Fast Net News, DSL Prime, DOCSIS Report

Hawaii will soon have the best broadband deal in the United States, if the new bill is enforced. David Lassner's Broadband Task Force inspired the legislators to move on a bill starting with "(1)  Access to broadband communications to all households, businesses, and organizations throughout the State by 2012 at speeds and prices comparable to the average speeds and prices available in the top three performing countries in the world." We can’t all be above average, but every developed country should be comparable.

100 megabit speeds are realistic for almost all of Hawaii's 600,000 homes, if the Oceanic Time Warner and Hawaiian Telecom ramp up. The price will require strong government action, however.  Overall, his is the most thoughtful look at broadband since the Wise Men report led by Dave Clark. Verizon GPON is designed for 200 megabits in both directions and they are passing 500,000 homes each year in New York City alone - without a government subsidy. DOCSIS 3.0 is ready with 160/120 shared, and will be twice or four times that speed by 2012. Honolulu can do what Paris is doing and Kyoto has already accomplished. To get the price in line, they'll have to discard worn out dogmas, a government of true change.

Task force director David Lassner was clear 100 meg for $30 is the comparison to make."Our vision and goal are to make Hawaii competitive with the leading nations of the world. It is common in nations like Japan, Korea, France, Sweden and more for consumers to be able to buy broadband access at 100 million bits per second (Mbps) for about $30/month. The Broadband Task Force believes Hawaii consumers deserve services at the speeds and pricing available in these places." (Honolulu Advertiser.) Bravo to Time Warner Cable for supporting this legislation.

Some highlights of the report my comments in italics:

"The task force recommends that the State consolidate all relevant regulatory and permitting responsibilities in a new, one-stop, broadband advancement authority that promotes Hawaii’s policy objectives and provides advocacy at all levels of government. One commisioner, with power and responsibility

Hawaii’s “lifeline” for broadband to the rest of the world is expensive submarine fiber. While Hawaii was once the crossroads for trans-Pacific telecommunications, all of the new fiber systems built across the Pacific since 2001 have bypassed Hawaiÿi. The task force recommends that Hawaii aggressively promote the landing of new trans-Pacific submarine fiber in Hawaiÿi, including a shared access cable station that reduces barriers to fiber landing in Hawaii. Pros know that reducing backhaul cost is essential

Public and private sectors shall strive together to enable every home and business in the State to access 100mbps upstream and downstream broadband service at prices comparable to those in leading economies of the world by 2012 with
expandability to 1000mbps thereafter. Every home and business shall be capable of using this capability for educational, economic, social, cultural and medical advancement.

The task force found that the international leaders achieved their successes by not only removing barriers, but through intentional public policy focused on advancing broadband capability at affordable prices.

“wired or wireless?” is the wrong question to ask. Fiber optic cable provides the greatest capability with nearly-unlimited expandability to fixed locations, while wireless provides tremendous advantages in mobility as well as more cost-effective deployment of basic broadband to some rural and remote locations. Most broadband wireless systems rely on wired capabilities for at least some of their backbone connectivity. The task force believes the right answer for Hawaii is “wired AND
wireless.”

Provide advocacy at all levels of government on behalf of broadband service providers to help overcome unnecessary
barriers to progress,

Recommendation 3: Welcome Trans-Pacific Submarine Fiber to Hawaii
Reduce the barriers to landing new fiber in Hawaii through a shareduse, open-access, fiber-ready, international submarine cable landing station on Oÿahu that is made available to all projects on a fair and equitable basis. The station should be privately managed with users sharing in the costs, and could be a new or existing physical facility.
Government might provide land, permitting assurances and other assistance identified through an open RFI/RFP process to identify one or more private partners interested in building and/or operating a station that could welcome new fiber systems to Hawaiÿi. The task force recommends that the University of Hawaii lead an RFI/RFP process to create this facility with State and County assistance and support.
Funding & Approach: Costs unknown until the RFI/RFP is issued.

1) Remove barriers to broadband access, including gaining wider access to public rights-of-way,
2) Identify opportunities for increased broadband development and adoption, including very high speed broadband services, and
3) Enable the creation and development of new advanced communication technologies in Hawaii.

Act 2 further states that the intent of the task force is to:
1) Identify actions that will produce increased investment in and the availability of advanced broadband capabilities at
more affordable costs by using new approaches to broadband deployment, including through increased access to public rights-of-way and shared fiber infrastructure;

Oceanic Time Warner estimates that in the State of Hawaii, their service cables pass an estimated 595,000 addresses. Since some addresses actually include multiple living units, this number is somewhat less than the number of households that could subscribe to their broadband service. They estimate that there is approximately a 1% difference between the number of addresses and living units passed. Of the 595,000 passings, broadband service is not deliverable to an estimated 16,000
addresses, or 2.7%, because of non-serviceability conditions of customer premises. On Oÿahu, the number of passings is estimated to be 407,000 with 14,000 being unserviceable addresses, or 3.4%. Oceanic roughly estimates that approximately 1% of the residences in the state are not covered by either their TV or broadband services, which are usually delivered through the same cable to the residence