Google delayed fiber builds in multiple California cities while it explores alternative technologies, said a staff report by the city of Palo Alto. It could be six months or more before Google resumes its fiber network build in the Bay Area, the report said: “Google indicated that they are exploring more innovative ways of deployment that overcome some of the challenges they are facing in their current builds. It is the City’s understanding that the cities of Mountain View, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale are also being delayed.” A Google representative notified the Palo Alto staff about the delay July 18, the report said. “The fiber ball is entirely in Google’s court,” emailed a San Jose spokesman. “We’ve taken care of all the environmental, permitting, and land use procedural issues needed for them to move ahead whenever they’re ready to.” He said the city and Google Fiber have had “a strong, productive working relationship” over the past two years, and the city remains optimistic Google will move forward with its plans to extend fiber into San Jose, “even if their original schedule gets modified so they can take advantage of technology advances that might be potentially less disruptive.” The delay follows Google Fiber’s acquisition of Webpass, a California CLEC specializing in point-to-point wireless broadband that could be combined with fiber to spread high-speed Internet to more homes (see 1606230046). Google Fiber last month opened shop in Charlotte (see 1607120030), and in June said it’s eyeing Dallas for further expansion (see 1606140047). Google continues "to work with city leaders to explore the possibility of bringing Google Fiber to the South Bay area," a company spokeswoman said. "This means deploying the latest technologies in alignment with our product roadmap, while understanding local considerations and challenges, which takes time."
Google delayed fiber builds in multiple California cities while it explores alternative technologies, said a staff report by the city of Palo Alto. It could be six months or more before Google resumes its fiber network build in the Bay Area, the report said: “Google indicated that they are exploring more innovative ways of deployment that overcome some of the challenges they are facing in their current builds. It is the City’s understanding that the cities of Mountain View, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale are also being delayed.” A Google representative notified the Palo Alto staff about the delay July 18, the report said. “The fiber ball is entirely in Google’s court,” emailed a San Jose spokesman. “We’ve taken care of all the environmental, permitting, and land use procedural issues needed for them to move ahead whenever they’re ready to.” He said the city and Google Fiber have had “a strong, productive working relationship” over the past two years, and the city remains optimistic Google will move forward with its plans to extend fiber into San Jose, “even if their original schedule gets modified so they can take advantage of technology advances that might be potentially less disruptive.” The delay follows Google Fiber’s acquisition of Webpass, a California CLEC specializing in point-to-point wireless broadband that could be combined with fiber to spread high-speed Internet to more homes (see 1606230046). Google Fiber last month opened shop in Charlotte (see 1607120030), and in June said it’s eyeing Dallas for further expansion (see 1606140047). Google continues "to work with city leaders to explore the possibility of bringing Google Fiber to the South Bay area," a company spokeswoman said. "This means deploying the latest technologies in alignment with our product roadmap, while understanding local considerations and challenges, which takes time."
Two Democratic lawmakers touted New Mexico broadband connectivity Tuesday after a Monday roundtable in Albuquerque with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “If we can have internet access at 30,000 feet in an airplane, we should be able to have internet access on tribal land and throughout rural New Mexico,” said House Communications Subcommittee member Ben Ray Lujan. Lack of broadband access “puts too many New Mexicans at a disadvantage,” Sen. Tom Udall said. “As a member of the Senate Appropriations and Commerce committees, I'm fighting to ensure that no matter where you live, all New Mexicans can access reliable high speed broadband for business, health care, education and everyday communication.” Udall, Lujan and Clyburn “joined approximately 50 representatives from New Mexico telecommunications companies and rural telephone cooperatives to discuss efforts and challenges to expanding broadband access in rural communities and tribal lands across New Mexico,” a news release from the lawmakers said. It said after the roundtable, Luján and Clyburn traveled to Torreon, New Mexico, to "highlight the importance of the Lifeline program and efforts to modernize it to support broadband," and then to Crownpoint to visit Navajo Technical University to discuss the need to expand broadband access in tribal communities. Clyburn said the visit is part of her Connecting Communities tour: “We must be ever-vigilant in our attempts to close the digital and opportunities divide. With 21st century communications technologies, we can, with more ease and precision, greatly improve health outcomes for those currently without ready access to healthcare facilities; provide more immersive and comprehensive learning experiences for children and adults alike; increase civic engagement; and open up new avenues for people to find the jobs and acquire the skills needed to work in an internet economy.”
