Google Fiber, as you probably know, offers Gigabit internet speeds — up to 100x faster than the average broadband connection. It’s currently available or announced in only a few limited locations, such as Austin, Texas, Provo, Utah, and of course Kansas City itself.

Interestingly, none of the locations are in California, where Google is headquartered, and none except Austin are in locations typically thought of as major digital or technology centers.

Source: Sean Ludwig

Typical Google Fiber speeds

Google Fiber is so fast, with speeds like 923.35 megabytes/second uploads and 841.94 megabytes per second downloads, that businesses want to get in on the party as well. However, since Google Fiber is designated solely for residential, the only way some startups have been able to use Fiber is to set up shop in a home.

If you happen to live in Grandview, Missouri, however, don’t hold your breath.

Previously-announced neighborhoods in the area won’t be fully built out until this fall, and Google’s community manager for Fiber, Rachel Hack, says that “it will still be awhile before we can build Fiber in Grandview.” In fact, the project is still in the planning phases.

If only Fiber could be installed as quickly as it operates!

Image credits: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Fastback Networks has raised $15 million to save mobile data networks from total collapse. OK, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but Fastback has created radio technology to transfer mobile data at fast speeds so that companies can expand and plan mobile networks to handle huge voice and data networking loads in the future. Fastback’s technology could be a key piece in mobile networks that can transfer data as quickly as land-based infrastructure such as cable modems.

Matrix Partners led the round, with participation from existing investors Foundation Capital, Granite Ventures, and Juniper Networks. The latter wasn’t previously disclosed before. These investors believe that the San Jose, Calif.-based Fastback has the capability to deliver on technology that will make “small cells” practical. Right now, the world has more than 5 million macrocells, or fiber-connected cell sites that can handle the world’s voice and data traffic. The small cells are expected to offload a lot of the work the macrocells do into smaller networks, such as Wi-Fi networks, that handle the needs of users in a smaller cell sizes such as the neighborhood cafe.

Fastback provides what it believes is a vital connection between the macrocells and small cells: a wireless radio technology that can glue together the small Wi-Fi networks with the larger cell sites. Fastback chief executive Kevin Duffy said in an interview with VentureBeat that the company will use the money to scale up its operations and expand customer trials with major carriers.

“We founded this company because we saw a few years ago what was happening with the load being carried on the cellular network,” Duffy said. “The demand is overwhelming. But fiber networks won’t be able to reach everywhere. They will need a wireless radio solution. We call this technology that bends around buildings the ‘intelligent “backhaul” radio.’”

Fastback has created small cell “backhaul” data transfer technology — the Fastback Intelligent Wireless Transport solution — to bring together LTE carrier (licensed) networks with unlicensed Wi-Fi computer networks. Backhaul technology is for connecting infrastructure with big data pipes. Fastback’s patented technology can deliver data transfer speeds for small cells that are equivalent to the speeds of fiberoptic networks. The radio networks do not have to be within line of sight in order to transfer data from a small cell (Wi-Fi network) to a macro cell, which is connected to a fiber network. This so-called “any line of sight” technology means that mobile network operators can deploy small cells in any location without line of sight or access to fiber.

It took about 25 years to create the 5 million cell towers that are sprinkled across the globe. In the future, 10 to 20 times more towers may be needed, and the only way to handle that demand is to create small cells or to tap existing networks in the unlicensed spectrum. Fastback’s technology can transfer data at 500 megabits per second over a 10-kilometer radius.

Companies need this technology not only because of the need for mobile data transfer but also because of the increasing transfer of video over data networks and the pending improvements to voice technology that are coming to make cellular reception as good as landlines.

Stan Reiss, a general partner at Matrix Partners, has joined Fastback’s board. In an interview, Reiss said that Fastback has a technology advantage and it can remove barriers to widespread adoption of small cells. Juniper invested via the Junos Innovation Fund.

“I saw the technology required to make small cells possible, and that drove me to these guys, who have the best mousetrap,” Reiss said.

Fastback previously raised $11 million in a first round of funding in 2011, and it came out of stealth in February. Fastback has 35 employees. Duffy, formerly the chief executive of Proxim, cofounded Fastback with Kevin Negus in 2010. Negus, Fastback’s chief technology officer and chairman, was previously the chairman of WiDeFi and chief technology officer of Proxim.

“We should be shipping in 60 days,” Duffy said.

The Federal Communications Commission announced today it has hired Michael Steffan as the director of digital learning. In his new role, Steffen will lead initiatives to expand access to broadband Internet in schools.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski explained, “Broadband and digital tools have game-changing potential for education.” Improving connectivity is a first step toward teachers and students taking advantage of the new education technology.

The appointment is timely given that senators, like John D. Rockefeller IV, are pushing for an extension of the 2010 E-rate program, which subsidizes Internet services for schools and libraries. The FCC believes that these institutions should offer lightning fast connections to the web.

The FCC, which is currently the largest funder of Internet Connectivity in K12 schools across America, has endorsed E-rate reforms. In January, Chairman Genachowski called for the nation’s mayors to bring one-gigabit Internet access to one community in each state by 2015.

Steffen will draw on experience bringing connectivity to America’s most remote school districts. Most recently, he served as the Chairman’s legal advisor on wireline, international, and Internet policy issues. During that time, he oversaw the creation of the Connect America Fund, a broadband infrastructure program for rural America.

The FCC has stepped up its involvement in education, but is also concerned with other sectors, including health care. Last month, the commission appointed Matthew Quinn as Director of Healthcare Initiatives. In this role, Quinn is helping to facilitate the availability of medical devices that require spectrum; and ensuring that rural hospitals and other health care facilities have required connectivity.

Top image via Shutterstock

The free wireless internet startup FreedomPop is targeting the likes of Comcast and Cablevision with its Hub Burst home router, which is now available for purchase.

First announced back in December, the $89 Hub Burst brings FreedomPop’s free wireless service beyond mobile devices. It comes with 1 gigabyte of free WiMax 4G, and you can also purchase additional bandwidth starting at $10 a month.

