Rural communities face a notable dilemma. Internet service providers (ISP) claim fast broadband coverage in remote areas but often fail to deliver. As a result, you struggle to offer efficiency to your staff, residents, and prospects. A few hacks can help you improve your broadband offerings until more permanent solutions arrive. Rural Broadband Setbacks Nearly 63 percent of rural Americans have purchased broadband internet connection but many struggle with connectivity issues. Towns with slow broadband face economic setbacks. High-speed internet is a foundational principal in modern businesses and institutions. Without it, commerce wanes. Reliable connectivity is needed to reach prospects and provide services for customers. To address the broadband overage gap, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set aside $4.5 billion in rural grants for broadband infrastructure improvements. The program stalled before it gained momentum. The FCC soon realized that there were major discrepancies between coverage maps issued by ISPs and functional coverage experienced by users. An investigation is underway to determine if carriers have violated rules and submitted incorrect coverage data. Coverage maps matter. Towns that are dubbed “well connected” are ineligible for FCC improvement grants. Yet businesses and residents of these towns have problems with basic functions like sending emails, streaming webinars, and using navigation around town. “Our maps simply do not reflect the state of deployment on the ground. That’s a problem,” explains FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “We have a digital divide in this country with millions of Americans who lack broadband where they live. If we want to fix this gap and close this divide, we first need an honest accounting of high-speed service in every community across the country.” Based on coverage maps submitted by ISPs, about 24 million people lack access to broadband at home. In contrast, an independent study...

The smart home’s weakest link may be that unassuming router tucked neatly next to your modem. [Update: Netgear has released firmware updates for the affected products. Click here for more information.] While the breach of one billion Yahoo! Email accounts continues to dominate the new, another internet security crisis continues unabated. As Lily Hay Newman reports in Wired’s latest issue, Nighthawk line of Netgear routers can be remotely exploited, allowing third-parties to take control of the devices, leaving thousands of home networks open to hackers and “”havoc-wreaking botnets.” “While Netgear has finally released a tentative fix for some models,” writes Newman, “the delays and challenges in patching all of them help illustrate just how at risk the Internet of Things is—and how hard it is to patch up when things go wrong.” Hacking the Home Like many of the smart devices that make up the “Internet of Things,” routers seem as common – and as low-tech – as a toaster or thermostat. But as has already been noted, the ubiquitous nature of many of these ‘wired” versions of our beloved devices make them almost invisible; and for many smart home inhabitants, invisibility is a weakness. “If we want to put networked technologies into more and more things, we also have to find a way to make them safer,” Michael Walker, program manager and computer security expert for the Pentagon’s advanced research arm recently told the New York Times. “It’s a challenge for civilization.” Routers Gone Wrong Andrew Rollins, a security researcher with the handle Acew0rm, notified Netgear about the security flaw back in August but never heard back from the company. As months went by with no fix – presumably exposing thousands of users in the interim – Rollins eventually chose to go public....

Being always connected has become a necessity, especially in the fast-paced business world. Reliable internet connectivity is now indispensable for the commercial real estate industry, as it helps landlords and brokers maintain a constantly open line of communication with both current and potential clients. Most businesses today are using a variety of web-based tools, apps and platforms to market their services or products and increase productivity, and such tools require fast and reliable internet connectivity at all times. This is exactly what WiredScore is attempting to achieve. The Wired certification program rates and recognizes commercial office buildings that feature best-in-class internet connectivity, similar in concept to LEED certification for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. Launched back in 2013 by Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Economic Development Corp., the program examines the number and quality of internet service providers, bandwidth capabilities and connection reliability and awards buildings a coveted Wired Certification. So far, WiredScore has awarded the certification to more than 650 buildings around the world, totaling a quarter of a billion square feet of office space. Some of the world’s most recognizable buildings have sought and achieved the certification, including the Empire State Building in New York, the Chicago Board of Trade Building, Miami’s Southeast Financial Center, One California Plaza in L.A. and the Leadenhall Building in London. We spoke to Arie Barendrecht, co-founder & CEO of WiredScore, about the importance of the program in today’s business environment. Why has fast and reliable connectivity become so important to office property owners? Barendrecht: What’s important to tenants is important to property owners. In a survey that WiredScore performed on approximately 450 businesses in NYC, high-quality connectivity was identified as the third most important attribute of an office space (after price and location), and...

