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Cisco Government Affairs
E-Update
Volume 2, Issue 27
12 July 2002
Brought to you by Cisco
Government Affairs Online: http://www.cisco.com/gov
This Week@Cisco in Government Affairs
Cisco's E-Update keeps you
up to date on the major policy news of the week. Focusing on broadband,
education and e-government areas, but covering high-tech and telecom in
general, the E-Update is a great source of information for state, federal and
international policymakers. To subscribe, send a message with “subscribe” in
the subject line to “Subscribe-eUpdate@cisco.com
BROADBAND POLL – SHARE YOUR VIEWS IN OUR BROADBAND POLL. Do you have broadband? Do plan to get broadband? Is broadband too expensive? Go to our broadband poll and give your
input: http://forums.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/HtCom?page=main
This Week@WASHINGTON, DC
FCC POLICIES HURT HIGH-SPEED WEB,
GROUP SAYS - Proposed U.S. government policies could harm competition in the
broadband Internet market, reducing choices and driving up monthly fees for
users who want high-speed access, a consumer group said on Monday. By easing
regulations on incumbent cable television and local phone companies, the
Federal Communications Commission will hasten the demise of independent
Internet providers who reach users over existing phone and cable lines, the
Consumer Federation of America said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020701/tc_nm/tech_broadband_dc_3
WIRELESS WORKHORSE - Imagine
getting rid of the tangled cables that link the printer to the computer, the
DVD player to the television set and the digital camera to the laptop, and
replacing them with high-speed wireless connections. Imagine that the same
wireless technology could be used to help the police find fugitives hiding
behind walls and people trapped in collapsed buildings, or even prevent cars
from colliding. And imagine that all that could be done at a small fraction of
the cost of establishing cellular and land-line telecommunication networks.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30344-2002Jul5.html
US BLAMED FOR LAGGING
BROADBAND ADOPTION - A consumer group report blamed the U.S. Federal
Communications Commission Monday for growing costs in the broadband consumer
market, lagging adoption of high speed Internet service and a lack of
innovation among providers. The study, released by the Consumer Federation of
America (CFA) and the Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel, blasted the FCC's
policy of easing competition initiatives for broadband providers over cable and
phone lines, and described how the practice has hindered the market.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18467.html
PUTTING PUBLIC SPECTRUM TO WORK TO
CLOSE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE - How can we unlock the public interest potential of
the Internet and other new information technologies? How can we ensure that
Internet content resembles the offerings of schools, libraries and museums more
than that of broadcast TV? Over the last several years, the United States has
made an enormous investment in connecting classrooms and libraries to the
Internet and bridging the digital divide. We now need to compliment these
investments in hardware and networking infrastructure with a drive to make
available content and applications that transform the way teachers teach and
students learn.
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org/content/stories/index.cfm?key=231
GOVERNMENT PLUGGED INTO
E-GOVERNMENT - Apply for Social Security benefits, reserve campground space at
a national park or comment on pending legislation — all from the comfort of
your Internet-connected home computer. That's the scenario envisioned by the
U.S. government under its broadly termed "E-Government" plan to
simplify delivery of its services to citizens, businesses and municipalities.
The strategy is one of five that President Bush has adopted as part of his
management reform agenda, which is aimed at making government more about
citizens than bureaucracies. http://www.nwfusion.com/supp/government2002/authentication.html
This
Week@EMEA
WIRELESS LANDS AT EUROPEAN
AIRPORTS - Network giant Cisco Systems is putting its Aironet wireless LANs
into lounges at 19 airports across Europe. The services are aimed at business
travelers with wireless cards in their laptops or personal digital assistants.
The announcement includes various deals with different telecommunications
companies and airports, made under the banner of Cisco Mobile Office, a
campaign for wireless LANs (local area networks).
