The End Of The Global Internet? Google's Blogger Starts Using Country-Specific Domains To Permit Local Censorship techdirt.com
Carlos Slim blasts OECD report; Report claimed lack of competition in Mexican telco sector cost economy $25 billion totaltele.com
IPv6 upgrade to cost ISPs 'hundreds of millions' totaltele.com
White House Declines Comment on MPAA Bribery Petition torrentfreak.com
Hands off our brand, Wi-Fi body warns 'white space' tech firms reghardware.com
Pirate Bay Founders Prison Sentences Final, Supreme Court Appeal Rejected torrentfreak.com
Viacom CEO says 'mob mentality' hurt antipiracy bill totaltele.com
UK ISP 3 launches Web Cube offering 'broadband in a box' digitalspy.com
Scandinavia First For EV-DO Rev. B Wi-Fi Gateway cable360.net
France finds Google Maps guilty of unfair competition totaltele.com
Emerging rural markets will drive next billion mobile connections fiercemobilecontent.com
Photos Show Quad-Core iPad 3 With Wi-Fi, Global LTE Options foxbusiness.com
Nintendo Partners With free-hotspot.com For Free 3DS WiFi Access Across Europe techcrunch.com
Dubious Android apps may not be malware--just ads cnet.com
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Wednesday Evening Links -
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 4:28pm MST
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Verizon Cable Deal Gets a Senate Hearing - Kohl Wants to Examine Anti-competitive Repercussions
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 3:28pm MST
Responding to consumer advocate and competitor concerns that the new Verizon, cable industry deal could include some anti-competitive conditions (hey, we won't install new FiOS in your markets if you let us sell wireless to your customers and sell us spectrum), Senator Herb Kohl has announced a new hearing looking into the deal. Kohl, who is Chairman of the Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights subcommittee, says the hearing will take place after February 23. The hearing will focus on whether the deal could pose problems for residential broadband. Says Kohl:"Plans are well underway for a hearing to examine the impact of Verizon s spectrum purchase from a number of cable companies and a separate marketing agreement to cross-sell each other s products, Kohl said in a release. The subcommittee carefully examines questions about competition in the wireless and video markets, with the ultimate goal of protecting consumers and reducing their cable and cell phone bills, and these deals are no exception."
If there are any anti-competitive arrangements included in the deal, you can be fairly sure that neither Comcast or Verizon attorneys allowed them to be put into writing. Though maybe not sexy on the surface, the deal has huge ramifications for smaller telcos who already compete with Comcast, especially if Verizon follows through on trials and pushes into residential fixed LTE.
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U.S. Cellular to Launch LTE Network Next Month - Launch Devices: Galaxy S Aviator and GalaxyTab 10.1
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 1:43pm MST
U.S. Cellular today announced that the company will be launching their LTE network next month. The launch, originally predicted for late last year, will initially cover 25% of the company's current footprint when it deploys in March. Initial coverage will hit "select cities" in in Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, North Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma, in addition to the more-specific markets of Milwaukee, Madison and Racine, Wis.; Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa; Portland and Bangor, Maine; and Greenville, North Carolina. There's no word on pricing yet, but the company says that the Samsung GalaxyTab 10.1 tablet and Galaxy S Aviator 4G smartphone will be the company's first two LTE devices.
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Red Box Stands Up to Warner 56 Day New Release Delay - As Warner Brothers Drives New Release Fans to Piracy
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 11:30am MST
The other day we noted that Warner Brothers had not only convinced Netflix to delay new release DVDs by 56 days, Netflix also agreed to refuse to even allow users to add upcoming releases to their queue until 26 days after release. Studio executives believe this will drive users to buy more DVDs, but as everybody except for the entertainment industry has figured out, simply acts to annoy users and drive them to explore piracy. In a statement, RedBox says they have refused the 56 day new release delay, won't renew their contract with Warner Brothers, and will get the movies from retail as they go on sale:The Redbox contract with Warner Brothers to acquire movies directly expires today (January 31, 2012). Redbox will continue to provide our consumers with affordable access to new release movies from all major studios including Warner Brothers at our more than 28,000 locations nationwide. We will work to provide Warner Brothers movies through alternative means. Redbox maintains direct working relationships with every other major studio, said Gary Cohen, senior vice president of marketing and customer experience at Redbox.
When they do try to go against studio wishes and straight to retail, RedBox has run into problems with Warner Brothers and Fox going to retailers and striking deals that restrict the number of DVDs RedBox can purchase.
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Comcast Expands Home Security Service - Denver Latest to Get Comcast's New Play
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 9:32am MST
In late 2010 we noted that Comcast had jumped into the home security game, launching Xfinity Home Security service in Houston. The platform provides the usual range of home security options, including door and window intrusion detection and video monitoring via a Comcast">[https%253A%252F%252Fwww.xfinityhomesecurity.com%252Fsp%252Fhomepage.html%253FcheckAlarms%253Dtrue&pf_sp=www.ucontrol.com&passive=0&forceAuthn=1">Comcast] website, with the company's Xfinity Home Preferred Package starting at $39.95 per month. Comcast's slowly been expanding the service into additional markets, and today announced they're offering it in Denver. Peace of mind from Comcast doesn't come cheap, the service features a very steep early termination fee: $770 for the basic service, and $1100 for the Premier service. You'll also have to pay an activation fee (which Comcast waives for new markets, and an installation charge of between $200 & $300).
