Industry News

Our satellite provider has just informed us that they will no longer be offering the 256k and 384k plans, only the 512k plan. We ahve informed them that this will affect their sales adversely, but they don't seem to care. The older plans will continue to function, but they have all been increased to 512K.

We are not sure how this is going to affect us yet; your thoughts and comments are welcome.

P.S. If any of you have satellite kits still in the box that you would like to return, let me know and we will see what we can work out.

We are having network E problems with the Level3 network for the past hour or so. All users attempting logins to Level3 numbers on Network E are failing. Network admin is working on the problem. Will advise further as soon as we know more.

know what the Internet titan would do with a wireless network in a major metropolitan area may not have to wonder much longer.
A San Francisco advisory panel has recommended a joint bid by Google and EarthLink to build a city-wide wireless network, clearing the way for city staffers to begin contract negotiations with the two tech companies.

``We are committed to bring universal, affordable wireless broadband Internet access to all San Francisco's residents and businesses, and today we are one step closer to making good on that commitment,'' San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The bidding process had been closely watched by an unusual coalition of activists, who were anxious to see the mayor's pledge of universal access fulfilled, and technology players, who were eager to learn how the municipal network would fit into the Mountain View company's business.

Chris Vein, the director of San Francisco's technology department, said he is hopeful that a contract can be hammered out by the end of the year. The agreement must be reviewed for final approval by the city's board of supervisors.

In the winning proposal, Google will deliver advertising to support a free service, while EarthLink, one of the nation's largest Internet service providers, will provide the wireless access. Data transfer speeds would hover around 300 kilobits per second, slower than most DSL connections but faster than dialup.

EarthLink also will sell a no-ad service for about $20 a month that could be as much as four times faster than its no-cost counterpart.

In a statement, Google said it was ``thrilled that the city of San Francisco has accepted our joint bid'' and looking forward to continuing the planning process.

``What I'm trying to do is balance speed with following appropriate policies and procedures and making sure we get the best deal for the city and county of San Francisco,'' Vein said.

Six companies responded to the city's request for proposals, which was issued in December.

Competitors to the EarthLink/Google bid included Communication Bridge Global of South San Francisco, MetroFi of Mountain View, nextWLAN of Los Gatos, Razortooth Communications of San Francisco and a partnership formed by SeaKay of San Francisco, including Cisco Systems of San Jose, and IBM.

A five-member task force scored the proposals according to a criteria established by the city. MetroFi was the panel's second choice after EarthLink/Google, followed by the SeaKay/Cisco/IBM team.

When it submitted its proposal, an Earthlink spokesman estimated that the Google-Earthlink plan would cost $6 million to $7 million to install, and $15 million for maintenance, billing and upgrades over the next 10 years. EarthLink would install about 1,500 radio transmitters -- made by Tropos Networks in Sunnyvale -- atop light poles across the city. See you on the next post.

US Telecom Execs Battle Net Neutrality Demands
Telecommunications providers like AT&T Inc. intensified their efforts this week to persuade USpolicymakers to avoid imposing regulations on the Internet for services like streaming movies and unfettered Web access.
The "network neutrality" battle in Washington pits high-speed Internet operators against content and application providers. Network owners want to sell tiers of service to reflect bandwidth usage, while the content companies fear they will be shunted to the slow lane of the Internet or shut out unless they pay more for dedicated network service.

The issue dominated the annual convention of big and small carriers held by the US Telecom Association (USTA), as they stepped up efforts to influence lawmakers and regulators who are mulling whether new rules or laws are necessary.

AT&T, BellSouth Corp. and Verizon Communications executives spent the week criticizing demands for network neutrality laws at almost every opportunity.

"This debate I think is all about movies," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T's senior executive vice president for legislative affairs. "What we're saying is that you can't provide dedicated line, virtual private network services for free."

AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon say they do not intend to block Internet content and prefer to make commercial bandwidth deals with content companies such as Internet retailer Amazon.com or Web search engine Google Inc.

USTA Chief Executive Walter McCormick pressed the matter with Federal Communications Commission officials who attended.

"We're hearing a lot today about Net neutrality, it's in the newspapers just about every day," McCormick told FCC Chairman Kevin Martin during a public event. "The chairman of Disney said this is not an area to legislate in."

Martin replied that the agency has previously acted against discrimination, but recognized the need for network operators to control service and ensure "they have opportunities to offer differentiated products."

But Internet phone service company Vonage Holdings Corp. and others like Amazon.com worry their Internet applications could be blocked unless they pay for dedicated service.

"We're not looking for a free ride, but that downstream injection of content be offered on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms," said Paul Misener, vice president for global public policy at Amazon.com.

In Hollywood, streaming of full-length movies and television shows via the Internet has been slow in coming. Content delivery from Web sites like Movielink and CinemaNow has for the most part been confined to downloads.

But increasingly television networks and movie studios want to use the Web to reach consumers directly.

"If America is to enjoy the ever-expanding Internet, providers have to be able to manage their networks according to the needs of customers," said BellSouth Chief Executive Duane Ackerman. "But let me be clear, managing the networks is not about controlling where people go on the Internet."

Some consumer groups questioned whether the carriers would give their own services priority over competitors.

"My concern is they would say 'well you know we only have enough bandwidth to provide that quality of service for our service'," said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge.

The FCC last year attached network neutrality conditions to Verizon's acquisition of MCI and the deal that formed AT&T. It required them to provide consumers unfettered Internet access and to run any Internet-based applications for two years.

Lawmakers are considering etching those principles into law and giving the FCC enforcement power. But, some in Congress and at the FCC question if there is a problem to be solved. See you on the next post.

EarthLink Inc. has already invested about $121.5 million into its soon-to-be-launched mobile virtual network operator, Helio, according to the company’s recently filed annual report. In addition, EarthLink stated that it has already provided Helio with 27,000 customers.
EarthLink stated that its joint venture with Korean carrier SK Telecom Co. Ltd., “allows us the opportunity to expand and further diversify the markets in which we operate to include the growing voice and data services segment of the wireless market.”

But EarthLink warns investors that its investments in Helio may not produce stellar financial results for some time.
“We expect the financing of Helio’s operations to adversely affect our cash position. In addition, we expect Helio to continue to incur losses due to the startup nature of its operations, and we include our proportionate share of the losses of Helio in our statements of operations, which adversely affects our earnings and earnings per share. In addition, Helio may not be successful in developing or implementing its wireless voice and data initiatives, and there can be no assurance that these initiatives will be commercially successful. This would adversely affect our financial position, results of operations and liquidity.”

Also in its annual report, EarthLink said that, “Effective March 24, 2005, we transferred approximately 27,000 wireless subscribers to Helio in connection with completing the formation of Helio.”

Together, EarthLink and SK Telecom have said their funding of Helio totals about $440 million. Helio is expected to launch commercial service sometime this spring in the United States.