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-943458.html
BROADBAND: UK SEES DOUBLE -
Broadband takeup in the United Kingdom has more than doubled since the start of
2002, leading to optimism that the vision of Broadband in Britain is finally
becoming a reality. Figures released by the Office of Telecommunications--the
U.K. telecom regulator known as Oftel--this
week show that at the end of June 2002 a total of 709,000 consumers and small
and medium-sized businesses had signed up for a broadband connection.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-943447.html
WALES GETS BROADBAND BOOST -
The Welsh Assembly is to stump-up a load of cash to bring broadband to Wales,
Economic Development Minister Andrew Davies announced today. The £100m Broadband Wales programme - made
up of a combination of aggregated public sector demand and barrow-loads of cash
- should bring broadband to 310,000 extra homes and 67,000 extra businesses in
Wales. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/22/26146.html
BROADBAND BOOM CAUSES USER
GLOOM - Getting a broadband connection in the UK is equal parts pleasure and
pain. BBC News Online has received over 1,000 e-mails from readers eager to
share their stories about the time they have spent waiting on the phone to sort
out their connection problems. The jump in demand for broadband has created
headaches for users and service providers as technical help lines jam. But once
people have got the service working, they are instant converts and none can
contemplate going back to slow days of dial-up net access. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2071000/2071640.stm
EU MAY STEP UP BROADBAND LEGAL
ACTION -The European Commission could widen its legal action against Europe's
incumbent telecom companies over the failure to open up their local networks, a
commissioner said Monday. At a public
hearing about "last mile" access of Europe's telephone networks on
Monday, Mario Monti, European Commissioner for Competition Policy, said the
current situation was unacceptable. He is concerned about claims that telecom
companies have been obstructing the process to ensure their domination of the
broadband market.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cn/20020709/tc_cn/942215
EU REGULATION BOTTLENECK FOR
BROADBAND INVESTMENT - Heinz Sundt ,
CEO of Telekom
Austria AG, has said that the failure of current regulation to
encourage innovation and investment
in broadband infrastructure is a barrier to economic progress in the member
states and to the EU's objective of becoming the world's most competitive
economy by 2010, as stated at Lisbon in 2001. http://europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=11477
This
Week@Americas/International
This Week@Asia/Pac
WTO: SINGAPORE’S FUTURE IN
SERVICES - With China's rising importance as a production hub, mature countries
such as Singapore should turn to exporting its knowledge-management expertise
in the form of services to stay relevant in the global economy. The advice came
from Supachai Panitchpakdi, director-general of the World Trade Organization
(WTO), in a high-level industry forum hosted in Singapore Tuesday by computer
systems maker IBM.
http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/industry/0,39001143,39063120,00.htm
CHINA TO OFFER HAND DELIVERED E-MAIL - What it will be, China's postal
service hopes, is a convenient alternative for customers who use the Internet
-- and a moneymaker for the government.
China Post, the official postal service for the world's most populous nation,
said Thursday it will introduce a new service enabling people to write mail on
their computers, send it to the post office over the Internet like e-mail, then
have it delivered anywhere in China by human mail carrier.
http://www.govtech.net/news/news.phtml?docid=2002.07.11-3030000000015897
This Week@US STATES
DIRECTORY OF CALIFORNIA VOTING SYSTEMS DEBUTS ON THE WEB - Today the California
Voter Foundation [CVF] announced the debut of a new, county-by-county Directory
of California Voting Systems, available online at:
http://www.calvoter.org/votingtech/directory.html". California's voting
systems are in a state of flux," said Kim Alexander, President of the
California Voter Foundation. "Through our Directory of Voting Systems, CVF
will track these changes and help inform California voters about new and
existing voting systems."
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/more/public-technology/12058/8249952/8
JUMPING ON THE BROADBAND BANDWAGON
- Local providers of wireless Internet access are poised to grab more
residential customers as the technology becomes better and cheaper.
With new wireless technologies,
local Internet service providers can compete against the bigger players and
give consumers the ability to pull down files at blazing speeds via a broadband
connection between their homes and towers throughout the Dayton area.
http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2002/07/08/focus1.html
OTHER
TECH STORIES OF THE WEEK
PRIVACY GROUPS PAN ‘CYBERSLAPP’ING - Internet Service
Providers that bargain their users privacy to avoid legal action came under
fire Thursday from a coalition of civil liberties groups.
Members of the ACLU, The Center
for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and
the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others sent out letters to more than 100
ISPs asking them to "adopt policies protecting their users' right to
anonymous speech on the Internet." http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/1383751
FACTS AND STATS:
For Facts and Stats on the
New Economy, visit our Facts and Stats
page. Also, see our special State of
the Internet report on this page. For daily, topical Facts and Stats visit our Hot In Tech page.
BROADBAND DISCUSSION –
“QUESTION OF THE MONTH” – JOIN
THE COVERSATION – This month’s poll asks the questions about when, and if, you
are going to subscribe to broadband. Is
it the price that is keeping you from getting it? Is it the lack of applications?
Or, do you already have it?
Share your thoughts in this months “Question of the month,” to
paraphrase the song, “Broadband, what is it good for?” What is good? What is bad? Do you have
it? Why don’t you have it? http://forums.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/HtCom?page=main
CISCO GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS@2002
Cisco’s top policy focuses
for 2002 are the areas of Education, Broadband Deployment and eGovernment. To read or listen to our thoughts on these
issues, please visit our Government Affairs home page
or our visit our multimedia section. http://www.cisco.com/gov/multimedia/index.html
E-UPDATE ARCHIVE
To view past issues of
Cisco’s Government Affairs E-Update, visit our E-Update Archive page. http://www.cisco.com/gov/archive/eupdates/index.html
DISCLAIMER
Positions in articles and
papers from outside sources are in no way endorsed by Cisco Systems' Office of
Government Affairs. We offer articles on topics of interest to our
audience to further the debate on the issues that are important to high-tech. To view our positions on the policy matters
that we care about, please visit our Government Affairs homepage.
– http://www.cisco.com/gov
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