ASW Blog

Apple iPhone 5 Announced

  • 20% lighter than the 4S
  • Retina display, 326 PPI.
  • 16:9 aspect ratio…
  • All of our software is being updated as well.”
  • 44% better color saturation
  • The touch sensors are integrated right into the display itself. We removed a layer and made it sharper. This is the world’s most advanced display, and I couldn’t be prouder of it.”
  • “Full console quality.”
  • 8 megapixel camera
  • They enhanced it even further. Dynamic low light mode, precision lens alignment, sapphire crystal.
  • This is 40% faster on photo capture.
  • panorama mode.
  • FaceTime camera is HD
  • it’s time for the connector to evolve. Our new connector is called Lightning. So we have Thunderbolt and Lightning

Pitkin County Broadband Investigation Funded

The Translator fund, used to provision mountain top relay radio and television signals around Pitkin County for rural citizens offered Referendum 1B. “It was approved with a vote of 3,146 to 853, allows the expanded use of an existing tax that funds the county’s FM and TV translator system. Voters authorized use of the proceeds to pursue wireless technology and Internet services if the technology is available and affordable.” according to the report November 2, 2011 in the Aspen Times.

San Juan Islands Mass Transit: Ferry Poll

How can we improve ferry service?

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The Municipal Broadband Fight in Longmont, Colorado

Geek News Central is reporting Comcast and Qwest / CenturyLink spent $254,000 to defeat a local broadband initiative. Geek News writes the argument made was “The availability of municipal broadband will reduce competition and therefore increase prices.” The measure goes up for vote this November.

Rural Broadband Success for Alturas, California

RippleNW.org is reporting success for Alturas California in rural broadband deployment. The entire article is here.

 

Here’s what you can learn from Alturas and Modoc County as you pursue broadband access and work to expand internet marketing in your area.

Ask loudly for rural broadband access and you shall receive!

Frontier Communications, the local internet service provider (ISP), is stringing fiber all over Modoc County at their own expense! Cathy publicly thanked Frontier for these efforts.

Why, you might ask are they doing that, and what can you learn from it?

Frontier didn’t want to apply for the federal dollars, according to Cathy, because of the complex reporting requirements. She also stressed that DEMAND is driving this effort.

Frontier’s capacity is maxed. They haven’t been able to offer new DSL connections for months, and other nearby internet service providers are going to start coming into their territory if they don’t act.

Frontier enjoys its position as a rural service provider that locals can depend on, and they’re stringing fiber to prove it. Alturas and surrounding communities will see their speeds increase by three times for no extra cost, and more DSL connections will follow.

The lesson is, use the internet capacity you already have and demand more.

Get your county government, city government, chambers of commerce, business groups, rural economic development groups, schools and healthcare centers in conversations with your local ISP to show them there is demand. There is still federal rural broadband money, or your ISP might just decide, like Frontier, that going it alone will be easier and more profitable.”

 

Another success story about rural broadband here

Protected: Wyoming Town Creates Broadband Bonanza

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Two Colorado Broadband Stimulus winners select Calix access platforms for regional projects

May 24, 2011

LightwaveOnline.com reported 2 broadband stimulus award winners are moving forward with $9.5 million dollars in funding to serve 200 local businesses and 1,000 individuals in the communities of Nunn and Carr, Colorado.. more here
Broadband Stimulus award winners Nunn Telephone Company (Nunn) and Wiggins Telephone Association (WTA) have selected Calix Inc.’s Ethernet Extensible Architecture (EXA) Powered Calix Unified Access platforms and the 700GE family of optical network terminals (ONTs) to bring advanced broadband services to “unserved” and “underserved” communities throughout northern Colorado.

 

The awards, part of the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), total more than $9.5 million in overall funds and consist of $6 million in grants and $3.5 million in loans. Costs covered include plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs, such as access equipment.

“By bringing fiber-to-the-premises to our communities, we are enabling the network capacity to not only meet the service requirements of our subscribers today, but also be prepared for more advanced services in the years to come,” explains Greg Grablander, general manager at Nunn. “We see this initiative as laying the foundation for future economic development and improved quality of life in our communities, and positioning our north central Colorado serving area as an alternative to big city living with superior broadband resources. This project is critically important to our region.”

