer-funded networks siphon off customers with lower prices, private companies warn that they could be less likely to upgrade their own lines, endangering jobs and undermining the goals of the stimulus plan.

That’s rich coming from some providers who threaten to refuse to upgrade lines they’ve never upgraded, endanger employees they’ve long since cut, and threaten their quest for monopoly profits serving rural Americans larger carriers are rapidly abandoning.

Anemic Broadband Is Not in Kansas Anymore

Rural Telephone's Exchange Map (click to enlarge)

Kansas-based Eagle Communications provides cable and wireless broadband service to more than a dozen small towns in the state.  For more populated areas, it’s cable broadband service.  For the rural parts of its service areas, Eagle relegates everyone to a slower speed, more expensive wireless network.

The company is upset to learn about additional expansion forthcoming from Rural Telephone Company, a cooperative which recently won a $101 million stimulus grant to construct a fiber optic system to expand service.  With the grant, the co-op phone company will move beyond its currently constrained DSL broadband network into areas even Eagle’s rural wireless signal won’t reach.

Rural Telephone Company says their broadband grant will provide service “in an area 99.5 percent unserved/underserved and provide a rural infrastructure required for economic stability, education and health care.”

Eagle says it’s unfair competition.

“It is extremely unfair that the government comes in and uses big government money to harm existing private businesses,” Gary Shorman, president of Eagle Communications, told the AP.  “This hurts our company.”

“It’s a little disappointing that companies that aren’t adequately serving these areas are trying to undercut those of us who are trying to step in and get the service where it’s needed,” says Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department handing out much of the stimulus money.

The $101 million Kansas project, for instance, will bring connection speeds of up to 1 gigabit to businesses and up to 100 megabits to as many as 23,000 homes. While the network will cover the population center of Hays, where both Rural Telephone and Eagle Communications already offer broadband, that accounts for just eight of the 4,600 square miles to be reached. Much of the area has no broadband at all, says Larry Sevier, Rural Telephone’s chief executive.

The goal is to “close the digital divide between Hays and the outlying areas,” says Jonathan Adelstein, head of the Rural Utilities Service, which awarded the money.

Eagle Communications' Wireless Service Area - Central Region (click to enlarge)

For rural Kansans choosing between Eagle’s wireless service or Rural Telephone’s current maximum 1.5Mbps DSL service for those outside of the Hays city limits, the definition of “high speed service” maxes out at an anemic 3Mbps:

Eagle Communications Wireless Network Pricing – Hays, Kansas

• Eagle 256/256 $34.95 /per month
• Eagle 768/512 $37.95 /per month
• Eagle 1.0/384 $44.95 /per month
• Eagle 2/512 $54.95 /per month
• Eagle 3/512 $59.95 /per month

Rural Telephone Company Pricing for Outside the City Limits – Hays, Kansas

• Rural Telephone’s 1.5Mbps DSL — $29.95 per month
• Rural Telephone’s 512kbps DSL — $19.95 per month

Gone With the Windstream: Phone Company Says Broadband Stimulus Doesn’t Give a Damn About Their Georgia Business Model

Many of the projects seeking funding don’t actually want to get into the Internet Service Provider business, preferring to construct fiber-based networks available equally to all-comers at wholesale pricing.  Sure they’ll wire government buildings, schools, and libraries as a public service, but their real goal is to make available super high speed networks that incumbent providers haven’t, under the theory a rising tide lifts all boats.  They even invite existing ISP’s to hop on board, buying access to deliver improved service to their existing customers.

But because some providers don’t own or control the infrastructure outright, they’re not interested.

One such project is the North Georgia Network Cooperative, created from a consortium of private business advocates, a state university, and two power company co-ops.

North Georgia sees broadband as a major economic stimulant… if they actually had it.  Large parts of the region don’t, so the Cooperative applied for and won a $33.5 million NTIA grant to construct a 260-mile fiber ring running through 12 counties in the state.  The network will easily deliver connections upwards of 10Gbps for institutions and broadband speeds far faster than incumbent DSL provider Windstream currently provides across the region.

