Community and Lifestyle

24-Hour Suicide Prevention and Crisis Hotline

walt.grayson — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 20:00:00 +0000

24-Hour Suicide Prevention and Crisis Hotline

walt.grayson Fri, 12/13/2019 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper

December 13, 2019 | 2 min read

On August 14th of 2018, the National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act (NSHIA) was signed into law. As part of this effort, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been working with industry stakeholders toward the establishment of an easy-to-remember three-digit dialing code.

This three-digit code allows people to easily reach the National Suicide Prevention Hotline when experiencing a mental health crisis. Selecting a memorable three-digit code, similar to 9-1-1, will allow for easy access to suicide prevention assistance during a time of crisis.

The FCC took the next step in the process of establishing 9-8-8 as the three-digit dialing code to reach the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. With the vote by all five Commissioners, the FCC will begin the process toward issuing an order, by obtaining industry and public feedback. Presuming that the order is final, telecommunication carriers are likely to have up to 18 months to implement 9-8-8 dialing.

�鶹�¾� agrees with FCC Commissioners who have unanimously expressed support for the opening of this rulemaking. The issue of mental health and suicide is critical, and time is of the essence. (The importance of mental health and the crisis of suicide rates in America have reached a critical point, and time is of the essence.)

So with that in mind, we have implemented 9-8-8 dialing for all �鶹�¾� customers. This implementation provides 9-8-8 dialing service to over a quarter of a million Californians. POTS and VoIP services are included, for both business and residential customers.

We hope that none of our customers, their families, or their employees find themselves considering suicide as their only option. But if anyone is at that point, we want to take whatever steps we can to help them connect with assistance in their time of need.

So, thank you to those who supported this legislation, and to the FCC Commissioners and Staff who are advancing this effort.

Dane Jasper
CEO
�鶹�¾�

Category

Community and Lifestyle

Celebrating �鶹�¾�’s 25th Anniversary

walt.grayson — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 19:00:00 +0000

Celebrating �鶹�¾�’s 25th Anniversary

walt.grayson Thu, 07/25/2019 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper
July 25, 2019 | 3 min read

This Friday, July 26th 2019 marks 25 years since we started serving our California communities with fast, affordable, friendly internet. We have grown a lot as a company since then, and for a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) competing with giant telecom and cable companies, this milestone is no small feat. That’s why we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for their support over the past quarter of a century. Without the loyalty of our �鶹�¾� members, we wouldn’t be where we are today – thank you!

Your support has been key. Your membership has allowed �鶹�¾� to continue to expand our fast, innovative fiber optic network. And your advocacy, making your voices heard on key policy issues that would stifle competition and limit our ability to deploy more fiber has made a difference. Make no mistake — the support we have received from our customers on regulatory policy has been vital to our 25 years of success.

We have come a long way in 25 years, but have never strayed from our mission: to fix internet access in America by deploying fast, affordable, and reliable internet for our members, backed by our award-winning customer support team. Today, we are offering the fastest home internet service out there: unlimited Gigabit fiber. This is long way from our service in 1994, which was cutting-edge 16.8kbps dial-up. Anyone remember that? These early members do:

“I’m a big believer in shopping local, and keeping our money here in Sonoma County. […] Believe it or not, calling �鶹�¾� tech support is one of my favorite things. I know I’m going to get a super competent and extremely nice person who will solve my issue..” – Blair Hardman at local business and �鶹�¾� member, Zone Recording (member since 1995)

“I work from home as a technical writer, so I always needed the fastest connection I could get. […] Plus I love supporting a local business, and having local support with humans who answer the phone. I’m always telling my friends who complain about their Internet provider to just use �鶹�¾� and lose all the hassles.” – Barbara Snyder, one of our first-ever members (joined in 1995)

“I stay with �鶹�¾� for not only their awesome customer service, but also their dedication to the privacy of their members and an open Internet. My most memorable experience is probably in 2001 when I was finally able to switch from dial-up to DSL […] It felt like I had finally realized the potential of the Internet.” – Brendan Coen, who heard about �鶹�¾� from a professor at Santa Rosa Junior College (my alma mater!), back when all we served was dial-up in 1995

This evolution did not come without its challenges. In an industry as heavily regulated as telecom, being an independent provider has always carried the weight of federal, state, and local policy changes. That’s why we’ve always advocated for sensible regulations that put you–our customers–at the forefront and battled the ones that put your access in jeopardy.