“Two years ago, subscribers in the communities targeted by our Stimulus project were begging us for advanced broadband services, but we didn’t have the resources to connect them,” recalls Terry Hendrickson, CEO of WTA. “Our Stimulus award will allow us to bring vital broadband connectivity to these communities, enabling access to a range of new services and fostering economic development.”

Subscribers in the regions served by Nunn and WTA will have access to fiber access infrastructure enabled by the EXA Powered C7 Multiservice Access Platform (MSAP) and E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP), as well as the 700GE family of optical network terminals (ONTs). All residential and business services will leverage gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology for service delivery, and 10 gigabits per second Ethernet (10GE) for services transport.

Enabled by Calix systems, these networks will be capable of delivering a full gigabit per second of bandwidth to each home and business, if required, and offer the scalability to meet the broadband demands of subscribers in these communities for the next decade or more, says a representative.

Nunn will use its BIP “last mile” award, which consists of $3.9 million in grants and $1.3 million loans, to build an advanced GPON infrastructure to the communities of Nunn and Carr, Colo. The network, engineered around the Calix C7 MSAP, is expected to benefit 200 local businesses and 1,000 individuals.

WTA will use its $2.1 million grant and $2.2 million loan to provide high-speed Internet access to hundreds of homes in the Weldon Valley, which includes the towns of Weldona, Goodrich, and Orchard in northeastern Colorado. The company plans to leverage GPON and 10GE transport technologies over the E7 ESAP to offer an advanced bundle of services, including high-speed data services, video, and reliable voice services.

 

Put translator funds to good use

Dear Editor:

The county should support Rural Broadband Cooperative advanced Internet access with translator funds.

On Wednesday, Minnie Ingersoll, Google product manager, posted a blog entry, asking us to “imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes … Universal, ultra high-speed Internet access will make all this and more possible … and today we’re announcing an experiment of our own.”

Last June, I helped form the Rural Broadband Cooperative. RBC was formed to accelerate broadband Internet technologies. I donated my time to this, as I have before. In 1997, I created a simple, low-cost DSL modem — my unique concept in 1996. That created several jobs, preserved many more jobs and opened up affordable broadband business access, along with the productivity gains everyone now knows high speed brings.

We’re on the cusp of a new revolution. Cloud computing and other Internet-hungry applications are ready for use. We just can’t reach them with our struggling Internet services today. I have the skills and have been paid handsomely for them for 20 years in telecommunications. I chose to donate my time to this cause in Aspen, again.

In 2009, within three months of the RBC being formed, RBC demonstrated 60-megabit consumer Internet access! Unheard of anywhere in our valley.

Then, in December, I met with the Pitkin County commissioners on this topic. I pleaded they consider funding legal, land-use and some technical planning. By redirecting a small part of the already collected translator budget, the county might find 10 times that money back in ARRA federal funds within 12 months!

A good investment and reasonable risk by any standard.

Google’s announcement Wednesday underscores the importance of the RBC/ARRA funding effort.

Google takes novel positions. The RBC announced very similar positions last year! “We’re not an ISP.” “We’re moving forward with a demonstration.” “We believe this means jobs and economic and quality-of-life benefits for our community.” Reading Google’s announcement, you might think they read RBC’s first.

If we work together, we can win ARRA funding, continue to improve Internet speeds and lower costs for all Pitkin County residents.

I should point out, more than 60 letters and notes of support have been written at the Pitkin County Rural Broadband petition site: www.thepetitionsite.com/1/rural-broadband-internet-pitkin-county.

I hope the other county commissioners will show the same level of enthusiasm as Mr. Michael Owsley did, and support the RBC’s efforts to modernize our Internet access options through a small redirection of translator funding. This sends a strong signal that Pitkin County is ready to work with Google and ARRA committees for the benefit of all Pitkin County and Aspen citizens and businesses.

