Google has announced a sewerbreaking new broadband project called TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider). TISP offers free high speed broadband to almost anyone in North America who has a modern plumbing system. (Septic Tank equipped homes are not included in the Beta roll out)

Like other services provided by Google, TiSP is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system. TISP requires 8 easy steps for setup in most homes and Google has already announced plans for an Enterprise Grade Version of TiSP.

TiSP is available in 3 versions;  a basic version “Trickle” that provides 8mbps speed free of charge; a surprisingly robust “The #2″ that includes 16mbps for $9.95 per month and a top of the line “Royal Flush” Service at 32mbps for 24.95 per month.

Expect the other major ISP’s to follow Google into the sewers with similar pricing and service arrangements (wait…..Cox, AT&T, Time Warner et al, have always flushed their customers down the drain with their broadband service offerings) soon.

President Barack Obama signed into law the sweeping US Economic Stimulus Bill on 17 February in Denver. One of the most anticipated sections of the Bill for the technology community was Broadband Stimulus. (With the other being Health IT stimulus provisions)

The lack of cheap, ubiquitous broadband connectivity throughout the US has been a large stumbling block that has prevented technology solutions such as Cloud Computing and SaaS from being adopted by a larger number of American businesses and consumers. The US has fallen far behind the rest of the industrialized world (and its key economic and technology competitors in the 21st century) in the past 8 years and now ranks number 15 in Broadband adoption worldwide.

The US Economic Stimulus Bill includes $7.2 billion dollars in broadband subsidies. The broadband subsidies are to be used to fund grants and loans that focus on areas of the country that are unserved and underserved by broadband providers, particularly remote and rural areas of the US in addition to underserved urban communities. A large portion of America’s economic engine and overall employment is driven not by Fortune 1000 companies but by SMB’s in rural and urban area of the US.

$4.7 billion dollars of the subsidy will be distributed via grant programs administered by the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA)  Technology Opportunities Program. (TOP) This is great news for those who like transparency in government as the NTIA’s TOP program’s grantees are searchable via the TOP Legacy Project. The remaining $2.5 billion of the subsides will be distributed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service in the form of grants and loans to broadband providers targeting service in rural areas. 

The final version of broadband stimulus is not without its drawbacks. Chief among them is the fact that minimum broadband speed requirements were removed from the final version of the funding. In the US broadband speeds average a mediocre 4.9 megabits per second, far lower than the average in South Korea which averages 49.5 megabits per second or Japan which averages 63.6 megabits per second.  The US will be in a mad scramble with Japan and South Korea to regain market share in the auto, electronics and countless other industries once the current recession ends and it will not help that the US will continue to be one step behind its trading partners and competitors in its broadband infrastructure.

But despite the drawbacks broadband stimulus could not have come at a better time for the US technology industry. Many jobs will be created by both large and small broadband providers to build out their broadband infrastructure, SaaS and Cloud Computing Service providers will have access to a larger pool of customers and industry stalwarts like Cisco and Sun will benefit due to increased purchases of hardware to support the broadband build out.

Team Obamas Technology Goals
Many of the new Obama administrations technology initatives will directly affect providers and consumers of Enterprise 2.0, Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing Technologies.

Sun Enters the PAAS Space
Victoria Ho; over on ZDNet Asia, covered Matt Thompson’s announcement that Sun intends to become a Platform As A Service Provider. (PAAS)

AWS Management Consoles Support of EC2
Review of the beta release of the Amazon Web Services Management Console.

BlueHouse Morphs to LotusLive
IBM officially enters the Cloud Services Arena with the official launch of LotusLive at Lotusphere.

Cisco Takes On Its Partners
New York time article on Cisco’s recently announced plans to build virtualized servers and as a result compete head to head with HP and IBM.

One of the factors that has so far hindered wider adoption of Cloud Computing and Software as a Service in the US is a lack of consistent and inexpensive broadband service throughout the entire US.

A new report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation ranks the US 15th (Yes that’s right 15th) globally for broadband adoption. The US ranked number 4 in 2001 so this drop off in adoption is very alarming considering that we are in the midst of a major fundamental change in enterprise computing with Cloud Computing and Software as a Service becoming more prevalent.

The ITIF broadband policy report measures 3  major factors; price, speed, and availability to come up with its rankings. 

The report has numerous recommendations to improve US broadband adoption and also has case studies from countries that rank both above and below the US in terms of adoption.

Three recommendations that I think may have an impact in the short term if adopted include:

• Enact more favorable tax policies to encourage investment in broadband networks, such as accelerated depreciation and exempting broadband services from federal, state, and local taxation.  (This will help immensely with making broadband less expensive for SMB customers and start-ups and give the incumbent Telco and Cable providers incentive to modernize their aging infrastructure)

• Continue to make more spectrum, including “white spaces,” available for next-generation wireless data networks. (This is critical as has been proven in Korea…more and more Enterprise 2.0 and Saas applications will be available via mobile devices)

• Expand the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service Broadband Program and target the program to places that currently do not have non-satellite broadband available. (For the US to be more competitive in the future, Broadband access has to be universal throughout the US. Satellite broadband is relatively expensive and Satellite service is a still a bit spotty)

Unfortunately many of the recommendations in the report are based on government policy and that policy is always up to change depending on who occupies state and federal government positions.

But alas, a government broadband policy is crucial as the higher broadband adoption rates in countries like Sweden (pdf) South Korea (pdf) and Japan (pdf) were achieved via strong and focused government broadband policies.