Broadband over power lines

Wall Street Journal covers the tests by power companies of delivering high-speed access through power lines. Earthlink is testing in the Raleigh area and Cinergy is testing BPL, or broadband over power line, in Cincinnati area. The cost of access through power lines is expected to be cheaper than cable or DSL.

We’re all content providers

Reuters: Nearly Half of U.S. ‘Net Users Post Content – Report summarizes latest report from Pew Internet & American Life Project. Most common ways to create content is posting photos and offering music to download. Survey showed 2 percent have created blogs and 11 percent read blogs. The Pew study found 53 million adults, or 44 percent of Internet users, have created content in some way or another. That would mean more than 13 million American read blogs and 2.4 million blog.

Bloggers were upset over AP’s coverage Study: Blogging Still Infrequent, including Jarvis.

Rural phone service vs. VoIP

Kansas City Business Journal: Rural carriers worry about VoIP disconnecting access fees.

The issue will continue to grow as major companies offer service. From news.com:
AT&T to launch VoIP nationwide, which is expected to cost less than $40 a month.

Clay Shirky writing on VoIP: “It’s clear what the consumers want — the maximum amount of experimentation with all sorts of models, and not being forced to choose between new features and backwards compatibility. However, telephony regulation is notoriously resistant to user demands — neither the FCC nor state regulators are elected, and neither group is very responsive to citizen action.”