Alex Huppenthal

Aspen

Welcome to Aspenworks, Ltd

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Aspenworks is a premiere project management and communications consulting organization. Having built 5 successful Internet service providers, and operated 3 for over 5 years with positive cash flow, we understand how Internet services need to be planned and delivered.

I helped launch the dialup Internet for thousands of users 1996-8, produced DSL broadband revolution in 1998-9, extended wireless to cover a large part of Central Colorado in 2000-2003 and consulted to Microsoft on Broadband mobility in 2006-2008.

Today we’re helping establish high performance networks, in rural and secondary markets.

 

“In 1988 when I registered my first domain name, I was one of a few dozen “Network Managers” on the Internet. I happened to be working on Advanced Intelligent networks for Sprint, AT&T and others. I offered email and provided these services from my office which was uplinked to AT&T and Sun Microsystems from my server. Internet services would replace much of the advanced services Bellcore and AT&T expected in the Advanced SS7 networks which were their future. Soon enough a small server in 1988, using Xenix and UUCP, turned into a focused services company. Clients such as Glenwood Springs’ ground breaking Community Broadband Network, to Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group, to the USDA and US Forest Service. I’ve been in the right place at the right time, and continue to enjoy building long term relationships with other visionary leaders in these dynamic times.” – Alex Huppenthal, Founder Aspenworks, Ltd.

Aspenworks was founded in 2000 by Alex Huppenthal.  By providing market and technical guidance to key decision makers in corporate and government roles, Aspenworks helps organizations achieve their goals. Focusing on rural telcom in 1996, Aspenworks founder independently developed a high performance DSL modem ahead of the industry. By launching several ISPs, and monitoring their market and technical business issues, Aspenworks quickly developed business models which prove continuously successful. Rural Telcommunications in Central Colorado’s beautiful Roaring Fork Valley provides challanges from a diverse mountainous environment, to regulatory and market forces which shaped the successful model Aspenworks recommends to its clients.

From Aspen to Glenwood Springs, Aspenworks applies the experience gained over years in engineering for large telecommunications giants, such as British Telecom, AT&T to counsel its clients in the appropriate, practical solutions.

Recently Aspenworks completed a global project management effort for Microsoft Corporation, managing a key project in Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group. By providing key risk management and group leadership within this project, which included support organizations for  O2/Telephonica in Ireland, Vodaphone in Germany, SMART in the Philippines and companies in Thailand and Malyasia, we’ve given and gained additional experience in how the emerging Mobile Broadband communications networks of LTE, HSDPA and others are actually being deployed and used.

Today, we’re working with the USDA, US Forest Service to extend rural communications to critical areas where no services are available. Using Mobile Broadband technologies, voice, video and data connections are being established to key locations throughout their district.

We continue to innovate and embrace the latest technologies that serve the greater good. From Zero Net Energy use policies to efficient spectrum usage, we move with consideration.

Contact Aspenworks at info@aspenworks.com for direct call back within 24 hours.

Aspenworks Arrives in the Netherlands – DigiNext

I met Edsard from DigiNext today to discuss their company’s support of the GSMA/Microsoft Nitrogen Project. DigiNext is providing broadband software for Microsoft’s systems, with some custom tweaks we’re defining together.

The flight from Bangkok to Stockholm was over 10 hours, but I slept a good part of it. I seem to be catching up on sleep now.

It was only about 2 hours from Stockholm to Amsterdam. Quite pleasant.

Amsterdam is awesome. The town is vibrant. Its appears that senior people have moved to the country and this town is made up mostly of 20-40 somethings.

Great biking scene. Hundreds upon hundreds of bikes passed me by today. I was smiling the entire time, people ride upright, wearing business cloths – suits and dresses. The weather is cool and reminds me of home in the Pacific Northwest. I’m amazed at how attractive bike riders are, sitting upright, and in a comfortable position. A stark contrast with the spandex covered, low-slung, race style scene in much of America.

And the parking, wow. A parking lot just for bikes – what appears to be 100s of thousands! Beautiful ! So civilized to avoid gasoline pollution and costs.

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