Basic copper and cable internet access cannot run faster than about 5 megabits per second, which is just about fast enough to watch something on YouTube or for a video chat over Skype. But networks seldom run as fast as advertised. The cable networks upgraded with fibre can run at speeds in the hundreds of megabits per second, enough to handle most present-day applications and many in the immediate future, like high-definition video. Yet Verizon’s network could leave these in the dust. In tests in Massachusetts its fibre network has run as fast as 10,000 megabits per second, and it could go faster.

This puts Verizon in a tricky position. Its old copper network, still 40% of its customer base, is not fast enough but FiOS is faster than most consumers need. So the company is having to weather the transition to a time when faster networks become more important. On October 22nd Verizon said that its overall revenue, at $26.5 billion in the third quarter, was 2.9% down on the same period a year ago. Its mobile-phone division performed strongly, with revenue rising by 6%, to $16.3 billion. But its wireline business remained under pressure: revenue fell by 3.6% in the period and operating profit slumped by 90%.

Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.

The charges could be paid by companies, like YouTube, owned by Google, for example, to Verizon, one of the nation’s leading Internet service providers, to ensure that its content received priority as it made its way to consumers. The agreement could eventually lead to higher charges for Internet users.

Such an agreement could overthrow a once-sacred tenet of Internet policy known as net neutrality, in which no form of content is favored over another. In its place, consumers could soon see a new, tiered system, which, like cable television, imposes higher costs for premium levels of service.

Any agreement between Verizon and Google could also upend the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to assert its authority over broadband service, which was severely restricted by a federal appeals court decision in April.

Overall, cell-phone service has become significantly better, judging by the annual survey conducted in September by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. Contract terms for cell-phone service are less onerous, and there were fewer problems with call quality in this year’s survey. The best carriers even came through after a hurricane hit one of our survey cities.

Sixty percent of readers were completely or very satisfied with their service. That appears to be a substantial improvement over 2007, even though we made some changes to our survey this year, including expanding the number of cities we rate and the coverage areas within them.

Read the full story in Yahoo Finance here.

The report, “Broadband Content and Services 2008,” finds that almost one-third of data subscribers feel their Internet service does not meet their speed needs; 19% are thinking about upgrading to a higher speed (or would if it were available); 10% are thinking about switching to another provider; and 5% are not happy with their current speed, but are not planning to upgrade at this time.

Of all broadband customers, DSL subscribers are the least satisfied, and those with the telco services Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse report the highest satisfaction levels with the speeds of their respective services. According to the study, almost eight in 10, or 78%, of FiOS or U-verse customers are satisfied with the speed of their current service and are not planning to switch, compared to 70% of cable modem and 63% of DSL customers.

The study, which now includes a multicultural component, finds that almost one-third of Hispanic and Asian (both groups at 32%) broadband users say they are thinking about upgrading or switching to get faster speeds, compared to 23% of both white and black broadband users.

The study takes an in-depth look at current usage of broadband and mobile devices for video and TV content, as well as the growing demand for web and mobile TV services. According to the survey, multicultural broadband users, and especially Hispanics and Asians, tend to be more likely than their white counterparts to watch video content online.

Read the full story in Multichannel News here.

At the CTIA wireless show in Vegas AT&T Mobility chief, Ralph de la Vega said,
“I like it a lot more than I did before… It’s something we would want in our portfolio.”

His conversion on Android came after Google executives showed him that AT&T would be able to load its own applications on any Android handset it sold. Previously, the company had been fearful the handset would be geared too much towards the Google brand. Too be fair, however, AT&T’s tepid response would not have prevented Android devices from getting on its network. AT&T’s network has long been open to any device that operates on the right frequency, is GSM based (as opposed to Verizon’s CDMA cellular technology), and can accept a SIM card.

Read the full story here.

