Posts Tagged ‘Verizon’

Mobile Broadband Is a Luxury Keeping the Cloud Out of Reach

Stacey Higginbotham | Wednesday, July 8, 2009 | 5:00 PM PT | 7 comments

Almost half of those currently subscribing to a mobile broadband plan are willing to cut such plans in order to make ends meet, according to research from Strategy Analytics (profiled at eMarketer). Two-thirds would keep their in-home broadband, while 48 percent would dump mobile data plans. Of course they would. Any thinking person who looks at the costs per megabyte realizes that like buying diapers in airports, you’re paying a premium for convenience. So it’s not as difficult to give these plans up when times are tough.

But those stats also make clear that the promise of ubiquitous mobile computing hasn’t become as important to the average consumer as it may be to us here at GigaOM. Simply put, plenty of people can live without constant access to the cloud. As much as we love our smartphones, mobile broadband access over a 3G network is still a luxury for most.

Indeed, paying up to $60 a month for 5 GB or $40 for around 250 MB isn’t for the faint of heart, or the thin of wallet. We’ve worried how the recession would affect mobile data plans, especially as employers stopped subsidizing them. However there are signs that wireless data may become less expensive. MetroPCS and Leap Wireless both offer cheaper mobile data plans, while Verizon recently introduced its MiFi device, which uses the 3G network to deliver a Wi-Fi signal.

Since it requires no software, multiple people could share the MiFi. My husband and I each have a data connection and are thinking it might make sense to consolidate down to one. As wireless broadband speeds get faster through HSPA or LTE network upgrades in coming years, more consumers may join the few folks out there who already use their wireless data plans as their primary web connection — eliminating a home broadband bill entirely. I don’t recommend that step for multi-user homes or for heavy video streamers, however.

DOJ Wants to Probe Telcos? It Should Take a Number

Stacey Higginbotham | Monday, July 6, 2009 | 2:38 PM PT | 2 comments

Department of Justice LIf the Department of Justice wants to scrutinize the telecommunications industry, as The Wall Street Journal suggests it does, then it should get in line behind the new FCC, Congress and possibly the Federal Trade Commission. It also should focus on the much less sexy aspect of middle-mile access, rather than which network operator gets exclusive access to the iPhone. The Journal cites sources in the DOJ that say the agency is taking a close look at the influence and relationships Verizon and AT&T have, and how they use their market power.

Potential targets for the investigation include handset exclusivity on wireless networks and net neutrality, according to the sources cited in the story. But for the Justice Department to bring a case, it needs to be sure it can prove that these firms have a monopoly, and that they are using their power to artificially keep it — something that could prove difficult in the above-mentioned areas, given the number of competitors in the wireless market and the amount of ISPs on the wired side. Continue »

Embarq and CenturyTel Merge, Become CenturyLink

Stacey Higginbotham | Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 8:53 AM PT | 0 comments

logoNewCenturyTel and Embarq today announced the completion of their $11.6 billion merger, which results in a phone company that will serve 7.5 million customers in 33 states. The combined company will now be known as CenturyLink — and the aging copper-based DSL lines it offers to most of its subscribers will certainly act as a link to the previous century for customers of the new entity. As part of the FCC approval for the merger, the agency imposed several conditions on the combined company, presumably to ensure that consolidation doesn’t hurt consumers. Continue »

The Battle for the Home Network Pits PCs Against Set-top Boxes

Stacey Higginbotham | Tuesday, June 23, 2009 | 9:00 PM PT | 2 comments

The other night I watched “Corpse Bride.” The Tim Burton flick was streamed from Netflix via my Time Warner broadband subscription, though my Linksys router to my Roku box, and from there through an HDMI cable to my television. But I could have watched a different movie on my TV using Time Warner’s video-on-demand service, sent through the set-top box provided by my cable company.

