AT&T is helping to connect people to the Internet in Puerto Rico after the hurricane. Currently a lot of locations don't have high-speed Internet in the area at all.
Much of the High Speed Internet network infrastructure in Puerto Rico took damage from the storms. Project Loon is a Google experiment with balloons equipped to provide wireless Internet access from above. The balloons use antennas mobile users to connect ground stations to provide Internet in hard to get to places. Google decided to offer these balloons, to help Puerto Rico get back connected to the Internet after Hurricane Maria. Google didn't have much going on in Puerto Rico so they partnered with AT&T to get it up and running. AT&T sent almost 40 ships loaded with equipment and five planes to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands recently. Some of the islands have had no cell coverage and Internet service since the hurricane hit the islands earlier this year.
When T-Mobile heard that AT&T was partnering with Google’s Internet providing balloons to connect the hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico to the Internet T-Mobile announced that it is also going to be working with the Loon Project to help the storm ravaged islands. Now it is still an experimental project, but it is helping out. “Since turning on Project Loon service last week, we’ve delivered basic Internet connectivity to tens of thousands of people in Puerto Rico.” according to Google's spokesperson. The Internet-connecting balloons get launched in Nevada and have to travel all the way down to Puerto Rico to go into service.
Monday, October 30, 2017
Monday, October 16, 2017
Internet Service Providers Don't Want to Provide More Information
The Federal Communications Commission is wondering if it should start collecting more accurate data about broadband deployment in the US, but of course cable and telecom lobby groups don't want them too. They like it the way it is. The FCC thinks people might want to know "What Internet can I get in my area?"
The FCC has a thing called "Form 477" that requires Internet service providers identify the areas they provide Internet service. This is broken down by census block. The FCC wants to know whather it is either business or residential, and what the highest speeds they offer in those blocks. Now the ISPs are also supposed to tell the FCC which census blocks are near enough to their networks that they could provide Internet service without too much trouble.
This information is supposed to help the FCC know how good broadband deployment in zip codes or census blocks is going. It is also supposed to identify the geographical areas that might benefit from government money, and what else might be needed to spur deployment and competition. A census block is pretty big and to really know who can actually get service the FCC really needs to know which house or building can get service.
Just because they service one unit in a census block doesn't mean they service all of them. The ISPs don't want to tell them which houses because that might make them actually make them accountable to provide that service. That might make them do more work.
The ISPs, like Verizon, might also get money from the government to provide Internet service to a census block. They don't want to have to provide service to every house in the block before they can consider it served and collect thier money.
The FCC has a thing called "Form 477" that requires Internet service providers identify the areas they provide Internet service. This is broken down by census block. The FCC wants to know whather it is either business or residential, and what the highest speeds they offer in those blocks. Now the ISPs are also supposed to tell the FCC which census blocks are near enough to their networks that they could provide Internet service without too much trouble.
This information is supposed to help the FCC know how good broadband deployment in zip codes or census blocks is going. It is also supposed to identify the geographical areas that might benefit from government money, and what else might be needed to spur deployment and competition. A census block is pretty big and to really know who can actually get service the FCC really needs to know which house or building can get service.
Just because they service one unit in a census block doesn't mean they service all of them. The ISPs don't want to tell them which houses because that might make them actually make them accountable to provide that service. That might make them do more work.
The ISPs, like Verizon, might also get money from the government to provide Internet service to a census block. They don't want to have to provide service to every house in the block before they can consider it served and collect thier money.
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