[Bloat] Feb 12th: FCC virtual roundtable to gather public input on how to structure the new Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

[Bloat] Feb 12th: FCC virtual roundtable to gather public input on how to structure the new Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

[Dave Taht]

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-announces-roundtable-emergency-broadband-benefit-program

It might be useful for some of us to crash this. I've always kind of
thought that having a "router reclamation center" where users could
drop off old, but reflashable routers, and get theirs reflashed with
openwrt, might be a useful government program.

-- 
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public
relations, for Mother Nature cannot be fooled" - Richard Feynman

dave@taht.net <Dave Täht> CTO, TekLibre, LLC Tel: 1-831-435-0729

Re: [Bloat] Feb 12th: FCC virtual roundtable to gather public input on how to structure the new Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

[Michael Richardson]

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Dave Taht <dave.taht@gmail.com> wrote:
    > It might be useful for some of us to crash this. I've always kind of
    > thought that having a "router reclamation center" where users could
    > drop off old, but reflashable routers, and get theirs reflashed with
    > openwrt, might be a useful government program.

YES.  Like a needle exchange.
It makes huge sense because of the pandemic (need for fq_codel), and because
of the national security risk of these old devices.
Ideally, it would take any router at all, and would properly dispose of those
devices which are deemed way too old.  (If there were 1000s of some
unsupported model, then maybe someone would start hacking...)

--
]               Never tell me the odds!                 | ipv6 mesh networks [
]   Michael Richardson, Sandelman Software Works        |    IoT architect   [
]     mcr@sandelman.ca  http://www.sandelman.ca/        |   ruby on rails    [


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Re: [Bloat] Feb 12th: FCC virtual roundtable to gather public input on how to structure the new Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

[Dave Taht]

On Thu, Jan 28, 2021 at 1:39 PM Michael Richardson <mcr@sandelman.ca> wrote:
>
>
> Dave Taht <dave.taht@gmail.com> wrote:
>     > It might be useful for some of us to crash this. I've always kind of
>     > thought that having a "router reclamation center" where users could
>     > drop off old, but reflashable routers, and get theirs reflashed with
>     > openwrt, might be a useful government program.
>
> YES.  Like a needle exchange.
> It makes huge sense because of the pandemic (need for fq_codel), and because
> of the national security risk of these old devices.

Well, the request for comment lasts a while longer, it was the
roundtable that I'd like to at least get a question
in on. I would not mind trying to flesh out this idea with a couple
co-authors, (hint hint) for submittal to the program.

3.8b for better bandwidth for the underserved ain't scratch, and even
a tiny slice of that would go a long way 'round here.

But merely raising awareness that there is an internet problem that
can be solved within this program with huge benefits, for next to
nothing, would make me happy enough.


> Ideally, it would take any router at all, and would properly dispose of those
> devices which are deemed way too old.  (If there were 1000s of some
> unsupported model, then maybe someone would start hacking...)

T
>
> --
> ]               Never tell me the odds!                 | ipv6 mesh networks [
> ]   Michael Richardson, Sandelman Software Works        |    IoT architect   [
> ]     mcr@sandelman.ca  http://www.sandelman.ca/        |   ruby on rails    [
>


-- 
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public
relations, for Mother Nature cannot be fooled" - Richard Feynman

dave@taht.net <Dave Täht> CTO, TekLibre, LLC Tel: 1-831-435-0729

Re: [Bloat] Feb 12th: FCC virtual roundtable to gather public input on how to structure the new Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

[Dave Taht]

I have already asked for a chance to question or speak, but if others
here would like a shot at getting into the roundtable, send an email
to the contact asking whether you can either ask a question or speak.
That's christian.hoefly at fcc.gov

Hey dpreed, got a few minutes?

