Broadband

“ The national broadband plan required by this section shall seek to ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal. The plan shall also include-- an analysis of the most effective and efficient mechanisms for ensuring broadband access by all people of the United States; a detailed strategy for achieving affordability of such service and maximum utilization of broadband infrastructure and service by the public ”

“ For the purpose of evaluating, on a statistically significant basis, the national characteristics of the use of broadband service capability, the Commission shall conduct and make public periodic surveys of consumers in urban, suburban, and rural areas in the large business, small business, and residential consumer markets to determine-- the types of technology used to provide the broadband service capability to which consumers subscribe; the amounts consumers pay per month for such capability ”

“ Some don’t believe that America’s broadband capacity, which is one third of the American — of American — the American people, I should say, don’t have access to broadband, and improving those lines and expanding that access is not infrastructure ”

“ Achieve 100 percent coverage of high-speed broadband. The President’s plan to close the digital divide invests up to $100 billion in broadband infrastructure, including funding to provide 100% broadband coverage in rural America and make it affordable for all Americans. These funds will prioritize broadband networks owned, operated by, or affiliated with local governments, non-profits, and rural co-operatives while creating good-paying jobs in local communities. ”

“ The Assistant Secretary may make competitive grants under the program to--
acquire equipment, instrumentation, networking capability, hardware and software, digital network technology, and infrastructure for broadband services; construct and deploy broadband service related infrastructure; ensure access to broadband service by community anchor institutions; facilitate access to broadband service by low-income, unemployed, aged, and otherwise vulnerable populations in order to provide educational and employment opportunities to members of such populations ”

“ Advanced telecommunications capability.—The term ``advanced telecommunications capability'' is defined, without regard to any transmission media or technology, as high-speed, switched, broadband telecommunications capability that enables users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications using any technology. ”

“ Allowing the Bells and cable companies to act as gatekeepers with control over internet access would make the internet like cable. A producer-driven market with barriers to entry for website creators and preferential treatment for specific sites based not on merit, the number of hits, but on relationships with the corporate gatekeeper. If there were four or more competitive providers of broadband service to every home, then cable and telephone companies would not be able to create a bidding war for access to the high-speed lanes. ”

“ Only calls into the switched network need incur significant tolls. And (3) it is a broadband network capable of supporting PCs, advanced mobile phones, or other Internet access devices as needed. As a figure of merit, the estimated network capital investment required to cover all rural communities in a one million inhabitant province of Vietnam comes to $2.50 per person, and the bandwidth cost (for VSAT links that provide up to 2 Mbps per rural community) is less than $1 per year per rural household. ”

“ It is the policy of the executive branch to use all viable tools to accelerate the deployment and adoption of affordable, reliable, modern high-speed broadband connectivity in rural America, including rural homes, farms, small businesses, manufacturing and production sites, tribal communities, transportation systems, and healthcare and education facilities. ”

“ Each Broadband Member Agency, following coordination with other Broadband Member Agencies and interested non-member agencies, shall: (i) develop and implement a strategy to facilitate the timely and efficient deployment of broadband facilities on Federal lands, buildings, and rights of way, federally assisted highways, and tribal lands, that: (1) ensures a consistent approach across the Federal Government that facilitates broadband deployment processes and decisions, including by: avoiding duplicative reviews ”

“ Twenty-four megahertz of spectrum occupied by television broadcasters has been earmarked for use by first responders as soon as the television broadcasters return the spectrum broadcasters being used to provide analog transmissions. This spectrum would be ideal to provide first responders with interoperable communications channels. (4) Large parts of the vacated spectrum could be auctioned for advanced commercial services, such as wireless broadband. ”

“ The unique strengths of the department and its talented public servants make it the natural agency to serve as the programmatic nerve center in America's struggle to rejuvenate our economy.
The catchphrases of your economic plan – investment, public/private partnerships, green jobs, technology, broadband, climate change and research – that is the Department of Commerce. Boosting commerce between states and nations is not just a path to solvency and growth; it's the only path. ”

“ The federal government has a role to play to ensure that every American is able to work at his or her highest capacity. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will double federal funding for basic research, expand the deployment of broadband technology and make the research and development tax credit permanent so that businesses can invest in innovation and create high-paying, secure jobs. ”

“ And I think there is a recognition that President Biden is doing the right thing in pushing us to conceive of infrastructure as broad, as including investments in STEM, research and development, investments in basic research, investments in broadband, investments in training our workforce. And the truth of it is, that’s what it’s going to take to compete.
A key component of the American Jobs Plan is training our workforce. This is a reality. The changes in the American economy, many of which have been massively accelerated by COVID, are very scary for millions of Americans. ”

“ With computer- supported visual communication integrating digital television, we will dispose of the entire infrastructure for a visually dominated civilization. In the age of Internet, wired or wireless networks become part of the artificial nervous system of advanced societies. Whether in its modem-based variant, or through other advanced schemes for transporting digital information and supporting interaction, the cable system already contributes to the transformation of the nature of many human practical experiences. ”

“ Following will be descriptions of electronic mail, discussion lists, electronic journals and texts, and resources available to those willing to explore. Historical details about the building of the Internet and technical details regarding network speed and bandwidth are outside the scope of this piece.
What's Out There Anyway?
Until you use a radio receiver, you are unaware of the wealth of programming, music, and information otherwise invisible to you. Computer networks are much the same. About one million people worldwide use the Internet daily. ”

