Featured Blogs

The Next Development in Wireless Broadband

In the USA the FCC has started the discussion on the next level of telecoms in the wireless market, aimed at making spectrum in bands above 24GHz available for flexible-use of wireless services, including next-generation, or 5G networks and technologies. New technologies such as massive-MIMO are going to make it possible to deliver 'fibre-like' speeds over short distance wireless networks operating in the 24+GHz bands. This will make the technology especially useful for high-speed broadband services in densely populated areas. more

A New Frontier for the Global South

The Fund for Internet Research and Education - FIRE - is an initiative of AFRINIC that gives Grants and Awards to outstanding projects that use the Internet to provide innovative solutions to Africa's unique education, information, infrastructure, and communication needs. FIRE Africa is part of an initiative called The Seed Alliance that has LACNIC's FRIDA Program, APNIC's ISIF.Asia program, and the Internet Society as members. more

WordPress Now Powers 39.5% of the Web

Last month in the annual "State of the Word" presentation for 2020, Automattic CEO and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg announced that WordPress now powered 39% of websites, as measured by W3Techs. The number has actually grown a bit more since that time to 39.5%.1 Perhaps by next month it will pass 40%. What is more remarkable to me is to see that in December 2020, for the first time, the number of sites using WordPress passed the number of sites that were NOT using any form of content management system (CMS). more

An Agreement in Geneva

For all the tranquility at the end of last week's World Technology/ICT Policy Forum (WTPF), E.B. White's words come to mind: "there is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement." One also has to wonder though what a literary stylist like White would think of the linguistic gyrations demanded by the compromises reached at the WTPF in Geneva, and what they portend. more

Can Satellite Broadband Be Affordable?

When we first heard of the possibility of broadband from low-orbit satellites, there was a lot of speculation that the technology could bring affordable broadband to the masses around the globe. The latest announcement from Starlink shows that affordable broadband is probably not coming in the immediate future. Starlink announced a premium tier of service with a $500 monthly fee for 150-500 Mbps. more

After Cartagena, New TLD Timetable Back in Limbo

While ICANN's meeting in Colombia last week made some welcome progress towards a finalized Applicant Guidebook for new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) registries, it was still something of a disappointment for the many of us in the community who had hoped the meeting would see ICANN officially approve the program, in readiness for its previously announced May 30, 2011 launch date. Now, gTLD applicants find themselves in the same position they did prior to October... more

Will We Ever End Legacy Telephone Networks?

Anybody not involved in the telephone business will probably be surprised to find that the old TDM telephone networks are still very much alive and in place. The old technologies were supposed to be phased out and replaced by digital technologies. The FCC started talking about this before 2010. In 2013, Tom Wheeler, the FCC Chairman at the time, announced an effort to force the needed changes, which was dubbed the IP Transition. more

Now Is the Time to Act: The Technical Community Must Engage in Support of Multistakeholderism

Over the next two years, several global dialogues about our shared digital future are taking place -- and big changes could be in the cards. An intensive series of negotiations will see United Nations (UN) Member States weigh in on the future of digital cooperation -- and multistakeholderism finds itself under the spotlight. The multistakeholder model allows everyone who has a stake in the internet to meaningfully engage in discussions and decisions about its future on equal footing, but a number of critics are calling for change. more

Cruz Is Back Now with a Countdown Clock To “Doomsday”

Senator Cruz' crusade against the IANA transition is back in full swing. With the deadline for the expiry of the IANA contract approaching both he and other anti-transition types have been working hard on their campaigns to block the transition. The latest addition to the Cruz website is a special lander page featuring a countdown clock... Yes, that's an image of President Obama shaking hands with China's Xi Jiping. more

ICANN vs. the Federal Reserve

The Internet is about to go independent. After years of support and supervision, the U.S. Government is about to irrevocably relinquish its control over the Internet by transferring its authority to an independent corporation named ICANN. As part of this push, the current chairman of ICANN posted this article to the Wall Street Journal... What's truly amazing about this piece, is how well it's done... It was only after digesting this piece, that I remembered we are talking about ICANN here. more

Blasphemy: The U.S. Problem Is Huawei’s Security Is Too Good

Everyone knows the $100B/year U.S. security apparatus taps almost the entire Internet. Friendly governments help from Australia to Canada to France. Companies like AT&T, Ericsson, Verizon, and Nokia obviously cooperate. The NSA assumes that China is attempting to do the same and that Huawei, as a Chinese company, will provide assistance. The evidence suggests otherwise. Huawei is the primary opponent of U.S. security. more

More on Private Auctions for New gTLDs

My recent post on private auctions for new gTLDs under contention generated many responses from applicants. Here I follow-up with answers to the questions raised... Many, but certainly not all, applicants have a strong motivation to participate in a private auction. This incentive is especially strong for domains for which the community, geographic, and other factors are not compelling. more

Net Neutrality, Slippery Slopes &  High-Tech Mutually Assured Destruction

Ten years ago, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman lamented the "Business Community's Suicidal Impulse:" the persistent propensity to persecute one's competitors through regulation or the threat thereof. Friedman asked: "Is it really in the self-interest of Silicon Valley to set the government on Microsoft?" After yesterday's FCC vote's to open a formal "Net Neutrality" rule-making, we must ask whether the high-tech industry -- or consumers -- will benefit from inviting government regulation of the Internet under the mantra of "neutrality." more

Now Available: Worldwide and Local Current Starlink Performance

The blue dot circled is our dish in the center of Vermont. Volunteers run software that collects statistics every 15 minutes and uploads them to update the tables and the map at https://starlinkstatus.space. You can see below that we have been averaging download speeds of 143Mbps, upload around 12Mbps, and ping times of 43ms. Below, you can see our most recent updates, including the percentage of time our dish was obstructed (0% happily). There are also tables with country and region-wide averages. more

Creating, Protecting and Defending Brand Equity - Part 2

In the second of three posts about how brand owners can protect their trademarks from misuse, I will focus on two concepts: the role of "use" and registration in protecting your brand, and domain names -- specifically acquisition and protection. Internet domain names have emerged as a major battleground for brand promotion and protection. While it is easier than ever to register and promote your name on the internet, it is also easier for others to trade on another brand's equity. more