Like all of FreedomPop’s devices, there’s a big social component with the Hub Burst — you can earn additional bandwidth by referring family and friends. FreedomPop also offers a variety of special promotions that grant more bandwidth when completed.

While routers for cellular connections aren’t anything new, FreedomPop’s strategy certainly offers something new for home broadband users. For many people, it doesn’t really make sense for them to subscribe to home broadband connections, so a solution like the Burst Router could be ideal. (It sounds like the best way to get your non-techy grandma online.)

Unfortunately, since FreedomPop relies on WiMax 4G, you won’t see speeds anywhere near typical home broadband connections. The company’s next wave of devices will run on Sprint’s LTE connection, which has the potential to reach or surpass home broadband speeds.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

FreedomPop’s dream of offering free wireless broadband to consumers has been a hit with its investors.

Today the company announced that it has raised an addition $4.3 million for its first round from existing investors DCM and Mangrove Capital, on top of the the $7.5 million it raised last year. Additionally, the company is making its social broadband platform even more useful by letting you use social networks to request more bandwidth from friends.

Los Angeles-based FreedomPop made headlines last year with its seemingly impossible goal: Offering wireless devices that offer a significant chunk of bandwidth for free, with the ability to earn even more free bandwidth by bringing on friends. So far the company has released a 4G wireless sleeve for the iPod Touch, and a USB stick, and a wireless hotspot. All of its devices run on ClearWire’s 4G WiMax network, though the company says its future devices will on run Sprint’s LTE 4G network.

Now when you invite a friend to FreedomPop, you’ll get an additional 50 megabytes of monthly bandwidth, instead of just 10 MB.

Stephen Sokols, FreedomPop’s chief executive, said that the company “exceeded investor expectations,” in an interview with VentureBeat. While the company will eventually raise a much larger second round, the additional internal funding is a way to reward its existing investors. Sokols said that all of FreedomPop’s growth has been completely organic, so it hasn’t had to waste much money with big marketing efforts.

FreedomPop has given away nearly 2 terabytes of free bandwidth since its launch, Sokols said. Subscribers are also inviting 15 friends on average to the service.

The company’s recently announced home wireless router is going to officially launch within three to four weeks, Sokols said, while the iPhone 4 case is currently pending FCC approval. He said that FreedomPop will eventually offer an iPhone 5 case, though details about that device are still up in the air.

KANSAS CITY — While Google Fiber has attracted a lot of hype for bringing insanely fast Internet to Kansas City, most startups and small businesses here won’t benefit from it in the near future.

It’s easy to get a little caught up in excitement about Google Fiber — even I did. Having one of the biggest web service providers in the world building its own fiber-optic network with web connection speeds that are 100 times faster than average blows the mind a little, even if it is limited to this one city in the Midwest for now. Check out these crazy speeds I saw first-hand on Monday and try to not get pumped about using Fiber for your home or business:

That’s nearly a gigabit of upload and download capacity. Amazing.

But even though it’s “cool,” it’s important step back a bit and realize this is just the beginning of a long process. There’s many miles of fiber to lay down and lots of eager residents to serve before businesses get in on the action.

No small-business support yet

The foremost reason most startups will not benefit from Google Fiber immediately is that it does not officially offer service for businesses. Google originally intended Fiber as a solution for residential use, so it is using that vision to build the network right now. The company originally said it was driven by U.S. companies not offering enough broadband options to consumers.

“From the beginning, this was all focused on residential,” said Jenna Wandres, the senior communications associate for Google Fiber. “But it quickly became evident a lot of businesses were interested. … We have no doubt that entrepreneurs will eventually take advantage of this.”

Of course, you could just run your startup out of your bedroom or your garage. But a key restriction for Google Fiber will hold businesses based in homes back a bit: No servers are allowed on Google Fiber. Part of the contract states that you won’t run a server, even though that could be an invaluable resource to getting a web-based business rolling.

EyeVerify, a startup located in a commercial space down the street from the first homes getting Google Fiber, is an example of a young company that desperately wants access to the project’s superfast speeds.

“We’d love to have it, so yes, we’re disappointed,” EyeVerify chief executive Toby Rush said. “But we’re hoping it will come sooner rather than later. It could help startups in a lot of ways, especially those who do real-time virtualization and web apps. Google Fiber could also help startups by giving them easy access to high-bandwidth households.”

While most businesses don’t have access, a few lucky startups will get to use the service. As long as your small company works out of a house, you might be able to use Fiber. For example LocalRuckus CTO Matthew Marcus owns a house (pictured above) in the Hanover Heights “fiberhood” where several startups are located. The house includes several startups: LocalRuckus and FormZapper are located in the basement, and Leap2 is currently taking over the main floor and upstairs. (There’s even a conference room in the attic.) Marcus preregistered his house for Google Fiber several months back, and Google installed it last week.

Marcus has used Google Fiber for one week, and in that time, he hasn’t seen many practical uses yet outside of helping his company’s lead developer with a few programs. He said he plans to brainstorm with other startup founders soon to come up with new ideas on how to take advantage of Fiber, since his company is one of the first to use it.

A few doors down from Marcus’ place is a house allocated for the still-new Homes for Hackers program. Created by the exceptionally generous developer Ben Barreth, who bought a house just so entrepreneurs could stay there, the program aims to give startups three months of free rent plus access to Google Fiber.

“A small number of businesses were able to register for Google Fiber and will be able to use it in the same way a residential customer would,” Wandres said.

Google has promised that an official “Fiber service for small businesses” will come down the line, but it will not publicly commit to a timeline.

A source at a well-connected Kansas City startup told me he has heard “six months to a year” is the timeline to start signing up small businesses. We’ll see if that pans out.

Building out KC’s fiberhoods through fall 2013

Google’s clear priority now is building out residential “fiberhoods.” The company was able to meet preregistration goals for 180 out of 202 fiberhoods in both Kansas and Missouri. It plans to finish constructing these fiberhoods by “fall 2013,” but Wandres said that could change if unforeseen events like bad weather set back construction. Google will keep the timelines updated with projections for every fiberhood on the main Fiber site.