“ But the most important part of the story is the bandwidth wars. And the reason that that is so important is it was politically the toughest nut to crack in the beginning, and is now in some ways the easiest nut to crack at the end. Business will take care of itself. Enterprise is leaving the telecom system because there’s money in it for them to do so. What we have on our side is all those wireless routers. What we have on our side is the low cost of mesh. What we have on our side is the extraordinary economic change that makes infrastructure recomposition an easy game for us to play. ”

“ It’s the infrastructure, it’s the bandwidth.
Once again, think globally, act locally. Want to fix the utility problem? Switch to VoIP. Asterisk is a client of the Software Freedom Law Center for a reason, because when Verizon comes to kill it I want to be there, standing in the way. [Applause] Right? But if you are disappearing from the telecommunications network of the world, you are making your point to the utilities suppliers.
Everywhere you can substitute a Wi-Fi thing for a 3G thing, you are making your point to the utilities suppliers. The public internet is our resource ”

“ We are, in other words, watching as the self‐assembled wireless net begins to cooperate thickly enough that even infrastructure builders may not have much work left to do. Combine that with ubiquitous SIP soft phones inside your PDAs, Internet tablets, laptops. Combine that with the reluctance of most people in the young generation to buy wire line telephone service anymore, and there’s a perfect storm being set up for the bandwidth merchants. ”

“ Packet radio —————— A global amateur radio network allows users to modem around the world, and even in outer space. Its users never get a telephone bill. There are over 700 packet radio based bulletin boards (PBBS) . They are interconnected by short wave radio, VHF, UHF, and satellite links. Technology aside, they look and feel just like standard bulletin boards. Once you have the equipment, can afford the electricity to power it up, and the time it takes to get a radio amateur license, communication itself is free. Packet radio equipment sells in the United States for less than US$ 750. ”

“ Telephone system: general assessment: foreign investment in the form of joint business ventures greatly improved telephone service; substantial fiber-optic cable systems carry telephone, TV, and radio traffic in the digital mode; internet services are available throughout most of the country - only about 11,000 subscriber requests were unfilled by September 2000 domestic: a wide range of high quality voice, data, and internet services is available throughout the country international: fiber-optic cables to Finland, Sweden, Latvia, and Russia provide worldwide packet-switched service ”

“ The WAN may or may not be part of the global network called the Internet. In colleges, universities, and research laboratories it likely is part of the Internet; in the commercial world, except for a few high-tech companies, it likely is not. But the difference between academia and the commerical world is rapidly becoming blurred.
In addition to the LANs and WANs there are many, many home and office computers that *could* be part of the global network using a modem-to- host connection. ”

“ For its universality, its versatility and its economy, our telecommunications network is unmatched by any in the world. I believe it would ill-serve the public interest if AT&T, GT&E or any other participant in the network were denied the opportunity and the challenge of bringing their financial resources, their tradition of universal service and importantly their in-place research capabilities to the rich new compunications field. ”

“ To use the language of the money-market, there was a temporary “slump” in cable shares. The world again woke up—this time to the fact that experiments of which it had heard faintly had at last culminated in a great triumph, marvellous in itself, and yet probably [Pg 9] nothing in comparison with the revolution in the transmission of news that it heralded.
The subject of Wireless Telegraphy is so wide that to treat it fully in the compass of a single chapter is impossible. ”

“ The infrastructure of the landline
networks may be so decrepit and backwards that it becomes easier
to simply skip over the landline system and go straight to the most
advanced possible cell network. Where people cannot afford those
phones, they combine resources so that an entire village may be
sharing a single phone, and, although the population may not as
a matter of course have access to computers, the phones become
their link to the Internet. ”

“ More and more the thrust is for carriers to provide bandwidth or data rate capacity adequate to accommodate a subscriber's communications needs, regardless of whether subscribers use it for voice, data, video, facsimile, or other forms of transmission. ”

“ A net-work, compared with which that of the finest lace ever worn by the fair reader would seem a net-work of cable, has preserved entire, for untold ages, the most delicate peculiarities of its pattern. ”

“ It shall be permitted to disseminate through a group antenna or a cable network, the works broadcasted by another radio or television organization via satellite or terrestrial network, if it is done within the framework of concurrent, integral and free dissemination of radio and television programs and is designed for a specific group of recipients living in either a single apartment building or single family houses including up to 50 households. ”

“ There has been in recent years a considerable shift of international telegraph traffic from cable to radio, a shift strongly accentuated in some countries, including Portugal and The Netherlands, where the overseas correspondent of American companies is a government-controlled monopoly which strongly advocates radio transmission. ”

“ When PBX and voice switching and all the pieces of intellect necessary to run a telephone system can be run on commodity white box hardware at no cost, and bandwidth can be bought in bulk by buyers with deep enough pockets to buy as much backbone time as they want, the telecommunications operators of the world are in a terrible jam. ”

“ The Bell System’s experience in serving radio networks dates from 1923, when network broadcasting began. Today, in order to link the nation’s radio stations, Long Lines operates about 200,000 miles of program transmission circuits. And within their own territories, the operating telephone companies, too, furnish some program circuits.
Bell System scientists pioneered also in sending television images from one place to another, by both wire and radio. The years of experience in serving radio networks have been invaluable in solving the problems of TV network transmission. ”