high-speed Internet

Roughly 40 percent of Americans do not have high-speed Internet access at home, according to new Commerce Department figures that underscore the challenges facing policymakers who are trying to bring affordable broadband connections to all Americans.

The Obama administration and Congress have identified universal broadband as a key to driving economic development, producing jobs and bringing educational opportunities and cutting-edge medicine to all corners of the country.

Google's announcement Wednesday that it will roll out a high-speed fiber trial in select U.S. locations unleashed a flurry of comments ranging from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to the telecoms and cable industries to network-neutrality advocates.

Google is asking cities, counties and states to indicate interest in having Google-built one-gigabit-per-second fiber service. The company emphasized it is not entering the Internet service provider business but rather is conducting an experiment to see what happens when truly high bandwidth is available.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is asking for a one-month extension on the national broadband plan the agency is required to submit to Congress.

The plan, mandated by last year's economic stimulus bill, is due to lawmakers by Feb. 17. It will lay out a policy road map for ensuring that all Americans have access to affordable high-speed Internet service.

The number of HDTV sets with an Internet-based movie service increased Thursday with Mitsubishi's announcement that two of its new TVs will feature the VUDU service. The announcement follows a series of similar moves from other TV manufacturers and online video services.

The models are the Unisen Diamond LT-46249 and LT-52249, both 1080p flat-panel HDTVs with a 16-speaker sound system and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound. Both come with an Ethernet port for high-speed Internet.

Two Months Included

The European Union has re-established its lead over the United States in the use of high-speed computer connections, making the Continent "the world leader in broadband Internet," the European Commission said Tuesday.

Reaching the most remote rural customers with high-speed Internet access can be prohibitively expensive. Consider the case of Hill Country Telephone Cooperative in Ingram, Tex. The small provider is undertaking a $57 million effort to install fiber and bring broadband service to a substantial part of its market, which covers 2,900 square miles, roughly twice the size of Rhode Island. Yet even with this effort, the provider will not be able to serve 543 remote households, about 5 percent of its market area, because it's simply too expensive.

The Federal Communications Commission is awash in advice from companies, industry associations, and public-interest groups after its Monday deadline for comments on a national broadband plan.

Most observers agree that the FCC's efforts to make broadband ubiquitous in the U.S. are both timely and laudable, but the devil is in the details. Battle lines are being drawn between network operators and public-interest groups.

Consumers on the prowl for new PCs may soon find themselves heading for the local wireless carrier instead of a big-box retailer. In a move that could dramatically change the way people shop and pay for computers, AT&T and other mobile-phone service providers are swooping in on the PC retailing business.

Ghost hackers infiltrating the computers of Tibetan exiles and the U.S. electric grid have pulled the curtain back on 21st-century espionage as nefarious as anything from the Cold War -- and far more difficult to stop.

Nowadays, a hacker with a high-speed Internet connection, knowledge of computer security and some luck can pilfer information thought to be safely ensconced in a digital locker. And the threat is growing, with countries -- including the U.S. -- pointing fingers at each other even as they ramp up their own cyber espionage.

Personalized television. That's what ZillionTV, a new startup, is promising digital-media lovers.

On Wednesday ZillionTV announced its set-top service and agreements with major Hollywood studios, TV networks, and Visa. The service will offer entertainment, targeted and addressable advertising opportunities, and the ability for consumers to make secure purchases through the television.