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Comcast, Verizon Partnership Arrives in San Francisco - Companies Offer Prepaid Gift Cards For Wireless Bundles
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 7:44am MST
In December Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Bright House announced a massive deal that not only involved the sale of $3.6 billion in cable industry spectrum to Verizon, but also gave the telco the right to bundle their wireless service with the cable triple play. Comcast is wasting no time moving ahead with the offers, last month bundling Verizon LTE service with cable TV, broadband and VoIP service in Seattle and Portland. They've now extended the quadruple play offer to the San Francisco area, where customers who sign up for wireless bundles can get prepaid Visa cards:Bay Area consumers who sign up for a bundled service plan from Comcast and for new service from Verizon Wireless are eligible to receive a prepaid Visa card worth up to $300 under a marketing plan the companies plan to launch Wednesday. The amount of the discount depends on the number of Comcast services consumers subscribe to.
Right now the gift card offer isn't particularly thrilling, but Verizon and the cable companies say the deal will expand in time to offer new video and other services that work across both cable landline and the Verizon wireless network.
Competitors and consumer advocates continue to worry the new deal could spell competitive trouble, given that it brings the budgets and power of two of the nation's largest telecom companies to bear on smaller competitors. The deal must be particularly unnerving to a company like Frontier Communications, who gobbled up billions in Verizon debt and old landline networks, only to have Verizon return to their territory arm-in-arm with Comcast offering LTE services that are faster than many Frontier DSL offerings.
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Anti-Competitive Wireless Measures Buried in Payroll Tax - Buried Amendments Take Aim at Competitors, White Spaces
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 5:43am MST
Michael Weinberg over at Public Knowledge points out that several awful amendments are being shoveled into the upcoming Payroll Tax bill that could significantly impact wireless broadband. The FCC's current network neutrality rules (at Google and Verizon request), don't really cover net neutrality, and one amendment by Representative Marsha Blackburn would ensure neutrality rules could never be applied to wireless. Another, pushed by AT&T, aims at preventing the FCC from trying to ensure smaller competitors get easier access to spectrum while preventing anti-competitive incumbent spectrum squatting.
A third, notes Weinberg, takes aim at White Space broadband, in what's only the latest in a series of incumbent efforts to crush this technology before it gets off the ground and threatens their finances:One of the greatest boons of the transition from analog to digital TV broadcasting was supposed to be the creation of unlicensed whitespaces or super-wifi. This new spectrum which is much better at communicating long distances and through walls than current wifi spectrum would be used cooperatively by everyone and usher in a new era of wireless devices. However, a third amendment would destroy the FCC s power to allocate some of this great spectrum for unlicensed uses. That means that opportunity would simply pass us by.
It's somewhat obvious that all three are the brain children of incumbent telcos eager to prohibit any effort to instill greater competition in the wireless market while further weakening the FCC's ability to actually regulate. On a related note, Rep. Thomas Marino is pushing a bill that hopes to "end the practice of including more than one subject in a single bill by requiring that each bill enacted by Congress be limited to only one subject." Ironically, "and for other purposes" is tacked on to the end of that bill's description.
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FCC Focuses Lifeline Program on Broadband - Changes They Claim Will Save $2 Billion Over 3 Years
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 5:32am MST
The FCC yesterday voted to make several changes to the agency's Lifeline subsidy program, revamping it away from voice services and focusing it on bringing broadband to additional U.S. households. Like the USF program, the FCC's Lifeline program has seen its fair share of abuse and waste over the years, something the FCC hopes to avoid with a few changes they say will save the government up to $2 billion over 3 years. Among them is a new National Lifeline Accountability Database aimed at preventing subsidies from being given to multiple phone carriers on behalf of the same individual (imagine that). The full release outlines some of the other additional changes, including changes in data collection that may also help reduce use of the program as an unaccountable telco subsidy party.
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Bright House Now Offering Direct Support in Our Forums - Private Support From Certified Bright House Technicians
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 5:24am MST
Bright House Communications has joined a growing number of broadband ISPs that have decided to offer private, direct support to users right here in the Broadband Reports forums. Now in addition to finding help and information from other users in our public Bright House forum, users who need more personal support for technical or billing issues can post their problems in the Bright House direct forum. The forum gives users a secure, private environment to discuss account information directly with certified Bright House support representatives. You can view our growing list of ISPs that are now offering official support via Broadband Reports here, and we're working on adding additional ISPs all the time.
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Wednesday Morning Links -
Posted: February 1st, 2012, 4:14am MST
Broadband-based Comcast enters home-security market long tied to land lines denverpost.com
A Virtual MSO Shall Rise, Boxee CEO Says lightreading.com
The Wi-Fi revolution shows how far the FCC is behind the curve wsj.com
Comcast To Widen Low-Income Broadband Program, Double Speeds multichannel.com
Voom Get Big Lift In Lawsuit Against Dish;
Judge Upholds Ruling That Satellite-TV Provider Destroyed Evidence In Breach Case multichannel.com
First Image of a BlackBerry 10 Superphone!! crackberry.com
Joel Tenenbaum, blah blah blah, piracy, blah blah blah, DoJ backs RIAA in (never-ending) case torrentfreak.com/
Light At The End of The Tunnel For Clearwire fool.com
3G confusion: Are phone users stupid, or just uninformed ? electricpig.co.uk
Samsung in hot water with EU over 3G FRAND patent lawsuits arstechnica.com
Redbox Puts the Kibosh on WB s 56-day Waiting Period gizmodo.com
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