Tag Archives: last mile

Why Your City Should Compete With Google’s Super-Speed Internet

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One of the biggest obstacles organizers are likely to face are laws discouraging or preventing governments from competing with private broadband providers. So far 19 states have passed such laws.

“It strikes me as crazy that some states are banning communities from building or expanding existing networks, even as we’re subsidizing private companies,” Mitchell said.

He says these laws actually end up preventing incumbent providers from expanding higher speed internet services in many areas, because they know their existing legacy services won’t face competition.

via Why Your City Should Compete With Google’s Super-Speed Internet | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com.

Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

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The next step, after raising half a million pounds from shareholders, is to convince Lancastrians to pony up about fifty dollars a month for internet service. (Those who invest £1500 or more can get a year’s free service, a tax credit of 30%, and the option to sell the entire investment back in 2016 at full value.) This isn’t AOL dial-up: customers will have access to a blazing fast 1 gigabit connection, something that many city-dwellers, myself included, would covet.

via There Will Be Broadband: Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands | Motherboard.

Welcome to the Ruby Ranch Internet Cooperative Association

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The Coop was founded in 2001 because at the time, no one offered DSL or cable modem Internet access in our neighborhood, and because the voice telephone service to the neighborhood is of such poor quality that it was (and is) not possible to get modem connections faster than about 26K bits per second. The Coop is a Colorado nonprofit corporation and is federally tax-exempt under 501(c)(12).

The Coop’s launch of service in 2002 was made possible only by loans from “angels,” neighborhood residents who chose to lend money to the Coop with no assurance the loans would ever be repaid. The Coop reached a milestone in the first quarter of 2004 successfully repaying (ahead of schedule, and with interest) all of the “angel” loans. The Coop is now debt-free.

via Welcome to the Ruby Ranch Internet Cooperative Association.

Alcatel-Lucent Enhances VDSL2 Vectoring

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Vectoring, the market term for the ITU’s G.993.5 standard (also known as G.Vector), is a noise cancellation technology that reduces the interference between bundled copper lines and boosts the speed and reach of VDSL2 broadband connections. It is also known as DSM (Dynamic Spectrum Management) Level 3.

via Light Reading Europe – IP & Convergence – Alcatel-Lucent Enhances VDSL2 Vectoring – Telecom News Analysis.

If AlcaLu can deliver effective vectoring capabilities using installed CPE, then that’s only going to expand the market potential for its system, especially as more operators look for ways to extend the useful life of their copper plant before taking the plunge into fiber-to-the-home (FTTH).

Verizon’s 4G LTE-to-the-Home Service Launches Thursday

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HomeFusion customers can expect rates of five to 12 Mbps and upload rates of two to five Mbps, in line with your average DSL or low-end cable Internet connection. The customer is responsible for purchasing a $200 antenna which needs to be professionally installed, and the package includes a wireless router capable of connecting four wired and 20 wireless devices to the network. You must sign a two-year agreement.

via Verizon’s 4G LTE-to-the-Home Service Launches Thursday | PCWorld.

Verizon doesn’t give you much data to work with, so watch what you download or stream: 10GB of data will cost you $60 every month, 20GB, $90, and 30GB, $120. For every gigabyte you go over these limits, Verizon will zap you an extra $10. That’s not the only bad news: The carrier will also not install the antenna above the second story of a building, so apartment dwellers are out of luck.