“The most valuable asset an independent telco has, other than their people, is their bandwidth,” said Kevin Walsh of Zeugma Systems on a panel at the OPASTCO Summer 2010 Convention. In this video interview, he talks about the importance of managing traffic in order to provide high quality and reliable communications. He suggests that managing bandwidth, which seems to be the crux of the recent Google-Verizon deal, will be important to providing high quality experience, a “broadband HQ” experience, if you will.
The FCC's announcement last week of the Office of Native Affairs and Policy points to the increasing importance of ensuring that broadband networks are available to native homelands. In this video interview from the OPASTCO 2010 Summer Convention, Al Pedersen discusses fiber network that Sandwich Isles Communications created to serve the Hawaiian Home Lands. In this interview, he discusses some of the construction challenges Sandwich Isles Communcations faced, such as boring through lava, as well as unique permitting requirements and costs imposed by their distance from the mainland. Their creation of an undersea/land fiber optic network, which Pedersen describes as open access, stands to benefit all Hawaiians.
A 25:1 ratio is what John Rose, president of OPASTCO, points out is the difference between what the National Broadband Plan calls for between urban and rural areas. The objective for 2020 is to have at least 100 million homes at 100 Mb/s. Rose points out that the other 15 to 30 million rural homes would have a different broadband standard of 4 Mb/s. Rose is concerned that this definition of broadband could relegate rural areas to the equivalent of a 60 Kb/s circuit in today’s terms.
The FCC did point out, in panels at the OPASTCO 2010 Summer Convention, that the four Mb/s goal is today’s number, it represents throughput and not peak and that this goal will change over time. The question is why didn’t the FCC explicitly state the objective for rural broadband for the year 2020 in the Natonal Broadband Report?
Highlights from the OPASTCO 2010 Summer Conference in Seattle: Is 4Mbs enough, Beating the Competition, Is the Sky Really Falling, Interview with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Catherine Moyer, Bob Debroux, Sandwich Isle Telecom, FRED highlights with Steve Meltzer and George Henny, and more…
ViodiTV at OPASTCO 2010 was brought to your by Cronin Communications, Extreme Networks, and OmniTel.
A highlight of the OPASTCO 2010 Summer Convention was the keynote speech of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. ViodiTV caught up with Chairman Genachowski after his speech and he elaborated on the importance of a robust broadband infrastructure to creating a vibrant rural economy, which in turn benefits the urban economy. We also briefly discussed the importance of community-based, telecommunications companies in the development of the rural broadband infrastructure.
To read the full text of the speech he gave to OPASTCO, where he outlined the five principles for Universal Service Reform, please click here. It is unfortunate, that he wasn't able to stay to hear the next panel at OPASTCO, which featured representatives from NTCA (National Telecommunications Cooperative Association), WTA (Western Telecom Alliance), MTA (Minnesota Telecom Alliance) and the TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) and was moderated by John Rose. The common theme of the panel was that the industry needs to continue to work together to provide data and share its message to both the FCC, as well as legislators.
