The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureau has recommended that Sprint stop running ads saying that the carrier has "America's most dependable 3G network." The recommendation comes after Verizon, fresh off of their lover's quarrel with AT&T, filed a complaint with the agency claiming that Sprint was using old data to support their claim. According to a NAD statement, Nielsen "drive test" data does confirm that Verizon's network has been more reliable of late:Sprint, which used both old and new Nielsen data to draw their conclusion, says they'll appeal the ruling. As we recently noted when discussing how ISPs have taken heat from NAD for advertising coax or DSL networks as "fiber," the NAD debate process often lacks "teeth," given the entire process is voluntary. ISPs can (and often do) simply ignore NAD's recommendations. NAD then forwards the complaint on to the FTC, which often subsequently ignores the advertising feud unless the claims made are particularly ridiculous (using Sprint's network results in large goiters!).

It's fairly common practice for cable carriers to blame their often bi-annual TV rate increases on the high costs their incur from broadcasters. Time Warner Cable appears poised to take this traditional tactic to a new level.

Back in June, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) launched their terms of service tracker, which keeps an eye on company TOS for any changes that might be of interest to consumers. At launch the tracker didn't track any broadband ISPs, something the EFF told us they'd correct. They have, and now track 56 companies, including Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Earthlink, T-Mobile and Sprint. The company has now announced that they've launched a new blog specifically dedicated to tracking company abuse of their customers through mouse print. The new resource tracks ongoing litigation and developments regarding AUP and TOS changes, and will provide white papers aimed at giving the average Internet user "a general background on many of the legal issues that surround Terms of Service agreements."

Since the project was announced, analysts have raised questions over whether Sprint and Clearwire's Mobile WiMax joint venture would have enough money to successfully fund a full deployment. Estimates to bring the service to 140 million POPs in fifty US markets ranged as high as $12 billion in some quarters, though Clearwire itself has always said they'd get the job done for considerably less.

TiVo's deals with cable operators and their recent DVR patent wins haven't done much to keep TiVo customers around. The company just suffered their worst quarter ever, losing 314,000 customers in three months. TiVo's market share (2.76 million) is now less than 8% of the estimated total 38 million US DVR households. TiVo would probably be helped greatly if Comcast would ever get around to their national TiVo deployment, but three years after the deal's announcement, TiVo for most Comcast customers is a nowhere to be found.

• UK Average mobile broadband speed only 0.87Mbits/sec [pcpro.co.uk]
• 3G wireless still holds promise [cnet.com]
• Iphone users sucking up half of the world's mobile networks' bandwidth [theinquirer.net]
• Clearwire Raises an Additional $920 Million for WiMAX Rollout [cellular-news.com]
• Infineon, Nokia agree to push LTE radios towards 1-Gbit/s [eetimes.com]
• Comcast sees more videos on-demand in NBC Universal [totaltele.com]
• San Fran Board Slated To Vote On Resolution Backing Network Neutrality [multichannel.com]
• Fring brings Skype video calls to mobile [theregister.co.uk]
• Apple wants life ban for clone maker Psystar [theregister.co.uk]

• FCC Wants More Input On Measuring Fixed Residential, Small Business Broadband [multichannel.com]
• Fox Studios calls for US to follow French anti-piracy law model [theinquirer.net]
• Sprint completes Virgin Mobile acquisition [fiercewireless.com]
• National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus asks Sprint to drop "Most Dependable" claim after Verizon objects [orlandosentinel.com]
• Expanding broadband Internet access subject of FCC chairman's talk in Arkansas [orlandosentinel.com]
• Mobile broadband may have problems identifying pirates [thinkbroadband.com]
• Rogers loses 'most reliable' title in B.C. court, says rival Telus [vancouversun.com]
• Hulu Telling Sites To Stop Embedding So Much [techdirt.com]
• Spam King Alan Ralsky Gets Four Years In Jail [techdirt.com]
• eBay offers compo for search failure [theregister.co.uk]

40% of the money consumers pay into the Universal Service Fund goes to fund the FCC's E-Rate program, which was designed to help deliver telecom services to unserved areas, and deliver broadband service to libraries. The program has doled out more than $25 billion since its inception in 1998, but as the government itself often acknowledges, the FCC has never really bothered to track how this money is spent.

Founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom of Skype and Kazaa fame, broadband video service Joost hoped to revolutionize the broadband video industry, but struggled with slow broadband speeds, internal turmoil and a contractually-limited catalog. Last winter, Joost ditched their P2P approach for a more Hulu-esque flash-based website approach, though it didn't help. The company has since shuttered their consumer service entirely -- hoping to develop video services for existing ISPs. The company had been shopping itself to ISPs but nobody was interested -- and today announced they'd be selling what's left of the company to online advertising outfit Adconion Media Group for an undisclosed amount.