Despite misconceptions (some startups we spoke with thought only households who preregistered before Sept. 9 could get Google Fiber), anyone who lives in a fiberhood that has not started construction can still sign up. Simply go the main Google Fiber site and register your info with Google before construction begins in your ‘hood.

And although people around the United States (and the world) are clamoring to try Fiber, Google has not committed to bring it to any other cities.

“We’re 100 percent focused on Kansas City right now,” Wandres said.

Promise for the future

While Google Fiber isn’t quite ready to make a huge impact on startups, some argue that the idea of Google Fiber itself is getting people interested in the city’s businesses.

“It shines a light on our information-intensive businesses and ideas,” Pete Fullerton, the CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, told me. “There’s a lot happening here that’s not tied directly to Google, but KC will have some real competitive advantages because of [Google Fiber].”

Stackify CEO Matt Watson, also an angel investor in KC startups, thinks most homes that get Google Fiber won’t be able to take advantage of all it has to offer. “I have 25 Mbps speeds in my home with AT&T, and I don’t fully tap the potential of that,” Watson said. “In the future, there will be a killer feature for it, but it’s not here yet.”

However, Watson does think businesses will have better uses than those at home, especially when more software and services are out that take advantage of superhigh-bandwidth speeds. Watson said he would sign up for Google Fiber for his business “in a heartbeat.”

Naithan Jones, the CEO and cofounder of Andreessen-Horowitz-backed AgLocal, also said his company would sign up for Google Fiber if it was offered, mostly because it would help with teleconferencing to his teammates in New York and San Francisco.

But Jones’ strongest notion of Google Fiber is that no one — not Google, not startups, not the media — truly knows the impact it will have on Kansas City and what applications might come of the service in the future.

“The possibilities are exciting, but no one really knows where this is going,” Jones said. “It’s great for Kansas City from a marketing perspective, but there’s still a lot we don’t know.”

Photos: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

Sure, he is a massive publicity hound, but he’s an interesting publicity hound. Fresh off rebranding his defunct MegaUpload service as a sparkling new file-sharing service called Me.ga — yes that’s Mega, but it’s also ME dot GA — Dotcom now wants to help build a new fat pipe to online content in the U.S.

Specifically, in fact, to Los Angeles, home of the Hollywood execs who instigated his MegaUpload mega takedown.

One way or another New Zealand needs Pacific Fibre. I think it is important to reboot efforts to make it happen.

—
Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) November 03, 2012

Pacific Fibre was an attempt to create a second link between Australia, New Zealand, and Los Angeles. However, the consortium failed to attracted the $400 million in investment required to lay the 10,500 kilometer (6500 mile) cable and closed its doors as of August.

Now Dotcom, who lives in New Zealand, is proposing rebooting the project — which would surely be helpful to his new file-sharing business, as it needs high-speed global connectivity.

But while Dotcom’s legal problems may be slowly clearing up as both the American and New Zealand governments have significantly fumbled the copyright infringement proceedings against him, he is almost certainly still persona non grata to officialdom and content czars in both countries.

In other words: Dotcom agitating for a new intercontinental broadband cable may very well be the kiss of death to the project. That is, if it weren’t dead already.

At least one Internet user in New Zealand, however, who dubbed the effort megacable, pointed out the fatal flaw:

While I admire the @KimDotcom #megacable plan, there is a tiny flaw. US permission required to connect to USA m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/articl…

—
Rod Drury (@roddrury) November 03, 2012

Image credit: Pacific Fibre; Hat tip: Ars Technica

China is notorious for its unreliable wifi, so it’s easy to forget that it’s a massive internet hub with 450 million people surfing the web.

With vast differences in broadband speeds across the country, China Web Report has compiled this useful infographic to help you get online. The Chinese tech blog said it had garnered a great deal of interest about the differences in Internet speeds, and the correlation to demographic, economic and social factors.

We recently reported that the rise of tablet computing may spell the death of the desktop PC, but in China, it’s worth pointing out that the vast majority of people are not surfing the web on their smartphones.

As you might guess, the fastest broadband is accessible in the urban sprawls like Shanghai and Beijing. Inland, there is virtually zero Internet access. The research also revealed that it’s tougher to surf the web during the evening and early morning hours. If you’re still struggling, you may want to consider switching your telecom provider to China Telecom, which boasts the fastest broadband speeds.

Of course, if you’re struggling to access basic web search (Google, Bing, and so on) or your favorite social networking sites, it may be that you’re simply cut-off. The Chinese government is extremely stringent with electronic communications; for years, it prevented Google searches of the English word “freedom.”

Read the full report here.

Infographic courtesy of China Web Report / Top Image via Flickr (jblyberg)

Comcast announced its plans to offer a new, ultra high-speed broadband Internet tier today, confirming rumors first reported last week.

The new tier will be called Xfinity Platinum Internet and will offer download speeds of up to 305 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 65 Mbps. It’ll be available throughout markets in its Northeast division, the company said in a statement. Subscribers of this Internet package will also get free 24-hour tech support, with a “Dedicated Personal Communications Consultant.” So basically, if you freak out at the thought of not having a high-speed Internet connection for longer than five minutes when at home, this plan might be for you.

The company hasn’t yet put a monthly price on the Xfinity Platinum deal, nor has it set a firm date on when the service will become available. I’d assume the price will be competitive with Verizon’s FiOS Quantum service, which offers speeds of 300 Mbps downstream/ 65 Mbps upstream for $205 a month.

In addition to the new tier, Comcast has decided to double the Internet speed for subscribers of its Xfinity Blast (from 25Mbps to 50Mbps) and  Xfinity Extreme (from 50Mbps to 105Mbps) Internet tiers at no additional charge. The company notes that this is the seventh time it has increased the overall speed of its Internet Packages for free in the last decade, which is certainly more than most ISPs can claim. (That said, I’m sure the average customer’s monthly bill was much lower a decade ago.)

