Larry Page: Whitespace Tests Were Rigged [IP Democracy]
Advocates for unlicensed use of broadcast spectrum were on Capitol Hill yesterday to make their case. Google co-founder Larry Page - one of the chief advocates of such a plan - leveled the charge that the FCC's recent interference testing of so-called "white space" devices was "rigged."
While Page is entitled to his opinion, the fact is that the manufacturers of these devices have yet to show that they can reliably avoid interfering with broadcast television signals, cable television operations or wireless microphone systems (all of which operate in this spectrum). The main reason they can't avoid interference? Cable doesn't have any "white spaces" or unused frequency where the devices can operate without interfering with cable television viewers.
It's true that cable signals are enclosed in a coaxial cable, which should shield them from outside interference. The problem is that many customers have wired their homes themselves and added splitters and other devices. The wiring and the equipment that customers have installed themselves may or may not effectively shield their connections. Millions of homes could be affected.
CableTechTalk has posted a good explanation of the issues involved with "white space" device interference here and here.
Comcast: New Cap Not 'Set In Stone' [Broadband Reports]
Comcast is hinting that their recently announced 250 GB download cap might be subject to revision with the rollout of DOCSIS 3.0. Most readers who commented here about Comcast's cap believed that 250 GB was a reasonable limit at current broadband speeds. Some questioned whether the limit would continue to be a fair limit with higher speeds on the horizon. Good for Comcast who appears to be keeping an open mind toward those concerns.
ISPs Facing Privacy Scrutiny Likely to Point At Google [Wired - Threat Level]
Over the summer, Congress focused a special scrutiny on ISPs using so-called deep packet inspection (DPI) third-party advertising systems. This article encapsulates the questions that the ISPs rightfully leveled - What about Google's ad serving practices?
From a letter quoted in the article:
[I]f anything the largely invisible practices of ad-networks raise even greater privacy concerns than do the behavioral advertising techniques that ISPs could employ, such as deep-packet-inspection, which have primary application beyond mere targeted advertising, including managing network congestion, detecting viruses and combating child pornography.
Google's response? Customers choose to do a search so they accept such practices. My response? Hey, aren't you about 80% of the search market these days?
T-Mobile Lifts Bandwidth Cap for Google Phone [NYT Bits Blog]
I've been watching with interest the rollout of T-Mobile's new Google-powered phone. The concept of an open-platform is something new to the mobile phone world. Though the phone doesn't come on the market until next month, T-Mobile had announced a policy of capping mobile downloads on the phone at 1 GB per month. Now that policy has been rescinded to a wait-and-see approach - balancing user demand for bandwidth and the need to manage the mobile network to allow all users an enjoyable experience.
To Debate or Not Debate: That’s the Debate [Multichannel News]
Will there be a presidential debate tomorrow night? That's the question that the cable news networks are asking at this hour. The presidential debates are historically among the most watched live events in television history, but with John McCain's announcement yesterday that he is returning to Washington to deal with the financial sector bailout, tomorrow's debate may not happen. If it appears that we'll have a debate tomorrow, I'll be posting some links tomorrow about some neat tools to follow the debate with. Stay tuned. . .
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