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Archive (2009)

Broadband Down Under

Tue, 04/07/2009 - 07:20 — Rottenchester

Is broadband a luxury like cable TV, or is it a necessity like water and sewer? In the US, we act as if it is a luxury, and efforts to treat it like a necessity have been thwarted by cable and telephone companies.

Australia is about to do the opposite. The country has announced plans to build a nationwide fiber network over the next few years. The national government will build and own the network, and Internet providers will compete to provide service on it.

The plan sounds like a good way to deal with the issue of "the last mile". When broadband providers own the cable to the house, they are likely to flex their monopoly muscle. But when government owns that cable, they can create a market where tens or hundreds of providers compete. It's a smart way to create a vibrant market for a service that's critical for economic development.

Kolb Out for 2010

Mon, 04/06/2009 - 15:04 — Rottenchester

The Times-Union has the story of Brian Kolb's elevation to Assembly Minority Leader. Kolb confirms that he's not running for NY-29 in 2010, and talks a little smack:

Eric Massa, wherever he is right now, is breathing a sigh of relief. I will not be running for Congress.

Get Happy

Mon, 04/06/2009 - 07:42 — Rottenchester

Howard Owens at The Batavian writes about a new Gallup well-being survey that ranks Congressional districts. Here's a summary of the four districts in the Rochester area, sorted by their overall self-reported well-being. The first number is a score, the second is the district's ranking out of all of the districts in the U.S.

District Well-Being Index Life Evaluation Work Quality Basic Access Healthy Behavior Physical Health Emotional Health
NY-26 65.9 - 187/435 35.7 - 339/435 49.6 - 283/435 88.4 - 32/435 64.7 - 142/435 76.9 - 218/435 80.3 - 70/435
NY-25 65.2 - 237/435 38.1 - 272/435 44.8 - 388/435 87.9 - 42/435 64.1 - 169/435 76.9 - 217/435 79.1 - 188/435
NY-29 64.3 - 297/435 32.0 - 394/435 47.4 - 349/435 85.6 - 131/435 65.2 - 112/435 76.0 - 279/435 79.6 - 137/435
NY-28 63.0 -
359/435		 39.8 - 229/435 43.0 - 411/435 82.6 -
255/435		 61.2 - 332/435 73.7 - 386/435 77.5 -
334/435

As you can see, only the sad-sack 28th ranks below us in well-being. Here's another chart, this time with Census demographics. Shockingly enough, it looks like income tracks the well-being index pretty closely.

District High-School Graduates College Graduates In Poverty: Any Age Household Income: Median
NY-26 85.7% - 105/435 25.5% - 155/435 6.9% - 376/435 $46,653 - 134/435
NY-25 85.8% - 102/435 27.8% - 125/435 10.4% - 241/435 $43,188 - 190/435
NY-29 85.6% - 108/435 26.1% - 146/435 9.9% - 259/435 $41,875 - 202/435
NY-28 79.2% -
285/435		 21.2% - 247/435 18.7% -
65/435		 $31,751 - 387/435

I was called for this survey last week, though I don't know what period this data is from. There's more information on what each of the well-being indexes means at Gallup's site.

Bandwidth is Cheap

Sun, 04/05/2009 - 10:40 — Rottenchester

The New York Times has a story on how incredibly cheap it is for cable companies to upgrade their Internet infrastructure. For $20/home, a Japanese cable company was able to upgrade its network to provide access that's 16 times faster than Time-Warner's. That service costs $60/month in Japan, and it isn't capped. In Rochester, Time-Warner wants to charge almost that much ($55/month) for usage-capped, slower service.

The Times also mentions a rival Verizon service, FiOS. This is a fiber-optic service that runs 5 times faster than Time-Warner's. Unfortunately, in Rochester and probably most of the 29th district, we won't see this service. That's because Frontier, not Verizon, is our Rochester's local phone company. Frontier's capital budget has been gutted by multiple acquisitions, and they have no plans to upgrade their copper infrastructure to fiber.

Time-Warner is only rolling out usage caps in markets where FiOS doesn't compete. Because the 29th is one of those markets, we're going to be at a distinct technological disadvantage compared to other areas that have real Internet competition. The economic development of Rochester and the entire region could be stunted by the Time-Warner/Frontier duopoly.

