Directory —
Technology —
Blog Details for "Third Pipe"
Third PipeThird PipeThird pipe is alternative information resource about the state broadband communications and a strong advocate of establishing a third broadband pipe to increase competition and improve service. Articles
More disappointing data on US broadband
2008-05-20 22:42:00 So many chances to improve things have passed since I began this blog almost a year ago that should have changed things. Sadly so little has changed. In fact the Telcos gained nearly complete control of the new wireless spectrum set aside for broadband. New data bears out that the state of American broadband ... More About: Broadband , Data
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
2008-05-20 16:22:00 In what has to be the most galling of lies, Comcast has been caught again. But first lets set the stage for why. Comcast in a informational filing before the Commission made the statement that they only block P2P traffic when conditions warrant the necessity – As described in detail below, Comcast manages the use ... More About: Pants , Fire , Liar
AT&T and Comcast test the limits of tired old infrastructure with new servi
2008-05-20 05:22:00 With last mile infrastructure that should be on life support, AT&T and Comcast keep nursing it along instead of just laying fiber. Never mind the fact they’ll need to do it soon anyway. The dead end comes with pair / coax bonding techniques and not every customer has 2 usable pairs / cables. Comcast over ... More About: Infrastructure , Limits , Test , Tired
Investing in the enemy? Comcast becomes a P2P stakeholder.
2008-05-19 22:03:00 What’s this? After telling us the P2P traffic is the arch nemesis of all things good on their network, Comcast investing in a P2P video delivery network. Seattle-based GridNetworks on Monday said that Comcast would make an unspecified investment in the company and collaborate on developing so-called peer-to-peer file-sharing techniques that are “friendly” to Internet ... More About: Investing , Enemy , The Enemy , Stakeholder
After user generated media, are user generated apps the next wave?
2008-05-19 21:25:00 Entire new businesses and communities have been built around user generated media. While the devoted amateur could always find a way, the declining cost of good production tools along with the ease of web distribution brought UGM to the masses. The blog you are reading now was enabled by a collection of free and easy ... More About: Media , User , Wave , Cloud Computing
My Vonage nightmare continues?
2008-05-19 17:18:00 First, I want to say that I was a happy Vonage customer for 4 years. The only reason I chose to leave them was I got a better deal. Leaving is the rub. Even after you leave, Vonage keeps on billing, and they resurrect dead service without notice. This company is technically a good ... More About: Nightmare
Qwest to the feds: Give us some money!
2008-05-19 15:17:00 After being defanged for some time in the legal quagmire of being punished for operating illegally, the evil Q is making a comeback. The boated, inefficient, yet predatory regional monopoly the began life as a well meaning fiber backbone company and lost its way by merging with an RBOC now wants more from the ... More About: Regulation , Money , Give , Qwest , Rural
Telco shareholders take note: The cable guy is beating you!
2008-05-19 02:04:00 While the mantra of the AT&T’s management keeps telling us that consumers don’t want more bandwidth, consider this: cable companies are adding customers at a faster clip than they are. Cable operators added a collective 1.3 million telephone customers in the first quarter, slightly ahead of the 1.2 million the industry added in the fourth ... More About: Shareholders , Note , Content , Telco
LiMo vs Android, the Analysis
2008-05-17 19:06:00 With Verizon’s announcement to join the LiMo group we have a battle royal starting to develop between them and Android . Ironically LiMo is the incumbent if you figure longevity. Now I could sit down and run off the TBar analysis but MobileCrunch has already done such a nice job why waste their thunder? My only ... More About: Analysis , Limo
Cable: they keep talking but, they?re still blocking
2008-05-17 05:17:00 While the cable industry led by Comcast has slithered into the ambulance chaser never land of redefining language to fit questionable business practice, the studies we keep seeing say they are still blocking their subscribers’ traffic. This kind of up is down and wrong is right mumbo jumbo-ing of language is something the Telco’s ... More About: Net Neutrality , Talking , Cable , Keep Talking
Time Warner to Get New CEO?
2008-05-16 23:42:00 Parsons who is the current head of Time Warner has indicated that he will most likely leave that post by the end of the year. So another of the old guard are leaving the telcom fold. At this rate we might have to start a ‘Dead Pool’ website just to keep up with all ... More About: Time Warner
The broken Wifi business model?s latest casualty: MetroFi
2008-05-16 22:46:00 You’ve seen this said time and time again on this blog, if you want to do get Wifi working in your city either the city needs to build it using existing funds to do an existing job like meter reading or internal IT, or they need to stay out all together. Successful Wifi networks ... More About: Business , Model , Casualty , Broken
The Concept of ?Open? Takes a Twist
2008-05-16 22:33:00 Verizon has made two decisons – Linux will be its handset platform of choice. The joined the LiMo alliance rather than the Android consortium. Funny, Linux wins either way, which is good I guess. But this does put up an interesting twist to the argument for ‘open device access’ in the 700mhz space. Contrived I know, but ... More About: Wireless , Open , Concept , Twist
Charter to do Ad Targeting to Customer Base
2008-05-16 22:22:00 Well now it looks like Charter Comm is going to start doing targeted ads based on customer searches. Earth shaking? No. Google already does this. And I fully expect Google to pursue this at the wireless end as well. But the think is we are getting to the point that we are not far from ... More About: Customer , Base , Targeting
?Shall We Play a Game??
