DISQUS

DISQUS Hello! The Technology Liberation Front is using DISQUS, a powerful comment system, to manage its comments. Learn more.

Community Page

The Technology Liberation Front

The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
Jump to original thread »
Author

M2Z Reborn: Censored, but Free, Broadband is Now Kevin Martin’s Top Priority

Started by TLF · 7 months ago

Back in June, Adam Thierer and I denounced (PDF) Kevin Martin’s plans to create broadband utility to provide censored (and very slow) broadband for free to all Americans.  The WSJ reports that this scheme is now at the top of Martin’s December agenda% ... Continue reading »

4 comments

  • Berin Szoka

    7 months ago

    I find it funny that my use of the term "social justice" triggered this AdSense ad:
    Black Liberation Theology
    Learn about what it is and its implications for our society
    www.acton.org
    reply
  • Adam Thierer

    7 months ago

    It still just kills me that Martin is going to so much trouble for such a pathetic plan. We are talking about essentially a glorified dial-up service here! I think the title of Tom Evslin's piece over at Circle ID today really says it all: "Free, Slow, Censored Internet: A Bad Idea." Here's a clip from his piece that nails the stupidity of this:

    The requirement is that the free service have a download speed of at least 768kilobits/second; this is the speed of the slowest DSL. This is not a mobile service where we might accept a slightly slow speed in return for mobility; it is meant to be primary residential access to bridge the digital divide. But, by the time this service actually exists, the web will not be usable at such a slow speed. Websites get designed for the capabilities of the top 50% of users; that's why dialup is now useless for surfing even though it used to work fine.

    By contrast, the Vermont legislature specified that a service won't count as broadband at the end of 2010 unless it is at least 1.5Megabits/second AND realizing that this requirement must escalate, charged the Public Service Board with appropriate and timely upper revision. Nevertheless, this requirement stays the same in the NPRM for the full ten years of the license. 768Kbs will be as obsolete as your old 300 baud modem ten years from now; but it will be the only free service the licensee is required to offer.

    The licensee has no incentive to offer better free service because it will also sell a higher-powered service. The NPRM does NOT specify that a quarter of the network capacity be used for the free service; it says "up to" an "as needed". If no one uses the free service, then no network capacity need be devoted to it.
    reply
  • toronto escorts

    4 months ago

    If this idea is still alive and kicking when the Obama administration has security escort Martin out of FCC headquarters in January–to hearty applause from nearly all quarters in Washington, no doubt–it will be interesting to see which impulse prevails on the Left
    reply
  • Christian Parent

    2 months ago

    Perhaps the idea would be more popular with higher bandwidth. Does the removal of porn filters also make it more appealing?
    reply

Add New Comment

Returning? Login