Posted by: Steve Senne | September 3rd, 2010 | No Comments »
The Federal Communications Commission is close to finalizing rules for the use of unused television broadcast spectrum, also known as “white spaces,” the Wall Street Journal recently reported.
The spectrum in question includes the vacant bands between television channels—prime spectrum bands that have excellent propagation characteristics. Google and others have been lobbying the FCC to free up that spectrum to expand wireless data communications.
Television broadcasters and entities that use wireless microphones in spectrum bands adjacent to the white spaces have expressed concerns that freeing up the white spaces might cause interference problems. But according to the Wall Street Journal report, the FCC has been meeting with broadcasters and other interested parties to resolve those issues.
Wireless developer Spectrum Bridge claims to have a solution to potential interference problems. The company uses a white spaces database to dynamically assign non-interfering frequencies to white space devices in real time.
Spectrum Bridge has pioneered the use of TV white spaces in several trials. In the rural community of Claudeville, Va., the company installed a “middle mile” connection between the Internet and WiFi hot spot networks.
And in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, the company helped Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative & Telecommunications use white spaces to connect substations and switch gear to enable the coop to more effectively manager power flows. That network also provides broadband Internet access to residents in the community.
Posted by: Steve Senne | August 30th, 2010 | No Comments »
Cisco and The Monitor Group’s Global Business Network has released, “The Evolving Internet,” a year-long research project carried out by an interdisciplinary team that “examines the driving forces and uncertainties that will…shape the path of the Internet [and the $3 trillion market it enables]” out to the year 2025.
The research, basing four evolutionary future scenarios on five premises, is intended as a business and policy strategy development roadmap to “help decision makers in both technology companies and government understand, anticipate, and manage key changes, risks, and opportunities so that the Internet’s potential to create economic and social value can be realized globally,” according to a Cisco news release. A range of “critical factors,” such as net neutrality policies, infrastructure investments, consumer response to new pricing models, and technology adoption, are examined with an eye towards elaborating how they “might play out.”
“We can’t predict the future, but we do know that the Internet-related choices being made in 2010 will have long-term consequences—intended and unintended. We hope these scenarios will foster a deeper strategic conversation in and across the technology and policy communities about the impact of today’s decisions tomorrow,”
It’s clear to the researchers that the next 2 billion Internet users will be very different than the two billion estimated Internet users globally today, a conclusion with broad ramifications throughout the Internet’s technological structure and economic/financial value chain.
“The next 2 or 3 billion Internet users will be mostly in emerging markets and very different from the first 2 billion; global business models and national policies will fail if they are based on old expectations of behavior, preferences, and success,” noted Enrique Rueda-Sabater, the report’s co-author and Cisco’s director of strategy and economics for emerging markets.
Posted by: Mike Boehne | August 20th, 2010 | No Comments »
In a report recently released from the Federal Communications Commission, the agency shares the data it compiled to determine the 4 Mb/s minimum broadband speed recommended in the National Broadband Plan.
According to the agency, the average (mean and median) advertised download speed for U.S. residential
consumers is 7-8 Mb/s. But the mean actual speed consumers received was approximately 4 Mb/s and the
median actual speed was approximately 3 Mb/s.
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Posted by: Mike Boehne | August 18th, 2010 | No Comments »
Digital TV and DVR technology continue to change the way viewers watch TV. Comcast, in its “TV Pulse Survey,” reports that while 80% of viewers regularly watch prime-time TV, and watch it live, more and more of them are using time-shifting technology to do so. Sixty-two percent of have watched prime time TV series via video-on-demand, DVR and the Internet, according to the survey, 61% more than was the case a year ago and 84% more than three years back.
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Posted by: Steve Senne | August 13th, 2010 | No Comments »
Lockard & White, a telecom engineering and integration firm, and Full Spectrum, a manufacturer of fourth-
generation software defined radios, on August 9 launched a Smart Grid Wireless Connectivity Center
at Lockard & White’s headquarters in Bryan/ College Station, Texas.
The connectivity center will include indoor lab and outdoor smart grid environments.
The goal of the connectivity center is to accelerate smart grid deployments by providing utilities and
wireless equipment manufacturers with a facility where they can have systems evaluated in what the center
operators call “near real world scenarios.”
“Almost all smart grid deployments involve a combination of private wireless communications transporting
a variety of legacy and advanced protocols for command and control of smart grid devices,” said Lockard
& White CEO Marc Lockard in the announcement.
Several electric cooperatives already have engaged the connectivity center to test various wireless
configurations for distribution automation and advanced metering infrastructure backhaul. In addition the
center is extending invitations to certain U.S. investor-owned utilities to visit the test facility and take part
in smart grid workshops.
Posted by: Mike Boehne | August 6th, 2010 | No Comments »
There’s somewhat of a see-saw movement happening with the remaining broadband stimulus funding of roughly $3 billion. The Senate has passed an amendment that cuts this remaining funding by $300 million. The cut still has to be approved by the House of Representatives.
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Posted by: Mike Boehne | August 5th, 2010 | No Comments »
The Rural Utilities Service announced 126 projects valued at $1.2 billion in broadband stimulus funding on August 4. Small rural telcos were big winners with many DSL and fiber-based projects among the winners.
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Posted by: Steve Senne | July 30th, 2010 | No Comments »
The average broadband connection speed for the U.S. was 4.7 Mb/s for the first quarter of 2010, according to data released this week from Akamai Technologies. This was a substantial increase from the 3.8 Mb/s average connection speed Akamai measured in fourth quarter 2009.
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Posted by: Steve Senne | July 30th, 2010 | No Comments »
One-off events such as the 2010 World Cup are raising consumer awareness of and interest in 3DTV, but only modestly to date, according to Parks Associates’ Trends in 3DTV report , but the Dallas-based research firm forecasts that 80% of TVs sold in the US will be 3D-ready.
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Posted by: Mike Boehne | July 26th, 2010 | No Comments »
We’re excited to announce our latest acquisition, Communications Engineers, Inc, (CEI) based in Springfield, Ill. CEI is a well respected engineering firm with a strong track record of successful client engagements. “This strategic acquisition will increase Finley Engineering’s presence in Illinois and the surrounding area, and compliment our established presence in the communications industry,” explains Rod Christenson, President and CEO of Finley Engineering.
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