The new upgrades will be available in 10 markets, including Boston, Hartford, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Richmond, and New Jersey.

Photo via cmorran123/Flickr

Comcast is planning to offer a new ultra-fast broadband Internet speed tier in markets shared by rival service Verizon FiOS, according to Broadband Reports.

Comcast’s new broadband tier would offer customers the option of getting downstream speeds of up to 305 Mbps. The new tier would also be competitive with the recently launched FiOS Quantum service from Verizon that offers speeds of 300 Mbps downstream/ 65 Mbps upstream for $205 a month. While we don’t know the pricing (or any other details, for that matter), Broadband Reports’ sources did indicate that Comcast will deploy the new, faster Internet tier in Verizon FiOS markets soon.

With a growing number of people using streaming video services to consume media, higher Internet speeds are becoming more of a necessity.

A handful of smaller broadband service providers are already offering ultra fast Internet speeds of up to 1 Gbps, such as California’s Sonic.net, Google’s fiber initiative in Kansas City, Kan., and startup Gigabit Square. Verizon, however, is the first widespread broadband provider to offer ultra-high speeds at the residential level. With Comcast being the largest cable TV and Internet service provider in the country, it makes sense that it wants to remain competitive.

And speaking of competition, if news of Comcast’s new ultra-fast tier is true, it actually may prove beneficial for Verizon. Federal regulators are currently conducting an investigation into Verizon’s spectrum acquisition deal with big cable companies (including Comcast) to assess whether it would lead to less competition in the broadband business.

Photo via cmorran123/Flickr

Verizon’s home services arm has launched FiOS Quantum high-speed Internet access that delivers up to 300Mbps downloads and up to 65Mbps uploads, making it one of the fastest mass-scale offerings in the U.S.

The new Quantum service has speeds that almost no other cable or ISP in the country can match, making it extremely attractive for heavy Internet use. With Quantum, Verizon says, you can download 50MB worth of music (10 songs or so) in 1.4 seconds and a 5GB high-def movie in 2.2 minutes. Online gamers and streaming video aficionados will be especially interested in these crazy speeds.

“As consumers stream and watch more movies, sports, and shows in their homes on devices other than traditional TVs, such as smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, smart TVs, and Blu-ray players, they need faster broadband to enhance their experience,” said Mike Ritter, chief marketing officer for Verizon’s consumer and mass market unit.

Usually, Verizon offers cable, phone, and TV bundles with its internet service plans to keep the total price down, but Quantum is offered as a stand-alone plan. It costs $210 a month on a month-to-month basis, or you pay $205 a month with a two-year contract.

As fellow VentureBeat writer Ricardo Bilton noted when news the Quantum news first leaked to the public, the company’s pre-Quantum FiOS service has been a big money-maker for Verizon, which reported the service accounted for 63 percent of its consumer revenue during the first quarter of this year. Clearly, the company has invested much in increasing the service’s reach even further. As of last quarter, the company counted 5 million FiOS Internet customers out of a possible 13.7 million who live in areas where the service is offered.

Other 1Gbps providers in the U.S. that are offering service now or will be soon include California’s Sonic.net, Google’s fiber initiative in Kansas City, Kan., and startup Gigabit Squared, but all three of those are not nearly as widespread as Verizon.

Photo: Tomasz Trojanowski/Shutterstock

The dream of bringing a gigabit-per-second high-speed broadband internet connection is becoming a reality for at least six university communities in the U.S. — a country that’s known for the speed of producing its hamburgers and french fries, not its internet.

Gigabit Squared, a broadband internet startup, announced Wednesday that it has raised $200 million in funding to build out high-speed internet for these communities. The startup will be partnering with the Gig.U project to determine the universities that will get the new infrastructure, which will be deployed between November and March 2013.

“It’s time for a departure from the strategies of the past, strategies that merely looked at fulfilling current demand,” Gigabit Squared President Mark Ansboury at a recent press conference, reports ComputerWorld.

The new communities will also participate in a brand new program headed up by Gig.U and Gigabit Squared called the Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program. The program will essentially use the new super high-speed internet to drive innovation in education, heath care, and other sectors of the community, according to Ansboury.

It’ll be interesting to see how this particular initiative fares in the long run. If it’s extremely successful, it could be used to help rally the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to relax its restrictions on broadband infrastructure.

Image via iQoncept / Shutterstock

This post is sponsored by Comcast Business Class. As always, VentureBeat is adamant about maintaining editorial objectivity.

It all began with the sounds of a dial-up modem screeching as it connected to the Internet. Then these connections graduated to a vast cable infrastructure. But what’s the next big technology for connecting an increasingly data-hungry world to the Internet?

While cable remains a solid, wired solution for connecting to the Internet in many places, its adaptation has stumbled outside of the U.S. where a shaky infrastructure produced poor wireline connections. DSL came along after cable, and quickly became known as high-speed DSL as customers used more data faster, ever pushing the capacity of their phone lines. In rural areas, satellite often remains the only player in the game.

However, more and more, the only phrase on the lips of services, companies, and customers alike has been optical fiber.

Optical fiber has long been in use providing the major long distance wiring that makes up the backbone of the Internet. Indeed, the competition today is among service companies trying to bring the wiring from that backbone to your house or business, to service that “last mile” — the one that isn’t already handled by fiber.

Although it’s more expensive than the other connection technologies, the results are hard to argue with: optical fiber can reportedly achieve speeds up to six times faster than DSL or cable (cable can theoretically achieve speeds of 30 Mbps, but realistically averages 6 Mbps. Likewise, DSL achieves about 6 Mbps, while fiber can hit 35 Mbps). More importantly, it is currently the wireline solution best in place to handle the astounding increase in data usage — something wireless solutions like LTE and Wi-Max cannot do on their own.

