Today is Data Privacy Day, but instead of reading about privacy violations and pledges to make good by various corporations, pick a Congressman (or woman) and explain to them that when it comes to protecting our privacy online, our laws need a rewrite. Tell him (or […] Read more »
A group of seven investment bodies, including the New York City Pension Fund, have teamed up in an effort to get major U.S. Internet service providers to detail their privacy practices through the power of the shareholder resolution. As powers go, shareholder resolutions are far more about […] Read more »
The nation’s largest cable provider is taking a page from Verizon and offering an online backup drive and limited file-sharing, according to DSL Reports. According to the report, the Comcast backup service will offer several storage options: 10GB worth for $4.99 a month, or $49.99 per […] Read more »
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Looks like Comcast’s new network management plan is drawing the ire of competing Voice over IP providers and the scrutiny of federal regulators. The plan, which is detailed here, basically slows bandwidth hogs broadband speeds during times of congestion at a particular node. Apparently, it also […] Read more »
We’re keeping an updated list of places to watch online as Barack Obama is inaugurated as the United States’ 44th president on Tuesday. What with the fact that much of the country will be at work during the ceremony, and also that the stream is not […] Read more »
Comcast, which got in trouble with the FCC for its P2P-throttling approach to network management, has now completed its plan that deals with bandwidth hogs by slowing all broadband traffic for heavy Internet users during times of network congestion. The nation’s largest cable provider has posted […] Read more »
OK, now that everyone has accepted the need for better, faster broadband (and why not, if the government is paying for it?), the serious negotiations can begin. Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article detailing who wants what, and who will be at a disadvantage. Think […] Read more »
Qwest this week said it would lower the price of its 20 Mbps broadband service to $59.99 per month — a drop of 40 percent from its prior $99.99-per-month price tag. But before we get all excited, let’s be real. Qwest’s original prices were not in […] Read more »
Wall Street has been losing its enthusiasm for the four-play plans that offer voice, video, data and wireless services to consumers. The initial results of such efforts have so far been marginal; one can understand the investor skepticism. But don’t tell that to cable and phone […] Read more »
Comcast said this morning it would roll out its 50 Mbps wideband speed tier in Baltimore; Chicago; Atlanta; and Fort Wayne, Ind., in December, with the full rollout in the markets expected to be completed by the first half of 2009. These deployments complete Comcast’s stated […] Read more »
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As the economy has crumbled and the telcos have watched their customers cut cords and retrench, cable companies have benefited from being perceived as a safer investment option. Since this time last year, shares of Comcast, which trades on the Nasdaq, have fallen by 12 percent […] Read more »
[qi:058] The UK telecommunication regulatory agency Ofcom has issued its own broadband bill of rights — perhaps we should call it the broadband Magna Carta? Starting today, British Internet service providers that have signed up to the code have to tell customers which speeds they can […] Read more »
Updated: The sales of Cable modem termination systems (CMTS) declined 32 percent in the third quarter of 2008 to $246 million, according to research firm Infonetics Research. In comparison, $360 million worth of CMTS’ were sold in the second quarter of 2008. One way to interpret […] Read more »
Comcast, the largest cable provider in the U.S. reported earnings today as did Qwest, the No. 3 telco provider. Comcast watched its earnings rise by 33 percent. Qwest saw sales drop and announced a layoff of 1,200 people. Read more »
The Free Press on Friday filed a petition with the Federal Communication Commission asking the agency to create rules that would force Internet Service Providers to detail how they manage and route traffic, and what actual speeds are on their networks. Read more »
Cable company Cox Communications said today it plans to launch a nationwide wireless network to offer voice and data in the second half of 2009, and it will evaluate using the LTE fourth generation wireless standard for future network buildouts. Read more »
Comcast is offering its Extreme50 class of upgraded cable broadband in Boston and its hometown of Philadelphia. The service offers 50 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps up, but will set you back $139.95 a month. Read more »
[qi:004] Cable providers rate poorly on both customer service and pricing, but thanks to their speedy broadband service, they have so far managed to score more customers than the phone companies, according to a survey out today from research firm CFI Group. The survey, which quizzed […] Read more »
The blogosphere yesterday was in an uproar over the network management practices Sprint disclosed on its web site in conjunction with its launch of the Xohm WiMAX service. But the issue is about more than Sprint throttling traffic on its network during times of congestion; it’s about a consumers’ right to know what happens to their traffic on the network. Read more »
[qi:006] Earlier today, I spent a delightful hour with Vinnie Mirchandani, a well respected analyst in the enterprise software industry, mostly because he knows how to figure out the impact of big technological trends on software. Accompanying him was George Gilbert, formerly an enterprise software analyst […] Read more »
