August 2008 Archives
Being a CEO blogger is risky. Jupitermedia's CEO Alan Meckler was, I believe, one of the first CEOs to blog. Meckler shares his experience, which goes back to the start of the commercial internet, but he also gives credit to key employees (see, for example, the recent entry about the Megapixel.Net Blog).
Should you blog? I don't know. But if you do, take the time to appreciate your employees.
Case in point: Sonic.net. When an outage occurred in an old school 802.11 portion of the network, Dane Jasper first notified his customers, but then he showed how his employees responded and fixed the project, naming several key technicians.
Giving praise is an important component of leadership.
Broadband Genie in the UK reports that the BBC may switch from Akamai to Level 3 to deliver content from its iPlayer.
The change would cost small ISPs money. Whereas Akamai will set up a server in a small ISP, Level 3 would charge money for the delivery of content. Of course, if the small ISPs are paying, the BBC pays less.
So here you have a large, government-subsidized company (every color TV owner in the UK pays c. $270 per year for BBC service, whether they use it or not (half price if the government admits you're blind).
This government-subsidized company is offloading its costs on the smallest companies, while giving those who peer for free with Level 3 a free ride.
It looks like a decision made by telco lobbyists. It's certainly not fair to give large companies a free ride and expect only the small companies to pay for a government service.
Free World Dialup is no longer free of charge.
The "communication ISP" wants to offer applications that Pulver would have called purple.
It wants VoIP to do all those things you cannot do on the phone network.
That takes cash.
I have a lot of respect for Daniel Berninger, FWD's CEO, but the economy's not in a happy place right now, and it won't be easy to make money.
That said, I do believe that the free internet will soon disappear. ISP-Planet recently published a call for the application of basic business principles to muni wireless projects. The free ride in muni is over, too.
If Google wants to enhance its campus and its town-google relationship by sponsoring a free network for its home town, that's the exception that proves the rule -- few companies are that rich.
The future is metered access. With metered access, TV and the movie business will not be disrupted by the internet, at least in the near future, to the extent that the phone company is already inferior to what VoIP can do.
BTW, I'm having some odd issues on my magicJack. For example, I call a friend on magicjack and get a message that I have no long distance service. Try the same call on POTS, and I get a busy signal.
So here's my question: I know that the phone company wants to kill VoIP, and that phone company control of key databases is a great tool for killing competition, so is the phone company messing with error handling, giving VoIP users different error messages than those given to POTS users?
Yes, I'm using a service that costs $2 per month. But I don't expect it to last. The future is with those who can deliver excellence and charge money for it.
This is an ongoing story, and today's update comes from InternetNews' Sean Michael Kerner in the article Lots of Foot-Dragging on IPv6.
No surprise, of course, that the U.S. government has been hopeless on the issue, but it is a surprise that private enterprise has not done anything.
Because
"We are running out and we're going to have to migrate at some point."
I don't think that anyone should buy an ISP or WISP in today's market -- or sell to a rollup for anything other than cash.
The wireless business is a good business, and some companies are making real money doing it. A few of the best have sold recently and taken a leadership role in a rollup. Doing that does make sense. The opportunity to be part of a large company and roll the dice on being part of a company that sells out at the peak, that's worthwhile.
But many rollups don't make it, and the biggest infrastructure project right now, ClearWire, is losing hundreds of millions of dollars every quarter.
That's the seller's point of view.
But it's not a buyer's market, either.
If you're a buyer, you're going to cross most WISPs off your list of targets (see, for example, Two WISP Rollups in Texas). That leaves a short list that's similar to the short list of the dozen or so other companies building a national or regional infrastructure.
It might look like Steve Stroh's list of broadband wireless and WiMAX providers. There are 73 companies on that list, a tiny of fraction of the several WISPs that exist nationwide.
I don't know for certain, but I can guess that those companies are receiving offers regularly. They weren't willing to sell yesterday for a reasonable price, and unless circumstances have changed, they won't accept a reasonable offer today.
If you're looking to grow, don't buy subscribers. They cost too much.
That would be the Wireless Innovation Alliance. There are partners too, a few congresspeople (mostly blue). A few companies, like Microsoft. And a few associations, like CompTIA. And friends of competition like New America and Free Press.
The site does not have any information that we don't know already (although this link to the FCC testing schedule is useful).
Intead, what's interesting about this is that it shows that Google is mobilizing allies and clout for a real fight.
Stay tuned? Log in!
(h/t BBR)
The Communications Workers of America are measuring upload and download speeds on their Speed Matters blog, created to argue for a national broadband policy. The speed tests appear to show that service is lacking in some areas of the U.S.
The site breaks down the data state by state.
Since the U.S. is falling behind, the CWA, which has an obvious interest in more broadband, has listed four principles for a national broadband strategy: universal service, higher speeds, free speech with network management, and the reporting of deployment, actual speed, and actual price.
This project appears to compete with the broadband census that I wrote about in April. The broadband census is not as slick. At the moment, I cannot view its data. But it does have a great news feed.
The FCC remains hypocritical on this issue. The Broadband Census page points out that "According to its semi-annual report released in March 2008, the Federal Communications Commission states that there are no ZIPcodes in Alaska that are without a broadband provider, as of June 30, 2007, yet the map provided by the FCC portrays large swaths of parts of Alaska as 'zero delivery areas.'"
A lot pf people are arguing for a national broadband policy, and some are arguing against it. We'll present both arguments at ISPCON in a session pitting Bruce Mehlman against Dewayne Hendricks, with Kris Twomey as moderator.
Wired's Threat Level blog got a look at the network for the Defcon convention. With nifty photos.
