Poor Beaumont. The tiny Texas town gained fame in the technology world when Time Warner Cable said in January that it would use it as a testbed for its tiered broadband trial. Then Hurricane Ike hit in September. And right before Thanksgiving, AT&T told the local paper it would start trialing its own brand of tiered broadband service there. When I ask AT&T why it would pick on Beaumont, a spokesman told me via email that, “While we are aware of Time Warner’s local trial in Beaumont, our decision was based on Beaumont’s good representation of many of our other markets.” Continue »
Posts Tagged ‘AT&T’
Tiered Broadband Trials Torment Beaumont
AT&T Controls the Future of Privacy — Seriously
I’ve spent the past few days pretty immersed in the SC 08 conference here in Austin, Texas, but I’m still embarrassed that I missed the formation of a new lobbying organization think tank called The Future of Privacy that’s being funded by AT&T. The group hopes to help policy makers and business leaders figure out how to manage online privacy.
A big source of irony from the group, other than its purported focus on online privacy to benefit consumers and the industry alike, is that Co-chair Christopher Wolf also headed up one of my favorite astroturfing efforts, Hands Off The Internet, the phone company think tank dedicated to Net Neutrality. Somehow, that connection isn’t mentioned in his FOP bio Continue »
Cable Continues to Beat Telcos at the Broadband Game
Cable beat the telco carriers two to one for broadband adds in the third quarter of 2008 according to data out from Leichtman Research Group Inc. Continue »
How Do Wireline Voice Services Measure Up?
A study by Keynote Systems shows that AT&T voice is most reliable while Comcast digital has the best quality. Other independent VoIP providers are pretty average on both counts it seems. Continue »
Consumers Aren’t Gonna Pay a Lot for Telco TV
Telephone companies pushing television services will gain customers by offering lower prices than cable or satellite providers, according to a survey being presented today by Heavy Reading. The survey, which consisted of about 200 consumer interviews, found that price, more than special interactive features, will dictate which provider consumers turn to. That’s grim news for the telcos, which have been spending heavily to lay fiber and upgrade their networks so they can offer the triple play of voice, video and data in order to better compete with cable companies. Continue »
Wi-Fi Consolidation Continues with Boingo Buy
Boingo Networks, a Wi-Fi hotspot network, said today that it bought Opti-Fi Networks from Parsons Transportation Group and ARINC. Opti-Fi builds and manages Wi-Fi networks for 25 North American airports. Continue »
Trouble Returns to the Land of Telecom
Earlier this month, Cisco Systems came out with an unusually downbeat forecast. As a bellwether of the telecom and infrastructure sector, its gloomy outlook proves just how negatively affected the industry at large will be by the vise-like grip of the economic downturn. Continue »
Your Future Broadband Will Cost More, for Less
As broadband matures, carriers aren’t merely upgrading their networks, they’re also upgrading their pricing plans realizing that different service levels offer a more nuanced way to manage traffic on their network, and increase their sales. Continue »
AT&T Buys Wayport to Keep iPhone Users Happy
Today AT&T said it would buy Wayport, an operator of Wi-Fi hotspots around the country, for $275 million in cash. The deal brings AT&T 80,000 Wi-Fi hotspots all over the country, which will help offload bandwidth-clogging traffic, driven by Wi-Fi enabled phones, from its 3G network. Continue »
Review: Blackberry Bold is Beautiful
Today I got my hands on the much-delayed BlackBerry Bold that was launched on the AT&T network in the U.S. After less than an hour it was clear to me that this might just be the best BlackBerry on the market — and a must-buy for folks who can’t live without a physical QWERTY keyboard. Continue »
Network
- NewTeeVee: What’s It Like Looking for New Media Work Now?
- GigaOM: Yahoo! 2008 Year in Review Released
- TheAppleBlog: Yazsoft Monster Holiday Giveaway
- GigaOM: GigaOM Interview With Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff
- WebWorkerDaily: Google Delivers Plan for Chrome Extensions
- Earth2Tech: 5 River Power Players to Watch