We’re thrilled about what the next 25 years will bring — no matter what, we won’t stop fighting to bring you the fast, affordable, friendly internet you deserve. Thanks for being part of our journey by helping spread the word about �鶹�¾� to your friends, family, and neighbors.

Category

Community and Lifestyle

�鶹�¾� Fights to Save Internet Competition

walt.grayson — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 19:00:00 +0000

�鶹�¾� Fights to Save Internet Competition

walt.grayson Thu, 09/20/2018 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper

September 20, 2018 | 4 min read

�鶹�¾� was founded on the idea that every home and business in America deserves fast, affordable access to the internet backed with the friendliest customer care around. No outrageous prices. No hidden fees. Our goal is, and always has been, simple: fast, affordable internet for all.

Our goal and the very idea of competition is being threatened. In May, the USTelecom Association, a lobbying group that represents AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, and Frontier, among others, filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to eliminate independent carriers’ access to key infrastructure. �鶹�¾� and many other competitive ISPs across the country use this infrastructure as a sort of bridge to broadband. In fact, it was access to this infrastructure or “UNEs” that helped lower barriers into the telecom market and spurred deployment, investment, and innovation among competitors — a tactic that remains successful today, most notably for �鶹�¾�.

If this petition were granted, it would dramatically raise prices on consumers, hinder access to high-speed internet, and impede �鶹�¾� – and others like us – from continuing fiber deployment. Worst of all, it would leave consumers with fewer remaining options for an ISP (some of which are the most hated companies in America).

Supporting our customers is one of �鶹�¾�’s core values, so we partnered with INCOMPAS to take a stand for your access to competitive choice. We asked our customers for support in saving competition and received an outpouring of letters to the FCC opposing the recent US Telecom petition. Along with �鶹�¾�, customers from ISPs all over the country submitted comments and told their stories on why telecom competition and their ability to choose their provider is important to them.

John D. Cappelletti, Vice President of Finance and Operations at Split Software, chose �鶹�¾� for his business. Without our services, John would be impacted by “higher costs, poor handoff equipment and terrible customer service” at the hands of our competitors.

In order to keep customers like John happy, the telecom industry needs to remain stable with choice and competition. In an effort to combat the USTelecom petition, we have filed comments with the FCC alongside more than 9,000 concerned citizens (residents, business owners, schools, and others) who have voiced their concerns to the FCC.

And in further support in the validity of our fight, there is a new economic analysis from William P. Zarakas, a principal at The Brattle Group, that shows competitive local exchange carriers, like �鶹�¾�, have led the charge in fiber network buildout over incumbent players. “The presence of a third facilities-based competitor in 1,307 census blocks would almost certainly not have happened if not for the availability of UNEs. For �鶹�¾�, UNEs served to effectively lower the barriers to entering facilities-based competition, and advanced the FCC’s objectives of enhancing investment in broadband networks,” said Zarakas.

We’ll continue being a voice for our customers and fighting for fair, affordable internet. We have and will always stand up for our customers, and for their right to choose an ISP that puts them first.

