MPAA threat sparks White House petition for bribery probe theregister.co.uk
Bill in Senate will limit public broadband ajc.com
Megaupload Shutdown Means Other Companies Turning Off Useful Services techdirt.com
Why cable needs EPON over coax lightreading.com
The Behind-the-Scenes Campaign To Bring SOPA To Canada michaelgeist.ca
LTE spectrum: How much do the big carriers have? networkworld.com
Verizon Wireless Could Raise Government Eyebrows Over Bandwidth Deal with SpectrumCo ibtimes.co.uk
AT&T, T-Mobile file request for spectrum transfer fiercewireless.com
UK regulator Ofcom to borrow spectrum for London Olympics tmcnet.com
MegaUpload shutdown actually made global Internet traffic drop ispreview.co.uk
Microsoft gives details on mobile broadband improvements in Windows 8 itbusiness.ca
AT&T adjusts Playastation Vita data pricing slashgear.com
Anonymous dupes users into joining Megaupload attack networkworld.com
Senator Says LightSquared E-mails Smack of Improper Contact multichannel.com
read comment(s)
Feeds
100867 items (255 unread) in 22 feeds
MSNBC
(12 unread)
-
MSNBC.com: U.S. News (7 unread)
-
MSNBC.com: Business
-
PHP
(62 unread)
-
Planet PHP
(1 unread) -
Nettuts+
(61 unread)
Deals
(144 unread)
-
Techbargains.com (43 unread)
-
dealnews - 20 most recent deals. (59 unread)
-
xpBargains.com (18 unread)
-
GottaDeal.com - Why Pay Retail?
(24 unread)
Web Development
(35 unread)
-
Dev Shed - The Open Source Web Development Site
-
Dev Articles - Programming Help and Tutorials for all development technologies (35 unread)
-
developer.com
Frugal Blogs
(2 unread)
-
Frugal Dad
-
The Simple Dollar (2 unread)
broadbandreports.com
-
Monday Evening Links -
Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 4:33pm MST
-
AT&T, Verizon Have Plenty of LTE Spectrum - Verizon's Just Been More Efficient With Theirs
Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 3:49pm MST
We've noted in recent weeks Wall Street analysts, trying to boost acquisition rumors and stock holdings, have been insisting AT&T needs to buy somebody really soon because they're desperate for spectrum. Except as spectrum holding audits show, AT&T is in a prime spectrum position (especially after the Qualcomm deal) -- they just need to use the spectrum they have more efficiently. Verizon's unsurprisingly in the driver's seat with an average of 62MHz of spectrum available in the top 100 markets after their huge cable spectrum deal. AT&T will be in just as good of shape once they start migrating users away from 2G networks:AT&T's trouble is that, despite having roughly the same overall spectrum holdings as Verizon, the company is still using a lot of its spectrum for its legacy 2G services. This in part helps to explain why AT&T has been behind Verizon in terms of overall LTE deployments. As of this month, Verizon has rolled out LTE in 195 markets covering 200 million points of presence while AT&T has set up LTE in 26 markets covering 74 million PoPs. UBS analyst John Hodulik says it will take AT&T some time to migrate its 2G users away from its spectrum on the PCS and cellular bands, but he also says AT&T will be in a comparable LTE spectrum situation to Verizon once it frees up those frequencies.
AT&T continues to insist that they needed to buy T-Mobile for spectrum despite the fact their own data showed otherwise. Except any network legroom problems are of AT&T's own making, something competitors and consumer advocates recently pointed out during T-Mobile deal hearings. Rumors AT&T needs to continue gobbling up competitors aren't real; AT&T just wants that spectrum because the more spectrum they hold, the less potential for competing services there is.
read comment(s)
-
The National Broadband Map Goes Mobile - Now You Can Get Unreliable Data on the Go!
Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 1:31pm MST
In February of last year the government launched the nation's first ever national broadband map. Unfortunately, the map was met with significant criticism due the fact the data collected from ISPs drastically overstated speeds, failed to include price, and the map often informed users ISPs serve their area when they don't. While the government insisted the $300 million map would improve given constant updates, the first update to the map since its February launch only just occurred late last year, and most users note the map still suffers from inaccuracy. On the plus side, the government has announced that users can access the map data from mobile devices, making it easier to obtain completely inaccurate information on service providers while you're out on the town.
read comment(s)
-
AT&T's Still Not Enforcing DSL, U-Verse Usage Caps - Still Clearly Having Problems With Internal Systems
Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 11:24am MST
In March of last year we were the first to exclusively report that AT&T would be imposing caps on DSL (150GB) and U-Verse (250GB) users, with consumer having to pay $10 for every 50GB over the cap they travel. Our leak caught AT&T a little by surprise, as the company wasn't quite ready to announce the plans yet. Our users quickly started reporting that the meters AT&T was using were completely inaccurate, with home routers showing drastically different consumption readouts than AT&T's official website monitoring tool. As of August, AT&T still hadn't figured out how to bill for overages.
Last summer AT&T informed us that the company hadn't started billing users because they were "still providing time for customers to understand and learn about their usage."
We're getting closer to a year since we broke our story about caps and AT&T still isn't enforcing them. Several users tell us their usage has yet to trigger a single warning from AT&T, and at least one user seems intent to push his usage into the terabytes each month and hasn't heard a peep from AT&T. Users aren't complaining, they just find it -- odd.
You can be fairly certain that if a company like AT&T (breathlessly eager to please investors with new usage surcharges) was able to accurately bill users for usage they'd already be doing so. That they're not suggests the company still hasn't quite worked out the back end billing kinks in their systems. We've seen similar problems in Canada where companies like Cogeco have struggled to accurately measure usage. AT&T's at least holding off until their systems work, knowing how touchy this issue is to many U.S. consumers.
AT&T users: have you received any warnings from AT&T? Does your area have a working website usage meter in place?
Update: Some DSL users in select markets say they have started getting charged for overages.
read comment(s)
-
With SOPA Postponed, Attention Shifts to ACTA - As Activists Try to Keep Momentum Going
Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 9:25am MST
As we've discussed, the ACTA took all of this country's worst copyright ideas --many of them enshrined in the controversial DMCA -- made them considerably worse, then foisted them upon much of the globe with little to no real public discussion. With SOPA temporarily derailed due to public disgust, attention is now shifting to the entertainment-industry-written awfulness that is the ACTA. Combined with the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) these agreements do a number of things, but most notable for our readership is the effort to ensure ISPs must be held liable for the content shared on their networks.
SOPA opponents are hoping some activism can rub off on attempts to stop the ACTA and TPP, and have started a new petition trying to erode ACTA support. Poland meanwhile is reviewing their decision to sign off on ACTA after the websites of the prime minister, parliament and other government offices were taken offline by Anonymous. Apparently the combination of the attacks combined with public outrage caused Polish leaders to rethink their position:And Michal Boni, the minister for administration and digitization, acknowledged in a radio interview Monday that the government had failed to hold enough consultations with the public on the matter. An opposition party, the Democratic Left Alliance, also called on the government to not sign in it in a gesture of solidarity with those who warn it could hurt Internet freedom.
While there were victories had last week, the mindset and dysfunctional global political systems that allowed SOPA/PIPA to exist in the first place remain intact. It's driven by a United States entertainment industry that stubbornly refuses to adapt to the broadband age and has resorted to burning down the house in an effort to save the baby: passing awful protectionist laws to prop up dying middleman legacy business models, regardless on the repercussions for free speech, free markets, artist payouts or the proper functioning of the Internet.
As SOPA has shown, the growing U.S. public disgust at the actions of the government, MPAA and RIAA (now operating as one unified organization) could prove particularly toxic in the upcoming U.S. Presidential elections. Such actions are even less popular across the pond where citizens are already sensitive about their leaders becoming errand boys for American interests.
read comment(s)
-
MegaUpload Pops Back Up (Sort Of) - As Digital Locker Companies Run for Cover
Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 7:01am MST
After being taken offline by the U.S. government in a massive global raid, MegaUpload appears to have popped right back online -- sort of. The website is only operating via a single IP address at the moment and not very well at that, but the site insists they're "working to be back full again." Meanwhile, digital locker storage services like FileServe and Filesonic have been running for cover, shutting down affiliate programs and shuttering services, disallowing all downloads except those "that you have uploaded personally." Mediafire meanwhile tells VentureBeat that they're not changing anything. We don t have a business built on copyright infringement," says CEO Derek Labian. "Like many other cloud-based sharing services like Box.net and Dropbox, we re a legitimate business targeting professionals."
