The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access [Paperback]

Deborah Hurley (Editor), James H. Keller (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 16, 1999 | Series: Information Infrastructure Project at Harvard University

The growth of the Internet has been propelled in significant part by user investment in infrastructure: computers, internal wiring, and the connection to the Internet provider. This "bottom-up" investment minimizes the investment burden facing providers. New technologies such as wireless and data transmission over power lines, as well as deregulation of telecommunications and electric utilities, will provide new opportunities for user investment in intelligent infrastructure as leverage points for Internet and broadband access.Recasting the "problem of the last 100 feet" as "the opportunity of the first 100 feet," this book challenges individuals, businesses, and policymakers to rethink fundamental issues in telecommunications policy. The contributors look at options for Internet and broadband access from the perspective of homeowners, apartment complexes, and small businesses. They evaluate the opportunities and obstacles for bottom-up infrastructure development and the implications for traditional and alternative providers at the neighborhood, regional, and national levels. Already, some argue that Internet service will become the common denominator platform on which all other services can be carried.A Publication of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Historically, the problem of connecting communications providers' neighborhood substations with individual subscribers' homes and offices has been called the "last mile problem," or the challenge of the last 100 feet. In The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access, a group of authors turns the problem around, presenting it as an obstacle to be solved and financed from the bottom up (by non-telecommunications businesses, communities of homeowners, and individuals) rather than from the top down (by telecommunications companies).

In discussing the problem in a series of assembled articles, the authors explain the relative merits--both economic and, to a lesser degree, technical--of various connectivity solutions. They cover cable modems, satellite dishes, dedicated-line services like Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), cellular technologies, and fiber optics.

The First 100 Feet employs rather academic writing styles throughout, and it's rife with charts and endnotes. Some of the economic data presented is fascinating: technology adoption trends are explained by comparing the cost of a phone call in 1947 (and its subsequent decline) with the cost of a personal computer between 1985 and 1998. There's also valuable advice on how the institutions that affect our lives--including local governments and utility companies--might adapt to compete in the coming connected world. --David Wall

About the Author

Deborah Hurley is Director of the Information Infrastructure Project at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. James H. Keller is Vice President of Lexeme, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.

Product Details

• Paperback: 219 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (July 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262581604
• ISBN-13: 978-0262581608
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,526,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a lot of hot blowing out of Cambridge MA, September 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access (Paperback)

This is a bunch of reports/essays/articles written up for some project out of a Harvard University project, collected into a book.

First off, the introduction was, IMO, an impenetrable blather of buzzwords and fluff. Skipped it when, after three tries, I couldn't make sense of the first couple of paragraphs.

The rest is, I guess, more or less interesting but certainly not relevant to anyone I know. It's interesting to know how many years it took for different new technologies to achieve 50% market penetration in the US, but why does one writer claim on page 42 that by late 1997 PCs had only reached 40% of the market, while only 4 pages later state that 60% of US households had a PC AND a modem by early 1997. Which is it? This makes me doubt all the rest of the copious statistics cited in this book entirely.

The rest of the book blathers on about various broadband pie-in-the-sky like satellite access and broadband through electric utility wires, but all from the perspective of the "policy wonk". If you're a technologist, or even a business person, I wouldn't wast my money here. Though it's worth a skim if you see it in the bookstore, and maybe an hour or two if you can pick it up in the bookstore.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Glimpse of Alternative Models, May 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access (Paperback)

The monograph compiles twelve articles contributed by well-knownscholars and practitioners. It is a good backdrop about the issues in tackling the "last 100 feet" in the nowadays telecommunications market and the broadband market.

The first part of the book provides analytical tools in assessing the market issues, finances, practicality and consumer behaviour involved in adapting to new modes of communication. These analyses shed light on the crucial factors inducing to the introduction, adoption and diffusion of a particular communication tool.

Different models for "bottom-up investment" (local wireless, rooftop community network, satellite broadband, electrical power lines, etc.) are discussed in the second section. Although the sources mentioned in these articles are not newly updated, they provide some basic ideas on what's the alternatives being considered.

The last section reports some cases in building regional telecommunications network by some of the municipal or city councils in the United States, as well as the experimental cases in some public utilities (mainly electirc utilities) in providing communication or internet services to the household consumers.

A special note shall be given to the Introduction, which summarizes the history of the development of US telephone network, and cases in favour of bottom-up investment could be found. However, the introduction, in a concise manner, points out the difficulties and constraints of these alternative models.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars reengineering our thinking, March 28, 2000

By 

Hu Hung-Tsung (Taipei) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access (Paperback)

This book provides us a differnet kind of view, Let us think whole the internet industry, the future of internet. Of course, the wireless communication is also included.