Archive for June, 2007
Monday, June 25th, 2007
Illinois Joins the Ranks of the Crazy, Allows Statewide Franchising
Despite a few concessions calling for compensation for missed/late appointments, limiting service contracts to one year and requiring some deployment to poorer neighborhoods, Illinois pretty much handed the telecom industry a license to cherry-pick service areas with little in return. This bill, more-or-less purchased outright by AT&T, is the latest in a dose of crazy [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Jeers, Legislation, News by Jesse
Monday, June 25th, 2007
FCC Warm to “Dumb Networks”, Universal Access
In comments at a recent telecom conference, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin emphasized the importance of universal access to broadband connections as well as the role of "dumb networks" in ensuring network neutrality. "Dumb networks" are a lot like the wholesale fiber networks offered by UTOPIA or iProvo where retail and wholesale operations are not operated [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Legislation, News by Jesse
Monday, June 25th, 2007
Cablevision, Verizon Promise Lots of HD
In the mounting war of who can provide the most HD, Cablevision says it'll be rolling out capacity for up to 500 channels of high-def programming by the end of the year. Not to be outdone, Verizon is poised to offer it on-demand through its FIOS network. Verizon, however, actually has the capacity to deliver [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Monday, June 25th, 2007
AT&T Using Piracy as an Excuse to Bypass Net Neutrality
In a move filled with more spin than a merry-go-round testing facility, AT&T has claimed that it has the right to restrict or block certain kinds of traffic in an effort to curb online piracy. This has a huge potential effect since AT&T controls most major markets in over 30 states after gobbling up SBC [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Jeers, News by Jesse
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Spanish Fork’s SFCN Rolling in Dough
Spanish Fork reported that their municipal network is going to turn a $275,000 profit for fiscal year 2008, a stark contrast to the red ink bled by iProvo. What's Spanish Fork's secret? For starters, they decided on a less expensive HFC network as opposed to FTTP, a choice that saved money now but sacrifices some [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, News by Jesse
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Comcast Pulling Bait-and-Switch on HDTV, Phone Users
Comcast is pulling fast ones with customer again, this time by making them subscribe to more service than they need. Users in the Bay Area are being told that they will be forced to migrate from $16.50/mo plans to a new $44.95/mo plan starting in just a few months. This is contrary to what they [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Jeers, News by Jesse
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
AT&T Offers $10 DSL
That's no misprint: as part of the conditions for buying out BellSouth, AT&T is offering up DSL for the price of dial-up. The service weighs in at a featherweight 768K down, 128K up and will be $5/mo more expensive in states not formerly served by BellSouth. AT&T will be chipping in a modem and will [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Palo Alto Mulls Fiber
Palo Alto is reconsidering plans to build a FTTH network in its city after stalling for several years. Several years after the initial pilot project to a handful of homes, the council voted to continue negotiations with the winning bidder for the project. It's unclear if the network would be retail or wholesale, but my [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Aussies to Get Universal Broadband Coverage
Australia announced that they're sick and tired of lacking decent broadband and they aren't going to take it anymore. Prime Minister John Howard unveiled a $1.68B US plan to deploy fiber and wireless connections to 99% of Australians with a minimum speed of 12Mbps. The wireless portion, which would serve rural areas, is expected to [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Sunday, June 17th, 2007
Debate on 700MHz Spectrum Heats Up
A new startup has managed to stir the pot on the 700MHz auction by proposing to build and maintain a national network for both public and commercial interests. Frontline Wireless wants to take the 24MHz of spectrum reserved for police, fire and other emergency use and make it available to everyone while giving emergency workers [...]
