Open Networks: Press

New Online Services Face Threat from ISPs, CRTC Told | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:42:00 -0400

...Markham Erickson, Jacob Glick, Marvin Ammori and Robb Topolski of the Open Internet Coalition argued that innovation could be stifled by practices such as throttling...

Groups Ask FCC for Changes in 'Special Access' Fees | PC World

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:34:00 -0400

The new NoChokePoints coalition, launched Monday, has nearly 20 members, including Public Knowledge, Sprint Nextel, TW Telecom and the New America Foundation. The groups called on the US Federal Communications Commission to reform the fee structure for ...

Setting the iPhone Free from AT&T | BusinessWeek

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:16:00 -0500

"It is unthinkable that you could only use a Macintosh on an AT&T connection," says Michael Calabrese, vice-president at the New America Foundation, which is chaired by Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt. Google (GOOG) has helped develop phone ...

Tim Wu in CNET | 'Democratic Win Could Herald Wireless Net Neutrality'

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:15:00 -0500

Wireless Net neutrality is not exactly a novel idea. One proposal emerged in the form of a working paper by Columbia University law professor Tim Wu published in February 2007, which says that wireless carriers "should be subject to the same core network neutrality principles."

Wu argued that the rise of the wireless industry has led to "carriers aggressively controlling product design and innovation in the equipment and application markets, to the detriment of consumers. In the wired world, their policies would, in some cases, be considered simply misguided, and in other cases be considered outrageous and perhaps illegal." LINK

Wireless Future Program in Washington Internet Daily | 'Activists Celebrate Wireless Gains, Relish Prospect of Obama Presidency'

Cecille Isidro — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:43:00 -0400

Prospects are bright for building under an Obama White House on successes by supporters of Carterfone, net neutrality rules and open spectrum for wireless broadband, leading activists said. Groundbreaking changes probably will come Nov. 4 with the arrival of a friendly national administration and FCC white- space rules, said President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project Tuesday at an open-wireless conference of Google and the New America Foundation. "Policy makers are ready to listen," he said: "There's likely to be a very receptive environment going forward."

But the opportunities make it more important than ever for high tech to shed the remnants of its aversion to getting its hands dirty in Washington, Schwartzman said. The industry must "drop its fear of Washington," he said: "It's necessary to engage." Silicon Valley's "libertarian philosophy" overlooks the reality that "government intervention is a tool that can be used to stop innovation, to stall," Schwartzman said: "The government is there, whether we like it or not..."

Columbia University Law Professor Tim Wu looked back with satisfaction on progress since early last year, when he wrote a paper for the New America Foundation in favor of wireless Carterfone. Industry and FCC changes have been "mostly for the better," he said. Wu pointed to Skype's wireless Carterfone petition to the FCC,… more

New America's Wireless Future Program Event with Larry Page in BusinessWeek | "Google's White-Space Fixation"

Communications — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:22:00 -0400

Google co-founder Larry Page made a rare trip to Washington this week. No, he wasn't lobbying for net neutrality or being grilled about Internet censorship in China. It was all about the white spaces -- and Google's growing fixation with wireless communications.

With opposition mounting, Page came to bolster Google's push to gain public access to these white spaces, slivers of wireless spectrum between the broadcast channels used by TV stations. . .

During his May 22 speech to the New America Foundation, a think tank where Google CEO Eric Schmidt is chairman-elect, Page used a wireless microphone to downplay interference concerns. "I don't think there's any technical credence to this at all," he said.

Page also argued that unlicensed white spaces offer a way for the U.S. to catch up with the rest of the world in broadband access. For the second year running, the U.S. ranked 15th among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development in terms of broadband availability, a recent survey found [BusinessWeek.com, 5/22/08]. Today, 10% of Americans still don't have access to DSL or cable broadband, according to consultancy Parks Associates.

Google and others also see white spaces as a way… more

New America on CNET | Google's Schmidt named chair of think tank

Communications — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:58:00 -0500

Google's Schmidt named chair of think tank (CNET)

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has been named as chairman of the board to the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. that focuses on issues like healthcare, education and foreign policy.

Schmidt joined the board 10 years ago when the centrist think tank was founded and before he joined Google. He will assume his new role June 1... more

AP Quotes Michael Dannenberg on Student Loans and Higher Ed Costs

Communications — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:04:00 -0500

The Assosciated Press published a review of the surge in loan elimination in private schools for middle- to upper-class income students, and quoted Michael Dannenberg, Education Program Director with the New America Foundation.

... Michael Dannenberg, a scholar at the New America Foundation, notes that's also approximately the figure Congress spent this year to cut student loan interest rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent -- for the whole country. ...

Ultimately, however, other factors will play a much bigger role in college affordability for most people than Harvard's policies for its 6,600 undergraduates.

For instance, maximum Pell Grants -- the main federal aid program for low-income students -- are set to rise from $4,310 to $4,731 this year under a spending bill passed Wednesday by Congress -- though that's a $69 cut from what students had been promised.

But the biggest factor is the economy, says Dannenberg of the New America Foundation. Historically, when the economy falters, state funding for higher education is first to take a hit, and public college tuition soars.

