The January 25th broadband stimulus awards announcement from the Rural Utilities Service, valued at nearly $310 million, exceeds all other awards announced to date under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act combined.
Latest RUS Broadband Stimulus Awards Exceeds All Other Previous Awards Combined
Posted by: Mike Boehne | January 27th, 2010 | No Comments »
Average Broadband Connection Speed in the U.S. is 3.9 Mbps
Posted by: Mike Boehne | January 27th, 2010 | No Comments »
The United States saw a decline in the average number of high-speed Internet connections between the third quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009, according to data gathered by Akamai , a provider of global Internet content delivery and security infrastructure. The average connectivity speed in the U.S. was 3.9 Mb/s in third quarter 2009, down 1.8% from a year earlier, according to Akamai’s recently released State of the Internet Report for third quarter 2009.
Verizon Wireless launches smart grid offering for utilities
Posted by: Mike Boehne | January 20th, 2010 | No Comments »
Verizon Wireless and Ambient Corporation are targeting utilities deploying smart grid programs with an integrated smart grid solution and open communications network announced Jan. 13. The offering, dubbed Open Smart Grid Communications Architecture is aimed at accelerating the deployment of secure smart grids, saving utilities the operational investment and maintenance cost of deploying a proprietary communications network.
Mobile broadband consumer devices predicted to skyrocket
Posted by: Mike Boehne | January 20th, 2010 | No Comments »
Shipments of mobile broadband-enabled consumer devices will increase 55-fold between 2008 and 2014, according to a new forecast from ABI Research . The category–which includes eBook readers, mobile digital cameras and camcorders, personal media players (PMPs), personal navigation devices (PNDs) and mobile gaming devices–will see total shipments reach 58 million by 2014. Today, ABI researchers say, the strongest of these sub-categories are eBook readers and PNDs.
Policy Makers Eye Rate of Return Reduction
Posted by: Mike Boehne | January 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
Policy makers are considering a reduction in the profit percentage that rate of return carriers are allowed to earn, a financial analyst who specializes in rural telephone companies said December 17.
“One of the talking points that has been going around Washington on the regulatory front . . . has been a potential reduction in the rate of return,” said Chris King, equity research analyst for Stifel Nicolaus in a conference call to discuss 2009 trends and predictions for 2010. The rate of return percentage is currently set at just over 14%. Read more »
Small ILECs are big winners in first broadband stimulus awards
Posted by: Mike Boehne | January 4th, 2010 | No Comments »
Small incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) won a substantial share of the broadband infrastructure funding awards announced Dec. 17 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
A close look at the awards list reveals that of 12 awards made to support the construction of broadband infrastructure, five went to small ILECs and two went to consortia owned by groups of small ILECs. Other types of companies awarded funds to support broadband infrastructure construction included an electrical cooperative, a joint venture between two electrical cooperatives, two Internet service providers and a joint venture between two wireless operators.
Small ILECs made a particularly strong showing among last mile and middle mile awards made through the Rural Utilities Service, garnering five out of eight total awards. The four middle mile awards made through the National Telecommunications and Information Agency included two to ILEC consortia.