Two Democratic lawmakers touted New Mexico broadband connectivity Tuesday after a Monday roundtable in Albuquerque with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “If we can have internet access at 30,000 feet in an airplane, we should be able to have internet access on tribal land and throughout rural New Mexico,” said House Communications Subcommittee member Ben Ray Lujan. Lack of broadband access “puts too many New Mexicans at a disadvantage,” Sen. Tom Udall said. “As a member of the Senate Appropriations and Commerce committees, I'm fighting to ensure that no matter where you live, all New Mexicans can access reliable high speed broadband for business, health care, education and everyday communication.” Udall, Lujan and Clyburn “joined approximately 50 representatives from New Mexico telecommunications companies and rural telephone cooperatives to discuss efforts and challenges to expanding broadband access in rural communities and tribal lands across New Mexico,” a news release from the lawmakers said. It said after the roundtable, Luján and Clyburn traveled to Torreon, New Mexico, to "highlight the importance of the Lifeline program and efforts to modernize it to support broadband," and then to Crownpoint to visit Navajo Technical University to discuss the need to expand broadband access in tribal communities. Clyburn said the visit is part of her Connecting Communities tour: “We must be ever-vigilant in our attempts to close the digital and opportunities divide. With 21st century communications technologies, we can, with more ease and precision, greatly improve health outcomes for those currently without ready access to healthcare facilities; provide more immersive and comprehensive learning experiences for children and adults alike; increase civic engagement; and open up new avenues for people to find the jobs and acquire the skills needed to work in an internet economy.”
China plans to extend its Himalayan railway system from its current terminus in the Tibetan city of Xigaze to the Chinese land port of Gyirong, which borders Nepal, within the next five years, with the intent of boosting economic, cultural and religious interaction with Nepal, state-run China Daily reported (here).
Naming two inventors from Cambridge, U.K., Amazon Technologies of Reno landed a U.S. patent (9,398,367) that tackles a practical problem with noise-canceling headphones -- how to hear a person in the room talking with the noise-cancellation function engaged. Amazon plans to build intelligent “spotting” circuitry into the headphones that can be trained to recognize specific key words or phrases, such as “Hey, Ben,” said the patent, which the Patent and Trademark Office granted July 19, based on a July 2014 application. Amazon representatives didn’t comment Friday.
Naming two inventors from Cambridge in the U.K., Amazon Technologies of Reno landed a U.S. patent (9,398,367) that tackles a practical problem with noise-canceling headphones -- how to hear a person in the room talking with the noise-cancellation function engaged. Amazon plans to build intelligent “spotting” circuitry into the headphones that can be trained to recognize specific key words or phrases, such as “Hey Ben,” said the patent, which the Patent and Trademark Office granted July 19, based on a July 2014 application. When the headphones “hear” this key word, they can be taught to suspend or modify the noise-cancellation so the wearer can then hear what is being said, the patent said. The circuitry need not be capable of full-fledged speech recognition, just the ability to spot a few simple sounds, it said. It can however, be trained to recognize a particular voice, so the headphones do not falsely react, such as when an actor on a TV screen utters the same key phrase, it said. Amazon representatives didn’t comment Friday on plans to commercialize the invention.
Tesla “cannot sneeze without there being a national headline” about autonomous vehicles, said CEO Elon Musk in an earnings Q&A. He was asked whether the company, in order to build public support for self-driving cars, plans to be more “transparent” in its reporting of autonomous-vehicle incidents, such as the highly publicized fatal accident in Florida involving a Tesla Model S in autopilot mode (see 1607010052).
Tesla “cannot sneeze without there being a national headline” about autonomous vehicles, said CEO Elon Musk in an earnings Q&A. He was asked whether the company, in order to build public support for self-driving cars, plans to be more “transparent” in its reporting of autonomous-vehicle incidents, such as the highly publicized fatal accident in Florida involving a Tesla Model S in autopilot mode (see 1607010052).
Vizio landed a patent Tuesday for transparent TV backlights fashioned from “field-induced polymer electro-luminescent” (FIPEL) panels that display colored light from a front surface to a light modulator and a white light from a back surface. Inventor Matthew McRae, Vizio chief technology officer, “recognized that display devices generally do not have lighting intended to reduce the contrast between the display screen and the environment behind the display screen,” says the patent (9,407,856), which was based on a May 2013 application. In home-viewing environments, “the contrast between the front of the display and the area behind the display is generally very high,” it says. “This can make viewing content tiring because the viewer's eyes cannot easily manage the brightness of the viewed content and the darkness of the environment behind the device.” Some TVs will have a built-in light source behind the display screen to remedy the problem, “but this requires additional circuitry,” it says. TV makers have shipped product with LEDs that emit light from the back surface of the set, it says: “Some of these televisions also vary the intensity of the light and the color of the light based on the content being displayed on the screen. Customer feedback in the media would suggest that a variable light source providing back filled light is annoying at best.” What’s needed is a display device “where the backlight for the light modulator, generally a LCD panel, provides light for both the light modulator and the area behind the display device,” it says. McRae’s invention uses a FIPEL backlight “to provide light from the front surface through a color filter to a light modulator such as a LCD panel and a white light from the back surface,” it says. That white light “may be diffused” through a component that’s bonded to the back surface of the FIPEL panel, it says. That diffusor “may be a frosted sheet more commonly found in front of typical LED backlight assemblies or it may consist of microstructures designed to steer or defuse light,” it says. Vizio representatives didn’t comment on plans to commercialize the new patent.