With its appeal of an FCC enforcement order, Comcast is showing how a bunch of highly trained lawyers can overturn the spirit of the law with a focus on definitions and legalese. It’s a battle played out in procedural dramas in prime time, but in those […] Read more »
Updated: Comcast says it has filed an appeal against the Federal Communications Commission’s Memorandum and Order on network management adopted August 1, 2008 and released August 20, 2008, in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. This appeal is the latest chapter in ongoing traffic […] Read more »
Today the Wall Street Journal drills into another aspect of the maturing broadband market: price wars. But instead of being good for consumers, in the end these may actually end up hurting them — by enticing them into capped services from cable providers or tying them […] Read more »
Since we’re getting in a huff over Comcast’s 250 GB cap, we thought it would be helpful to lay out why capping broadband is a bad idea today and a worse one for tomorrow, how it can benefit ISPs, and why it’s not really necessary on most networks. Check out our handy overview and links to our past coverage on the topic. Read more »
With Comcast announcing a 250 GB cap on its broadband service and Time Warner trialling a tiered service with limits that range from 5 GB to 40 GB, we’ve decided to challenge people to break those caps. Obviously we can’t verify if someone actually downloads everything […] Read more »
After the FCC last week told Comcast it had 30 days to file its new network management plan that involves cutting back speeds for users who are using too much bandwidth, the mainstream media is learning more about the slowdown plan Comcast CTO Tony Werner explained […] Read more »
Last year, advertisers spent $21.2 billion advertising online, according to data from eMarketer, which expects that figure to grow to $40.5 billion in 2011. But as consumers spend more of their time in front of computers and mobile devices, advertisers are trying to make those ads more effective by watching what you watch, where you surf and what you search for. Continue Reading Read more »
For any of us who recognize that personal privacy on the web is an illusion, the response to a Congressional inquiry asking how various ISPs and online portals target advertising and collect data will come as no surprise. Aside from the use of deep-packet inspection technology […] Read more »
Time Warner Cable reported positive second-quarter earnings (PDF) this morning that fell 26 percent but excluding onetime charges, beat Wall Street’s expectations, and said it would split AOL’s dial-up Internet and advertising businesses into two divisions in 2009. Its earnings beat expectations largely because of gains […] Read more »
Updated: NewTeeVee writer Janko Roettgers offers his analysis of the FCC decision and concludes that a flurry of lawsuits is going to follow. Read the report. As expected, the Federal Communications Commission has voted to chastise Comcast for its network management practices, with two commissioners of […] Read more »
As earnings season continues, it’s clear that some in the U.S. have had their fill of broadband. Within the past week AT&T and Verizon reported slowing broadband growth, and today Comcast saw its high-speed Internet access customers grow by 278,000 new subscribers, but added 18 percent […] Read more »
Comcast sure is bearing the brunt of the anger being levied against broadband providers these days. Earlier this year it was hauled before the FCC over allegations that it was blocking peer-to-peer traffic. During the subsequent hearing the FCC made clear that it, too, was unimpressed […] Read more »
Two weeks before the Federal Communication Commission meets to decide whether or not to issue an enforcement order against Comcast for throttling peer-to-peer traffic, not-for-profit group Free Press has accused the ISP of throttling P2P traffic not only when the network is congested, but whenever that […] Read more »
Comcast has been accused of blocking traffic several times in its history and may have even admitted to more than the straight up P2P blocking we all knew about. But late yesterday, Comcast finally got it’s comeuppance. Sort of. Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications […] Read more »
After getting lambasted on blogs and dragged before the FCC for its former network management practices, which included surreptitiously throttling P2P video traffic, Comcast this week will make good on its announced plans to change the way it keeps its tubes from clogging. Instead of throttling […] Read more »
So all the noise, anger and finger-pointing at Comcast’s cheap traffic tricks didn’t impact its broadband business. The company just reported a decent enough first quarter, but what got my attention: It now has 14.1 million high-speed subscribers, compared to 13.6 million at the end of […] Read more »
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[qi:_newteevee] Comcast said today it plans to create a “P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” in cooperation with P2P companies and other ISPs. The bill is supposed to be a catalog of best-practice recommendations for P2P companies and ISPs alike, but the announcement was more than […] Read more »
Comcast is moving away from the much criticized practice of blocking P2P traffic, and instead is looking at alternatives to rein in a small group of Comcast customers that can be labeled bandwidth hogs. Comcast Cable’s CTO explains. Read more »
The FCC has scheduled a second set of network management hearings to be held on the Stanford campus on April 17. A do-over of the hearings that were held last month at Harvard, perhaps? That gathering was driven, at least in part, by Comcast throttling BitTorrent […] Read more »
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