A few years back I couldn’t get movies delivered on demand, unless it was through my cable provider. But now services like Netflix — or better yet, Amazon — provide me with high-definition versions of new releases streamed via my Roku box for about as much as it costs through Time Warner or as part of a trip to the closest Blockbuster. In other words, my PC has become — as it has for so many others — the gateway to much of my entertainment. And that trend is worrying service providers, which don’t want to see their customers switch from paying for a triple-play package of voice, video and data to just data. Continue »

Verizon CEO Seidenberg’s Words of Entrepreneurial Wisdom

Stacey Higginbotham | Tuesday, June 23, 2009 | 4:36 PM PT | 3 comments

seidenberg_picIvan Seidenberg, the CEO of Verizon, appeared on “The Charlie Rose Show” yesterday talking about the communication company’s plans for global growth, network neutrality and the role of government. For the record, Verizon plans to build out its wireless business internationally within the next 5-10 years, and about one-third of that growth will be through acquisitions. However according to Seidenberg, any buys will wait until pesky regulatory hurdles such as buying an individual wireless license on a per-country basis are taken care of by regional consolidation.

His position on network neutrality was in line with most carriers. He stressed that Verizon has every right to create and deliver content over its pipes. He also said the role of government was primarily to step back and let the capital markets do their thing, but that if it wanted to boost IT spending by mandating electronic health records, Verizon is cool with that.

But it was Seidenberg’s quote about the need for an executive to always be looking ahead that stuck with me. Continue »

Are Upload Speeds the New Broadband Selling Point?

Stacey Higginbotham | Monday, June 22, 2009 | 10:37 AM PT | 15 comments

verizonlogoVerizon today boosted its upload speeds across its FiOS fiber-to-the-home broadband packages, which leads me to wonder if upload speeds are the new download speeds in a saturated market for broadband. Om and I both have complained about anemic upload speeds, which are becoming more of a handicap in today’s world of video uploads and online backup. Given Verizon’s history as an innovator in broadband (spending $23 million billion on fiber is a bold move), and a renewed package of incentives out today to drive subscription rates (you get a netbook or a Flip camcorder with a triple-play subscription), upstream speeds may get more competitive. Continue »

iPhone Still Leads the Superphone Derby

Om Malik | Monday, June 22, 2009 | 9:47 AM PT | 11 comments

The consumer love affair with Apple’s iPhone shows no signs of ending. Three days after launching the iPhone 3G S, the company sold more than a million units, Cupertino said today, on par with the number of iPhone 3Gs sold within the first three days of that device being launched. In comparison, it took some 74 days to sell a million of the original iPhones. Overall, Apple is expected to sell about 5 million phones in this quarter. Continue »

Ending Handset Exclusivity Won’t Mean a Phone That Can Roam

Stacey Higginbotham | Friday, June 19, 2009 | 7:12 AM PT | 11 comments

FCC acting chairman Michael Copps said yesterday afternoon that the agency would investigate exclusivity deals between carriers and handset makers, and “take action” if they were found to cause harm to consumers. While the largest cellular carriers are protesting the probe, consumer advocates are thrilled. However with two of the four largest U.S. carriers operating on a CDMA network and the other two operating on a GSM network, eliminating exclusivity would mean handset makers would have to build a minimum of two versions of each phone, not that the phones would be interchangeable on U.S. networks. Continue »

At Long Last, the DTV Transition Is Upon Us

Jennifer Martinez | Thursday, June 11, 2009 | 6:00 PM PT | 2 comments

After a fourth-month delay, the DTV transition, which will enable several services to run on the 700 MHz spectrum that had long been used for analog TV, will kick off tomorrow. For the string of companies affected by the delay, it will be a sweet way to end the week. Verizon can finally begin its LTE deployment, Qualcomm can expand its MediaFLO service to new markets including San Francisco and Miami, and Cox Wireless can move ahead with its launch of 3G and 4G trials on the spectrum. Still, it’s estimated that 3 million Americans will be left in the dark because of the transition.

Broadband Confession: I Have Pipe Envy

Stacey Higginbotham | Thursday, June 11, 2009 | 5:00 PM PT | 13 comments

pipeenvy

Twice in the last week, I’ve received images of  broadband speed tests from my colleagues that show how fast their networks are, especially on the upload side. I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy when I checked out Kevin’s symmetrical 20 Mbps FiOS connection and the 50/10 Mbps speeds offered by Jordan Golson’s Comcast service. In despair, I checked out my own speeds and noticed that instead of the 7 Mbps down that I pay for, I’m getting a range of between 12 Mbps and 13 Mbps down from my service provider, Time Warner Cable. I’m guessing my improved upload download speeds are related to getting some kind of boost for the first few seconds of the download.

However, my upload speeds are still miserable, at less than 512 kbps, and that’s what has me feeling like an outsider looking in when it comes to technology. Continue »

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