The impending SOPA and PIPA bills have the Internet in a tizzy, but Congress has a lot more to think about than just intellectual property. The issues at play in the SOPA debate have broad effects that span everything from the digital divide to international commerce. Read more »
AT&T has raised prices on wireline phone users. Behind the rate hikes isn’t just greed on the part of Ma Bell, but the rapid disintegration of the wireline business as customers abandon ship and providers are stuck maintaining a network for fewer people paying less. Read more »
Comcast, the Philadelphia-based cable company, was the fastest broadband service provider in the U.S., according to Ookla, a broadband speed test company. In fact, Comcast and its cable industry peers trounced the phone companies when it came to download speeds. Read more »
Phone company Verizon quietly launched its smart home products nationwide about three months ago, which enable customers to lock and unlock doors and windows, watch home video cameras remotely, and manage thermostats and lighting. Read more »
What if delivering bandwidth worked like an auction, where business bid for the right to transfer their traffic depending on how crowded the network is? Using Open Flow to create software defined networks makes such a scenario possible. Is that a good thing? Read more »
The total number of global broadband subscribers is inching toward 600 million, according to data released by industry group Broadband Forum. They estimate that at the end of the third quarter of 2011, there were about 581 million broadband subscribers. Read more »
While some operators in some countries (like the U.S. and Japan) have already celebrated birthdays for their LTE services, 4G in the UK hasn… Read more at paidContent »
Tom Hanks. Louis C.K. Lisa Kudrow. Kevin Spacey. David Fincher. Bill Maher. Jennifer Lopez. Judy Greer. Steven Van Zandt. Morgan Spurlock. E… Read more at paidContent »
After distributing much of the $500 million broadband stimulus program to narrow the digital divide in 2011, these investments should start bearing fruit. But the success faces two challenges: insufficient broadband infrastructure in some low-income areas and broadband adoption efforts that miss the mark. Read more »
CES, currently in full swing in Las Vegas, promises to bring out another wave of Android tablets, to add to the 40+ that were on the market… Read more at paidContent »
Struggling satellite TV carrier Dish Network (NSDQ: DISH) christened what it called a company “relaunch” with a new digital video recorder t… Read more at paidContent »
The 2012 CES show hasn’t even officially kicked off and already the smart energy home has emerged as a key target for a variety of sectors, including telcos, big box retailers, startups, chip companies and now cable operators like Time Warner Cable. Read more »
Yesterday’s press release from Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA), announcing a comprehensive new ten-year distribution agreement… Read more at paidContent »
Whether you got an online backup subscription as a holiday gift or just decided it’s time to have your backup offsite, it’s a good idea to keep your data protected, and one that never goes out of style. Here’s the right way to get started. Read more »
Sprint has given its partner LightSquared 30 days to get regulators to green-light the launch of its controversial 4G service, but it may not be enough. If Sprint pulls out of the network-sharing deal, LightSquared’s costs multiply, almost certainly killing its rollout plans. Read more »
Just in time for the northern hemisphere’s winter season: An alarm clock application that automatically wakes you earlier in case of frost or snow. Winter Wake-Up is freely available for both Apple iOS and Google Android devices and smartly adjusts your alarm based on weather. Read more »
San Francisco is slated to get a gigabit fiber network in the coming five years, with the construction on the network to begin next year if Sonic.net gets the permits it needs to begin the build out. But those permits are far from certain. Read more »
As 2011 comes to a close, I’m thinking ahead to what mobile technology trends I expect to see in 2012. While I formulate those thoughts for a post later this week, now is a good time to see how I did with my 2011 predictions. Read more »
The FCC approved Qualcomm’s sale of its 700 MHz spectrum to AT&T. The deal is striking for two reasons; it closes a big chapter in the history of mobile TV and the FCC said it will look at interoperability in LTE bands next year. Read more »
Samsung introduced its first dual-SIM smartphones on Thursday, the Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos. The Android 2.3 smartphones are aimed at emerging markets, but if they’re successful, Samsung could migrate the solution up the Galaxy line for the bring your own device crowd. Read more »
One of the biggest draws of the Galaxy Nexus is the 4.65-inch high-definition screen; literally a pocketable 720p HDTV display. But some video services still stream standard definition video. Here’s how to get HD video from Netflix on the Nexus and what it looks like. Read more »