Mainly due to the tremendous increase in streaming video, particularly HD video, only the virtually unlimited bandwidth provided by optical fiber networks can handle current needs for wired and wireless connectivity. Parks Associates has estimated that the number of U.S. households subscribing to fiber optic Internet would increase to 18 million by the end of 2011. Perhaps more telling are the estimates from Cisco that anticipate a “quadrupling of Internet traffic by 2015,” with “ more than 5.6 billion handheld or personal mobile-ready devices and more than 1.5 billion machine-to-machine connections… forecasted.”

It’s not just mobile, or video, or even mobile video driving all this data hunger. It’s also the increase in cloud computing, which is reliant on an Internet connection, IPTV, video on demand, file sharing, user-generated content, online gaming, social networking and applications taxing the tubes.

Fiber seems up to that challenge, boosting data rates and extending reach over copper fiber. The current goal of providers is to offer what is referred to as a triple-play (voice, data and video over one network) but as fiber’s use and popularity increases, expect to see them branch out to building fixed access or wireline Internet with wireless access technologies in order to provide networks that will offer always-on broadband services on a constant basis.

Wire image via ShutterStock

The Hopper DVR will work across multiple rooms, allowing you to stop a show in one part of your house, and pick up where you left off in another. It will have three tuners: the 2 terabyte main unit acts as a server, and two extender units, called “Joeys,” stream recorded content to other sets in the home.

In addition to a revamped user interface, the Hopper will have a feature called PrimeTime Anywhere that can automatically record primetime programing on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.There’s a placeholder set up for the Hopper on Dish’s website, that touts a “Whole new animal in whole-home entertainment.”

Dish’s new broadband satellite service would serve 8 million customers, mostly in overlooked markets currently lacking broadband or fiber optic coverage.

The DVR rumors first surfaced when blogger Dave Zatz wrote about an article that appeared on TWICE early, before being removed. The broadband details were in an article in the January issue of Dealerscope magazine, which has also been yanked.

Zatz also says Dish will announce a rebranding effort at CES, dropping the “Network” from its name and getting a new logo.

Dish’s CES press conference is scheduled for Monday, Jan 9.

Via the Verge

Kangaroo thumbnail via Shutterstock

Vint Cerf, one of the godfathers of the web and chief Internet evangelist for Google, wrote a controversial op-ed for the New York Times today saying that Internet access is not a human right.

With all the protests and unrest around the world being fueled by social media and access to the Internet, people started discussing the idea of the Internet as a human right, something every person on Earth should be privy to no matter his or her circumstance. In light of uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries, the United Nations went on to declare that the Internet access was a human right back in June. “Given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress, ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all states,” the U.N stated in the June report.

But Cerf — ever a thought leader — has decided against this idea. He asserts that the Internet (and any other form of technology) is only an enabler of human rights. He believes that human rights “must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience.” And he further argues that if we decide technology belongs in this category, we’re over-prioritizing. He writes:

It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it.

The best way to characterize human rights is to identify the outcomes that we are trying to ensure. These include critical freedoms like freedom of speech and freedom of access to information — and those are not necessarily bound to any particular technology at any particular time. Indeed, even the United Nations report, which was widely hailed as declaring Internet access a human right, acknowledged that the Internet was valuable as a means to an end, not as an end in itself.

When it comes to the idea of the Internet as a “civil right,” Cerf buckles a bit. He believes it’s much easier to make the case that the Internet is a civil right because it is conferred by the law and “not intrinsic to us as human beings.” The wide spread of telephone lines and broadband Internet throughout the U.S., even to the remotest regions of the country, is a good example of “universal access” that basically amounts to a civil right.

I don’t agree with Cerf, but it’s something I’ll have to think more about. Cerf categorizes the Internet as just a form of technology, but what if the Internet is more than that and something that can inherently make our lives better or more complete? Someone with Internet access can experience and change the world more so than someone without access. And as a firm supporter of worldwide universal access, I find it easier to make the argument that someone must have the Internet if it is a human right and not just a piece of technology.

What do you think? Is the Internet a human right, a civil right, both or neither?

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

T-Mobile certainly won’t be lacking in suitors if AT&T’s $39 billion acquisition falls through. Dish Network is interested in partnering with T-Mobile for a wireless network of its own, if AT&T can’t seal the deal, Dish CEO Joseph Clayton said in an interview today.

Clayton joined Dish earlier this year with the promise of upping acquisitions and creating a streaming-video competitor to Netflix. He says that the company could combine its newfound wireless spectrum — a product of its Terrestar Networks and DBSD purchases — with a wireless provider like T-Mobile to create an entirely new company, Bloomberg reports.

But even if T-Mobile gets snapped up by AT&T, Clayton says he’s considering similar partnerships with Sprint or Clearwire. He’s also interested in buying additional spectrum from AT&T and T-Mobile if federal regulators force the companies to give up assets.

However it’s put together, a Dish-backed wireless network could be interesting competition against more entrenched carriers and telecom networks. And for ailing carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile, buddying up with Dish could be a wise decision.

“We’re not interested in making money on selling our spectrum,” Clayton told Bloomberg in an interview. “We want to use it to create a national wireless network, video, voice and data. We’ve got expertise in satellite-TV, and we will in satellite broadband. The voice part, we’ll need some help with.”

But before Dish can do anything, it needs to wait for the FCC to approve the use of its new wireless spectrum. Another roadblock for Dish: T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom apparently isn’t even thinking of a potential deal with the satellite company, a spokesman told Bloomberg.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Beginning Thursday, Verizon will no longer offer new customers an unlimited data plan for smartphones, the company confirmed to FierceWireless.

Verizon is making its newest customers pick from four data plans capped at between 75 megabytes and 10 gigabytes of data. The monthly data fees range from $10 for the 75-megabyte plan to $80 for the 10-gigabyte plan. Tethering the phone to another device to enable Internet access on any plan will cost an extra $20.

The company is currently rolling out its latest fourth-generation wireless network, which is supposed to be much faster than its existing network. Verizon has released 4G-enabled smartphones and USB dongles that give notebooks and computers access to the 4G network. The iPhone, which launched on Verizon in January, still runs on the company’s 3G wireless network.

