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Proof Congress is clueless when it comes to broadband access
2008-04-30 23:10:00
The man pictured at the left is Senator Robert Byrd, all time champion and reigning king of the pork barrel and earmarks. Senator Byrd has successfully driven more federal spending per capita to his home state than any other elected representative in history. West Virginia is home to boundless interstate highways and federal office ...
More About: Congress , Broadband , Regulation , Proof , Access

Tim Warner to spin off Time Warner cable
2008-04-30 15:22:00
Here’s more proof that the content and access businesses don’t mix well under the same corporate roof. Time Warner is splitting off its cable services division, the company said Wednesday. Time Warner currently owns around 84 percent of Time Warner Cable . The media giant, which has been struggling of late, has been rumored to be discussing ...
More About: Spin

Why is My Heart Monitor Showing Beverly Hillbillies?
2008-04-30 02:55:00
Just kidding but like the disaster that will be the DTV transition, it now appears that we have an issue with wireless health monitors. Now CNet paints a picture of possible problems. We don’t doubt that might be true. But CNet also paint a picture of a ‘woe is the hospital’ when in fact companies ...
More About: Wireless , Heart , Monitor , Beverly

Mature Market Effect
2008-04-29 22:21:00
With somewhere around 96% penetration amoung American households the only way to grow a business is to steal customers. Verizon and AT&T have been very successful at this to the expense of Sprint and T-Mobile. But it also means that slowly the customer is becoming more important. Case in point, taking a page out of ...
More About: Market , Effect , Mature

Escape is Possible
2008-04-29 22:01:00
Alright you have a Verizon Wireless contract and you want OUT. Well they have upped their administrative fee again. Well that is a material change in your contract. Yes you can get out for a change of .15c. Consumerist has the whole process here. Play it right an you will be able to leave ...
More About: Escape

Get a Head
2008-04-29 21:15:00
Yeees. You got it. In the Web 2.0 world it is now possible to know exactly where a toilet is located. The website is sponsored by Imodium, the gastric product. I am detecting a trend here. It has been that sponsorships of websites have been on a per click basis. But I am starting ...
More About: Content , Head

While the old media sinks in their own quicksand, blogging continues to gro
2008-04-29 18:34:00
There is a paradigm shift taking place before our eyes. Vertical, centralized, command and control organizations are in decline. This is largely due to cheap universally available information, thanks to the internet. As reported here earlier, the daily newspaper in most cities is dying. The media communications agency has published its Wave 3 report, after ...
More About: Media , Blogging , Sinks

Verizon to investors: FIOS is doing so well that we?re raising prices ? aga
2008-04-29 15:14:00
Dear FCC and Congress: Tell me again how the marketplace has become competitive enough to dump local loop unbundling. Darth V’s FIOS product faces so little competition in either speed or price, that they’ve been able to incrementally bump prices on a regular schedule. The average big bundle FIOS customer pays around $150 for what ...
More About: Verizon , Investors , Prices

The Trees Can Breathe Easier
2008-04-29 01:47:00
The pulp news sources continue their slide to oblivion. Of 10 pulp dailies, only the Wall Street Journal showed an increase in readership. NYT, LAT and WashPost showed steep declines. The body count. – The New York Post lost over 3% daily and more than 8% on Sunday. Daily circulation at The Orange County Register plunged 11.9% ...
More About: Content , Trees , Breathe

A longer wait in store for power line broadband. ARRL ties up FCC in the co
2008-04-28 23:31:00
Something’s wrong when the FCC can run a near sham auction and award most of the wireless spectrum to two incumbent monopolies only to have their BPL regulations overturned by a handful of hobbyists. Then again in the auction, billions were collected, and the judge that’s holding BPL up is probably an ARRL member. Reality ...
More About: Power , Broadband , Store , Courts , Line

Verizon Wireless adds 1.5 mil subs. Could it be the flat rate effect?
2008-04-28 23:22:00
Unlike the van to the left, V’s wireless unit hasn’t flamed out yet. To the contrary it grew quite a bit according to the company’s internally generated data. We think they picked up / retained a good many customers with the flat rate plan that they were the first to roll out. But, it’s ...
More About: Wireless , Verizon , Verizon Wireless , Effect , Rate

