• Speakeasy CEO talks VoIP success [networkworld.com]
• Comcast: ITV Ready For 50 Networks Later This Year; Targets 100% Deployment of EBIF in Motorola Footprint by Midyear [multichannel.com]
• FCC Plan Asks for Govt.-Funded Broadband Training [yahoo.com]
• Apple’s Draconian Secret iPhone Developer Agreement Goes Public [wired.com]
• Smartphone app botnet experiment blows up a storm [theregister.co.uk]
• New Internet Explorer code-execution attacks go wild [theregister.co.uk]
• It's official: Adobe Reader is world's most-exploited app [theregister.co.uk]
• Windows 7 SP1 will be brought forward [theinquirer.net]
• Iowa House OKs Cell Phone Ban for Young Drivers [wirelessweek.com]

The FCC has begun their sales pitch for the nation's first national broadband plan ahead of its formal unveiling next week. As we've been discussing, we haven't been too impressed by the plan's failure to tackle competition, or its tendency to make proclamations that sound good but are rather empty upon closer inspection.

According to a new 46 page Illinois study by a state Judge, Verizon's proposed sale of their networks in Illinois would harm consumers. The $8.5 billion deal immediately infuses Frontier, which has 2.3 million customers, with 4.8 million new residential and small-business phone lines and 1 million broadband connections.

Late last month Cisco began leaking word to media outlets that on March 9, they'd be "making a significant announcement that will forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, businesses and governments." Given the fact that the country was fawning over Google's new 1 Gbps fiber to the home trial announcement at the time, it seemed like Cisco was getting ready to announce some kind of significant counter punch.

Today's the day, so what was this Internet-changing, paradigm smashing announcement? According to Cisco, it's...a new router.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google continues to expand into, well, everything. The company is working in conjunction with Dish Network to test a Google-powered set top box based in part on the Android operating system.

Fresh off a suite of price hikes last fall that included an increase in the cable modem rental fee from $3 to $5 a month, Comcast is notifying customers they're raising prices again starting April 1. Many Comcast users are being sent these letters informing them that there's several new rate hikes for broadband and TV services starting April 1, including a hike in the cost of several of Comcast's lower-priced broadband tiers by $2 a month.

The "WiMax is dead, it just doesn't know it yet" crowd scored another talking point (even if wrong) against Mobile WiMax this week with the news that Cisco is going to stop developing and building WiMax gear. Cisco does provide equipment to Clearwire for their Mobile WiMax build, but only core hardware -- not radios.

AT&T's first foray into the business of offering Android-based phones isn't going particularly well, and it's pretty clear the company's general dislike of Google for their positions on competition, network neutrality and open access is spilling over into AT&T handset decisions. Last week AT&T launched their first Android phone (the Motorola Backflip), but pulled Google search from the device in favor of Yahoo.

• Treasury: Broadband Grants For Opex Taxed, Capex Not So Much [multichannel.com]
• Charter's Next Move: Grow, Shrink or Sell, What Happens Now Will Affect All of Cable [multichannel.com]
• WiMax Hitches a Ride on 1000 Taxis in Taipei [pcworld.com]
• Energizer warns of malware in battery chargers [v3.co.uk]
• Could Cisco be announcing a killer set-top box? [cnet.com]
• Google, Dish testing new TV search service: report [reuters.com]
• AT&T offers more detail on 3G capital investments [fiercebroadbandwireless.com]
• Navajo Nation May Get LTE Network [pcworld.com]
• Panasonic 3D TVs Arriving This Wednesday [pcworld.com]

• Making the most of 4G networks [fiercewireless.com]
• Rogers Boosts Internet Speeds for Select Markets [cable360.net]
• Verizon LTE Blazing Trails for Wireless Broadband [pcworld.com]
• Consumers In The Dark Over Their Broadband Speeds [npr.org]
• Verizon LTE test speed: 50 Mbps max [fiercewireless.com]
• Don't Blame Your Community: Ad Blocking Is Not Killing Any Sites [techdirt.com]
• Four Companies Join for Blu-ray Patent Licensing [cable360.net]
• Touchsreen Sales to Soar 97% in 2010 [internetnews.com]
• Stanford survey contemplates iPhone addiction [networkworld.com]

According to a new press statement from Verizon, the carrier is seeing peak download speeds of 40 to 50 megabits per second and peak upload speeds of 20 to 25 Mbps in the LTE (Long Term Evolution) wireless broadband tests they're conducting in Seattle and Boston. As we've already discussed however, real world speeds are going to be closer to between 5-10 Mbps downstream. Other than their announcement of peak speeds, there's really nothing new in Verizon's announcement: they're launching the service in 25-30 markets this year, but we still don't know what kind of pricing, caps or overages Verizon has planned for the service. Indications are that Verizon wants to employ some kind of usage-based billing model.