—

Below are additional customer quotes about our service:

“As a County Office of 42 Districts, cost is one of the main factors considered due to schools using public funds and having tight budgets. �鶹�¾� not only provides the lowest cost, but their customer service is by far the best I have seen, from the CEO to the installation crew,” said Candy Amos, Information Systems Support Analyst at Sonoma County Office of Education.
“I’m software engineer and participating member of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). Needless to say, the internet is crucial for me. I could not communicate with my team around the world if it were not for reliable, fast internet access. That’s why I’m a customer of a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier), because the big two options for internet access — AT&T and Comcast, in my case — are horrible choices.” – Nicholas Hurley, local �鶹�¾� resident user. (the views expressed are those of a participating member of IETF and do not necessarily represent the views the IETF)

Category

Community and Lifestyle

Net Neutrality Lives on with �鶹�¾�

walt.grayson — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 20:00:00 +0000

Net Neutrality Lives on with �鶹�¾�

walt.grayson Tue, 12/12/2017 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper

December 12, 2017 | 2 min read

You may have heard: the internet as we know it is in grave danger. This isn’t a new topic. This is something that’s been in the news and at the top of �鶹�¾�’s radar for years. But we’re here to tell you that no matter what happens, �鶹�¾� remains committed to the principles of net neutrality.

�鶹�¾� always has and always will keep our internet connections open and equal. You can watch what you want, when you want, on any content provider you choose (Netflix, Hulu, HBO, SlingTV — it’s all the same to us). We will continue to protect your right to privacy, and your right to not have your own data or internet usage information sold or shared. Ever. We will never charge you more to access certain sites, and we will never slow down others for any reason. �鶹�¾� will continue to stand up for everything net neutrality stands for, whether the regulations require it or not.

The bad news? It’s looking highly likely that net neutrality is going to be repealed nationwide. The good news? Regardless of which direction legislation takes regarding net neutrality, we are here for our customers, and our network will remain neutral. You still have a choice in who you choose as an internet service provider. You can choose to support ISPs that keep their internet connections open and equal for all. Whether that’s �鶹�¾� or another local option in your area, you can choose to support those who support fair regulation, such as net neutrality.

Since the beginning, �鶹�¾� has stood up for our customers. And that’s never going to change.

For us, the responsibility we have to our members is not a passing trend. When we say there is nothing more important than the customers who make up the �鶹�¾� network, we mean it. We’ll continue to back up our words with official policies that benefit you.

And we aren’t giving up yet. You still have time to contact your representatives and demand that they step in and tell the FCC to continue to protect your rights online. Call, write, email, and stay engaged. The FCC’s vote on repeal happens December 14th unless Congress steps in to stop it.

Please also share with your friends, family, and colleagues: you have a choice to support the ISPs that continue to support net neutrality and consumer privacy.

Post and share: /sonic-net-neutrality

Category

Community and Lifestyle

Post-fire Update

walt.grayson — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:00:00 +0000

Post-fire Update

walt.grayson Wed, 11/01/2017 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper
November 1, 2017 | 3 min read

It has been more than three weeks since the fires started in the North Bay area, and while the fires are extinguished, the difficult process of recovery has only just begun. California’s largest wildfire has badly hurt our hometown, with Santa Rosa losing many lives, and thousands of homes. Residents throughout the effected North Bay need our help as the long recovery begins.

Before I get into those details, I want to cite the consistency, reliability and compassion of the �鶹�¾� team here. I have seen a group of people who have been challenged, who have risen to that challenge, supporting each other and our community throughout this disaster. As for �鶹�¾�’s network and services, we continued to provide both broadband and telephone services to our communities throughout this crisis, with no widespread outages. The engineering team here has built a solid network and a reliable service. Some news coverage on this can be found here: North Bay internet service provider quickly rebuilds.

This disaster has reinforced for me a number a points about household safety and the importance of reliable utility services, and I’ve got a few suggestions and tips for you to consider, which I will include below.

But first, many in this community are now struggling financially, and could use support in this very difficult time. To have lost everything they owned along with their housing is a massive blow for the families in our community. To assist, a local recovery fund has been set up, and if you are able I would encourage you to donate to the fund. All money raised will go directly to those with real needs as a result of this disaster. You can donate now at: https://www.redwoodcu.org/northbayfirerelief

Now, I have a suggestion for your household, no matter where you are located. This disaster highlighted the importance of wireline home telephone service. Many �鶹�¾� customers received robocalls which were their only alert to evacuate. Make sure you have the best chance of having reliable telephone service in a crisis by equipping yourself well in advance. It’s easy, and inexpensive, and it could save your life.

