November 2008 Archives

Just a quick note of warning here. InternetNews says that retailers, expecting a bad season, will be offering massive discounts on Monday, so ISPs should expect higher than usual traffic -- from business accounts as well as from residential users.

The article notes:

Shop.org found that 84 percent of retailers are planning a special promotion for Cyber Monday, such as free shipping offers, e-mail campaigns and one-day sales. That figure is a high-water mark, up from 72 percent in the trade group's survey last year.

If you've got webhosting accounts, are you helping your retailer customers offer these discounts? You should.

And if you're shopping from home, take advantage of Cyber Monday! (Or should you wait for better discounts in January? Decisions, decisions.)

There are opportunities in every economy, good and bad.

BBR today has a quick note (Obama FCC Selection Team Won't Make AT&T Happy) pointing to the work of the two leaders of Obama's FCC transition team: Kevin Webach and Susan Crawford.

Crawford has a great blog and a strong background in internet law and policy. Her speeches, in which she tries to argue every side, do not always go well, but in person and in writing she is brilliant and clear.

Werbach runs Supernova, which has an impressive list of speakers (that includes Susan Crawford).

BBR points to Werbach's articles on CircleID. ISPs should take careful note of his thoughts on usage-based pricing. Many ISPs hope to see the Bells forced to obey the law, but worry that on issues such as pricing, an Obama FCC will circumscribe the ability of ISP owners to make business decisions.

I'll write more about this later, but this morning ISPCON hosted a debate between Dewayne Hendricks and Jim Baller over whether or not the U.S. should have a national broadband policy.

Hendricks pointed out that the language used to describe the problem in Washington is not the language used by network operators.

Baller pointed out that we have not really had a national broadband policy during the past eight years beyond massive deregulation. He pointed to OECD statistics and other metrics by which the U.S. has fallen behind other nations since 2001.

There were several members of the press at the session and one pointed out that the election of Barack Obama makes it more likely that there will be a national broadband policy during the coming years.

ISPs fear that a national broadband policy will either amount to a handout to the monopolies, with little actual difference from what's practiced now, or that a national broadband policy will not allow ISPs to choose their own equipment or manage their own networks.

It seems clear that a policy will be formulated, but whether it is passed, and enforced, is open to question. ISPs should be following this issue closely as change may happen fast, starting with the appointment of a new FCC commissioner from the Democratic party.

BroadbandReports is reporting today (My DLink Router Is Spamming Me) that the latest firmware update for some D-Link routers will hijack search screens every 8 hours and try to sell users a security subscription.

BBR is usually ahead of the curve on news like this because of the crowdsourcing power of the its tech-savvy and massive readership.

Karl Bode of BBR opines, "This kind of spam from a piece of purchased hardware should be opt-in, or better yet, not exist at all. I've got a sneaking suspicion that DLink will learn this the hard way by this time next week."

Change is in the air.

Today, the FCC approved the use of white space spectrum for the delivery of broadband.

Up next: what can the government do to turn this good idea into a terrible decision? History makes errors likely (see How They Got $480 Billion in Spectrum Giveaways).

Also on the change agenda:

Who Will Be Obama's CTO? At least one observer thinks Google's Eric Schmidt could be tapped.

I'm hoping for Vint Cerf. See Cerf Says Symmetry is Beautiful. (Schneier or Lessig would be good too. Among politicians, Boucher is sharp and Markey may not be available.)

Tech's Eyes Turn Now to Obama, Dems The new administration promises change, but how will that play with the IT and Internet industry's agenda?

It's all about the economy, and nobody can fix that overnight.