Issues

True Peer-to-Peer Rideshare Now a Reality

Posted on by CALinnovates

Larry Downes and Paul Nunes, authors of the seminal book Big Bang Disruption, which details how to strategically navigate our digital world, wrote that every industry is ripe for disruption, even an industry that is currently disrupting another industry. For example: ridesharing.

Ridesharing has caught fire in the U.S. Want to catch a ride in an open seat in someone’s private vehicle?  It’s as simple as tapping your smartphone app.

Competition is alive and well in the rideshare industry.  In alphabetical order, the three dominant players in the game are Lyft, Sidecar and UberX.  Each differentiates itself in its own unique way.  I frequently use all three services.

Read the full article on Daily Kos

A Tale of Three Cutting-Edge Cities

Posted on by CALinnovates

“The road to failure is often paved with good intentions,” famed writer Samuel Johnson might have said.

Just ask Riverside, California. Back in 2006, the city set out to build a municipal Wi-Fi network for its citizens. But a severe lack of interest from customers prompted the city’s original communications partner to pull away from the project.  The city scrambled to find resources to build and maintain the network, ultimately costing residents more than $700,000 per year for a network to live up to the hype.  the Wi-Fi network never even reached two-thirds of the population and has been described as obsolete.

In other words, the good intentions from Riverside officials have resulted in a costly, and failed, experiment on the taxpayer’s dime.

Read the full article on Tech Zulu

All-IP Beta Test Markets Announced

Posted on by CALinnovates

AT&T announced its intentions to conduct beta tests to transition consumers to Internet Protocol networks (aka the IP Transition) in Alabama and Florida. We are thrilled for Carbon Hill, Alabama and West Delray Beach, Florida as the potential first two all-IP test cities in America. Perhaps in a few years we may refer to Carbon Hill as Silicon Hill, the next new hotbed of digital innovation.

As you know, CALinnovates has long been a strong proponent of a modernization of our nation’s communications infrastructure, and today marks another important step down this critical path. Earlier this year, I called the transition “the beginning of the next great digital transformation in our nation’s history.” Well, these beta tests are the next phase of the transition, as it’s important to make the transition in a smart way that protects key core values such as universal connectivity, consumer protection, network reliability and public safety.

I had a chance to talk to a few of our members about today’s news, and I think you’ll find their insights illuminating.

Jack Crawford, general partner at Velocity Venture Capital, told me that this announcement gives him great hope for the future of his industry and the nation as a whole. He believes IP connectivity will give his portfolio companies even greater reach, while helping consumers thrive.

“The dream of universal connectivity through next-gen networks will prove to be a huge boon for the economy. I’ve long said private investment in infrastructure will drive the next great wave of economic prosperity in our nation. Startups will have access to more customers with high-speed connections. Consumers will have increased and faster access to the world around them. This movement will create increased opportunities in education, job creation and personal enjoyment for the masses.”

Lloyd Marino, an IT and cloud expert and the founder of Avetta Global, says the transition to IP networks will effectively shrink the world, creating opportunities for people no matter where they live or work that don’t currently exist today to the extent they could:

“The networks of the future will make the world a smaller place, allowing people to be anywhere in the world instantaneously, in high-definition, transacting business, telecommuting, and taking advantage of high-speed connectivity no matter where they live, whether rural or urban. These test trials will deliver findings that will benefit everyone in every industry. I’m thrilled.”

Daniel Brusilovsky, an executive at Ribbon, shares his entrepreneurial perspective:

“It’s incredibly important to do beta tests to really learn what these networks can do and what they can handle. As more and more consumers are getting smartphones and using applications like Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and more, we need our networks to be able to support the technology community’s growing demand for data.”

As FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel commented just a few months ago, “To get outside the box, government needs to do more work in the sandbox.” These beta tests in Alabama and Florida represent the sandbox in which the IP transition will carefully and progressively occur using real world conditions, but under the FCC’s watchful eye to ensure a smooth and efficient consumer transition. It’s the same sort of thinking that the tech industry has long embraced, and it’s about time we brought this tech-driven approach to upgrading our nation’s network infrastructure.

I’m looking forward to working hand-in-hand with the FCC, the business community and consumers to make sure we get the opportunity to experience and enjoy a connected future.

CALinnovates will continue to track this item and keep you informed along the way.