To start with, every home should have a wired telephone, because cordless phone systems require power. An inexpensive wired phone can be purchased for about $15, see Amazon here for suggestions. Consider placing it on your bedside table, and don’t be tempted to disable the ringer.

For those with �鶹�¾�’s FTTN or Fiber service, backup power is required for voice service during a power outage. Fusion FTTN customers can use a single battery backup unit to power three critical items: the Internet router, the telephone adaptor, and your cordless phone base station. All three of these will generally be located in the same spot, so this is an easy way to keep both your internet and voice telephone service working for hours during a power outage. For those with �鶹�¾� Fiber, a battery backup is also required for service during a power outage. If you did not have a battery backup installed during your fiber setup, I would recommend obtaining one.

For both of these applications, consider a small battery backup such as the Back-UPS Connect.

If you have any questions about voice functionality during a power outage, please reply and let us know by writing to to support for assistance.

Thank you for your support of our company and our community as we recover from this disaster.

Category

Community and Lifestyle

So Proud of the �鶹�¾� Team

walt.grayson — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 19:00:00 +0000

So Proud of the �鶹�¾� Team

walt.grayson Fri, 10/13/2017 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper
October 13, 2017 | 3 min read

An open letter to the 423 members of the �鶹�¾� team:

As we close out a catastrophic week here in the North Bay, I wanted to gather my thoughts and share some of them as we go into our weekend.

First I wanted to comment about that coming weekend: our outside plant team has been working hard this week to build a new fiber optic cable route to our customers in the the Fountaingrove business park, where the fiber feed to the North on Old Redwood was destroyed by the fires.

We asked the OSP team to continue work on Saturday in hopes of completing the repairs on Monday or Tuesday of next week – but they volunteered to continue on and work through Sunday, to knock this out, to get those businesses and their employees back to normal work on Monday AM.

I am really touched by that dedication, and my thanks go out to every one of you on that team. Notable also is that this is �鶹�¾�’s first self-performed aerial construction. We are doing a rapid build of three miles of new optical plant on an emergency basis, with our own team. Amazing teamwork to see.

I also want to thank all of you for supporting each other in so many ways. I’m hearing from evacuated staff who are staying with their co-workers, I’m seeing kids here playing or watching movies together, and I’m hearing about staff providing clothes, supplies, and emotional support. And thank you also for those who have helped Jen as she has led our efforts to shelter staff and families here at the offices.

I’m also seeing our teams supporting our community and our customers, and I’m very proud when I see those efforts too. Staff have been cooking at local shelters. We loaned out Zander from our geo team to support Calfire’s GIS efforts. Our installers and NOC whipped up a VoIP phone system for the Volunteer center in a day, and then expanded it for them a couple days later. We are supporting businesses that are relocating with expedited fiber network delivery in our business parks. And all of these things have happened without my input or direction: staff and the teams have taken the initiative to assist the community and our customers in all of these ways. Thank you.

I knew all of you were amazing, before these fires. I saw it every day, in the small things, the praise from customers, the loyalty and dedication to our mission, and to our members, and to each other. But this week has really shown me even more clearly what wonderful people you all are. Thank you for that.

This community and members of our �鶹�¾� team will have real challenges in front of them in the coming months. Lets stick together and continue to support them. Some have lost their homes, some have parents or family or friends who have lost homes, and some have family who have lost their jobs because businesses have been destroyed.

This is an opportunity for us all, to continue to make a difference for those here at �鶹�¾� and those in our community who are only beginning their process of returning from the devastation of these fires. Together we can do it.