Verizon will also charge customers using 4G-enabled phones as wireless hotspots an extra $30 per month to continue using the wireless hotspot feature.

(The latest generation of wireless networks, including LTE and other 4G networks, will be a big part of our MobileBeat 2011 conference next week in San Francisco.)

Verizon said in October that it would hold onto its unlimited data plan. At that time, it offered the plan for $30 a month. The company introduced a smaller data-limited plan for $15 a month. But those plans were put in place before Verizon finally added the iPhone to its array of smartphones.

AT&T killed its unlimited data plan last year amid complaints about its wireless network’s performance in large cities like New York and San Francisco. AT&T’s iPhone woes led to some speculation that Verizon would close the curtain on its all-you-can-eat data plan whenever it began selling the iPhone.

Here’s a breakdown of each plan:

75MB: $10, amounts to around seven minutes of standard definition YouTube videos or browsing 150 websites. AT&T’s smallest data plan is 200MB for $15 per month.

2GB: $30, amounts to around 200 minutes of standard definition YouTube videos or uploading 500 photos to Facebook. AT&T’s 2GB data plan costs $25 per month.

5GB: $50, amounts to around 25,000 one-page email messages or 1,250 photo uploads to Facebook. AT&T has a 4GB data plan for $45 per month.

10GB: $80, amounts to around 1,000 minutes of standard definition YouTube videos or loading 20,000 typical web pages. AT&T does not have a data plan that offers more than 4GB of data.

We’ll be exploring the most disruptive mobile trends at our fourth annual MobileBeat 2011 conference, on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It will focus on the rise of 4G and how it delivers the promise of true mobile computing. We’re also accepting entries for our mobile startup competition at the show. MobileBeat is co-located with our GamesBeat 2011 conference this year. To register, click on this link. Sponsors can message us at sponsors@venturebeat.com.

It took about one and a half minutes for Comcast CEO Brian Roberts to download an entire season of NBC sitcom 30 Rock during the live presentation given at cable industry trade event The Cable Show.

The official data transfer speed topped out at 1084 mbps, according the speedtest.net test conducted during the presentation, which Roberts pointed out was a real download, not a canned demo.

Acknowledging the growing number of services that consume lots of data, Comcast said it believes faster internet speeds are essential to the future of the cable industry.

Faster broadband speeds are certainly important for the company’s Xfinity TV content service to succeed. Comcast also took time to demonstrate the latest version of the service, which features a new polished user interface, support for applications and integration with social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

What wasn’t addressed during the demo was when consumers could expect to see a roll out of the new faster broadband. Also, there was no mention of the 250-400GB data cap, which presumably should be  adjusted higher to match the increased level of data being consumed with a faster internet connection.

Still, it’s good to see Comcast finally stepping up its game and improving its network to handle the current generation of services like Netflix, Hulu and others.

But rather than seize the spectrum outright, Genachowski wants Congress to approve a plan that would allow the current owners of the spectrum to share in the proceeds as the government auctions it off to infrastructure companies. Once that spectrum is in the right hands, Genachowski (pictured right) said that a wave of mobile innovation could occur that will keep the U.S. competitive in the global competition for communications technology. In a chat moderated by Fortune writer Adam Lashinsky, Genachowski spoke at the Commonwealth Club event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

The process of reallocation through auctions will likely lead to the most fast and efficient way to get more bandwidth to mobile broadband subscribers, who are so plentiful now they are causing data traffic jams on the mobile phone networks.

Right now, the available wireless spectrum is set aside for uses such as digital TV services, and broadcast TV companies have not shown any interest in giving up that spectrum willingly. The FCC could seize it, but that would likely lead to a long legal process.

Instead, Genachowski proposed that the spectrum owners be compensated in part after the government auctions the spectrum. Genachowski said that the FCC has some of the authority it needs to put this plan into place and is hopeful that Congress will give it the full authority to conduct the “incentive-based auctions.” By doing it this way, more spectrum would become available, and that would help satisfy the crushing demand. Genachowski said this plan has bipartisan support, support from economists, and support from President Obama.

“I’m hopeful it can happen soon,” he said. “Every day we wait has real costs. We have more dropped calls, more consumer frustration.”

The problem with mobile broadband is that smartphone and tablet usage are stressing the capacity. Smartphone users consume about 24 times more data bandwidth than users of ordinary mobile phones, while tablet users consume 104 times more. Netbook users with wireless cards consume even more. There’s a huge gap between available capacity and the demand for it, Genachowski said.

“Spectrum is a scarce resource where physics puts limits on how much data can travel over the air waves,” he said. “We can’t close the gap because it is so large. We have to allocate spectrum from existing users to those who need it.”

Meanwhile, Genachowski said he was disappointed that the U.S. has not been able to extend broadband communication to more of its citizens. Roughly 25 million people live in regions with no internet access, and another 100 million do not subscribe to services that are available to them. As a result, only 67 percent of the population has broadband access, compared to 90 percent in Singapore.

Genachowski said one recent study found that the U.S. was sixth among 40 countries reviewed in terms of broadband access, but it ranked 40th in terms of how much progress it was making.

“We spend money on programs on universalizing telephone service,” he said. “We need to transform 20th century rules into a smart, efficient broadband access program.”

Genachowski said the U.S. has been the leader in auctioning off spectrum as needed for things such as digital TV. Now the country has to act as if it is in a race to be the innovation leader yet again when it comes to mobile broadband, he said.

“The costs of delays are much greater now because of changes in the global competitive landscape,” he said. “My counterparts around the world are looking at communications as key to economic growth and innovation.”

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The deal brings a much-needed consolidation to the broadband market, where the potential for traffic growth is huge but the major players have been hurt by low prices.

Broomfield, Colo.-based Level 3 agreed to buy Global Crossing in an all-stock transaction, paying $23.04 a share based on Global Crossing’s closing stock price on April 8. The full value of the deal is $3 billion, since Level 3 will assume Global Crossing’s debt of $1.1 billion.