After several weeks of bickering in the public eye between AT&T and Verizon, Apple this week jumped into the debate feet first with two new ads. The ads, like AT&T's new ads featuring actor Luke Wilson, try to brush aside Verizon's criticisms of AT&T 3G network coverage and performance by highlighting that AT&T iPhone users can browse the Internet and talk on the phone at the same time.

Glenn Fleishman directs our attention to the fact that despite the constant calls for in-flight broadband service, Portfolio notes that people just aren't interested in paying for it. Or at least that's the conclusion author Joe Brancatelli comes to, despite admitting in the piece that hard user numbers "are nearly impossible to come by." Neither the airlines or the major in-flight Wi-Fi players (Aircell and Row44) are willing to talk real numbers, though insiders are apparently willing to talk anonymously about a few things: story continues..

Earlier this month, the FCC, who's in the middle of designing a national broadband plan, issued a report (pdf) identifying seven major factors that are considered "critical gaps" preventing broader broadband deployment. Among the gaps identified are some correct and rather obvious ones, including the fact the USF doesn't fund broadband expansion, broadband may be unavailable or too expensive, spectrum is limited, or broadband is expensive to deploy.

Earlier this year we noted how companies like Verizon are very clearly turning away from rural America, creating a new niche for smaller "rural super telcos" to thrive. The merger of CenturyTel and Embarq creates one such company, but Windstream Communications is also picking up speed in this sector as well. Windstream recently acquired NuVox Communications, and was also rumored to be sniffing around the assets of bankrupt Fairpoint Communications. Windstream continues the trend today by announcing they're acquiring Iowa Telecom (and its 256,000 access lines, 95,000 broadband and 26,000 digital TV customers) for about $1.1 billion. Interestingly, the company has had money for acquisitions, but not for employees: the erosion of landline revenues recently resulted in a 3% workforce reduction.

Like Comcast, Time Warner Cable is reselling Clearwire Mobile WiMax service and bundling it with the company's existing broadband, TV and VoIP services. Back in October, the company indicated that they'd be launching their incarnation of the service starting December 1 in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Greensboro.

Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have written a letter to US Trade Rep Ron Kirk asking for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) documents to be made public. The secret negotiations with no outside input have been troublesome, given that leaked glimpses of the proposal indicate it involves everything from significant shift in copyright law to potential erosion of ISP safe harbor provisions and mandatory implementation of "three strikes" ISP requirements. Senators Sanders and Brown aren't buying the "state secret" excuse given by Uncle Sam:

• Broadband Plan Could Learn From Cable Labs Collaborative Model [multichannel.com]
• FCC Doesn't Think The Lack Of Competition Is A Major Barrier To Broadband? [techdirt.com]
• ISPA reveals broadband industry's filesharing concerns [cable.co.uk]
• T-Mobile and Orange UK Refuse to Share Mobile Broadband Spectrum [ispreview.co.uk]
• Spain warned on filesharing cut-offs [theregister.co.uk]
• Femtocells Aren’t Dead Yet! [gigaom.com]
• EU overcomes final hurdle for overhaul of telecom rules [totaltele.com]
• Google Tags TiVo For Set-Top Data [multichannel.com]

A few weeks ago, you might recall that Verizon decided they were going to raise their early termination fees for smartphone users from $175 to $300. You might also recall how this annoyed Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who wrote to both the FCC and Verizon to complain that the ETF hike was "anti-consumer and anti-competitive." Klobuchar is now apparently trying to put her legislation where her angst is. According to an exclusive report from The Hill, the Senator is unveiling a new bill taking aim at ETFs. Details are vague, but the bill would attempt to limit the size and scope of such fees. Klobuchar's previous efforts on this front weren't passed into law, but they did get carriers to voluntarily pro-rate (reduce the ETF each month you're under contract).

Charter Communications continues to battle with the company's lenders, who are trying to prevent the bankrupt cable company from exiting bankruptcy so they can appeal a court ruling approving the reorganization. Creditors have been fighting against Charter's reorganization plan all summer and fall, primarily because they don't like the pre-bankruptcy interest rates agreed to in the deal. "Hundreds of millions of dollars of additional interest and would put at peril the entire plan," Charter attorneys claim in court filings. Last week Charter executives indicated that a post-bankruptcy Charter would explore price hikes and metered billing for the company's customers.

Earlier this month we noted that Verizon had started offering a trio of new prepaid wireless broadband options for those of you who couldn't find an open Wi-Fi hotspot, simply hate contracts, and don't mind paying a steep premium for bandwidth. Verizon now offers a $15, 75MB "day pass" plan, a $30, 250MB "week pass" plan, or a $50, 500MB "month pass" plan.

AT&T continues their efforts to counter Verizon's recent uppercut series of ads making fun of the AT&T 3G network's limited footprint and sub-par performance. AT&T's been running three new ads that feature actor Luke Wilson mocking Verizon for the inability of its customers to talk and surf the web at the same time, while using postcards and a giant map to reiterate that AT&T has EDGE and voice coverage across most of America.