The average web page has grown from 726 KB a year ago to 965 KB now, according to the HTTP Archive. That growth could eventually help put a squeeze on mobile consumers who have to deal with increasing broadband caps. Read more »
It’s trite but in this case quite true: Cablevision’s loss is Charter’s gain. Tom Rutledge, the deft cable operator who abruptly left Cablev… Read more at paidContent »
Between the collapse of AT&T’s proposed $39 billion merger with T-Mobile and the death throes of a proposed wholesale 4G network created by a satellite company and now-broke hedge fund, the wireless industry has generated a lot of stories but no real change in the past ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With the growth of over-the-top services that let users access the video they want over the internet (and often, for free), those companies… Read more at paidContent »
Verizon Wireless has agreed to purchase some of Cox Communications’ wireless spectrum for $315 million. With this deal, and an earlier spectrum deal, Verizon looks like it will focus on its wireless biz and use its wireline fiber business to support enterprises and cell towers. Read more »
One of my favorite features in Google Android 4.0 on my Galaxy Nexus is the real-time and historical data use. I can monitor my mobile broadband usage against my monthly plan and even drill down to see which apps are using more data than others. Plus […] Read more »
Chinese equipment vendor Huawei has shown it can take copper DSL and push it to gigabit speeds over 100-meter distances, the company said on Wednesday. This will help cost-conscious ISPs such as AT&T gradually extend fiber to the edge. Read more »
Sonic.net, an independent ISP in San Francisco, plans to roll out a gigabit network to the city, putting the hub of today’s tech and web community on equal footing with Chattanooga, Tenn., and eventually both sides of Kansas City, where Google plans to lay fiber. Read more »
Wi-fi has shown a remarkable ability to evolve, to meet increasingly higher expectations and requirements, and to become pervasively adopted in mobile devices. All of these factors are highly prized by the enterprise and public and safety agencies, as well as health and educational institutions that are increasingly deploying larger, high-performance and high-capacity Wi-Fi networks that have become fully integrated within the IT infrastructure. This paper follows the ascent of Wi-Fi and looks at how its expanding role within the enterprise drives more-advanced requirements. We also examine how these requirements will be met by further expansion in the Wi-Fi standards and by a new generation of Wi-Fi equipment and devices. And we discuss how the enterprise can benefit from the evolution of Wi-Fi by deploying future-proof networks that will organically improve performance. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Long-haul networks aren’t the only pipes getting 100 gigabit upgrades these days. On Tuesday Verizon said it is upgrading the metro networks in at least seven U.S. cities to meet the demand for broadband at the edge. Looks like we’re closing in on the terabit age. Read more »
When baseball great Albert Pujols signed a staggering 10-year, $254 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last week, he became… Read more at paidContent »
One of the benefits of D.C.’s 100 gigabit network is that it should open eyes to the importance of middle mile infrastructure, but it’s not clear how many last mile projects will spring up to connect to it. How DC-CAN resolves this could influence federal policy. Read more »
Nokia Siemens Networks said it will sell its wireline broadband assets to ADTRAN for an undisclosed amount. The deal is the second in as many months for NSN, which had previously been hoping to find a buyer for the whole business. Read more »
Last week, Verizon announced a $3.6 billion deal to buy wireless spectrum from cable operators and resell their pay-TV services. This week,… Read more at paidContent »
Washington D.C. went live with the first link of a 100-gigabit network Wednesday. The new network, called the D.C. Community Access Network, will provide links out to communities east of the Anacostia River, but the ultra-high-speed network will soon serve the entire District. Read more »
Many cable operators are considering new pricing for broadband services that would link the amount of data their subscribers consume with the amount they pay. But Comcast isn’t one of them, as it doesn’t want to “nickel-and-dime” customers of its highest-growth service. Read more »
The folks at OpenDNS, which provides a domain name server for individuals that aims to be faster and more secure than those provided by your ISP, on Tuesday launched DNSCrypt a new product aimed at making DNS look up more secure and private. Read more »
A big move for Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) today, and something of a seismic shift for the cable industry as it moves away from its fixation… Read more at paidContent »
The spectrum deal that Verizon signed to buy the unused airwaves from the nation’s top cable providers signals the moment that the consumer benefits of the convergence of voice, video and data hit the wall. It’s a deal that’s great for Verizon and bad for consumers. Read more »