"You could have this coming phenomenon where higher education at the elite colleges is becoming more affordable for the talented elite students who are accepted, but education… more

Michael Calabrese in Los Angeles Times on Wireless Airwave Auction

Communications — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:42:00 -0500

...The federal government's decision to auction off this prime public spectrum next month could change the wireless world. It has the potential to make talking on a cellphone, surfing the Web on a mobile device and even watching television on your handset easier and cheaper.

Google Inc. said Friday that it would bid, and a slew of other companies were expected to file to join them by Monday's deadline. ...

"No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers, who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Friday in a statement. ...

The airwaves are considered the beachfront of the wireless landscape. Used for years for TV broadcasts, the chunk of spectrum in the 700-megahertz band carries data much farther than other bands, requiring fewer transmission towers. And it can easily penetrate obstacles, making it ideal for streaming video, which requires an uninterrupted signal.

"For the same reason you can get TV reception in your basement, the low-frequency TV bands cut easily through walls and trees and bad weather," said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, a Washington… more

Michael Calabrese in The Washington Post Praises Verizon Wireless

Communications — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:39:00 -0500

Verizon Wireless officials announced Tuesday they would open up their network to any devices and software customers want to use by the second half of 2008. Any device that passes a minimal connectivity test will be allowed on the Verizon Wireless network, officials said.

That announcement drew applause from a wide variety of groups. Public Knowledge, a consumer rights group that has pushed for open network regulations from the U.S. Congress or the Federal Communications Commission, said it was "cautiously optimistic" about Verizon's decision. ...

Also praising Verizon's decision were Funambol, a developer of open-source calendar and messaging tools for mobile phones, and the New America Foundation, a think tank that has pushed for open access rules on the 700 MHz spectrum.

The FCC and Google deserve credit for pushing the issue forward, said Michael Calabrese, director of New America's Wireless Future Program.

"This appears to be a move to head off market entry and new wireless competition from Google and other Internet companies that would result if the incumbent carriers were unwilling to meet minimal FCC consumer choice requirements," he said in an e-mail.

For the complete article, please follow this link.

Eric Schmidt in BusinessWeek's Profile of Cyberlawyer Tim Wu

Communications — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:13:00 -0500

The following article is a positive and well-deserved profile of Tim Wu -- quoting Chris Sacca of Google -- that plays off the impact of his New America paper on wireless net neutrality. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on New America's Leadership Council.

"Tim Wu, Freedom Fighter: His wireless-phone manifesto was the inspiration for Google's new mobile-software strategy, which includes the Open Handset Alliance."

On Nov. 5, Google (GOOG) unveiled what many in the phone business had long awaited. CEO Eric Schmidt explained how the search giant was ready to create new software for mobile phones that would shake up the telecom status quo. A Google-led "Open Handset Alliance" would provide consumers an alternative to the big cellular carriers and give them new choices among mobile phones and the types of nifty services that run on them, from e-mail to Google Maps.

Google's brain trust was again trying to change the rules of the game. Behind the scenes, they owe a sizable debt to a man nearly unknown outside the geeky confines of cyberlaw. He is Tim Wu, a Columbia Law School professor who provided the intellectual framework that inspired Google's mobile phone strategy. One of the school's edgier profs,… more

Communications Daily Quotes Michael Calabrese on FCC Auction

Communications — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:03:00 -0400

Net neutrality advocates are pressing the FCC to adopt "openness" principles in rules for the 700 MHz auction, in addition to urging that the agency require auction winners to adopt net neutrality principles. Net neutrality supporters sent the FCC nearly 250,000 letters on open access Mon., following up previous filings urging buildout requirements and limits on incumbents' participation in the auction. The campaign urges the FCC to require all licensees to carry Internet and voice traffic without degradation and allow consumers to use any equipment that doesn't cause interference.Without FCC action, the "consequences to the Internet, and to consumers, could be disastrous," said a filing by the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC), which includes 8 groups that lobbied for net neutrality legislation last Congress. "I think there is more interest" in considering rules that would require wholesale open access, said Michael Calabrese, vp-New America Foundation, a coalition member. Frontline endorsed the idea in its filing -- so at least one business believes the idea wouldn't hurt it competitively, he said, though it would be difficult to include net neutrality rules in the auction regulations, which the FCC hopes to issue by July, he acknowledged...

For the complete article, please… more

Technology Daily Highlights New America Paper on Net Neutrality

Communications — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:19:00 -0500

(Tuesday, February 27) The network neutrality debate that has focused for the past two years on maintaining an open Internet is expanding to a new battlefield: wireless mobile services. In a newly released paper, Columbia University Law School Professor Tim Wu sounded the alarm about the ability of consumers to use devices of their choosing on cellular networks now limited to proprietary equipment. Wu emphasized that the FCC's "Carterfone" rules, which let consumers connect various gadgets to wired telephone networks, do not apply in the wireless arena. "These controls continue to affect innovation and the development of new devices and applications for wireless networks," he wrote... "In the United States, there are over 200 million mobile subscribers, and mobile revenues are over $100 billion," Wu wrote in "Wireless Net Neutrality," which was published by the New America Foundation, a nonprofit public policy institute. "As the industry and platform mature, the wireless industry warrants a new look..."

For the complete article, please visit the Technology Daily website.