The FCC is expected to hand down some new rules on Wednesday to ban exclusive provider contracts in apartments, condos and other multi-unit dwellings. This is a reaction to cable rates that have jumped 93% in the last decade. FCC Chair Kevin Martin noted that cable rates often drop 30%… Continue reading
The rumor mill at DSL Reports says that UTOPIA residential connections will be beefed up to 50Mbps in both directions. That means downloads at least 7 times faster than cable or DSL and uploads over 60 times faster. The price? Still $40 a month as always. Even though the speeds… Continue reading
After what seems like an eternity of telcos and cablecos not understanding that we like to send as well as receive data at blazing speeds, Verizon decided to launch a 20Mbps symmetrical connection for home users. The real shocker? The price tag, a paltry $65 a month, shockingly low for… Continue reading
February 17, 2009 might be known as the day the airwaves died, at least for people unprepared for the switch to digital TV. Britain has already leaded ahead in this respect with the first analog signal going down for a dirt nap last Tuesday. Now Best Buy starts blazing a… Continue reading
It broke earlier this week that a reporter from the Associated Press had confirmed what we all knew, that Comcast has been blocking people from seeding torrent files. How do they do it? By illegally impersonating your computer to reset the connection, that's how. It's the same method used in… Continue reading
As I've said before, it's sometimes a Good Thing™ to let news age for a bit before writing about it. Not only does it let the story develop a bit more fully, but you also get a much better idea of the big picture. Take for example the plans that… Continue reading
I'm thinking I might need to change my home phone provider in the not too distant future. Following up on the expensive litigation brought by Sprint and Verizon, Vonage now has to go to court to defend itself against AT&T for alleged patent infringement. It's too early to tell if… Continue reading
With how ugly the fight for the 700MHz auction has gotten, the FCC has decided to delay the auction by eight days. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin also announced that there will be a limit of $10B on bidding, a move designed to keep big companies from outspending all of their… Continue reading
Seems like Comcast is bumping up rates all over the nation. Chicago, Houston, Seattle, San Francisco and Lancaster, PA have all seen big bumps in pricing from 6.9% to as high as 12.5%. This is on top of a 4.1% increase foisted upon us in January. The company is blaming… Continue reading
There's all kinds of good news on the municipal fiber front. First up is the fiber optic system built in Burlington, Vermont. The system currently serves about 2,000 of the city's 39,000 residents and is expected to provide up to 20% of the city's general fund when the bond debt… Continue reading