We are all bandwidth hogs now
photo: Telegeography.com
Last year demand for bandwidth rose by 40 percent, and much of that demand is now coming from all over the world, not just in developed countries. Read more »
YouTube sucks on French ISP Free, and French regulators want to know why
photo: 20th Century Fox
After users complained about bad online video experiences, France’s telecom regulator launched an investigation trying to figure out if a local ISP was blocking YouTube or if it was just underinvesting in its network. A decision is expected soon, and could have worldwide repercussions. Read more »
Akamai returns to roots, taps founder as new CEO
Akamai’s 8-month search for a new CEO didn’t take it too far: It tapped co-founder and chief scientist Tom Leighton to succeed Paul Sagan, who announced his intention to leave last April. Now Sagan will cede the CEO slot on January 1. Read more »
Level 3 concurs: Comcast appears to be prioritizing traffic
Comcast may have given users a break on Thursday by raising its monthly data cap to 300 GB, but Level 3, the backbone Internet provider and content delivery network, wants people to know that Comcast is still likely prioritizing its Xfinity traffic over others’. Read more »
D.C. gets 100 gigabit network, maybe politicos will finally get broadband
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 »
Subscriber Content
Migrating media applications to the private cloud: best practices for businesses
If your company has a cloud application with a predictable audience size or one that is costing you more than $25,000 a month to host, you may want to consider maintaining a private cloud. This paper provides an overview of the factors that decision makers who are developing a public-to-private cloud-migration strategy should consider, recognizing that public versus private cloud strategy is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It also details pitfalls that must be avoided along the way and provides a case study of Zynga, a company that has found a way to use both the private and public clouds to create a hybrid solution. Companies mentioned in this report include Akamai, Foursquare, Nimbula and ARM. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
6 Bizarre causes for optical cables damage
Every so often we hear about a network outage thanks to some completely non-technology reason: A truck rammed into a pole or backhoe cut the cable. Here are some of the top bizarre reasons why optical fibers are cut (and result in network disruption.) Read more »
Future of TV According to Netflix’s Reed Hastings
EXCLUSIVE: Reed Hastings, chief executive officer and founder of online video company Netflix, has a pretty clear idea of what the future of video looks like. It needs high-speed fiber broadband, it involves sensors and it is all about click-and-watch on-demand Internet video. Read more »
Why You May Care About Level 3 Buying Global Crossing
Level 3 Communications agreed to buy Global Crossing in a transaction worth $3 billion. The deal is a sign of consolidation as broadband becomes the connecting fabric of our lives. But the question isn’t why this deal between two telecommunications backbone providers happened, but why now? Read more »
Netflix: Comcast Hates Us, Sort Of, Maybe
Has Comcast been imposing extra peering fees on Level 3 to hurt Netflix, which is competing with its TV business? That’s what Netflix is alleging in its just-published annual report, without actually stating it that frankly. The warning is carefully worded, but Netflix is clearly concerned. Read more »
Online Video Players Counter a Plan by ISPs to Raise Costs
Global Crossing has weighed in on the peering debate in a Friday letter to the FCC that argued ISPs were trying to use peering as a smokescreen to charge content delivery networks and web service providers more for access to their subscribers. Read more »
Subscriber Content
A 2011 Connected Consumer Forecast
More exciting than examining the previous quarter is looking forward into the next 12 months and using the trends of 2010 to predict the realities that will surface in 2011. Throughout this past December, GigaOM Pro’s curators did just that, making trend predictions, pointing out companies to watch and even telling us what not to expect. Connected Consumer curator Michael Wolf’s thoughts, analyses and predictions are compiled here in a single report. Companies mentioned in this report include Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Apple and Boxee. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Netflix: ISPs Overcharging Subs With Tiered Data Plans
Netflix has been very successful in attracting new subscribers, specifically around its streaming video service. But the video subscription company says its business could be hurt by ISPs moving to tiered data plans, which Netflix claims are incredibly overpriced. Read more »
Subscriber Content
Connected Consumer 2011: What Not to Expect
It’s important to dispel potential myths and market misunderstandings when it comes to consumer electronic devices and trends. For 2011, that includes paid video chat, Apple dominating the living room and the misinformed belief that Google will rule the e-book space. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Level 3: Comcast Lied About Dispute, Broke NDA
In the latest salvo over its interconnection dispute with Comcast, Level 3 is taking aim at the cable provider’s proposed deal to merge with NBC Universal. In a letter to the FCC, Level 3 accuses Comcast as acting as a gatekeeper to competing online video services. Read more »
20% of All Peak Traffic Due to 3.5M Netflix Data Hogs?
We already knew that Netflix streams about 20 percent of peak data traffic. But you might be surprised just how few Netflix subscribers it takes to push that much data: One analyst estimates just 3.5 million users might be responsible for one-fifth of primetime data traffic. Read more »
Updated: A Play by Play on the Comcast & Level 3 Spat
A fight between Comcast and Level 3 may be simple commercial disagreement over how much traffic Level 3 will send Comcast now that Level 3 is the content delivery network for Netflix, but many believe the spat has the potential to change how the web works. Read more »
The Real Story Behind the Comcast-Level 3 Battle
The conventional wisdom is that Comcast is evil, therefore, Level 3 must be the innocent victim of Comcast’s capricious greed. In reality, this is a complex situation without clear-cut heroes or villains — in the network game, this is business as usual. Read more »
What the Web Is Saying: Comcast vs. Level 3
A showdown between Comcast and Level 3 over fees Level 3 has agreed to pay the cable giant to carry its traffic has touched off a debate as to whether Comcast is abusing its power or if it’s simply holding Level 3 to a fair standard. Read more »
Forget Net Neutrality; Comcast Might Break the Web
The fight that erupted today between Level 3 and Comcast involves an esoteric agreement and equally esoteric policy arguments, but at its core this fight is about money. Yet what has begun as commercial dispute may change how the web works and who pays for it. Read more »
Level 3, Comcast in a Cat Fight Over Online Video
Level 3, the middle-mile Internet provider and the newly crowned content delivery network for Netflix, has accused Comcast of violating the tenants of network neutrality as the cable company seeks an additional payment to deliver content from Level 3 to its subscribers. Read more »
TechUniversity: Conditional Formatting with Numbers
Conditional formatting in Numbers lets you format the contents of a cell based on certain rules. So say you want to show all negative numbers as red and bold…conditional formatting lets us do that! We’ll cover how to apply conditional formatting to numbers, text and dates. Read more »
Vid-Biz: Hulu, Vudu, Youku
Why Hulu Will—And Should—Charge For Hulu Plus; When Hulu finally announces its subscription plans, it will have a small but critical window of opportunity to explain itself to the market. If it gets the details of the plan right, it will succeed. (paidContent) Vudu Starts Offering […] Read more »
Vid-Biz: Hulu, SlingPlayer on iPad, Greystripe
Hulu Sends Some Traffic To Level 3 and Limelight Networks; video content from Hulu historically came exclusively from Akamai, but lately, the site is also using Level 3 and Limelight Networks for some of its video delivery. (Streaming Media blog) Related: Hulu’s a Towering Success — […] Read more »
Vid-Biz: NBC Olympics, YouTube, Verizon FiOS
NBC Preps First All-HD Winter Olympics; the 2008 Vancouver Winter Olympics will mark the first time a Winter Games is produced entirely in HD, with 835 hours of high-def content set for NBC Universal’s broadcast and cable channels. (Multichannel News) YouTube’s Final Take From Movie Rentals: […] Read more »