 Federal Communications Commission DA 21-XX


DA 21-91
Released:  January 28, 2021

WIRELINE COMPETITION BUREAU ANNOUNCES ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON
EMERGENCY BROADBAND BENEFIT PROGRAM
Roundtable Will Help Shape Approach to Administering the Program
WC Docket No. 20-445
By this Public Notice, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau)
announces an Emergency Broadband Benefit Program Roundtable Discussion
to take place on February 12, 2021, at 10:00 AM EST.  Congress in the
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act,
2021, Pub. L. No. 116-260 (2020), available at
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/133/text
(Consolidated Appropriations Act).
 established an Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund of $3.2 billion
and directed the Federal Communications Commission to use that fund to
establish an Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, through which
eligible households may receive a discount off the cost of broadband
service and certain connected devices during an emergency period
relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, and participating providers can be
reimbursed for such discounts.
The Commission will host the discussion to provide an opportunity for
Commission staff and interested parties to examine proposed actions
the Commission should take to establish the program.  The Commission
is currently receiving comments regarding the program, See Wireline
Competition Bureau Seeks Comment on Emergency Broadband Connectivity
Fund Assistance, Public Notice, DA 21-14 (WCB 2021) (establishing
deadlines for comments of January 25, 2021 and reply comments of
February 16, 2021).
 and this roundtable will provide an additional opportunity to
determine the best approach to leverage the funding to help close the
digital divide.  Specifically, the roundtable discussion will focus on
the important public policy and program administration decisions that
will shape the Commission’s approach to administering the funding.
In a subsequent public notice, the Bureau will announce further
information about the event, including panel discussion topics and
participants.  The Commission anticipates the roundtable discussion
will last no longer than half a day.  In response to the COVID-19
pandemic, the FCC Headquarters is closed. See FCC Announces Closure of
FCC Headquarters Open Window and Change in Hand-Delivery Filing,
Public Notice, 35 FCC Rcd 2788 (OMD 2020).
  Accordingly, the roundtable discussion will be a virtual event
available at www.fcc.gov/live.
Open captioning will be provided for this event.  Other reasonable
accommodations for people with disabilities are available upon
request.  The request should include a detailed description of the
accommodation needed and contact information.  We ask that requests
for accommodations be made as soon as possible in order to allow the
agency to satisfy such requests whenever possible.  Send an email to
fcc504@fcc.gov or call the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at
(202)418-0530 (voice), (202)418-0432 (TTY).
For further information, please contact Christian Hoefly at
christian.hoefly@fcc.gov.

Vint Cerf

1:50 PM (4 hours ago)


to me

On Thu, Jan 28, 2021 at 12:43 PM Dave Taht <dave.taht@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-announces-roundtable-emergency-broadband-benefit-program
>
> It might be useful for some of us to crash this. I've always kind of
> thought that having a "router reclamation center" where users could
> drop off old, but reflashable routers, and get theirs reflashed with
> openwrt, might be a useful government program.
>
> --
> "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public
> relations, for Mother Nature cannot be fooled" - Richard Feynman
>
> dave@taht.net <Dave Täht> CTO, TekLibre, LLC Tel: 1-831-435-0729



-- 
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public
relations, for Mother Nature cannot be fooled" - Richard Feynman

dave@taht.net <Dave Täht> CTO, TekLibre, LLC Tel: 1-831-435-0729

Re: [Bloat] [Cerowrt-devel] Feb 12th: FCC virtual roundtable to gather public input on how to structure the new Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

[Valdis Klētnieks]

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On Thu, 28 Jan 2021 18:14:36 -0800, Dave Taht said:
> I have already asked for a chance to question or speak, but if others
> here would like a shot at getting into the roundtable, send an email
> to the contact asking whether you can either ask a question or speak.
> That's christian.hoefly at fcc.gov

>  established an Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund of $3.2 billion
> and directed the Federal Communications Commission to use that fund to
> establish an Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, through which
> eligible households may receive a discount off the cost of broadband
> service and certain connected devices during an emergency period
> relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, and participating providers can be
> reimbursed for such discounts.

Amen.  I'm personally doing OK here, but I know there's a lot of
children in Montgomery County here in southwest Virginia who are
struggling to afford enough bandwidth for Zoom for classes.  A lot of
them live outside the town limits of the two big towns, so they're out
of luck for both DSL and cable - and though there's cellphone coverage,
if you have 2-3 kids all doing Zoom for several hour a day, you get
data-cap throttled pretty early in the month.

