From: IN%"rre@weber.ucsd.edu" 6-MAY-1996 01:36:44.84 From: Phil Agre <pagre@weber.ucsd.edu> Subject: Options for Internet and Broadband Access =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, send an empty message to rre-help@weber.ucsd.edu =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Fri, 3 May 1996 10:05:08 EST From: Tim Leshan <LESHAN@ksgrsch.harvard.edu> To: IIPLIST@ksgrsch.harvard.edu Subject: Announcement and Call for Participation Freedom Forum Harvard Information Infrastructure Project National Economic Council U.S. Department of Energy "THE FIRST 100 FEET" OPTIONS FOR INTERNET AND BROADBAND ACCESS October 29-30, 1996 The Freedom Forum Arlington, Virginia Announcement and Call for Participation This conference looks at options for Internet and broadband access from the perspective of home owners, apartment complexes, and small businesses. It will evaluate opportunities and obstacles for "bottom-up" infrastructure development and the implications for traditional and alternative providers at the neighborhood, regional, and national levels. We are seeking original analysis, position papers, and background material for use in the conference program, on the project website, and in a book to be published in early 1997. The conference challenges business and policymakers to rethink fundamental issues in telecommunications policy by recasting the "problem of the last 100 feet" as "opportunities for the first 100 feet." This paradigm shift suggests consumer/property owner investment as an answer to the dilemma of whether there should be one or two wires into the home. The conference will survey alternative options for local connection to the Internet from the perspective of homeowners with high-end needs for data communications, apartment owners, small businesses, and others with an interest in investing in end-user equipment and real estate. It will consider prospects for broadly distributed infrastructure investment and potential roles for utility companies, special assessment districts, municipalities, PCS providers, CAPs, IXCs, LMDS operators, and Internet access providers, as well as telcos and cable companies. It will consider strategies and policies for local interconnection and interoperability among Internet access providers. The conference will investigate constraints on and incentives for user infrastructure investment at federal, state, and local levels; whether and how trenching, conduit, and right- of-ways should be unbundled to promote consumer/property owner investment and competition among heterogeneous providers; and the need for and feasibility of interconnection at third-party or publicly maintained neighborhood access points. It will look at synergy with other policy goals and economic interests, such as intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and energy demand management. Finally, in assessing user investment as a driver for two-way broadband, it asks how scenarios for Internet access will affect broadband scenarios by stimulating demand for high-bandwidth connectivity. Rationale The growth of the Internet has been propelled in significant part by user investments in infrastructure: computers, internal wiring, and the connection (dial-up line, leased line, microwave link) to the Internet service provider. This "bottom-up" investment minimizes the investment burden facing service providers, since customers share the cost of the infrastructure and providers have no obligation to develop the infrastructure out to all potential users. Barriers to entry for service providers are low, and users retain flexibility in choosing among providers. The rapidly growing mass of Internet users, applications, and resources is now shaping demand for underlying infrastructure, so that plans for new infrastructure are driven increasingly by data rather than voice and video. There are opportunities to attract new customers instead of competing head- on for old ones. Unlike voice and video, there are incremental upgrade paths for data users and demand for upgraded access is readily stimulated by experience. Higher bandwidth connections are desired by a wide spectrum of users, from those who work at home to recreational users of the World Wide Web. The value of continuous, rather than dial-up connection to the Internet, is less widely appreciated because it is a qualitative improvement. Continuous connectivity (which can be provided by unswitched technologies) obviates tying up a telephone line, enables instant delivery of email and other time-sensitive information, and allows small businesses to advertise and publish directly to the net. Most importantly, it can enable real-time energy management with attendant cost savings that can support major infrastructure investment, which the advent of residential "wheeling" may induce consumers to make on their own. A personal computer or an inexpensive router could serve as a gateway extending Internet functions to other computers in the home, manage utility demand, operate security systems, and control any lights, sound equipment, and other household appliances. As telecommunications and electric utilities are deregulated, investment decisions will devolve into the hands of consumers, where they can be made with greater knowledge of particular benefits and tradeoffs. At the same time, new technologies, such as wireless and data transmission over power lines, will increase consumer options. There may be a variety of options for configuring "the last mile," with different balances between user-provided and centrally provided facilities. Homeowners and small businesses may have opportunities to connect to different suppliers at the curb, on the roof, on the side of the house, or somewhere in between. The early government role and subsequent commercial practices have facilitated interconnection of Internet service providers, but the limited choices at the local level -- the "last mile" as well as the "last 100 feet" -- may make interconnection an issue. At present, many local Internet access providers do not interconnect directly and traffic is sometimes routed to one of the few national exchange points hundreds of miles away. Opportunities for interconnection, along with policies on access, may determine whether intermediary transport providers, such as utility companies, emerge to link homeowner facilities at the curb with high-bandwidth Internet service providers. This analysis of "the first hundred feet" recognizes that need and demand will naturally vary greatly from home to home and from neighborhood to neighborhood. Much depends on whether there are business or telecommuting needs that can be met by individual investments in upgraded access. While this analysis looks to the Internet, it raises the issue of how the bottom-up model will affect the traditional model of a centrally provided universal service. Given basic technology that is non- proprietary and virtually commoditized, some argue that Internet service is becoming the common denominator platform on which all other services can be carried. The absence of service class priority has hampered use of real-time voice and video on the Internet, but this will soon change with the implementation of protocols that allow bandwidth reservation and packet-level service priority (RSVP and IPv6). **** We encourage submission of position papers as well independent analysis. It is expected that papers will be posted for review and revised promptly after the conference for non-exclusive publication. (The book will be part of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project series published by MIT Press.) To ensure consideration for the program, please submit abstracts or outlines by June 20, 1996. Please direct submissions and requests for future mailings to: Tim Leshan Coordinator, Information Infrastructure Project Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University 79 JFK Street Cambridge, MA 02138 617-496-1389; Fax: 617-495-5776 leshan@ksgrsch.harvard.edu For additional information and updates see http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/iip/first.html Tim Leshan IIP Project Coordinator http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/iip/