The combined revenue of both companies is about $6.26 billion, based on last year’s revenues. Overall, the company hopes to cut annual capital spending by $40 million. The deal could reduce a crowded field in the broadband services market and help stabilize prices. Overall, the combined companies will serve more than 50 countries and provide connections to 70.

Gigaom says the deal will give Level 3 more clout to negotiate with bigger telecommunications players, such as Comcast, even as network ownership consolidates into the hands of fewer players.

Both companies are losing money. Level 3 lost $622 million last year and has been unprofitable since 1998. Global Crossing lost $172 million in 2010 and last turned an annual profit in 2003.

Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive of the communications giant, and Lowell McAdam, chief operating officer, said that some pockets of the broadband network have such good quality that they can deliver huge speed boosts to users. At 150 megabits a second, you can download a movie in 4.5 minutes.

Seidenberg said such fast broadband speeds will spur new innovation in the economy, as new businesses will be built delivering content to users over faster broadband. Verizon has about 15 million homes passed for its Fios broadband service today, which is available in many Verizon territory cities. Verizon expects to have 18 million homes passed in a year or so. It has 4 million subscribers.

Just a short time ago, the usual broadband speed for users was 1 megabit a second, which was so slow it couldn’t support most internet videos. Now the average has grown to 7 megabits a second and is climbing higher. Verizon, which owns a chunk of Verizon Wireless, is also rolling out its 4G LTE wireless network, which offers 10 times the usual speed of 3G mobile broadband data services. The work started in 2007 and required billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure and 700 megahertz spectrum. 4G LTE is now in 38 communities. That’s just in time too,  since wireless data communications traffic is doubling every year and smartphone sales are growing 90 percent a year, McAdam said.

“The full-blown mobile network is finally coming true,” McAdam said.

The question is still whether the communications networks will keep pace with the growth in demand for broadband. Five years ago, video was just 10 percent of the internet’s traffic. Now it is more than 50 percent and it could grow bigger soon.

Mike Claron, principal engineer for Google’s Android platform, said that the Honeycomb Android 3.0 software will make it possible for Android phones to access the 4G network speeds. He came out on stage to show off the Honeycomb software. Unfortunately, the Verizon executives didn’t say anything about Apple, which is expected to launch the iPhone on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network sometime soon.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, issued a draft order approving the merger on the condition that the combined company play fair with rivals. The approval is contingent on Comcast-NBC agreeing to share shows with competing cable and satellite TV providers. It would also ensure that competing content networks can get their programs on Comcast’s platform.

If completed, the merger would join the largest provider of broadband internet services with a giant in the TV, movie and broadcast station businesses. The deal is still subject to review by the Justice Department, which will assess whether the deal passes antitrust laws. The Justice Department hasn’t commented on the status of the review of whether the deal would hurt competition in the emerging video space.

The concern is that the merged company would use its power to strong-arm program providers and partners who do business with the company. The Justice Department attached similar restrictions on what Ticketmaster could do after it merged with Live Nation.

Public interest groups say they would be concerned if Comcast-NBC withheld NBC shows and movies from internet video platforms such as Netflix and Apple TV. The draft order from the FCC chairman will go before other commissioners. The reviews are expected to be completed in January.

Here’s a video excerpt of Genachowski’s interview on stage with journalist John Heilemann.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Nokia has announced that it will develop mobile devices for billionaire Philip Falcone’s LightSquared — an ambitious 4G cellular network venture meant to compete with established carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, Bloomberg reports.

Falcone’s Harbinger Capital hedge fund is backing the project, and Nokia Siemens has committed $7 billion to building up the 4G network over the next few years. LightSquared plans to have 92 percent of the U.S. population covered with its network by 2015. Given the involvement of Nokia Siemens, it’s not a huge surprise that its parent company would be providing handsets for the project.

Unlike typical cellular carriers, LightSquared doesn’t plan to sell directly to consumers. Instead, it intends to wholesale its network to retailers and other network providers. As CNN mentions, a retailer like Wal-Mart could use LightSquared’s network to offer a branded wireless service of its own. Other mobile carriers like T-Mobile could also license the network for 4G coverage without the need to build their own infrastructure.

While it may seem crazy to attempt building up a new cellular network from scratch, LightSquared’s wholesaling ambitions may prove successful. It opens the door for more companies to offer wireless services of their own and has the potential to drive down costs of 4G network access nationwide.

The company plans to build its network in nine U.S. metro areas in 2011, and it is beginning trials early next year in Baltimore, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Denver. LightSquared is also considering supplementing its cellular network with satellite coverage. It’s working with Qualcomm to develop chips that would allow phones to use both cellular and satellite networks.

Reston, VA-based LightSquared says it has amassed $1.75 billion in initial funding commitments.

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AOL still possesses a 2.3 percent market share of the search market, which isn’t negligible, though it’s dwarfed by Google’s Boeing-sized 66 percent market share, according to ComScore. Yahoo checks in next at 17 percent, with Microsoft’s Bing a seemingly distant 11 percent despite its efforts to unseat the de facto overlord of search.

But this could be a sign that Google feels threatened by Bing and is willing to pay out to secure its dominance in the search engine market. Yahoo and Microsoft recently inked a 10-year partnership deal that would power Yahoo back-end search with Bing.

AOL will receive a portion of the revenue from text-based searches and some of AOL’s video content will be featured on YouTube as part of the agreement.

At AOL’s zenith as a dial-up Internet provider, the company boasted nearly 30 million users according to a BusinessWeek report, but with the advent of broadband its star has begun to wane. According to the company’s most recent 10-Q filing, it had 4.4 million subscribers in June 2010, down from 5.8 million a year earlier. Former Googler Tim Armstrong is currently leading an effort to revive the company as its CEO.

The proposal would nearly double the available amount of bandwidth for wireless broadband, from today’s 547 megahertz to about 1,000 megahertz. (Don’t confuse these megahertz of bandwidth, which counts the amount of the radio dial allocated to Internet access, with the megabits used to measure throughput speed of a connection. “Bandwidth” is a popular misnomer for connection speed rather than actual wireless radio band width.)