FireFox Usage Expands Worldwide
2008-04-28 19:26:00
A nex report by Xiti indicates that Firefox browser has gained market share in most areas of the globe except for the US which had a small drop in March. Biggest gains are int eh New Europe countries like Poland. The most stalwart use being in Australia. According to Xiti, Internet Explorer has lost ...
More About: Worldwide , Usage , Cloud Computing

Diversity broadcasting proponent NPR lobbies against diversity
2008-04-28 00:15:00
It seems that NPR only supports diversity in programming if it is diversity by their definition and broadcast on their licensed frequencies. For now FM spectrum has become scarce, and NPR wants to grow. When FM transitions into digital, it will be possible to offer more programming in less spectrum, but NPR wants to ...
More About: Media , Diversity , Content , Broadcasting

France now requires fiber prewire in new multi family construction
2008-04-25 23:14:00
In the race to find affordable, highly usable broadband, it’s we Americans, not the French who are like the bumbling inspector from the Pink Panther movies. France is now requiring fiber prewire in new multi family units. We’ve never been in favor of heavy handed government regs, but it’s clear that the French regard ...
More About: Family , Fiber , Construction , Multi

Get On With It!
2008-04-25 21:37:00
RCR is reporting that the ‘D’ block that did not sell in the 700mhz auction will most likely be reauctioned AGAIN before the end of the year. We have taken the position to pass on this private-public partnership. Or shall we say, alter the nature of the private participation side of the equation. Our answer ...

I Don?t Get it
2008-04-25 20:39:00
Lets roll the clock back 20 years. Its 1988. Cell phone has only been in existence a year or so. But plain ole POTS as still rocking and Avante Garde was ISDN. We know how that all worked out. But that is not the question, so relax. The question is do you trust your providers ...
More About: Verizon , Sprint

Growing in the cloud, Yahoo opens more API?s
2008-04-25 16:35:00
We’re seeign more and more signs that Yahoo really does have a clue about computing in the cloud. On thursday, CTO Ari Balogh annouce they are opening more API’s. “We are taking open to a whole other place,” Balogh said. “We are rewiring Yahoo from the inside out with a developer platform that will open ...
More About: Growing , Cloud , The Cloud , Yahoo!

Microsoft 3Q in the Tank
2008-04-25 04:19:00
For those that don’t know Microsoft they do not follow a calendar year. Hence Jan-Mar is their 3Q. Regardless it is dismal for Uncle Bill. Profit is off 11% same period last year. Which begs the question is the downturn a reflection of dismal Vista or stupid Yahoo? Regardless Microsoft is feeling the squeeze. Gross ...
More About: Tank

Nextwave to sell off 184 AWS licenses
2008-04-25 03:51:00
Want your shot at building a nearly national wireless network to compete with the diuopoply? You could get your chance if you have the necessary cash. NextWave Wireless announced Thursday that it has asked two investment banking firms to explore the possibility of selling its extensive spectrum holdings that cover most of the United States.”We ...
More About: Sell , Licenses

Mozilla?s Prism simplifies building webtop apps
2008-04-25 03:38:00
Webtop apps or cloud based apps that run in a browser are the new wave of killer apps. Instead of monolithic applications built for the masses, the masses are building their own mass and micro market apps. New tools continue to make this easier. The Mozilla foundation’s Prizm is one such tool. The following ...
More About: Building , Prism , Cloud Computing

Qwest rolls out 20MBPS service in select markets
2008-04-24 20:30:00
Qwest formally announced their anticipated FTTN service for 23 markets today. The price is high and availability was not clearly defined in the press release. Here’s a few highlights: Qwest Connect Quantum: This is a premium fiber-optic Internet service with connection speeds of up to 20 Mbps, for lightning-quick broadband access for a bundled price ...
More About: Markets , Service , Qwest , Select

Ebay sues Craigs List for unilaterally diluting share value
2008-04-24 00:02:00
There must be a full moon shining over monopolistic corporate management these days. Internet marketplace monopolist Ebay is hurt that Craigs List management unilaterally diluted the value of their shares without asking them first. It sounds like to pot calling the kettle black when you consider how careless Ebay management has been with shareholder ...
More About: Share