Google’s playfulness in domains ruled by curiosity and ambition is never-ending. The giant seems to be working on a new and very secretive project dubbed SkyBender, as reported by The Guardian. This is a new Internet-in-the-sky program designed to bring the next-generation 5G network. Unlike Project Loon, but part of the Google Access team that includes the balloon project, SkyBender wants to use outfitted drones with millimeter wave transceivers. First, let’s have a look at these millimeter waves—they are longer than infrared waves or x-rays, but shorter than radio waves or microwaves. The millimeter wave region of the electromagnetic spectrum corresponds to radio band frequencies of 30GHz to 300GHz, sometimes called the Extremely High Frequency (EHF) range. These are thought to be the future of high-speed data transmission technology and the backbone of 5G mobile networks. Millimeter waves have a shorter range than that of the mobile phone signal, they fade sooner and are easily disrupted by weather conditions like rain, fog, and snow. However, using the so called phased array antennas and focused beams, Google and others could potentially focus the transmissions over greater distances. But this requires a lot more power. The FCC said that 5G millimeter wave networks could hit speeds between 1GBps and 10GBps, or up to 40 times more than today’s 4G LTE systems. In case you’re wondering why millimeter waves, Jacques Rudell, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle and specialist in this technology, justified to The Guardian: “The huge advantage of millimeter wave is access to new spectrum because the existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded. It’s packed and there’s nowhere else to go”. Google is not the first to work with millimeter wave technology and drones. In 2014, DARPA—the research arm of...

The dormant fiber-optic cables beneath San Francisco will soon awaken. Google parent Alphabet Inc. wants to expand its gigabit Internet service to parts of San Francisco, specifically apartments, condos, and affordable housing units. In most cities Google has wired, the company built its own physical infrastructure to support the service. The company installed network cables in Kansas City; Provo; Utah; and Austin, Texas. San Francisco will require tapping into existing fiber-optic cables. This was also the case in Atlanta, resulting in Fiber service access for fewer neighborhoods than other Fiber cities. But there is also an upside: a much faster path to launch. “To date, we’ve focused mostly on building fiber-optic networks from scratch,” said Michael Slinger, Google Fiber’s business operations director. “Now, as Google Fiber grows, we’re looking for more ways to serve cities of different shapes and sizes.” Google Fiber is already taking this approach in other markets, including Huntsville, Ala., where earlier this year it announced plans to launch using the city’s municipal network. Alphabet’s high-speed Internet service is 85 times faster than the typical residential connection. San Francisco is the 11th U.S. city with existing or planned Fiber service. Single-family homes are not considered for now, because the company wants to serve denser communities first. Also, many of the single-family residences are not close to the existing cables. Alphabet declined to say how many of San Francisco’s homes it aims to serve. As it has done elsewhere, Google Fiber plans to provide free gigabit internet service to “some public and affordable housing properties.”  Google is also working with a non-profit to teach low-income San Franciscans basic internet skills, like how to set up an email account or apply for a job. The fiber network cable doesn’t belong to the city of San...

The Atlanta Braves and Comcast have entered into a landmark multi-year technology and real estate partnership that will call for multi-terabit network capabilities to SunTrust Park and the surrounding community, creating the most technologically advanced mixed-use development in the U.S. Under the terms of the deal, Comcast will provide video, voice and high-speed Internet connectivity throughout the 60-acre development, which includes the new ballpark, retail shops, restaurants, an office tower, hotel, an entertainment venue and residential units. Comcast will become the signature tenant in the office project. “From the outset, we said the Braves would set a new standard of excellence in every aspect of this project, and building the most technologically advanced ballpark in history and redefining fan connectivity is key to accomplishing that,” Terry McGuirk, Atlanta Braves chairman, said during a live news feed. “Our partnership with Comcast will keep us head-and-shoulders above other sports venues and mixed-use communities around the country and allow us to meet our fans’ high expectations for engagement, awareness and access. Shoppers, hotel guests and office tenants will also enjoy an experience unlike any other community.” The development’s all-fiber network will be capable of delivering multi-gigabit speeds throughout the complex on game days and every day in between. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported last month that Braves ownership Liberty Media is spending $452 million to develop their new mixed-use project adjacent to SunTrust Park, putting the total cost of the ballpark and mixed-use project at $1.1 billion. Located at the intersection of I-75 and I-285 in the bustling Cumberland CID, SunTrust Park will flow directly into the surrounding development, creating a vibrant atmosphere with unique shops, restaurants, offices, residences and entertainment venues that are accessible 365 days a year. The new nine-story office tower will house more than 1,000...

