Spectrum of Greed

Slip slidin' away.... to 19th place now!

A Fast Company blog by Chris Dannon today highlighted the depressing fact that the US has recently dropped to 19th in a recent study on global internet broadband connectivity.  I found it on Digg.  The article was an interview with Emily Green, CEO of the Yankee Group, a Boston-based consultancy that specializes in connectivity.  (continue reading…)

The Aussies will have wifi in cars way before us.

Dedicated Short Range Communications, or DSRC for those who like initials, is a wireless technology hybrid of WIFI and GPS.  This new technology, that will allow any car operating on Australia’s motorways (at least the ones that are not burning) to be a high speed wireless data node on a universal internet network.  This innovative development was the result of a University of Southern Australia think tank called the Institute for Telecommunications Research.  ReadWriteWeb has a great article on it, providing lots of links and detail on how the system will work not only for the sharing of high speed internet data, but also will allow real time communications between vehicles allowing more effective management of congestion, accident avoidance, and numerous other improvements over today’s ‘driving blind’ lack of communications.  (continue reading…)

This could happen, but not till the FCC gets out of the way!

Sitting on the porch of a community center swimming pool on a sunny 80 degree day in February is a good thing.  This is where I am able to get a wireless signal while visiting my wife’s relatives in Florida.  I heard they got 4 inches of snow at home yesterday, so my timing was good.  What does this have to do with wireless internet?  My wife’s grandmother doesn’t have internet of any kind in her social security funded home in this nice retirement community.  She does have both a cell phone and a traditional land line phone though.  For her, a woman approaching 90 years of age (but still driving and fully functional), the learning curve of the internet is enough to keep her away, much less the cost involved with getting internet to begin with when she has limited choices and limited funds.  But there are tons of benefits to granny getting on the ‘net - both to granny and to the economy.  (continue reading…)

What's wrong with this picture? Nothing! It is just what we asked for.

An amazing post on the history of South Korea’s internet has been all but unobserved by most of the internet community in the US.  This information should be part of the body of knowledge that is reviewed as a part of defining a strategic plan to get us where we need to be as a country for internet access.  Based on current projections, we are already 13 years behind South Korea, as their first generation plan to get their country online was originally conceived and execution begun back in 1995.  Fast forward to today, and they are already on Internet - generation II, while the US still sits on it’s thumbs, hoping that somehow if we keep doing what we have been doing that everything will be better.  The problem is a fundamental one:  Korea has a target of connecting their citizens to the world, and to be number one at it.  The US has a goal as well:  to provide support to existing companies that have built our internet infrastructure and hope that they do what is necessary to connect the citizens of the US.  The one complicating factor is that the companies in control of this roadmap in the US have a different motivation than getting the best connectivity for all citizens - it is called making a profit.

An excerpt from the article:

How and why did South Korea become an overlord in Internet speed? In short; the South Korean government introduced a number of policy instruments to stimulate technological learning, aimed to strengthen international competitiveness of the economy. The government launched a five-year plan to create a ubiquitous networked world in 1995, meaning that the country developed a stunning 1.5 billion dollar wireless network to stimulate the use of the Internet.

(continue reading…)