Month: August 2005

Sun Aug 7 01:37:07 PDT 2005 — Our internal SQL server was offline briefly tonight – consistency checks meant that member tools were unavailable for a few hours. Sorry about that! -Dane, and some other folks who forgot to update the MOTD. =)

Fri Aug 5 17:26:36 PDT 2005 — FCC rules to deregulate DSL. Today the FCC has ruled that incumbent telephone carriers will no longer be required to sell wholesale access to DSL loops to ISPs. Their argument seems to be that less broadband competition will mean more availability of more competitive broadband products, and they seem to have the ability to make that contradictory statement with a straight face, despite the lack of logic.

Sonic.net has long term contracted relationships with it’s suppliers, including SBC-ASI, and we do not expect that this decision will greatly affect us in the next four to five years. In addition, Sonic.net is one of the top five SBC-ASI partners in the country, and we expect to be able to continue to maintain this partnership.

That said – the FCC has dealt what is likely to be a death blow to many small independent ISPs, and the Internet as we know it in the US is not likely to be the same a couple years from now. You can expect far fewer choices, but you can also expect Sonic.net to be one of them.

I encourage you to share your thoughts about the shut-out of independent ISPs with the FCC – here are their email addresses:

Chairman Kevin Martin – Kevin.Martin@fcc.gov Commissioner Michael Copps – Michael.Copps@fcc.gov Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein – Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy – Kathleen.Abernathy@fcc.gov

Note that Michael Copps seems to understand the problems that this will create, but he’s in the minority.

Consumers need to tell the federal government that we LIKE choice, and that this decision is just plain wrong. Please send then an email today. Thanks. -Dane and crew

Update: Phoning the FCC to register your comments is also a great idea!

1-888-225-5322 – FCC Toll-Free number (202) 418-1000 – Kevin Martin (202) 418-2000 – Michael Copps (202) 418-2400 – Kathleen Abernathy (202) 418-2300 – Jonathan Adelstein

Mon Aug 1 17:18:44 PDT 2005 — Internal SQL server outage: One of our internal SQL servers unexpectedly rebooted earlier this afternoon taking down many of our public and internal tools. It also affected some of our spam filtering systems. Services were restored as soon as the database consistency checks finished. -Operations