Conventional wisdom says that more innovation for applications on the Internet must involve much more bandwidth. But once we understand the economics of video on the Internet, we quickly begin to understand why applications will never be high bandwidth.

The FCC and the John S. and James. L. Knight Foundation today are hosting a “digital inclusion” summit in order to draw attention to America’s push for expanding high-speed Internet access. The summit is being held a week before the FCC’s scheduled release of a national broadband plan. Speakers will include: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski; Commissioners Meredith Attwell Baker, Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn; and members of Congress. Keep a browser open here for live updates.

The shift to the Internet video distribution presents a formidable engineering challenge for the Internet because of the massive bandwidth requirements of unicast video distribution.  Unlike broadcast communication technologies where data is transmitted once to many people, unicasting requires a new data transmission for each recipient.  So while a 15 megabit per second (Mbps) HD television [...]

A new global poll shows that 79 percent of people believe Internet access “should be a fundamental right for all people,” but 53 percent also think “the Internet should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere.” They are sending conflicting messages because proclaiming Internet access a “fundamental right” is an invitation to destructive bureaucratic meddling in the digital marketplace.

The Free State Foundation Annual Winter Telecom Policy Conference Panel: The FCC’s Broadband Plan: The Good, The Bad, and the Just So-So? January 29, 2010 Moderator Deborah Taylor Tate, an adjunct senior fellow at the foundation and a former FCC commissioner, joined several panelists to discuss the upcoming FCC broadband plan, which is due to [...]

When the FCC announced its “Future of Media” hearing, it was described in rather contradictory terms.  Steven Waldman, who is heading up the project, had this to say: The starting point for this effort, of course, is the First Amendment.  A free press, independent of government control, is a foundational principle of our democracy. Any [...]

The American Consumer Institute
Center for Citizen Research
Innovation and National Broadband Policies: Facts, Fiction and Unanswered Questions
March 2, 2010
Larry F. Darby
Joeseph P. Fuhr

Silicon Flatirons, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and Public Knowledge today are hosting a forum in Washington titled “An FCC for the Internet Age: Reform and Standard-Setting.” The second panel focuses on regulatory reforms, standard-setting and mediating institutions. This entry includes live coverage of the panel.

Microsoft’s VP Scott Charney made quite a few headlines this week at RSA’s security conference when he suggested that perhaps an Internet tax is needed to fight malware.  Predictably, this incited quite a few rebuttals that perhaps Microsoft should pay for the malware infestations since it’s primarily a Microsoft Windows problem.  I view both ideas [...]

Silicon Flatirons, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and Public Knowledge today are hosting a forum in Washington titled “An FCC for the Internet Age: Reform and Standard-Setting.” The first panel focuses on the present and future of FCC reform. This entry includes live coverage of the panel.