Just as Wilson, NC has been ramping up to build their own municipal broadband network, the state House has passed a bill from committee severely restricting their ability to enter the market. Unsurprisingly, Time Warner Cable is the chief backer of the bill. It should also come as no surprise… Continue reading
iProvo might still be some time away from breaking even, or so says the "we'll print anything negative about iProvo" Deseret News. According to the article, a miscalculation places the break-even point with current projections as far away as 2012. The original calculation failed to take into account repayment of… Continue reading
In a move only a die-hard monopolist would dare engage in, Qwestar Gas is moving to keep individual consumers out of rate hearings. The move is designed to prevent upset customers from criticizing the company and questioning its witnesses at Public Service Commission hearings. This is all despite very few… Continue reading
It's a bad week to be Vonage. A federal court has ruled that all VoIP providers must start collecting and paying into the Universal Service Fund (USF), adding about $1.30 a month to the average bill. Vonage had sued the FCC to protest not only having to pay but having… Continue reading
As new entrants into the cable TV market look for more efficient means of delivering video compared to the broadcast signals of coax, more and more of them are turning to IPTV. AT&T is pushing U-Verse while Verizon pushes FIOS, but a number of smaller RLECs are getting into the… Continue reading
Reports from the UK show that some ISPs are engaging in "packet shaping" to restrict the use of peer-to-peer video services, even if they're legal. Given the net neutrality debate in the US, we might very well see such things coming to our shores soon, especially since telcos and cablecos… Continue reading
I'm not a fan of most municipal wireless systems. They're usually greatly over-budget while delivering weak indoor signals and low speeds. Earthlink has been learning the hard way that municipal wireless is bad business, significantly scaling back the number of projects it had planned to handle. Wireless does, however, go… Continue reading
Rural areas are found to be woefully underserved when it comes to broadband options, a condition that could stunt economic growth. It's no wonder then that Illinois is aggressively pursuing universal access for everyone in the state. Lt. Governor Pat Quinn is one of the main cheerleaders for rural broadband,… Continue reading
While WiFi gets lots of press in the US, fiber seems to be making big splashes abroad. Countries like Lithuania, Slovenia and Norway are rolling out FTTH networks with speeds up to 1Gbps while Asia's FTTH base in Japan, Korea and Singapore is growing at a brisk pace. The number… Continue reading
Plagued by poor signal strength, low subscriber numbers and generally botched installs, municipal WiFi is looking like the monorail of the 21st century. Most subscribers complain that not only do signals often drop or fail to get inside of their buildings, but the speeds experienced are slower than traditional DSL… Continue reading