In urban North America, we likely take it for granted that LTE and 3G services will be available for our communication convenience. But in some parts of the U.S. and the world, where fast, ubiquitous networks aren’t available, effortless wireless Internet connectivity is simply a dream. Such cities or rural areas might be in for a surprise from Cosmos, a new browser that’s currently in the works. This concept sounds pretty crazy – a way to surf the web using SMS text messages. The project is still under development, but should the idea work, its implications could be huge. The Cosmos Browser is an Android web browser that uses SMS text messages to retrieve the web content displayed in a stripped-down layout. Its creators describe how it works: “After a person inputs a URL, our app texts our Twilio number which forwards the URL as a POST request to our Node.JS backend. The backend takes the URL, gets the HTML source of the website, minifies it, gets rid of the css, JavaScript, and images, GZIP compresses it, encodes it in Base64, and sends the data as a series of SMSs. The phone receives this stream at a rate of 3 messages per second, orders them, decompresses them, and displays the content.” In other words, once the message reaches the Cosmos backend, the page is retrieved and stripped down to bare elements. Afterwards, these are sent to the user as text messages, enabling to be read with just SMS access. The compression and decompression of the messages is done by the Cosmos browser to reduce the amount of data that needs to be transmitted. Once the page is fully loaded, the SMSs are deleted, and your inbox is uncluttered. The team behind the project is...

The map of U.S. cities wired with Internet super-speeds is growing steadily. Providers have diversifed: in addition to Google, AT&T is bringing a flashy-fast fiber-optic network to towns throughout the country. Recently San Marcos, Texas-based Grande Communications announced plans for a 1 Gigabit network in already-wired Austin, while AT&T continues to grow its U-verse, heading for San Antonio after setting up in Austin. AT&T’s U-verse network is capable of providing upload and download speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, to both consumers and businesses. The speed, explained in simple terms, means that 25 songs could be downloaded in one second, the customer’s favorite TV show in less than 3 seconds, and a high-definition online movie in less than 36 seconds. The Wi-Fi speeds will increase and the users will have the ability to schedule DVR (with greater storage capacity) recordings and watch TV on over 30 models of smartphones and tablets, as well as PCs. For businesses, whether they’re startup companies or veterans, this access to high-speed networks means the ability to develop innovative products that will boost the economy. This will give them the opportunity to compete on a global scale with other countries that already have much faster networks in place. Faster speeds means faster upload, download, and large data files sharing, cloud back-up, and seamless videoconferencing with suppliers, business partners, and customers. The AT&T GigaPower network launched in Austin in December 2013 and the result exceeded expectations: the demand was much higher than anticipated. As result, the company announced to expand its ultra-fast fiber network to approximately 100 cities and municipalities across 25 markets throughout the country. “Similar to previously announced metro area selections in Austin and Dallas and advanced discussions in Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, communities that have suitable...

Wi-Fi Calling has never been a priority for carriers with good cellular service. However, following the recent announcement that iPhones will support Wi-Fi Calling through iOS8, and that T-Mobile is already on board, the rest of the carriers have somewhat been forced to rethink their plans for this service. The terminology might be confusing, what does Wi-Fi Calling mean exactly? This nifty sounding technology uses your home Wi-Fi to make calls and send texts over the internet. It allows cellular packets from your phone to be transferred to your carrier over the internet, and reintroduces them into the cellular network, much like beaming over the air. It differs from Google Hangouts and Skype – these let you talk to other people by using call forwarding or some internet-based interface – Wi-Fi Calling allows you to use your actual carrier phone number over the internet. It differs from VoIP technology which lets you use an internet-connected phone just as you’d use a landline, transferring your voice over the internet to the switched telephone network – the Wi-Fi Calling technology drops the cell towers path, connecting your voice to your mobile carrier’s network using the internet. One of the advantages of this system is that it can help you conserve plan minutes and texts, as the calls that are made over Wi-Fi don’t count against your plan. Moreover, it enables you to make calls using your phone number even when your network cuts out or when you’re outside your coverage area. Wi-Fi Calling is not a new idea – smaller providers like Republic Wireless have been offering the service for quite some time – but Apple’s announcement may be forcing everyone by emphasizing the technology and launching it before the rest are ready to go. At...