– Mike

The Benefits of an All-IP World

Posted on by CALinnovates

Here’s a bit of trivia from the dusty archives of communication: The first high-definition television broadcast in America wasn’t from New York or Los Angeles, it was from a CBS affiliate in Raleigh, North Carolina.

No, really.

The date was July 23, 1996, and the station was WRAL-TV. On hand to witness the event were some 200 invited guests, according to the station’s history page, who watched a broadcast operating at 100 kilowatts from a tower 1,736 feet above the ground. The high-definition age had arrived.

What does this history lesson have to do with the topic of this essay, which is the transition from copper wire telephone lines to next-generation, Internet-enabled communications networks? The answer will be music to your ears.

Read the full article on Huffington Post – Tech

Another View: Take a careful approach in regulating the Internet

Posted on by CALinnovates

In a recent opinion piece (“FCC must restore Internet neutrality” – Viewpoints, Jan. 16), the author relies on incomplete information to reach a conclusion that should concern everyone with a stake in the continued success of California’s innovation economy.

The U.S. broadband market is one of the most dynamically competitive markets in the world. It is hardly broken, and comparing the United States to that of a finite geographical area – such as Stockholm – paints an immensely inaccurate picture.

As of 2011, 94 percent of Americans had a choice of providers offering 3 megabits per second or more. Since then, Google has helped launch a fiber ground war; private communications infrastructure investment in the United States topped $50 billion per year. According to one recent report, in 2013 the United States ranked eighth globally in average connection speed. That’s ahead of Sweden.

I’m frankly surprised the author ignored mobile broadband entirely, as if it doesn’t exist. Yet, mobile connection speeds in the United States are now 75 percent faster than the European Union average. Cisco forecasts that average mobile connection speeds in the United States will continue to rise, far outpacing Western Europe. We’re on the right track.

What’s really alarming is the author’s suggestion that the nation’s long-standing Internet policy should be scrapped. At issue: a recent federal court of appeals decision overturning the Federal Communication Commission’s 2010 net neutrality rule.

In its decision, the court stated that the FCC overstepped its boundaries by attempting to regulate the Internet. Doomsayers now claim that the Internet will suffer because there is no regulation in place to “protect” it, notwithstanding that the Internet had been doing just fine before 2010.

There’s no need to panic. It’s clear the reasonable middle will prevail and find a sensible, market-driven policy solution. And there’s no evidence of actual threats to Internet openness on the horizon.

Finally, the author’s suggestion that the appeals court ruling should cause the FCC to try to regulate the Internet under rules that date back to 1934 would be a huge mistake, not only for continued investment in broadband infrastructure, but to the very innovation economy that has been thriving in California.

The Internet is an evolving and phenomenally successful engine of innovation and economic growth in California and the nation. It remains so precisely because our government has wisely taken a careful approach to its regulation. California’s success is evidence that this approach works.

Read the full article on The Sacramento Bee

CALinnovates Lauds FCC Decision to Approve Pilot Programs for Transition to All-Internet Communications Networks

Posted on by CALinnovates

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — CALinnovates today issued the following statement regarding the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to approve test trials of the transition to all-Internet networks.

Executive Director Mike Montgomery said:

Today’s FCC vote will go down in history as the beginning of the next great digital transformation in our nation’s history.  Technology companies of all sizes as well as consumers will benefit greatly from Internet Protocol networks.

While the FCC’s unanimous 5-0 vote is just the beginning of a longer process to upgrade our nation’s networks, the bipartisan decision proves just how vital this transformation is for the country.  The California technology community – which paved the way with its forward-looking IP legislation in 2012 – will be observing the trials closely, looking forward to the opportunity to build upon the networks of the future.

As the country’s economy increasingly relies upon the technology industry, this transition will benefit not just Californians, but the entire nation.  The transition to IP networks is a great bet on the future of American innovation and connectedness.

To learn more about CALinnovates, visit www.calinnovates.org.

What The Consumer Electronics Show Taught About Wireless Spectrum

Posted on by CALinnovates

By: Mike Montgomery
As featured in The Huffington Post

More than 100,000 people descended on Las Vegas for last week’s annual Consumer Electronics Show. While the sale of tech devices is expected to shrink this year (see here), what’s beyond doubt is that Americans’ wireless love affair continues its meteoric growth.

