Open Networks

An academic workshop at New America Foundation, April 11, 2012

As government services, political discourse and commerce expand online, policymakers and public interest organizations are promoting broadband “adoption” among people who are not currently using the Internet, or using it marginally. Yet there is little discussion of what “adoption” means or how it can be measured.

The full testimony is below or available for download as a PDF on the right. The testimony and a video of hearing is also available on the hearing website hosted by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights.

With this proposal, the Open Technology Initiative at New America Foundation (“OTI”) presents an innovative framework for building out gigabit broadband infrastructure and providing low-cost high-speed connectivity in communities surrounding Gig.U member universities. The key to our proposal is a modular, scalable, hybrid approach to infrastructure development which adapts to the needs of each community, combining fiber-optic build-out with wireless mesh deployments.

The following is cross-posted from the British Council Voices blog. On November 9, the Open Technology Initiative and the British Council will co-host the event "Trust 2.0: Building Trust Through Technology" at the New America Foundation as part of the Washington, DC, festival Digital Capital Week.

Commenters urge the Commission to oppose the ABC joint framework proposed by various industry groups, include broad interconnection obligations on Connect America Fund recipients, and include in the fund an adequate amount of support for a broadband pilot program supporting local self-provisioning of broadband infrastructure in the highest cost areas of the country.

NOTE: This article was originally posted by Nina Bianchi at the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition site.

In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission approved an application by LightSquared to create a wholesale mobile broadband network by combining land-based and mobile satellite services. Subsequently, the commercial GPS industry opposed the network, arguing it would cause harmful interference to GPS devices. In response to a request for comments about the report of the Technical Working Group ordered by the FCC to study the interference issues, the New America Foundation, Free Press, Public Knowledge, and Media Access Project (the Public Interest Organizations) urge the FCC to actively intervene to broker, or impose if necessary, a plan that will not leave the L Band spectrum that LightSquared controls fallow, that will permit LightSquared to deploy its promised wholesale-only mobile broadband network on at least part of its spectrum, and that will safeguard essential GPS services.

For many people in the U.S., New Zealand isn’t just on the other side of the globe--its pristine landscapes and scenic beauty (made famous by the Lord of the Rings movies) make it feel like another world entirely. So it goes too with broadband.

Although the United States and New Zealand share the goal of bringing 100 megabit-per-second (Mbps) connections to three-quarters of their citizens, New Zealand is trying a different strategy from the one outlined in the U.S. National Broadband Plan. Whereas the U.S. policy is relying heavily on private companies to lead expansion, the New Zealand government is directly investing more than a billion public dollars--a significant chunk of its total economy--into telecommunications firms to spur construction of a new, open fiber network.

Cross-posted from the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC)

The case of André Vrignaud highlights the serious issues that artists, photographers and musicians might face as both data caps and cloud computing become increasingly common—and contradictory. Vrignaud, writing under the name Oxymandias, earlier this month outlined how Comcast had cut off his Internet connection for a year after he exceeded their monthly usage cap of 250 GB for back to back months.

Public Knowledge and the New America Foundation (“PK and NAF”) support both consumer choice and the responsible use of mobile wireless signal boosters. PK and NAF agree with the Commission that if properly designed and certified, mobile signal boosters have the potential to greatly benefit the public while automatically providing sufficient protection against harmful interference. PK and NAF agree with the Commission’s proposal that mobile signal boosters should be classified as Section 307(e) devices and authorized without an individual license for use on any or all networks.