GigaOM

If the Internet is a highway, then the companies responsible for maintaining the roads are increasingly at odds with the ones producing a lot of the traffic. Comcast throttling BitTorrent traffic as a way to protect network integrity (or so it says) is one example. Another can be found in the arguments of a British ISP that’s seeking to get the BBC to pay for network upgrades, claiming the broadcaster’s iPlayer is hogging too much bandwidth.

I’m not going to get into the insanity happening in the UK right now, but what is worth talking about is how networks can handle the increasing amount of traffic going through their pipes. The request for funding to build more robust networks made by Simon Gunter, chief of strategy at ISP Tiscali, is akin to asking car companies to pay a tax for building more roads. It’s one way to address the issue, but there are other options, among them better traffic management, which would decrease the distance cars need to travel.

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The open access restrictions mandated by the Federal Communications Commission on portions of the recently auctioned 700 MHz spectrum were among the main reasons AT&T chose not to bid for that spectrum but opted instead to pay more for that of the B-Block, which complements the slice they bought from Aloha Partners, according to AT&T Wireless President and CEO Ralph de la Vega.

Verizon Wireless paid $4.74 billion for a majority of the C block spectrum, while AT&T picked up 227 licenses in the B block of regional licenses. Verizon forked out $9.63 billion on spectrum licenses, and AT&T ponied up $6.64 billion. Some on Wall Street have criticized AT&T for paying too much for the Aloha Partners slice of the 700 MHz spectrum, but it seems like AT&T thinks paying a premium so it doesn’t have to share the network with others was worth it. “Our strategy was to acquire the spectrum that complemented our spectrum we acquired from Aloha,” de la Vega said on a conference all with reporters. Continue »

I’m getting ready to hit Sin City for next week’s CTIA Wireless show, from April 1-3, so for those of you not planning to attend — or who will attend but plan to gamble away your expense money — here’s your cheat sheet for the show.

Sure, everyone will be hoping for an announcement about the $3 billion Sprint/Cable/Clearwire joint venture that Om has dubbed the U.S. Rescue WiMax Act, and pondering both the valuation of and chances for Motorola’s handset business, but there will be a few trends to keep an eye out for as well.

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With the clock ticking on FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s tenure, his special friends in the phone business are asking him to give them the moon, the stars and the sun: In other words, a cable TV version of number portability.

Verizon today asked the Federal Communications Commission to require the cable industry to make it as easy for consumers to choose a new video provider as it already is for them to switch voice providers. The process to switch video providers is more cumbersome for consumers…Cable incumbents do not accept disconnect orders from the new provider; instead, they require the customer to contact them directly to cancel service after choosing a new video provider and to return equipment. (press release)

Verizon’s arguments and press release may seem consumer-friendly, but one has to take all of it with a barrel of salt. Now, as you well know, I am no fan of cable companies — who apparently want to watch what you are doing inside your living room — but it’s hard to believe Verizon.

Even despite all the legal and other hassles, the satellite guys have been competing with cable companies for video customers — and they didn’t need a sugar daddy (aka the FCC) to help them out. Verizon should learn to compete in the open market. Continue »

Spencer Ante, a fellow telecom scribe and an editor at Businessweek caught up with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin following the announcement of the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction results. His interview is pretty telling, especially Martin dodging the question about new entrants. He espoused that auctions resulted in more broadband competition. Sigh!

Thanks to the auction, we will have more wireless broadband services that could compete with cable modem or DSL service. The auction was a success. The auction will be used to create a third broadband pipe into people’s homes. And that service will be offered by companies that are different than your local phone or cable company.

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