MuniWireless

Novarum tested major 3G services in 13 American cities, including New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, for PC World. The test results reveal that “Verizon’s service showed a combination of speed and reliability, Sprint’s results lent credence to its ‘most dependable’ claim, and AT&T’s network showed fast upload speeds in most cities.” Surprisingly, the number of bars on your phone do not indicate the quality of the connection. Read the PC World article, A Day in the Life of 3G.

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The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Consulting Services for Initial Engagement with Private Sector Participants (No.2009- MBI-01) on behalf of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute. They are seeking consulting firms that can provide services “on the development and operation of broadband infrastructure, writing requests for proposals, outreach and evaluation of industry partners and creating business plans and pricing models.” Download the RFP from the Masstech website. Responses are due by 15:00 on 8 July 2009. They…

Not very patriotic, is it, especially during the week of the Fourth of July? The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the agency charged with administering the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), known to most people as the broadband stimulus package, has granted a limited exception to the Buy American provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for certain types of equipment required in broadband deployments.

People who receive grants to deploy broadband networks from the NTIA…

I am staying in an apartment building in San Francisco, which is served by an ISP called Webpass. I became a customer at the beginning of June and have been measuring their upload and download speeds (on my wireless network and via Ethernet cable) via Speedtest.net.

Webpass boasts of being able to deliver up to 100 Mbps symmetrical speeds to my building and up to 45 Mbps in others. In reality, when I’m using the Ethernet cable I get slightly over…

Last week, Jean-Ludovic Silicani, the new president of ARCEP, held a press conference and announced several propositions to stimulate commercial investment in FTTH deployment in France. These propositions were put together after year of tense negotiations between ARCEP, the operators and local collectives. They will be issued for public consultation in July and are expected to be adopted in the fall. If Sarkozy’s government is to meet its goal of at least 4 million households that are fiber-enabled by 2012,…