Sidecut Reports

Here’s a good blog post from Comcast’s lead legal honcho Joe Waz, saying that Comcast doesn’t think there’s going to be a big stink raised by the big service providers (his company included) over the forthcoming National Broadband Plan — basically disagreeing with the take on the subject in a New York Times story from earlier this weekend.

I agree here with Joe — in talks with folks around the telco-sphere the last few weeks, it seems like Julius Genachowski, along with Blair Levin and his BBPlan troops at the FCC have done a good job of “highlighting” what’s going to be in the plan with a series of well-timed and well-thought-out news releases the past few weeks.

With few surprises left for Tuesday, when the plan will be formally announced, everyone involved on all sides has now had time to set their own strategies and have their own troops ready to march when the gun sounds for what will surely be a big marathon of political and technological tussling, one that some think will put the mud-wrestling over the 1996 Telecom Act to shame.

But maybe not, according to Comcast’s Waz, who despite sticking to the big carriers’ “no net neutrality” line (the code word for the big carriers this time around is “private investment in broadband” — meaning, that if there are net neutrality rules the private investments will dry up), does see many ways that previously warring entities can work together, with the end goal of making more broadband available. As Joe says near the end of his missive:

And if there’s going to be a “battle,” I think it should – and will – be focused on accomplishing the things on which we should all be on the same side: promoting more private investment in broadband, getting more Americans connected to broadband, and making the most of broadband as a nation to advance our economy and our society.

How’s that song go? Two out of three ain’t bad?

Stay tuned for more on the Broadband Plan this week!

We are still waiting for the FCC to publish its UPDATE: Here are the releases about the FCC’s historic vote today to begin a rule making process for net neutrality. In the meantime, if you need a backgrounder on the subject may we humbly suggest that you download our Net Neutrality report from last fall, which quite accurately predicted that 2009 would see some serious action on the issue. Also included is a lengthy historical backgrounder, a net neutrality timeline, and interviews with the top spokespeople from Google, AT&T and Free Press — required reading as the Battle of 2009 marches on!

News recap: Stacey H at GigaOM has a good wrapup of all the news with all the active links.

Unlike his immediate predecessor, new FCC chairman Julius Genachowski actually appears to have interesting things to say when he speaks publicly. While some folks seem ready to ding Genachowski for giving non-answer answers sometimes, if you read through his prepared remarks from his speech at the CTIA show earlier this week in San Diego there’s some real meat and understanding, especially of the mobile Internet market and what issues it’s facing.

Some money quotes from Genachowski’s speech:

On 4G rollouts:

More and more I hear people say that broadband is the future of mobile, and I agree. I also believe the reverse is true — mobile is essential to the future of broadband.

And the next generation of mobile technology — 4G — will make all the difference. 4G will provide mobile connectivity several times faster than we have today. It will provide a mobile Internet experience comparable to today’s wireline networks — data rates measured in megabits per second instead of kilobits, latencies in mere milliseconds.

After years of buildup, we can see 4G on the horizon.

Clearwire has launched WiMAX in 14 markets. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and MetroPCS have each announced plans to launch LTE in the next year or two.

But of course it’s easier to roll-out a press release than roll-out a network. There is a lot of work to do, and I know it won’t be easy.

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