The Wireless Future Blog

The Philadelphia saga is about to get a whole lot more interesting. Though I've been privy to a lot of the behind-the-scene negotiations, if you're looking for details, you'll have to look elsewhere. However, you won't have to wait long -- the Philadelphia Metro has already started covering things -- which means that someone's already spilling the beans. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News are going to be running stories tomorrow.

All in all, the proposed solution is a really good one for the residents of Philly; but yes, it's caught up on the demand for a $250,000 payment. Meanwhile, Wireless Philadelphia released this statement today...

Dear Friend of Wireless Philadelphia:

I am writing to provide you a brief update on the Wireless
Philadelphia Initiative.

Philadelphia's Wi-Fi network continues to operate in the roughly 80% of the City in which it has been deployed (see map

). Nothing in the ten-year Network Agreement

permits EarthLink to unilaterally impose deadlines for the network's transfer, turn off the network or remove network equipment.

My friend and colleague, Aaron Kaplan, has been playing around with his Iphone and is now running open source mesh software on it. The eventual goal of all of this is to create device-as-infrastructure networks -- i.e., systems where every piece of hardware is also a part of the communications network. As we've continued to work on integrating myriad open source wireless technologies into a single solution, experiments to integrate Iphones and other devices into new network architectures continue to provide fascinating results.

Mike Leber over at Hurricane Electric put out a reminder that some estimates are now putting IPv4 number exhaustion at less than 1000 days out.

Having raised this issue with folks here in DC quite a bit, I've been intrigued by the lack of regard with which this problem has been met. In fact, it seems like few folks want to really address the issue, even though it's a problem that's certain to only grow in complexity and dysfunction as we near exhaustion.

Having just attended the most recent ARIN meeting in Denver, CO, I know that the scientific, research, and general IP communities have been ringing the klaxon for awhile now. Impressive amounts of information on the impending IPv4 exhaustion are readily available, and there's even some of us inside the beltway who are available resources to talk with anyone who'd be interested in addressing the problem (so do give a call).

What's worse, IPv6, while the only solution available, has its own scalability problems.

All I'm saying is, when this becomes "the big story" -- remember, lots of us have been working to proactively address the problem for years. We certainly can't say we didn't see this coming.

Just in time for the House Telecom Subcommittee’s May 6 hearing on Net Neutrality legislation, Public Knowledge achieved a new level of notoriety when we were prominently mentioned in a blog post on the American Spectator, the publication best known for funneling millions of dollars to investigations of Bill and Hillary Clinton...

Picking up where we left off…

Market-Based Myths Abound

The argument against Net Neutrality really goes off-track when it gets into the nature of private property, the state of competition, and the effect of regulation. That’s more than one track to be thrown off of, so it’s quite the disaster scene. We may need CSI: Telecom to sort it all out.

Public Knowledge earned its headline in the Spectator because of the petition we filed with the FCC asking that companies like Verizon which offer text messaging not be able to decide which groups should be deemed worthy of service and which shouldn’t be...

I've been on the coordinating committee for the upcoming Computers, Freedom, & Privacy Conference which is taking place up in New Haven, CT later this month. The schedule is now just about finalized and it has shaped up to be an amazing group of intellectuals and experts.

Here's more information for anyone who's interested in these issues:

COMPUTERS, FREEDOM, AND PRIVACY: TECHNOLOGY POLICY '08
http://cfp2008.org/
18th Annual CFP conference
May 20-23, 2008
Omni Hotel
New Haven, CT

Conference Blog: http://cfp08.blogspot.com/
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?id=683858084
Conference Wiki: http://cfp.wikia.com/wiki/CFP08
LinkedIn Group: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/61857/7885844E0F9D

Hotel Conference Discount Deadline: May 1, 2008
Early Bird Registration: Fri., May 2, 2008
YJoLT Tech Policy Essay Contest: Mon., May 5, 2008

ABOUT CFP: TECHNOLOGY POLICY `08

What should the technology policy priorities of the next administration be?

So I've been following up more since initial post yesterday. As a general matter, I recommend interested readers start with this piece from the FDA's website, followed by the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) FAQ on wireless medica...

CNET has this story about how “Hospital Techies” (notably medical monitor manufacturer GE) are worried that white spaces devices will mess up their medical systems. Bluntly, “hospital techies” have bigger problems. As t...

When it rains, it positively pours. The FCC just released its Inspector General Report on whether Cyren Call screwed up the D Block. As readers may recall, I and my friends from the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) sent a letter to the ...

I should be overjoyed with the D.C. Circuit's latest case: American Radio Relay League v. FCC. First, it affirms the right of the Commission to balance between unlicensed Part 15 users and licensed users, even where operation of Part 15 certified...