Comcast accuses AT&T of interfering with thier network.
2008-04-23 22:44:00
We always knew that Comcast ’s suits were pining for one of our coveted foil hat awards. Well after many failed attempts they’ve finally earned one . They are accusing AT&T if causing intereference by intermingling wiring inside of residences. The only way that this could happen is using an ...
More About: Network

Court says your data is private unless it?s on your laptop
2008-04-23 22:32:00
Think twice about taking your laptop on international flights. Even if you have a backup, your personal and business data is at risk of being shared as it has to be surrendered to border officials. That will make it much safer to rent or borrow a computer at your destination vs carry. A thumb drive ...
More About: Security , Laptop , Data , Private , Court

Open Colloboration Movie Production
2008-04-23 17:52:00
Finland. Fron the same folks that produced Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning now comes a virtual production studio. They have developed a collaborative creation platform for film. Barrier to entry? None. Just join and provide your talents. The Star Wreck Studios team, based in Tampere, Finland, has built a virtual studio for Iron Sky ...
More About: Movie , Open Source , Open , Content , Production

MetaPlace. Steroid Meetings
2008-04-23 17:23:00
Ever heard of second life? The full immersion virtual world? Ever wish you could build your own environment? And if you could do that why not build a virtual meeting world on steroids? Well that time looks like it is about there — MetaPlace. Right now it looks pretty crude. Hey its beta code. But the ...
More About: Content , Meetings

Carrier net management vendor says P2P is more like 20% of traffic
2008-04-23 04:48:00
When you have a small number of competitors in a business, like the US has in the broadband access business, providers tend to create artificial scarcity and ration service. It’s almost a natural law. another one of those oddly natural laws is the 80 / 20 rule. 80% of users of any product will use 20% of a resource and 20% will use 80% of a resource. I matters not if it’s free refills on coffee, or the beer that is bought and paid for by the bottle, it holds true for both. It’s also true of bandwidth usage and should be expected by providers as a normal metric of their business. Om Malik recently interviewed Danny McPherson, CTO of Arbor Networks, a supplier of network-management and traffic-shaping tools to carriers. You would think he would naturally concur with the Comcast line that the majority of traffics is peer to peer, but his data includes some very unexpected numbers: The P2P stats are the ones that came as a complete surprise. Like you, I have read many...
More About: Management , Traffic

Caughtcha!!
2008-04-23 01:11:00
It appears that Comcast is not the only one play games with TCP resets on Torrents according to the blog Torrent Freak. Here be the list of expected offenders – ISP Country Reset % Comcast USA 23.72% Cogeco Canada 19.13% Emirates Internet UAE 17.86% Cablevision USA 17.58% Brasil Telecom Santa Catarina, Brazil 17.43% TM Net Malaysia 16.80% BellSouth USA 15.88% Tedata Egypt 15.33% Tiscali UK 14.89% AOL USA 14.88% If you are interested there is a plug in you can use to determine what is happening to your Torrent traffic. It is clear that Comcast is the leader but they are not alone as the table indicates.

Some Qwest customers to get faster ADSL speeds
2008-04-23 00:57:00
Qwest is offering 20MBPS DSL to some customers and is investing $300 million to bring it to a few more this year. Unlike AT&T who is pretty much devoting new bandwidth to deliver pay TV, Qwest will sell you the whole pipe as it were, but at a rather princely price: The price for 20Mbps/1Mbps service without phone service is $105, a price that jumps to $115 per month after a year. The price for 12Mbps/1Mbps service in that market is $52 a month, a price that jumps to $65 a month after 12 months. Still no official announcement from the company, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see it surface this week. (DSL reports)
More About: Customers , Adsl , Qwest

Skype Ups Ante, Lowers prices.
2008-04-22 01:00:00
Skype introduces an international Unlimited World plan for $9.95/mo, flat rate, no per minute surcharges. Now the plan is limited to most of what we would call 1st World countries like GB, Sweden, Japan, etc. So if you have family back in the old country and the plan has coverage you might want to consider this. Skype.
More About: Skype , Prices