Look no further than this post by Scientific American editor Larry Greenemeier: “5 Technologies to Watch for at This Week’s Consumer Electronics Show.” His top technologies for the future: 3-D printing, ultra-high definition TVs, phablets, wearables, and driverless cars. Of these five developing technologies, three depend heavily on mobile connections.

Read the full article Here

 

Connectivity Needed to Build Stronger Merced, Region

Posted on by CALinnovates

As featured in The Sacramento Bee
By: Mike Montgomery

Can Merced be the next Silicon Valley?

According to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, 70 percent of Americans now subscribe to broadband Internet service at home, and an additional 10 percent of Americans have broadband access at home via a smartphone.

While that’s the good news, there are still some communities in America that lack some kind of broadband or Internet access at home. About 7 percent of Americans say they lack Internet access altogether.

Read the full article here.

 

FCC Action Key to Our Mobile Future

Posted on by CALinnovates

By: Mike Montgomery

FCC action on a variety of fronts — including spectrum auctions and the transition to next-generation networks — is vitally important, and the agency will need to focus less on talk and more on concrete results under its next Chairman.

This was the takeaway from a recent Washington, D.C. event, “The Mobile Marketplace: The Deals and Consumer Trends Driving Spectrum Valuation,” hosted by Mobile Future, a DC-based group dedicated to encouraging investment and innovation in mobile technology.

If you don’t have the time to watch the webcast, here are some highlights:

Commissioner Ajit Pai outlined how the FCC can help, rather than hinder, growth in the mobile sector, by streamlining processes for mergers and spectrum acquisition, letting the market shape how spectrum auctions are put together, and helping facilitate what he called the “migration from legacy to IP-based networks.”

In other words, out with the outdated copper voice-centric networks that, according to a recent report, only carry 1% of all traffic in the United States, and in with next-generation high-speed broadband infrastructure.  This type of forward thinking policy is particularly important in California, where mobile innovation is a major economic driver in the state.

After Pai’s keynote, an all-star team of panelists discussed the current desire for mergers and spectrum acquisitions among communications providers, the growth in the mobile marketplace, the need to free up more spectrum (which should be of particular interest to Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach, given how bonkers the app economy has become), as well as offered advice for incoming FCC Chairman Wheeler.

Despite the panelists’ various backgrounds and areas of expertise, the overarching theme of the event was loud and clear: given the huge demand for advanced broadband networks and the ever-increasing consumer and business potential of the wireless sector, key decision makers must work to foster opportunity and investment in the industry.

Panelists agreed that Wheeler is well positioned to lead the FCC toward decisive action in modernizing our communications systems and, even more importantly, modernize our telecom regulations.  And this, although occurring 3,000 miles away, will inevitably have a positive impact throughout the expansive technology community in the Golden State.  Anyone whose business model has been stifled by regulation can tell you that public policy tremors in the Beltway can definitely be felt in the Golden State.

 

Follow the Leader | California Regulators Approve Transportation Ridesharing Companies

Posted on by CALinnovates

As featured on Tech Zulu
By: Mike Montgomery

Regulations can be suffocating. Used in the wrong way they might accidentally “Napster” a nascent industry.

Thankfully, the California Public Utilities Commission realized the value of the mobile-based sharing economy by voting to legitimize the rideshare industry statewide. As Liz Gannesof All Things D reports:

The California Public Utilities Commission today approved a decision to legitimize for-profit ride-sharing companies. The ruling should give legal clearance to peer-to-peer driving services from startups like Uber, Lyft, Sidecar and Tickengo, if they meet certain parameters. It’s the first such decision in the U.S.

The CPUC’s decision, which was unanimous, boils down to creating a new transportation category called “transportation network companies” in order to oversee rideshare companies – an idea put forward last July by Commission President Michael Peevey. I liked President Peevey’s idea when it was just an idea. I like it even more now that it’s formally on the books.

By realizing the value of technology and innovation for California’s economy, and smartly supporting the trajectory of the digital revolution, the CPUC has shown regulations can indeed keep pace with the blazing speed of progress. The Commission has also provided a blueprint for other regulatory bodies to follow suit — not just when it comes to regulating the rideshare industry, but for many innovative, tech-based ideas with the potential to disrupt.

As the saying goes, as goes California, so goes the country.   I anticipate that yesterday’s news paves the way for other states to embrace common sense, forward-thinking tech regulations.