read comment(s)
-
WildBlue Users: Exede Is Not What You Promised Us - Faster Speeds Come With Higher Prices, Lower Caps
Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 6:19am MST
The other day we noted that while ViaSat heavily hyped their new "Exede" satellite broadband service at CES, now that the service has supposedly launched, many users note they can't actually get it yet. Existing users who have been waiting for this upgrade for years are being told they have to wait in line behind new users. Depending on where you live, you may never be able to sign up for the service. Worse perhaps, many of these users note that the new service actually comes with lower daily usage restrictions (dubbed the "fair access policy" or FAP) than WildBlue's existing service. One user in our forums puts his disappointment rather eloquently:We have been living with low caps on Wildblue for years, then for several years they promise an upgrade that will change everything. Then they up the speed to something most people don't need, and REDUCE the amount of data available by a large amount, increasing the price as well significantly. It was not what we were lead to believe. This was supposed to be an upgrade, but the speed is useless without quantity, that point has been made over and over.
The frustration is understandable, given that ever since ViaSat began building their new satellite in 2008, they promised users that this would be an evolution in satellite broadband. As we had warned however, the high cost of satellite launches meant that acquiring new users was going to be a priority, and that improvement of existing usage restrictions would be on the back burner. The only hope that many of these captive customers have is that LTE service from one of the major players (which suffers from similar caps) makes it way into their market.
And it doesn't take someone sitting all day to go over the caps. It can take a little over an hour every day for one person to go over on the current 512Kbps plan, imagine with more speed how easy the person can go over with about 23% less data available.
Bottom line, it was not an upgrade, period, for many of us. Every neighbor I know is thinking the same thing, some currently drive 30 miles one way to get to a free hotspot to have enough bandwidth for online classes. The offered new plans are not enough for what they do either. Is anyone that understands the limits of satellite asking for anything unreasonable? NO.
read comment(s)
-
France Telecom Refuses to Compete on Price - Is it OK if we Just Pretend This Isn't Happening?
Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 6:04am MST
Earlier this month new French wireless ISP Free started turning heads by offering some disruptive pricing, including a free level of base service that includes 60 voice minutes and 60 SMS's. Users also get access to the ISP's public Wi-Fi hotspots, and 3GB of data for 19.99 (roughly $25, or $20 if they bundle landline broadband service) per month. The initial response by competitors is somewhat amusing with incumbent operator France Telecom apparently deciding that the right reaction to the shake up of France's stale wireless sector is to pretend it isn't happening:France Telecom will not match the low-cost mobile offers recently launched by new operator Iliad because such aggressive pricing would be bad for network quality and innovation in the long-run, said its chief executive. France Telecom's Chief Executive, Stephane Richard, criticized a race to the bottom on mobile prices and attacked what he cast as his competitor's reckless approach. "The real risk is that all the operators become 'low-cost', meaning less investment, fewer services and jobs," he told France's Journal de Dimanche. "We will never match prices because we offer security, reliability and innovation."
And by "innovation," they apparently mean not being innovative when it comes to service price tags, something made possible by the previous lack of real competition.
read comment(s)
-
RIM CEOs to Give Up Posts - Though Shake Up May Not Be Disruptive Enough
Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 5:46am MST
After product delays, multi-continent unexplained service outages and lackluster offerings, questions as to how and why RIM's co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie still have jobs reached a fevered pitch over the last few months. Confirming recent rumors, a report in the Wall Street Journal claims both Lazaridis and Balsillie will officially be giving up their positions to new CEO Thorsten Heins. Many are lamenting the shake up as having not shaken hard enough to truly disrupt a corporate culture that has resulted in plummeting company fortunes. A new introductory video of Heins suffers from a lot of the same problems RIM has exhibited in recent months -- namely the delusion that continuing down the same path RIM is already on will result in fortune and glory.
read comment(s)