-Dane Jasper

Category

Community and Lifestyle

Net Neutrality Day — Now What?

walt.grayson — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 19:00:00 +0000

Net Neutrality Day — Now What?

walt.grayson Fri, 07/14/2017 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper
July 14, 2017 | 2 min read

On Wednesday, �鶹�¾� and thousands of supporters came together for a day of action to save the internet. The �鶹�¾� team was at the San Francisco Mission BART station Wednesday, educating the public about the importance of net neutrality. Keeping it fun, yes, those are tattoos! (the temporary kind). We also sent a call to action to our customers, posted on our website, submitted letters to Congress, and spoke with anyone that would listen about the importance of Net Neutrality.

In fact, I did a Reddit AMA to chat with users about the critical importance of fighting to keep current net neutrality regulation that keeps the internet open and equal for all in place. I also wrote a San Francisco Chronicle opinion article on the importance of net neutrality.

For more on the topic and its importance, here is a roundup of some of the recent coverage to get you up to speed:

Ars Technica, How Facebook, Google, Netflix, and others supported net neutrality today
Common Dreams, Massive Protest for Net Neutrality Spreads Across the Internet
Domain-b.com, Google, FB up in arms as US seeks to overturn net neutrality
KRCB, Internet-Wide Day of Action for Net Neutrality on July 12
San Francisco Chronicle, Internet activists plan net neutrality protest
International Business Times, Net Neutrality Day Of Protest: Tech Companies Come Together In Major Push To Save Internet Equality
The Los Alamos Daily Post, Largest Websites On Earth Prepare For Net Neutrality Day Of Action Wednesday July 12
The Mercury News, Tech companies to join “Day of Action” protest to protect net neutrality
TechCrunch, Here’s what a bunch of companies are doing for the ‘Net Neutrality Day of Action’
Washington Post, Google, Twitter and dozens of other sites are taking a ‘net neutrality day of action.’ Here’s what that means.
WIRED, The Who’s Who of Net Neutrality’s ‘Day of Action’
WIRED, How to Keep the Fight for Net Neutrality Going

The outpouring of support for Net Neutrality Day was nothing short of inspiring. Over 2 million comments, 5 million emails, and 125,000 calls were made to the FCC. You fought alongside �鶹�¾� and countless others for your internet freedom. You told the FCC and Congress that you deserve open and equal internet access.

But our fight is not over. On Monday, the FCC will stop accepting constituent feedback on Net Neutrality regulation. Until then, your continued support in sharing news stories, posting on social, and submitting your letters to Congress and the FCC is more important than ever, so if you haven’t commented yet, please do so today.

Thank you for joining �鶹�¾� as we continue to fight for your freedom on the internet. Share this with friends. Post on social media, or forward this message. We’ve only got until Monday to make our voices heard!

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Community and Lifestyle

Duopoly Carriers Aren’t Evil. They’re Public Policy.

walt.grayson — Wed, 29 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Duopoly Carriers Aren’t Evil. They’re Public Policy.

walt.grayson Wed, 05/29/2013 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper
May 29, 2013 | 4 min read

Last week I attended a presentation by Susan Crawford, the author of Captive Audience, The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age. It was held, fittingly, at Code for America in San Francisco.

Ms. Crawford has a pragmatic outlook on the state of telecommunications in America, and I think she’s right on. In highlighting the outcomes of our largely duopoly telecom marketplace in America, in a recent NY Times article, she says “It isn’t evil, it’s just the way things work.”

The fact is, it’s not just the way things work, it is the way the appointed regulators at the FCC from 2001 to 2008 intended it to work. The goal during the chairmanships of Michael Powell and Kevin Martin was “robust, intermodal competition”, where Big Cable and Big Telco would complete, without the distraction of additional competition. In other words, duopoly. And, it’s what we got, by and large. (More on this later; �鶹�¾� is the exception.)

So, it’s not evil on the part of the two firms who dominate each regional market, it’s simply the outcome of our regulatory policy.

