The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access

The growth of the Internet has been propelled in significant part by user investment in infrastructure: computers, internal wiring, and the connection to the Internet provider. This "bottom-up" investment minimizes the investment burden facing providers. New technologies such as wireless and data transmission over power lines, as well as deregulation of telecommunications and electric utilities, will provide new opportunities for user investment in intelligent infrastructure as leverage points for Internet and broadband access. Recasting the "problem of the last 100 feet" as "the opportunity of the first 100 feet," this book challenges individuals, businesses, and policymakers to rethink fundamental issues in telecommunications policy. The contributors look at options for Internet and broadband access from the perspective of homeowners, apartment complexes, and small businesses. They evaluate the opportunities and obstacles for bottom-up infrastructure development and the implications for traditional and alternative providers at the neighborhood, regional, and national levels. Already, some argue that Internet service will become the common denominator platform on which all other services can be carried. A Publication of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262581604
• ISBN13: 9780262581608
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Glimpse of Alternative Models

The monograph compiles twelve articles contributed by well-knownscholars and practitioners. It is a good backdrop about the issues in tackling the "last 100 feet" in the nowadays telecommunications market and the broadband market.The first part of the book provides analytical tools in assessing the market issues, finances, practicality and consumer behaviour involved in adapting to new modes of communication. These analyses shed light on the crucial factors inducing to the introduction, adoption and diffusion of a particular communication tool. Different models for "bottom-up investment" (local wireless, rooftop community network, satellite broadband, electrical power lines, etc.) are discussed in the second section. Although the sources mentioned in these articles are not newly updated, they provide some basic ideas on what's the alternatives being considered.The last section reports some cases in building regional telecommunications network by some of the municipal or city councils in the United States, as well as the experimental cases in some public utilities (mainly electirc utilities) in providing communication or internet services to the household consumers.A special note shall be given to the Introduction, which summarizes the history of the development of US telephone network, and cases in favour of bottom-up investment could be found. However, the introduction, in a concise manner, points out the difficulties and constraints of these alternative models.

reengineering our thinking

This book provides us a differnet kind of view, Let us think whole the internet industry, the future of internet. Of course, the wireless communication is also included.