Verizon Reverses Itself on Abortion Messages – New York Times

Reversing course, Verizon Wireless announced yesterday that it would allow an abortion rights group to send text messages to its supporters on Verizon’s mobile network.“The decision to not allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect,” said Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon, in a statement issued yesterday morning, adding that the earlier decision was an “isolated incident.”

Last week, Verizon rejected a request from the abortion rights group, Naral Pro-Choice America, for a five-digit “short code.” Such codes allow people interested in hearing from businesses, politicians and advocacy groups to sign up to receive text messages.

Verizon is one of the two largest mobile carriers. The other leading carriers had accepted Naral’s request for the code.

In turning down the request last week, Verizon told Naral that it “does not accept issue-oriented (abortion, war, etc.) programs — only basic, general politician-related programs (Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, etc.).”

In yesterday’s statement, Mr. Nelson called that “an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy” that “was designed to ward against communications such as anonymous hate messaging and adult materials sent to children.” The policy, Mr. Nelson said, had been developed “before text messaging protections such as spam filters adequately protected customers from unwanted messages.”

But the program requested by Naral would have sent messages only to people who had asked to receive them.

Nancy Keenan, Naral’s president, expressed satisfaction yesterday. “The fight to defeat corporate censorship was won,” she said. But Ms. Keenan added that her group “would like to see Verizon make its new policy public.”

Verizon did not respond to repeated requests for copies of the policy or an explanation for why it is withholding it.

Text messaging is an increasingly popular tool in American politics and an established one abroad. In his statement, Mr. Nelson acknowledged that the technology is “being harnessed by organizations and individuals communicating their diverse opinions about issues and topics.” He said Verizon has “great respect for this free flow of ideas.”

But the company did not retreat from its position that it is entitled to decide what messages to transmit.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Verizon Rejects Messages of Abortion Rights Group – New York Times

Text messaging is a growing political tool in the United States and a dominant one abroad, and such sign-up programs are used by many political candidates and advocacy groups to send updates to supporters.

But legal experts said private companies like Verizon probably have the legal right to decide which messages to carry. The laws that forbid common carriers from interfering with voice transmissions on ordinary phone lines do not apply to text messages.

Powered by ScribeFire.

What’s Good for a Business Can Be Hard on Friends – New York Times

Unlike traditional landline telephones, which once made callers distinguish between local and long distance, cellphone carriers divide the world into in-network and outside. And because basic plans from the three major cellphone carriers, Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, are all about the same price — under $60 a month — the deciding factor for young people, in particular, is what network friends are on.

Carriers are giving customers more options to stay connected with people outside their network. This year, T-Mobile introduced a plan that allows customers to choose five telephone numbers outside its network that they can call free at any time. Sprint offers night minutes that start at 7 p.m., two hours earlier than competitors.

Powered by ScribeFire.

A Patent Lie – New York Times

Vonage developed one of the first Internet telephone services and has attracted more than two million customers. But last year, Verizon — one of Vonage’s biggest competitors — sued for patent infringement and won a verdict in its favor in March.

The Gates memo predicted that a large company would “patent some obvious thing,” and that’s exactly what Verizon has done. Two of its patents cover the concept of translating phone numbers into Internet addresses. It is virtually impossible to create a consumer-friendly Internet telephone product without doing that. So if Verizon prevails on appeal, it will probably be able to drive Vonage out of business. Consumers will suffer from fewer choices and higher prices, and future competitors will be reluctant to enter markets dominated by patents.

Powered by ScribeFire.

“When workers from AT&T and Verizon visit homes to install their new television services, they come with blue hospital booties that they slip over their shoes before going inside.

The sight of burly installers in dainty slip-ons might induce snickers. But the booties are just one of the many ways in which phone and cable companies are trying to reverse their reputations for shoddy service and win over customers who have a growing number of alternatives.”

Full story

“Verizon will spend about $20 billion by the end of the decade to reach 16 million homes from Florida to California. But it is in New York City where Verizon has the most at stake, because New Yorkers are some of the nation’s biggest buyers of video, Internet and phone services. The company plans to spend about $3 billion to reach the city’s 3.1 million homes and apartments.