As we've repeatedly noted, a cornerstone of reliable 4G wireless broadband quality is going to be adequate backhaul. Most wireless carriers are rushing to improve backhaul ahead of plans to embrace HSPA+ and LTE service, and there's plenty of companies eager to make a profit from providing that needed bandwidth, including Time Warner Cable.

For years we've explored the difficulties of cancelling telecom services for the deceased. We've seen AOL go so far as to tell relatives that the deceased individual needs to call up and cancel themselves, though more commonly it's just a pain to cancel the deceased person's account unless you have the proper paperwork (sometimes the death certificate, sometimes it's a copy of the account holder's bills or lease).

Cablevision's 3.1 million customers got to watch the Oscars last night after all -- with ABC and Cablevision striking a last-minute deal that brought ABC back to the Cablevision lineup a few minutes after the Oscars began. As with Time Warner Cable's recent debate with Fox, ABC was looking to be paid a fee per subscriber just like pay cable channels.

It has been interesting watching Blockbuster video adapt to the broadband age, with the company seemingly not trying very hard -- either out of fear of cannibalizing their brick and mortar revenue, or just a general fear of losing control. Early efforts to mirror Netflix's success at broadband video delivery have seemed relatively lackluster, and the company's CEO, when announcing such broadband initiatives, seems to almost expect them to fail.

Prompted by Time Warner Cable's botched attempt to force low caps and metered billing on its customers, Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) in June of last year unveiled the "Broadband Internet Fairness Act" (HR 2902), legislation aimed at protecting consumers from unreasonable broadband overage charges. Massa, prompted by consumer complaints, stepped up during the Time Warner Cable kerfuffle to call the effort an "outrageous, job killing initiative." Massa's own job now appears at stake, as the lawmaker is poised to step down due to both a continued battle with cancer and an ethics probe involving some crude jokes made at a New Year's Eve party.

A number of legal experts, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, recently wrote a letter to the FCC complaining that the FCC's proposed network neutrality guidelines may not be enforceable in their current state. According to a new petition filed at the FCC by the EFF, the agency's proposals contain language loopholes that would allow carriers to engage in all manner of discriminatory behavior under the context of copyright enforcement. "Before the ink is dry on net neutrality regulations, we already see corporate lobbyists and 'public decency' advocates pushing for loopholes," said EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick. "A loophole like this could swallow network neutrality, with ISPs claiming copyright enforcement as a pretext for all sorts of discriminatory behavior."

• America's Most Wired Cities [forbes.com]
• The poor don't care about broadband? Of course they do [arstechnica.com]
• Net a “Fundamental Right,” Four Out of Five Say [gigaom.com]
• Home streaming is 'killing music' [theregister.co.uk]
• EU Apparently Agrees That ACTA Should Be More Transparent [techdirt.com]
• Jobs confirms no tethering between iPad and iPhone [knowyourmobile.com]
• Duluth willing to name children "Google" in order to get broadband internet [citypages.com]
• Will the FCC Interfere With Sirius XM Yet Again? [seekingalpha.com]

The weekend's here, and we're heading back into hibernation mode. Chat amongst yourselves in the comment section below.

• RCN To Be Acquired For $1.2 Billion [multichannel.com]
• FCC Proposing Moving Fund That Supports Universal Telephone Service to Broadband [multichannel.com]
• RIAA Claims File Sharers Are 'Undermining Humanitarian Efforts In Haiti' [techdirt.com]
• EFF files petition to close FCC net neutrality loophole [theinquirer.net]
• AT&T and Verizon drive largest industry growth in 3 years [electronista.com]
• Analyst: Possible MetroPCS-Leap merger not likely until 2011 [fiercewireless.com]
• Apple's iPad to Hit Store Shelves in April [internetnews.com]
• LiveJournal Accused Of Redirecting Links, Swiping Affiliate Fees [techdirt.com]