Massa News: Dunning and Olean Office

Sun, 04/05/2009 - 10:13 — Rottenchester

Eric Massa's office sent over this photo of Massa at the opening of the Olean office.

They also sent today's Corning Leader opinion page [pdf], which includes Joe Dunning's column. Dunning thinks that Massa is proving himself to be more "maverick" than "rubber stamp".

Afternoon News: Bucks and Kolb

Fri, 04/03/2009 - 18:35 — Rottenchester

This weekend's Steuben Courier has two Massa stories, one about funding for the Bath and Canandaigua VA hospitals and one about the impact of the budget on area farmers.

Reader Stanley sends this Roll Call story about the future of Brian Kolb, who's next in line for NY Assembly Minority Leader. Kolb says running for Congress is "front and center" in his thinking if he's not named to the spot. That said, rumors are flying that Tedisco is out no matter whether he squeaks out a narrow win in NY-20.

Bandwidth II

Thu, 04/02/2009 - 13:18 — Rottenchester

Following up on yesterday's post on bandwidth, here's a more technical analysis of Time-Warner's claims that they need to raise prices because of Internet usage.

The technology used by Time-Warner is easy (and cheap) to upgrade. Most of Time-Warner's cost is "sunk cost" of a fiber network that's been in place for at least a decade. Also, Time-Warner's own analysis (in Beaumont, Texas) shows that most users don't exceed their caps today.

It's clear that Time-Warner's real reason for a cap has nothing to do with usage or cost. The goal is to protect their cable TV business from Internet encroachment tomorrow, and to chisel heavy users of their service in cities where they have a virtual monopoly.

The article also points out that Time-Warner and AT&T, the other provider in Beaumont, are not competing to the benefit of consumers. AT&T has already decided to cap usage in that market. Expect the same collusion from Frontier and Time-Warner in the Rochester market.

Beaumont is a few miles up the coast from Ron Paul's district in Texas. He has a good word to describe what Time-Warner is trying to pull: "corporatism".

Bandwidth

Wed, 04/01/2009 - 10:46 — Rottenchester

Reader Michael sends a BusinessWeek piece about Time-Warner Cable's plans to institute consumption-based Internet pricing in the Rochester market. Unfortunately, it's not an April Fool's joke.

This isn't the first such effort in the region. Last Fall, Frontier changed their terms of service to include a very low (5GB/month) cap. After an outcry, including a website dedicated to stop the cap, Frontier backed down.

There's nothing wrong with the concept of usage-based Internet pricing, but all of the usage tiering I've seen is unrealistic. Time-Warner's is no exception: by one calculation, their top tier, which is still pretty limited, would lead to $200/month in overage charges for a family whose use I'd classify as "moderate".

I have yet to see a pricing plan that acknowledges that the average user in 2009 spends a fair amount of time on YouTube, that Internet use will grow, and that the Internet provider's cost for raw bandwidth has been shrinking. These plans also ignore that broadband Internet has been sold on basis of speed, not usage, for the last decade, and that the Internet providers have cut their own throats by promising ever-greater speeds without major price increases.

Most importantly, none of these pricing plans give anything to get their greatly increased profits. These new plans don't guarantee speed or availability. They just demand much more money for less service.

There's little or no competition in the home Internet market -- Time-Warner has a monopoly in large parts of the 29th district. One way to get a real market here and elsewhere is to treat Internet service the way we treat telephone service. Local service - the connection to the nearest switching center - would be the responsibility of Time-Warner or Frontier and have a regulated, low price based on the actual cost of delivering the service. At the switching center, other, nationwide bandwidth providers would be able to compete with Frontier or Time-Warner for our Internet business.

Like long-distance, once real competition hit the market, we'd see an ever-diminishing cost for Internet bandwidth. It's only because TWC and Frontier have a monopoly that they'd even consider $200/month Internet pricing. Their recent actions have shown that their Internet monopoly needs to be broken.

West Valley

Wed, 04/01/2009 - 08:00 — Rottenchester

The Buffalo News examines the impact of stimulus funds on the West Valley Demonstration Project. Cleanup at the site will be accelerated by three years, and 200 new jobs will be created, according to Massa, Schumer and Gillibrand.