Archive for May, 2007
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
Cable Industry Tells Feds to Encourage Stronger Cable Monopolies
In a move stunning only in its audacity, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) has demanded that the FCC be gutted and almost all cable regulation be done away with. Among the things they want killed are network neutrality, must-carry rules (which require a basic package) and a la carte channel pricing. Their claim [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Jeers, Legislation, News by Jesse
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
More Than Fiber: DirecTV Mulls BPL While FCC Auctions Prime 700MHz Spectrum
The market for high-speed Internet is about to get a lot more crowded. DirecTV is looking at forming partnerships with power companies to deploy broadband over power lines (BPL) to its customers. Considering the sky-high latency of pure satellite connections, I can see how they'd be eager to get in on this. What I can [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
Think Cable Service Stinks? You’re Not Alone
A new survey of customer satisfaction by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index shows that while satellite providers top the list for TV service, the industry as a whole stinks. Cable and satellite providers scored the lowest amongst all industries covered by the ACSI including incumbent phone companies. (There isn't much love there either; landline phone [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Jeers, News by Jesse
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
City Council At Odds on iProvo Financing
City Council Chairman George Stewart is going head-to-head with Mayor Lewis Billings over a proposed million-dollar loan from the city to pay down iProvo's bond debt. While the current subscriber base makes enough to pay operating costs and sustain the network, current revenues don't quite cover the payments on the bond. As part of the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
Vermont and Norway Join Push For Universal Broadband
Hot on the heels of Sen. Rockefeller's demand for 100Mbps broadband, echoing the sentiments of the FTTH Council, Vermont has passed a so-called "e-state" bill that requires adequate cellular and broadband coverage across the entire state. This is monumental for a rural state where those living outside of cities often don't have access to more [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, News by Jesse
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
Could FIOS Spell The End For CLECs?
Prepare to have less choice for local phone service. Thanks to FCC rules, incumbent carrier are not required to share their new fiber networks with competitors the same way they shared their copper networks. Considering that upgrading to Verizon's FIOS is a one-way street (no going back to copper for you!), competing phone companies are [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Jeers, News by Jesse
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Cable Companies Thwart DVRs, CableCARD
In two related news stories, cable companies are clamping down further on network control by skirting around the requirements to support CableCARD and force DVR owners to watch ads. In testimony before congress, TiVo has alleged that cable companies are starting to use protocols and signaling that's incompatible with the uni-directional CableCARD standard. CableCARDs are [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Jeers, News by Jesse
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Congressional Push for 100Mbps
Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia wants broadband and he wants it now. He's just introduced a resolution (albeit non-binding) to push for universal 10Mbps access by 2010 and 100Mbps by 2015. Because it's non-binding, it amounts to little more than fist-shaking at providers who've been dragging their feet, but I suppose it's the thought [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, News by Jesse
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Comcast Demos 150Mbps Cable Modem
Comcast's CEO demonstrated a DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem today running at a speed of 150Mbps. It works by building on DOCSIS 2.0 to include channel bonding of up to 4 channels. The real question to be asked is why we need this. Comcast could be using DOCSIS 2.0 with its 45Mbps limit and still not [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Comcast Slams Subscribers With Contracts, Early Termination Fees
Want to keep that special triple-play pricing in effect for longer? Just hope you don't want to cancel anytime soon. Comcast has started trying to sucker you into a 2-year contract for the service to lock in the rate with a $150 early termination fee if you cancel OR DOWNGRADE service before it's up. They'll [...]