Obama’s Presidential memorandum issued today, “Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution,” could just as well be called, “Taking Back Lots of Wireless Spectrum Assignments.” Obama’s proposal is based on the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, a wonky but pragmatic proposal to reassign 300 megahertz’ worth of bandwidth between now and 2015.

The Obama administration wants to make a full 500 megahertz of bandwidth available for auction to companies that would use it for wireless broadband data connections for consumers and possibly first-responder networks. About 120 megahertz would come from broadcast TV. Administration officials told The New York Times that around 45 percent, or 225 megahertz, would come from various government spectrum blocks that are used lightly or not at all.

The FCC’s plan comes with a footnote: “Timing and quantity depends on Congressional action to grant incentive auction authority as well as voluntary participation of broadcasters in an auction.” Broadcasters, represented by the National Association of Broadcasters, may not be too voluntary about participating. They’ve complained that the government’s most recent spectrum auctions took parts of the airwaves that had been reclaimed by disabling traditional analog TV broadcasts, and sold these radio frequencies to buyers who are now “warehousing” it, i.e. letting it lie idle rather than developing new consumer services. An NAB spokesman told The New York Times that broadcasters hope “further reclamation of broadcast television spectrum will be completely voluntary.”

Verizon

The company is still looking to bring FiOS to communities where it has secured “franchises” — the rights to sell TV services that compete with cable. Specifically, it will continue bringing new fiber to homes in New York City, Philadelphia, and Wahington, D.C. Other major cities like Boston and Baltimore will be left without any FiOS availability. Its seeking out franchises in small communities –  mainly throughout New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania — but won’t be doing the same for other major urban areas.

A combination of factors likely led to Verizon’s decision. To wire a city for FiOS, Verizon has to replace its copper telephone cabling with fiber optic cable, which is a time consuming and expensive process. It costs Verizon about $750 a home to wire a neighborhood, and another $600 to actually connect homes to its network. Such an expense was already an issue with Verizon’s investors in 2004, and with the recession its become even less attractive. The company is also nearing (and may exceed) its initial goal of getting FiOS to 18 million homes by the end of 2010.

The FiOS slowdown could be seen as bad timing for Verizon though — given the growing importance of broadband internet access in America with the National Broadband Plan, and Google’s own plans to roll out a fiber network in certain U.S. markets. It certainly deserves credit for being an early adopter of fiber technology, but it seems odd to slow down its roll out now that others are catching up.

People still want fiber service in their neighborhoods — as the 600 community responses and 190,000 individual responses to Google’s fiber service show. Verizon hasn’t ruled out continuing its FiOS expansion in the future, but for now it seems that many who want fiber may have to wait for Google or the federal government to make it possible.

The plan — for how to extend internet access to all American citizens — marks the first time that broadband access, and internet access in general, have been given considerable government attention in America. Judging from the executive summary for the plan, it’s clear that the FCC understands the gravity of what it’s doing:

Broadband is the great infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century.

Like electricity a century ago, broadband is a foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life. It is enabling entire new industries and unlocking vast new possibilities for existing ones. It is changing how we educate children, deliver health care, manage energy, ensure public safety, engage government, and access, organize and disseminate knowledge.

The FCC started work on the plan in April 2009, after Congress charged the agency with producing blueprints for how to grant every American access to the internet — with a notice of inquiry that asked for feedback from the public. The FCC followed that up with 36 public workshops that were streamed online, drawing more than 10,000 attendees, both online and in-person.

The plan was honed further based on replies to 31 public notices, which generated 23,000 comments from more than 700 parties. Coupled with the impressive work on the Broadband.gov web site, and the requisite, very popular Twitter feed, the FCC put admirable effort into getting as many voices heard as possible.

Here’s the upshot: the agency believes it can influence the broadband environment in four ways:

1. Design policies to ensure robust competition and, as a result, maximize consumer welfare, innovation and investment.
2. Ensure efficient allocation and management of assets the government controls or influences, such as spectrum, poles, and rights-of-way, to encourage network upgrades and competitive entry.
3. Reform current universal service mechanisms to support deployment of broadband and voice in high-cost areas; and ensure that low-income Americans can afford broadband; and in addition, support efforts to boost adoption and utilization.
4. Reform laws, policies, standards and incentives to maximize the benefits of broadband in sectors government influences significantly, such as public education, health care and government operations.

Notable points include making 500 megahertz of wireless spectrum available over the next ten years, and the creation of the Connect America Fund to support affordable broadband in unserved areas.

The agency also announced six long-term goals that it recommends the country adopt over the next decade. They include: Having affordable access to broadband in 100 million homes, with download speeds of 100 megabits per second, and upload speeds of 50 megabits per second. The U.S. should also lead in mobile innovation, with better wireless networks than any other nation (do you hear that AT&T?).  Finally, every community should have access to at least 1 gigabit per second fiber broadband for institutions like schools, hospitals, and government buildings.

While the FCC’s long-term goals sound a lot like wishful thinking right now, it’s important that they have been put on the table. Recognizing the importance of broadband is a long overdue mind-shift for the American government, and a vital one at that.

The 100Mbps connection would be 24 times faster than the average broadband connection in the UK, which sits around 4.1Mbps. Virgin’s current 3.8 million fiber broadband customers — who currently have access to speeds between 10Mbps and 50Mbps — will also be able to upgrade to the faster 100Mbps connection by 2011.

Fiber is gaining a reputation as the future of broadband access to the home. Verizon’s FiOS fiber service clocked 2.9 million subscribers in the U.S. as of January 2010, and Google recently announced its own plans to build a 1 gigabit per second fiber network in the U.S. that would serve between 50,000 and 500,000 homes. Virgin’s network is 10 times slower, but far more ambitious in terms of users. Virgin competitor British Telecom also recently unveiled its own fiber broadband service, BT Infinity, that offers speeds of up to 40Mbps.

Virgin is testing an even faster 200Mbps fiber service, which it plans to roll out officially sometime in 2012.