FCC Chairmain Powell’s BrandX and TRRO, and Chairman Martin’s Broadband Forbearance order together largely eliminated the potential for uniform nationwide competitive pressure on the two operators in each region. The goal was to limit competition in hopes of spurring investment by these two incumbents, with Martin saying about the Forbearance order:

“Promoting broadband deployment is one of the highest priorities of the FCC. To accomplish this goal, the Commission seeks to establish a policy environment that facilitates and encourages broadband investment, allowing market forces to deliver the benefits of broadband to consumers.” -FCC Chairman Kevin Martin

In other words, handing over a doupoly is supposed to encourage the two appointed competitors to duke it out.

I will concede that the policy has worked to some degree. Cable firms have rolled out DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades, and both AT&T and Verizon have made investments to catch up in video and increase broadband speeds. Even Centurylink has made some upgrades to their network.

In a recent article, Susan Crawford points out an op-ed by a Cable executive, titled “U.S. the leader on broadband". Maybe by making it the headline, it becomes truth.

But, the fact is that we remain well below even the OECD median speed, and we are certainly no leader like Japan, Sweden or Norway. I suppose we can at least take solace that the offered broadband speeds in the US are not as bad as Mexico or Greece.

OECD Broadband Speeds Chart

The policies which arguably helped drive these investments have come at a significant cost to consumers — Americans pay far more for their broadband and get less than citizens of most other developed nations. We pay more than three times as much per megabit as citizens of Sweden or Japan, and a whopping sixteen times as much as those in Korea. In fact, Americans pay more for broadband than residents of virtually all of the OECD countries. Only five countries do worse than US residents: Turkey, Chile, Poland, Greece and Mexico. We are in sad company when it comes to what we pay for broadband.

But, that’s not evil, that’s the outcome of our policy. Cost is the casualty when an intermodal duopoly is favored over full competition as a public policy goal.

OECD Broadband Prices Chart

The US median price per megabit is $5.42. Did we get enough performance in exchange for the creation of a virtual duopoly? Probably not, but that’s not evil on the part of our dominant broadband providers, that’s policy, and the way the marketplace was intended to work.

Postscript:

But what about �鶹�¾�’s Fusion service?

Fusion is the sort of competition that the 1996 Telecom Act envisioned. And, we are still here despite the de-regulatory hit job by Powell and Martin. We are still here because the basic bones of the 1996 Telecom Act remain strong. While competitive access was curtailed by the intermodal duopoly agenda of the Bush-era FCC, competition is still possible under the Act, at least in metropolitan regions.

�鶹�¾�.net’s Fusion service offers competitive European style pricing and features, an “all-in-one” service delivering uncapped and unlimited broadband at up to 20Mbps, plus unlimited nationwide phone service together for one low price. When both the voice and data products are considered, it offers an advertised price about $1 per megabit, better than all but a few of the OECD nations, and less than one fifth of the US median price.

Fusion is available today to four million homes in ninety-six California cities around Los Angeles, the Bay Area and Sacramento. Join up. Then tell a friend. It’s a growing revolution.

Category

Community and Lifestyle

Web Hogs!

walt.grayson — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Web Hogs!

walt.grayson Fri, 12/02/2011 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper
December 2, 2011 | 3 min read

I have always felt that our customers buy connections from us to use them. Abuse them. Hog up big chunks of the web. Fill up those tubes! And to just generally consume what they are buying: a big fast broadband pipe, to use however they see fit.

As more and more broadband providers have instituted caps, I have continued to say that caps are really not necessary and that even if congestion was to be a problem, consumption caps are the wrong way to address the potential problem: congestion during peak time on the network slowing everyone down.

The capping of Internet consumption is a hot topic. In the Bay Area, SF Gate’s James Temple has written about caps, and the folks at Stop The Cap have been fighting Canada’s proposed usage based billing (UBB) scheme as well as the capping by U.S. providers.

My opinion is that caps make little technical sense, and I believe that the fundamental reason for capping is to prevent disruption of the television entertainment business model that feeds the TV screens in most households.