With such a high concentration of potential customers, competition is fierce — and Verizon has been losing ground. Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and others are stealing about 1,000 Verizon phone customers a day, and their discounted services are making it hard for Verizon to win them back — another reason to get the fiber network up quickly.”

Full story

Rohan observed that a good research organization and a consulting firm has a common culture, values and quality standards. This is not the case for “bodyshops” and hence their output was unpredictable, varying from mediocre to excellent. LIRNEasia will not be a bodyshop but will build a common organizational culture, value and standards using multiple methods, the colloquium being one. We will experiment with various formats and themes until we get it right, he said. The previous colloquium discussed “practical” aspects whereas today’s colloquium examines the abstract question of conducting research and the relationship organizations like LIRNEasia have with the policymaking process.

The article under discussion was the previously distributed Nicolas Garnham’s Euro CPR keynote address in March 2004 titled Contradiction, Confusion and Hubris: A Critical Review of European Information Society Policy. Rohan’s short response to this piece had also been distributed beforehand.

According to Rohan, Garnham seemed to suggest that one of the aims of research geared for policy makers should be based on “dispassionate” analysis, free from the “crude” interplay of economic and political interests. Rohan started out the discussion by asking whether it was possible to conduct research which was free from political or economic interests. Especially, in the context of organizations like LIRNEasia that were actively intervening in the policy process.

Harsha de Silva found Garnham’s article confused and according to him the author seemed bent on debunking different economic theories without proffering anything of his own.

Discussion then moved to the three seemingly contradictory theoretical approaches, highlighted by Garnham, that economists were using to analyse the information society—Neoclassical, Schumpterian and Hayekian. Rohan added a fourth: the Madisonian approach which saw the world as a series of unstable equilibriums, each with a concentration of power (market and political). Human action could undermine and topple a concentration of power (example AT&T), but there was no guarantee that another concentration would not appear (example Regional Bell Operating Companies, now consolidated into Verizon, SBC, etc.).

Amal Sanderatne said that bringing about policy change while being part of government was one thing, but how does an organization like LIRNEasia intervene in the policy process from the outside? Is it through the media? And if the political doors were still open and intervention could happen during informal interactions with decision-makers, would it make sense to air one’s views to the media when behind the scenes activity was taking place? Harsha thought that the credibility of the academic made a big difference on whether he/she would be heard in the media and if the public pronouncements could have any impact on the government.

Rohan recounted his memorable anecdote of Eli Noam, Columbia Professor and former Commissioner of the State of New York regulatory agency, and how he pointed to Rohan as an example of someone who made a submission to a proceeding held by the New York Public Service Commission that resulted in the defeat of a proposal made by billion dollar telecom companies. Rohan hastened to add that one couldn’t generalize from this incident but participation by LIRNEasia in public consultation process was a must.

Malathy Knight-John mentioned that Rohan had written somewhere that in the ocean of bad governance one could create small islands of good governance which could seed change. Rohan mentioned that the creation of new organizations was done with the optimistic hope that they would somehow escape the failings of the existing organizations, especially when the old organizations were perceived to be unfixable.

The discussion moved to LIRNEasia and its mission. Rohan read out the organization’s provisional mission statement and its provisional organizational mission statement. After extensive discussion, it was agreed that the mission statement would be put up on LIRNEasia’s website and the views sought from the LIRNEasia community of researchers and consultants to improve it. Amal suggested that a strategy statement should also be developed.

Chanuka Wattegama then gave a summary of recent discussions that took place about the merits of having a bidding process for deployment of VSATs to connect VGKs (telecenters).

Colloquium attendees were suitably rewarded for their participation by what followed next—colorful sandwiches, rich chocolate cake and strong coffee, thanks to Sabina Fernando’s intricate, logistical exercises of the evening.

(2nd colloquium notes as Word/OpenOffice document)