I told you last week that Mediacom employees were saying that the company's new 20Mbps tier would be available by the end of June, and the company today made it official via press release. Mediacom is bumping the speed of their Mediacom Online Max tier from 15Mbps/1Mbps to 20Mbps/2Mbps at no additional cost. The tier currently costs customers $60/month if bundled with TV service, or $75/month without. On a conference call with investors and analysts last week, Mediacom stated the upgrade would be available to 98% of their customers by June's end.

According to Techcrunch, the folks at Mozilla are considering implementing a system that tracks user browsing. At the moment, your online activity is tracked in three ways: software installed on user PCs (Alexa, for example); data taken from websites; and ISPs selling user data (something they don't like to talk about).

Last February, Japan launched their Ka-band WINDS (Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite, aka Kizuna) satellite with the hope of using it to provide broadband country-wide at all times, particularly during disasters or Godzilla attack. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency is currently conducting successful tests on the satellite, which by July should provide Japanese homes with speeds up to 155Mbps (businesses could see up to 1.2Gbps). Initial tests seem very promising:Technically it was two 622Mbps channels, but Kizuna is still kicking the hell out of HughesNet's Spaceway-3 and taking its lunch money.

Behavioral advertising companies like NebuAD place deep packet inspection hardware on the ISP network, which monitors which sites you visit and for how long. ISPs then get paid for this data, which is then used to deliver customized ads to subscribers.

Several users direct my attention to a post by Canadian law professor Michael Geist. In it, Geist notes that his Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) has filed a privacy complaint (pdf) with the Privacy Commissioner claiming the use of deep packet inspection technology (DPI) is a privacy violation. DPI technology is now being used in everything from piracy filters to behavioral advertising, but in Bell Canada's case, they're using it to identify and throttle P2P traffic. But the group says Bell isn't informing customers:Keep in mind that while DPI hardware does "snoop" through packets, it has a broad range of uses. It's the communication with customers (or lack thereof) about the use of such gear that has CIPPIC upset (much like the FCC/Comcast fight).

Looking closely at new incumbent anti-piracy plans, the passage of the new Pro-IP Act and the new P4P Working Group, you'll notice we've entered a new era of copyright-enforcement where ISPs plan to play a much greater role in protecting copyright law. ISPs used to claim they didn't want the liability associated with being Internet content police.

With the exception of the marketing saps who came up with the soon-to-be-scrapped Xohm brand, people are excited about Sprint's new WiMax joint venture. But don't forget that Sprint has other problems to worry about.

Charter Communications is traditionally considered the black sheep of this industry, thanks to a massive debt load and consistently poor customer service. Still, their latest quarterly earnings hint at a slight financial improvement at the company. Their quarterly net loss shrank to $358 million from $381 million a year ago, with sales jumping 10.5% to $1.56 billion (85,700 new broadband customers on the quarter). I'm thinking that any company that can convince someone to pay $70,000 for potentially just a few years of broadband service, should have the skill set to correct their financial misfortunes -- but bankruptcy or company sale rumors usually pop up twice a year or so.

Last week I noted that Electronic Arts was launching a new copy protection system that, for the first time ever, would have made owning an Internet connection mandatory in order to play their PC games. The initial version of the DRM required the user's copy "phone" EA every ten days.

Last summer I noted that Verizon was confusing customers under contract by sending them letters that suggested their FiOS rates would be rising. The reality is that while Verizon has been continually raising rates for new FiOS (and FiOS TV) customers, Verizon cannot raise your rates while under contract.

I'll apologize ahead of time for the lame puns, and note that the town of Bournemouth is the first town in the UK to use sewer lines to help deliver broadband services. More than 88,000 homes will now have access to fiber thanks to a $58 million project by H20 Networks.

Sprint doesn’t want anything to get in the way of the company’s plans to merge with Clearwire to build a massive WiMax network. Anticipating potential hassle from wireless service provider iPCS, Sprint has made the first move and asked a judge to declare that the new network does not violate any exclusivity agreements that the company has with iPCS. Sprint has cause for concern considering the history of the companies; iPCS won in court after the company sued over exclusivity violations when Sprint acquired Nextel. However, Sprint believes that the fact that the WiMax network is on a different frequency from the wireless network should negate any exclusivity issues. Should the court issue the declaration that Sprint seeks, Sprint would avoid future court battles with iPCS over the issue.

If there was any doubt that online advertising works, that doubt is diminished with the findings of a new study which show that fifty five percent of America’s “business elite” will make a purchase based on an Internet ad. This group of people is making high-end personal purchases as well as bulk purchases for their businesses which means that they’re flooding the market with their money. While they still rely heavily on print media and network TV, their buying is beginning to be highly influenced by digital media (especially via email and broadband video). This makes these people the target for advanced digital marketing efforts as well as for the growing interest in cell phone marketing.

Taking a cue from recent efforts by a small Las Vegas television station, the FCC has plans to test out the switch to digital television as part of a goal to make sure that all consumers are ready for the change. The test will take place in North Carolina television markets in September and is designed to shed some light on any remaining concerns that exist about the transition. Broadcasters in the area will shut off their analog signals on September 8th in order to determine whether TV consumers who still use rabbit ears realize that they’re going to lose service in February. The National Association of Broadcasters agrees that the test is a good idea but warns that results will need to be reviewed carefully to determine whether or not they really apply on the national level.

As in-flight broadband becomes a reality, concerns continue to be raised about how to monitor and control the use of the service. Concerns have included that customers would talk excessively on VoIP services and browse porn while seated next to children.

Cell phone spam is on the rise with one prediction being that wireless customers are going to receive one and a half billion unsolicited text messages this year (double what the rate was for 2006). Wireless companies have been accused of supporting phone spam because they make a profit off of those people without text message plans who receive these messages.

Congress has been considering a bill called the PRO-IP Act since late last year and the House of Representatives has now decided to pass that bill. The bill, heavily supported by RIAA and MPAA, originally had a controversial section which would allow for fines on compilation CDs to be unusually excessive.

It appears that several mid-sized VoIP companies are failing to realize their potential and being edged out of the market. One of the biggest of these companies is Jangl, a VoIP business that began by offering anonymized online calling and then moved on to the development of click-to-call VoIP widgets for social networking sites.

An analyst with In-Stat has released information about a problem that most people are already aware of – the difficulty of getting 3G coverage for mobile broadband inside of many homes. The analyst confirms that macro-level solutions are not the way to go in solving this problem and says that companies instead need to look at developing base stations that can boost indoor coverage. We’re already seeing that take place with the development of femtocell technology. What’s interesting about this article is that it also points out the benefits of microcell and picocell technology. These two technologies are used today to boost Wi-Fi in small areas (such as sporting events) and play a key role in the development of femtocell technology.

BitTorrent tracker TorrentSpy was punished with one of the largest fines in copyright infringement history ($111 million) after a lengthy battle with the MPAA last year. TorrentSpy’s lawyer wants people to know that the business is bankrupt (after closing shop in March) and won’t actually be paying the fine.