Windstream's biggest promotional push is for its 6Mbps DSL service

Windstream’s DSL packages look better than many other independent phone companies, at least based on their website.  Windstream offers 3, 6, and 12 Mbps DSL packages across northwestern Georgia,  but that doesn’t mean you can actually obtain service at those speeds.  Stop the Cap! reader Frederick, who tipped us off to this story, notes that he can’t obtain more than 1.5Mbps DSL service from his home in Dalton, Georgia because the phone lines in his area won’t support faster speeds.

“I’m actually less than a mile from my area’s central office, but because the phone lines in my area are deteriorated, they had to lock my speed in at 1.5Mbps — anything faster causes the modem to reset,” Frederick writes.  “Windstream does the same thing to my cousin in Lafayette, who was offered 6Mbps service but can only get 3Mbps in reality.”

Frederick says most people in the community don’t really care where the faster broadband comes from — just that it comes.

“If Windstream, who incidentally also applied for government money, could do it there would have never been a need to go around them in the first place,” he says. “Hell, the ironic part is the Cooperative will sell wholesale access to Windstream to use as it sees fit, but because Windstream doesn’t own it they’re pouting, refusing to participate.”

Windstream says it has already invested $5 million in network upgrades covering northern Georgia over the last three years and the Cooperative’s stimulus grant undermines the economics of that investment.  Michael Rhoda, Windstream’s vice president of government affairs told AP Windstream now has to share rural customers with a government-funded competitor.  Windstream wants that funding limited strictly to those areas where broadband service is uneconomic to provide.  To underline that point, the company has applied for $238 million in stimulus funding to reach the “last 11 percent” who don’t have broadband in Windstream’s service areas.

Maine’s Three Ring Binder Project Snaps Shut on FairPoint’s Monopoly Fingers

Maine's Three Ring Binder Project plans to serve most of Maine (click image for additional information)

More often than not, independent efforts to launch improved broadband service in a region come after years of dealing with an intransigent provider comfortable moving at a snail’s pace to improve service.  Financially-troubled FairPoint Communications has been struggling to meet Maine’s broadband needs since the company took over service from Verizon two years ago.  The state government, university, and smaller telecommunications companies decided they could do better — applying for, and winning a $25.4 million dollar grant to construct three fiber rings across the state.

FairPoint insists the project duplicates the company’s own efforts to improve connectivity in Maine and has appealed to lawmakers to stop the project.  But FairPoint recently called a truce when it reached a deal to charge users of the new network a usage fee, with FairPoint getting a large share of the proceeds to expand its own broadband efforts.

[FairPoint’s financial problems have left the company] unable to bring broadband to wide swaths of rural Maine, says Dwight Allison, chief executive of Maine Fiber Co., which was created to build and operate the stimulus-funded network. The project, he says, represents a serious competitive threat to a company that “feels its monopoly is being attacked.”

Of course nothing precludes FairPoint from getting access to the new fiber network at the same wholesale pricing other providers will pay, but the company so far doesn’t seem interested.

Various talking points designed to derail the project are debunked by the Maine Fiber Company:

• Fiction: It’s government-run broadband.
• Fact: Three Ring Binder will be owned and operated by Maine Fiber Company, a private company based in Maine. MRC is unaffiliated with any telecom carrier to ensure fair and equal access to the system for all competitors.

• Fiction: This project will create unfair competition for private providers.
• Fact: MFC will be a wholesale provider of dark fiber, and its customers will be Internet Service providers, wireless carriers, and telephone companies. MFC will not provide “lit” service in competition with private broadband carriers. MFC is required to provide service on an open access and non-discriminatory basis. All carriers in Maine will be able to use the network to serve their customers in Maine, resulting in robust competition for the benefit of Maine consumers.

• Fiction: This project duplicates service FairPoint already provides.
• Fact: Prior to receiving a federal stimulus grant, the project was carefully reviewed by the National Telecommunications Information Agency (NTIA) of the US Department of Commerce to determine whether there was overlap with existing carriers. NTIA determined that TRB would substantially improve access to high-speed Internet access in rural Maine. If material duplication had been discovered, TRB would not have been funded. TRB will offer a mid-mile, dark fiber service that is fundamentally different from what currently exists in rural Maine. In fact, carriers seeking to obtain dark fiber service along the TRB route have routinely been denied access by incumbent fiber providers.