It’s common sense — if you are selling a service bundle to a household that includes a subscription TV service, it would make business sense if there wasn’t enough broadband capacity to replace it.

As of 2008, the Nielsen Co. says that the average American household consumes just over 8 hours per day of TV. To replace this with some sort of innovative and interesting new Over-The-Top offering, it would consume roughly 480 Gigabytes per month (based upon Netflix consumption at their current top “HD” rate.)

Keep in mind that this is the normative household TV consumption, so roughly half of homes view more than this! Add in day-to-day Internet use and clearly the 150GB to 250GB caps which are typical today are an effective blockade.

Because I’ve got a contrary viewpoint on caps, when Diffraction Analysis contacted us to ask if we would participate in a study of real-world usage we decided we should put our money where our mouth was. We ponied up with anonymous, summary consumption statistics for their use in this study.

The results they’ve come out with are quite interesting. Their report, “Do data caps punish the wrong users? A bandwidth usage reality check” is available for purchase on the Diffraction site, but the study author has also provided a summary on his Fiberevolution blog.

In it, he states that:

Data caps, therefore, are a very crude and unfair tool when it comes to targeting potentially disruptive users. The correlation between real-time bandwidth usage and data downloaded over time is weak and the net cast by data caps captures users that cannot possibly be responsible for congestion. Furthermore, many users who are “as guilty” as the ones who are over cap (again, if there is such a thing as a disruptive user) are not captured by that same net.

Their conclusion is reassuring, as it affirms our gut feelings about user behaviors and consumption: while heavy consumers may tend to be a contributor to peak load, their total consumption is a poor proxy for their impact during the potentially critical peak-load periods. We believe that if any bandwidth management were required, slowing the largest consumer down to the level of the next-largest and so on, in the specific moment during congestion conditions would be a more reasonable policy.

That said, note that bandwidth management is not used in our network. We upgrade links before congestion occurs.

What are your feelings about provider caps? Let us know in the comments!

Category

Community and Lifestyle

�鶹�¾� Selected by Google to Operate Stanford Fiber Network

walt.grayson — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:00:00 +0000

�鶹�¾� Selected by Google to Operate Stanford Fiber Network

walt.grayson Mon, 12/13/2010 - 12:00

Written by Dane Jasper
December 13, 2010 | 2 min read

�鶹�¾� today announced it has been selected to operate and support the trial fiber-to-the-home network Google is building at Stanford University. This experimental project will test new fiber construction and operation methods, while delivering full gigabit speeds to approximately 850 faculty and staff owned homes on campus.

�鶹�¾�.net will manage operation of the network, provide customer service and support and perform on-site installation and repair. �鶹�¾�.net is Northern California’s leading independent Internet service provider.

The Stanford trial network is completely separate from the community selection process for Google’s Fiber for Communities project, which is still ongoing. Google’s ultimate goal is to build a fiber-to-the-home network that reaches at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people, and it plans to announce its selected community or communities by the end of the year.

�鶹�¾�.net currently operates California’s largest open Internet access network, offering services today primarily via next-generation copper. The Santa Rosa-based company previously announced its own plans to deliver a fiber-to-the-home network in Sebastopol, Calif., and looks forward to working with Google on the innovative gigabit network being planned for the Stanford community. �鶹�¾�.net’s open network provides services to seventy other Internet service providers delivering broadband services across a thirteen state territory.

Construction of the Stanford fiber network will begin in early 2011.

“�鶹�¾� is an innovative ISP that brings top notch experience to the Google Fiber for Communities project,” said James Kelly, Google Fiber for Communities product manager. “Their open access experience and well regarded customer service team will play a key role as we kick off our beta network at Stanford.”

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to work with Google on this project,” said Dane Jasper, CEO & Co-Founder of �鶹�¾�. “It’s a great fit for our existing capabilities, and will help us develop new skills as we move our own network toward fiber.“

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Community and Lifestyle