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TV cord cutting is already occurring at the fastest rate on record, and Wall Street research firm Kagan predicts that the the cable industry will lose another 10.8 million more subscribers by 2021. That will still leave the traditional cable industry with 82.3 million subscribers, but that would be a massive 20% reduction from the industry's peak. In contrast, the firm predicts that streaming options like Sling TV and Playstation Vue will quickly begin to go "mainstream," and have 11 million users collectively by 2021.

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"Changing viewing habits point to mounting losses for traditional video services, and challengers are lining up to capitalize," the firm notes. "However, the operators are not without significant fortifications enabling expectations for preserving a majority share in the five-year outlook."

One of those "fortifications" against the rising cord cutting tide would be to actually seriously compete on price, something major cable operators love to pay lip service to, but still have struggled to adopt. Charter, for example, has been raising cable TV rates upwards of 40% in the wake of its acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. As a result, Charter lost another 100,000 traditional pay TV customers last quarter.

Analysts estimate that the pay TV sector lost a record 762,000 pay-TV subscribers last quarter -- roughly five times more than the total number of lost subscribers during the same quarter the year before. Dish Network lost 143,000 subscribers, even when the company's Sling TV additions were figured in. AT&T lost 266,000 subscribers during the same period, again not offset by additions to its DirecTV Now streaming service.

Analysts predict cord cutting will set another record this quarter, with most predicting subscriber losses of more than 1 million.

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Mediacom has launched a major renovation of the company's support centers in the hopes of shoring up the company's traditionally horrible reputation for customer service (see our user reviews). Mediacom is technically ranked as the worst cable TV company in America according to the latest ratings by the American Customer Service Index.

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T-Mobile today announced that the company has begun deploying faster speeds -- via LTE-U technology -- in select cities nationwide. A company announcement indicates that LTE-U -- which uses publicly available 5 GHz airwaves to bolster existing LTE capacity and speeds -- has gone live in six markets: Bellevue, WA; Brooklyn, NY; Dearborn, MI; Las Vegas, NV; Richardson, TX; and Simi Valley, CA.

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Cox continues to slowly but surely expand unnecessary usage caps and overage fees. DSLReports.com readers in New Orleans have written in to note that Cox has informed them via e-mail that they'll soon be paying significantly more money for the exact-same service.

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Users in our Charter/Spectrum forum discuss what happens when you're accused of piracy by your ISP (or more accurately an entertainment-industry funded group that forwards a complaint to your ISP), but didn't download the copyright-protected work in question.

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Cable providers have quietly pulled the plug on a plan they proposed to address concerns about the high cost of renting a cable box. You might recall that the former FCC last year proposed a new plan that would have required cable providers to offer their programming on third-party hardware -- without the need for a cable box.

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A push to change telemarketing law to allow the use of "ringless voicemail" has been killed after fierce public opposition to the idea. A company named "All About the Message" and a number of other advertising companies had been petitioning the FCC to change the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to allow the option, which would let telemarketers leave marketing voicemails in your inbox without your phone ringing. The TCPA currently prohibits such calls without the "prior express consent of the called party," a provision supporters insisted was "archaic" and needed changing.

But consumers weren't having it, and the FCC and other supporters of the effort received an earful.

As a result, All About the Message quietly withdrew its petition to the FCC in a very brief letter (pdf, hat tip Ars Technica).

The push had the support from the US Chamber of Commerce and Republican National Committee, which had tried to argue it was their first Amendment right to annoy consumers in this fashion. The FCC's failure to allow an exemption for ringless voicemail "would not only restrict an important form of non-intrusive communication; it would have serious consequences for the First Amendment rights of those engaged in political communication via telephone," claimed the RNC.

Consumer advocate groups, several attorneys general and a handful of Democratic Senators opposed the rule change, which could obviously surface again down the road.

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Sprint and Softbank have put any merger talk with T-Mobile on hold. Why? Charter and Comcast are apparently considering a deal of their own with the wireless company.

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Sprint has relaunched the company's Virgin Mobile prepaid service, and now only provides iPhone connectivity via the option. The company's revamped website notes the prepaid brand is running a promo providing a year of "unlimited" data for $1 to users who buy an iPhone and port their number to the company's new Inner Circle plan by July 31, or to current Virgin users who upgrade to an iPhone. Users need to shell out anywhere from $279 for the iPhone SE -- to $770 for the iPhone 7 Plus. After the first year, unlimited service will run you $50 a month under the relaunched brand. These offers are only available via Virgin Mobile's website and at Apple retail stores.

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