I suspect, but don't have hard data, that the majority of them would
be managing just fine as long as their account didn't have a monthly
data cap.


> > It might be useful for some of us to crash this. I've always kind of
> > thought that having a "router reclamation center" where users could
> > drop off old, but reflashable routers, and get theirs reflashed with
> > openwrt, might be a useful government program.

OpenWRT rocks if you're technologically clued.  What would really help
adoption is if it sprouted a more Joe Sixpack-friendly UI that made it
easy to configure stuff like "Turn off Danny's access at his bedtime at 10,
and Joanie's turns off at midnight". I'd volunteer to help, but I know something
between diddly and squat about writing UI code - I'm basically a kernel
hacker who did a lot of server sysadmin.


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Re: [Bloat] [Cerowrt-devel] Feb 12th: FCC virtual roundtable to gather public input on how to structure the new Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

[Jonathan Foulkes]

> OpenWRT rocks if you're technologically clued.  What would really help
> adoption is if it sprouted a more Joe Sixpack-friendly UI 

Not to toot my own horn (disclosure: I’m the CEO of Evenroute), but the IQrouter is exactly that and more, as it handles the crazy dynamically varying lines of todays overburdened infrastructure with zero end-user involvement.
It has a UI designed for non-techies, even retired grandmothers deploy this successfully.

Best part is all of the goodness of the OpenWRT platform is there in the advanced menus (and via ssh), you can even add packages through the opkg system. We base our firmware on tagged releases, matter fact, testing an upcoming release based on OpenWrt 19.07.6 + the latest dnsmasq update. 

For rural customers, it is the only hope of getting some improvements in the short-term.
I have a rural ISP in North Georgia who buys them in bulk as the only ‘fix’ for their DSL customers.

But even my DOCSIS 3.1 gigabit line is improved with automatically tuned CAKE on the upload (download is set to 0). Here is my home line:
https://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/67140120

Without the IQrouter, it scores a C and occasional D due to bufferbloat on the 35Mps uplink, and my download is limited to 600 or so.

So it’s baked, just need to get them into more peoples hands.

Cheers,

Jonathan Foulkes


> On Jan 31, 2021, at 10:18 AM, Valdis Klētnieks <valdis.kletnieks@vt.edu> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 28 Jan 2021 18:14:36 -0800, Dave Taht said:
>> I have already asked for a chance to question or speak, but if others
>> here would like a shot at getting into the roundtable, send an email
>> to the contact asking whether you can either ask a question or speak.
>> That's christian.hoefly at fcc.gov
> 
>> established an Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund of $3.2 billion
>> and directed the Federal Communications Commission to use that fund to
>> establish an Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, through which
>> eligible households may receive a discount off the cost of broadband
>> service and certain connected devices during an emergency period
>> relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, and participating providers can be
>> reimbursed for such discounts.
> 
> Amen.  I'm personally doing OK here, but I know there's a lot of
> children in Montgomery County here in southwest Virginia who are
> struggling to afford enough bandwidth for Zoom for classes.  A lot of
> them live outside the town limits of the two big towns, so they're out
> of luck for both DSL and cable - and though there's cellphone coverage,
> if you have 2-3 kids all doing Zoom for several hour a day, you get
> data-cap throttled pretty early in the month.
> 
> I suspect, but don't have hard data, that the majority of them would
> be managing just fine as long as their account didn't have a monthly
> data cap.
> 
> 
>>> It might be useful for some of us to crash this. I've always kind of
>>> thought that having a "router reclamation center" where users could
>>> drop off old, but reflashable routers, and get theirs reflashed with
>>> openwrt, might be a useful government program.
> 
> OpenWRT rocks if you're technologically clued.  What would really help
> adoption is if it sprouted a more Joe Sixpack-friendly UI that made it
> easy to configure stuff like "Turn off Danny's access at his bedtime at 10,
> and Joanie's turns off at midnight". I'd volunteer to help, but I know something
> between diddly and squat about writing UI code - I'm basically a kernel
> hacker who did a lot of server sysadmin.
> 
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> Bloat mailing list
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