2008-05-16 21:57:00 In a turnabout, the judge in the Thomas-RIAA case is indicating a new trial for the case. His cover is that he erred in procedural instructions to the jury. My gut says the judge is having second thoughts having reviewed other cases and assessment of the ‘distribution’ component of Copyright law. – The federal judge who ... More About: Play , Content , Game , Intellectual Property , Litigation
Slapp, KaChing! Verizon Takes it on the Chin
2008-05-16 21:32:00 We have reported here the semi-strike by the Florida Verizon field staff in not being permitted to work on POTS services sufficiently. It looks like the FLA AG is agreeing with them to the tune of a $6.5m fine. You can repair a heck of a lot of equipment for that fee. – TAMPA - Florida’s ... More About: Regulation , States
RIAA Loses A Piece of One
2008-05-15 23:26:00 Yes folks were talking the Tanya Anderson case. The one where RIAA accused her of downloading files even though she does not have sharing software loaded and their own expert testified that she had not done so. The outcome is that the RIAA must pay $108,000 in legal fees so far. The class action suit, ... More About: Piece , Riaa , Litigation
Comcast?s fix for tired infrastructure and lousy customer service? Buy Plax
2008-05-15 22:33:00 If you’re foolish enought to be holding Comcast stock, get ready to take a hit. If you’re a Comcast broadband customer, they have a message for you: They’ve already invested enough in taking care of you and are moving on to bigger and better things. Since many Comcast customers have no alternative, we send our ... More About: Customer Service , Service , Customer , Infrastructure
?D? Block Process Begins
2008-05-15 19:45:00 If at first you don’t succeed, ask for more feedback. Or at least that is how the FCC is proceeding with the reauctioning of the ‘D’ block that did not sell the first time around. But that is not a knock, but how the FCC must proceed as a Congressional functionary in the Federal Space. If ... More About: D-Block , Block , Process
Old grabs new: CBS to buy Cnet
2008-05-15 19:00:00 Old media giant CBS has been busy creating and buying content as well as making programming available online for some time now. If successful in taking over Cnet, they may well become to 2000 pound gorilla in the online content space. “There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like ... More About: Content
The Philadelphia Story Closing its Doors.
2008-05-15 01:44:00 Well we should say Earthlink is closing its doors to the Muni deal it had with Philadelphia . We will go on record that we think that Muni WiFi is still a viable model. But the business arrangement that was sign on to was flawed. The presence of Philly politics did not help much either. But ... More About: Wireless , Story , Wifi , Municipalities
A Dumb Pipe What-If?
2008-05-15 01:00:00 We always keep saying here at ThirdPipe that dump pipe is the ‘thing’. We usually get slapped for it by our peers. Everyone thinks that content is critical. No doubt it is, because our second rule is nobody buys dumb pipe just for pipe. But there is a rational consideration for our position. We find ... More About: Wireless , Big Media , Dumb , Net Neutrality
Can You Hear Me Now!? Verizon?
2008-05-15 00:38:00 There is a little law that is intended to protect consumers from, shall we say less than equitble practicis of merchants and reporting agencies. For the second time now Verizon Wireless has been caught in a suit for failure to correct material misrepresentation on their part. Verizon Wireless has been hit with another Fair Credit ... More About: Hear , Litigation
The Belly of the Beast
2008-05-15 00:30:00 Here is a lovely set of discourse from a T-Mobile customer. The audio is — powered by ODEO This is a rather longish audio recording just to let you know. the customer’s problem? His brand new blackberry came with a bum battery. So he wanted a replacement battery sent. T-Mobile’s solution — send back the whole ... More About: Wireless , Belly , Beast
Virgin Media preps for 50MBPS roll out in UK
2008-05-14 21:53:00 The rials are over and the roll out is set to begin. large numbers of UK residents will soon have what all but a few US residents dream about. of course, there is a more competitive environment in the UK and politicans are much more limited by law in accepting largess from the lobby. The ... More About: Media , Roll , Virgin , Virgin Media
HP and EDS merge. Is it about the cloud?
2008-05-13 14:53:00 If you’ve been following trends, the next big thing is utility computing in the cloud. It appears HP is interested in improving their cloud position, at least in the enterprise services market. We predict infrastructure on demand from HP is on the horizon, with more cloud based services to come. HP said the deal, which ... More About: Cloud , Merge , The Cloud , Cloud Computing
Telco USF needs to end
2008-05-13 03:16:00 When established, the USF’s purpose was to provide costly infrastructure to deliver fixed line voice service to rural America. The infrastructure has been paid for, the cost of providing service continues to decline, and the cost of the USF contunies to grow. I rarely agree with Cnet’s Charles Cooper since he tends to like big government ... More About: Regulation , Telecom , Telco
The flight of Sprint?s customers continues
2008-05-13 02:57:00 Now that Sprint has completed the Wimax venture with Clearwire, Intel, Google and the Cable Guys, it’s well past time to take care of the remaining business. The bad news for Sprint is customer flight continues at an increased pace. Add this the to loss of resale customers via Qwest and it’s clearly well past ... More About: Customers , Flight
This Will Make Comcast Very Unhappy?Oh and the RIAA.
2008-05-12 21:29:00 Well there is a new P2P in town — Alliance. Has all the usual attributes of a P2P. But it does not stop there. First, it does not indiscriminately look for traffic partners. Those are set up by the Alliance participants. Sort of like a ‘Friends and Family Plan’ P2P. The second is the ... More About: Make , Comcast , Riaa
US broadband policy. What broadband policy?
More articles from this author:2008-05-12 20:15:00 Even if your only an occasional reader of the blog, you’ve probably seen one of my rants on the poor state of American broadband. In fact, it was the state of US broadband that inspired the founding of this blog. I always take great pleasure in reading another blog’s declaration of the poor state of US ... More About: Broadband , Regulation , Policy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
|