September is REALTOR Safety Month, an excellent opportunity to spread awareness about security and safety issues facing our industry.  The list below highlights seven safety tips that can keep you safe while working and networking online. Review your company’s internet policy and stick with it. We understand that policies are absolutely positively boring but they are in place for very good reasons. Rules for downloading apps and software can be particularly important as they prevent viruses and hackers from gaining easy access to your machine—and all of the sensitive data that can be accessed from it. Not even your mother deserves your passwords. It’s easy to let a co-worker or family member “borrow” your password for a quick login but resist the urge. You’re accountable for anything that happens when you’re signed in. Also, avoid using the same credentials for your personal and professional accounts. Your password should be as complicated as tax law. Each account should have a unique password with a mixture of characters (capitals, symbols, numbers). While they may be easier to remember, avoid using names and dates, which many people could figure out just by browsing your Facebook profile. Make security software updates automatic. You’ve got enough to remember as it is. Keep your machine, client data and personal data safe by maintaining updated security software at all times. Think twice about clicking links, even from coworkers. If you receive an email or chat from a coworker that seems suspicious—words and punctuation that they don’t use, topics they’d never broach—it’s probably a scam. Delete or quarantine the message immediately. If you’re uncertain, check with your peer through an alternate method to confirm that he or she is the sender. Invest in identity protection.  In our increasingly digital age, so much...

It sounds unbelievable, but it all started only 25 years ago this week. On a March day in 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, established the first connection of his brainchild called the World Wide Web – a system for publishing information over the internet.  It was an idea that would change the world and life as we know it. Berners-Lee worked at CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear Research near Geneva, Switzerland – and his intention was to help itinerant academics from all over the world run a complicated particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider. These scientists were eager to share information – data and test results – but had plenty of roadblocks. Berners-Lee’s proposal specified a set of technologies that would help overcome that; however, his initial proposal was not immediately accepted. Perseverance is what made Tim successful: by October 1990 he had particularized three essential technologies that remain today the foundation of the Web, visible on any Web browser: HTML: HyperText Markup Language is the publishing format for the Web that includes the function of formatting documents and link to other documents and resources. URI: Uniform Resource Identifier is a sort of “address”, unique to each resource on the Web. HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol allows for the retrieval of linked sources from across the Web. By the end of 1990, the first Web page was served. By 1991, people outside of CERN were able to join the community. Perhaps the most important thing in the history of technology is set on April 1993 when CERN announced that the World Wide Web technology would be available for anyone to use, for free. Today the World Wide Web is the most powerful communication medium we know. Whether we teach and...

As a Peace Corps volunteer serving in rural Paraguay, I encountered moments when a quick internet search would have been a blessing. The resource could help with verb conjunction as I fumbled through Spanish or event planning during the rainy season. I shrugged off the inconvenience as part of the job. Away from the city, internet connectivity simply wasn’t an option. Now, an exciting new project delivers life-altering internet connectivity for isolated communities. Google’s recent launch of super pressure balloons, dubbed Project Loon, has drawn attention to the emergence of balloon-based internet connectivity. Space Data and World Surveillance Group have launched similar projects, mainly for military purposes. Google is the first to use the technology to bring 3G speeds to remote areas for civilian use. The company is also the first to attempt long-term operations using the balloons, currently up to 100 days. If it works out, here are the kinds of problems that Project Loon could solve: Back in 2010, my Paraguayan students were in a frenzy over the FIFA World Cup. I jumped on the opportunity to turn their fanaticism into a learning experience. We began a geography series highlighting dominant teams like Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, and the Netherlands. As I began the class session on Japan, I remembered a college friend who was teaching in Tokyo at the time. I thought: How awesome would it be to have our students interact with each other in real time. They could see one another’s faces and take a little tour of each other’s worlds. In my rural station, access to basic necessities was scarce. Forget smartphones and data plans. The infrastructure simply was not available. Google’s balloon-based connectivity could change that. On a larger scale, balloon-based connections permit nonprofits, hospitals, and businesses in developing regions...