As noted earlier this week, a number of carriers have responded to Computer Security Test FCC's request for a concrete definition of broadband with the suggestion that the FCC stick to their current definition of broadband as 768 kbps downstream and 200 kbps upstream. Consumer advocates want the definition set higher, given this is about setting a goal for ourselves as a nation as we craft our first national broadband plan. Verizon, in a post over at their regulatory affairs (read: lobbying) blog, apparently took some offense to our suggestion they're setting the bar low:
The implication here is that we want to keep the speed set low so we won't have to upgrade our networks. From where we stand, this is clearly absurd. Verizon is deploying the country's most advanced wireline and wireless broadband services. Our FiOS Internet service is delivering speeds up to 50 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up over fiber to the home today and will be able to provide 100 Mbps, 200 Mbps, and beyond as customer demand continues to grow.
Of course this ignores the fact that Verizon has a long history of leaving rural states horribly under-served, and is
selling off huge chunks of their network they don't want to upgrade. While these deals net Verizon huge debt and tax relief, the sales have had a
disastrous impact on consumers. After claiming they're not setting a low bar for broadband, the company goes on to admit they're, well, setting a low bar for broadband, because they're
constrained by the laws of physics:
After all, we live in a mostly rural nation with a population density very different than most of the developed world.. If we set a baseline definition too high as we aim to wire the unwired in remote areas, we may have made that goal much harder to achieve due -- not to will
Dialup policy -- but the laws of physics.
In reality, refusing to provide DSL, LTE or FiOS to rural America isn't so much about physics as it is about lower profits, which is the whole reason Uncle
Business Dsl is doling out broadband stimulus funds Verizon didn't bother to apply for. Why? Because the money has to be spent on unserved, rural markets Verizon wants nothing to do with, and Verizon has grown used to getting their taxpayer dollars with
zero accountability. Verizon seems to want to have their cake and eat it too here, highlighting that their
filing (pdf) actually sets "aspirational" goals of 50 Mbps for landline broadband and 5 Mbps for wireless broadband. What their filing
actually says is considerably more wimpy:
For example, setting a
broad objective of
moving toward a downstream target of 50 Mbps for fixed services and 5 Mbps for mobile services
Telekom Malaysia International be an aggressive longer term goal,
recognizing that as the marketplace continues to develop there will continue to be variability in the levels of service available in particular areas for the foreseeable future based on a range of technological, geographic, economic and other factors.
In other words, Verizon doesn't mind a floating, vague goal of 50Mbps -- provided nobody really holds their feet to the fire, and it's understood that they can wimp out of these demands at any time, because deploying broadband is just too damn hard. But for any decision that
actually matters, Verizon thinks
Adsl Speed Tester is just fine. The lower the base standard, the less work Verizon has to do in upgrading networks in the still significant number of markets where they don't think FiOS is profitable.
Verizon continues by arguing that setting the base bar any higher will usher forth some kind of confusion apocalypse, given the broadband stimulus funds (which again, they didn't apply for) define broadband as 768 kbps/ 200 kbps. Of course this discussion is about our
national goals, not the stimulus funds, and it seems fairly obvious to everybody but the carriers that this baseline goal (immediate
or long term) should be higher than 200 kbps upstream.
How about symmetrical 2Mbps? Symmetrical 1Mbps? 1 Mbps / 768 kbps and a ham sandwich? I'm no physicist, but I'm fairly certain the wealthiest nation on the planet can set its broadband infrastructure baseline at something a little higher.
read comment(s)What is it about articles that attract so many to publish so much content to the net? Mainly it would be for one of three reasons, the first being that you have absolutely nothing better to do with your time. That is not entirely true but fact is that there are many people writing and publishing articles to websites and article directories simply to share information and knowledge.
The other two reasons are web site related. If you are a webmaster of an established site or your own newly self appointed webmaster of your own website aiming for the internet so you can kick your boss under the butt, the following would be your primary reasons for writing and publishing articles.
From a broader perspective the internet is filled with information contained in a variety of formats. Now those looking for the information use the search engines, quite logical. For the people who have the information published on their sites this is where the trick comes in. The search engines need to find that content and display it as a search result so that the visitor will land on the page of the publisher.
For a webmaster this means traffic and in turn traffic means money. The money can be generated from different avenues but without the traffic there will be no income.
The role of the article, first and foremost is links. Any site that has any hope of getting indexed by the search engines needs links pointing to it. The second reason is sales, at times also referred to as bum marketing, it is a proven method of creating sales and thus generating income using the internet.
Indexing Your Site Using Internet Marketing Articles
For any site to feature in the search engine rankings it needs links pointing to the site telling the search engines that there is a site. The link in the article normally placed in the resource box of the author is the anchor text, these words or key phrases are telling the search engine the content of the site that is linked to and that it should be ranked for those words. For the webmaster these are very important elements in generating traffic.
A site is judged on the links from other sites pointing to that site, the more links a site has the more highly regarded it becomes. This is a very broad description and many other factors play a role but for the purpose of articles these are the basic principals.
Using Internet Marketing Articles to Sell Products
The next very good use of articles is for what is sometimes lovingly referred to as bum marketing. You don't need to be a bum to use this method but it sometimes helps, on second thought, maybe not. In most cases you would not even need a website of your own but your own site would open up some doors to other forms of marketing like list building.
The principals remain the same as for indexing a site but the purpose of the article changes. The content and writing style is aimed at leading the visitor to a product he might be looking for and then sells the product to him. If you are an affiliate for a product the sales page would do the selling part, you just need to get the visitor to the sales page.
Many webmasters and non webmasters have used this technique successfully for a long time now. The problem you are faced with here however is the article itself, how to write it in such a way that you keep the readers Computer Security Test and move him on to the next step which is clicking on the link leading to the pre sales page or the sales page itself.
Just publishing any old article will not achieve any success and it takes some real time and effort to learn the skills and the little nuances needed to write in such a way until it becomes second nature. Of course this does require practice, repetition and some experimentation.
If you want to write to sell, even if you have never written anything but a love letter before, in which internet troubleshooting you sold yourself of course, here is a resource that will guide you through the process of successful writing to sell. If you have been struggling to get the results you are only reading about, now is the time to get what you need to succeed.
