Microsoft on Monday said that its new Internet security offering, Windows Live OneCare, which launched last Wednesday, will be offered to Qwest’s high-speed broadband customers at no charge, marking the first time the Redmond, Wash.-based software bigwig has offered the new product via a partner company, the Associated Press reports via the New York Post.

Story Continues

The FCC on Friday released the order on its decision earlier this summer to deregulate DSL.

The document clarified the FCC’s August move to free the Bell companies from obligations to make their DSL networks available to independent Internet service providers.

Under previous rules, DSL was considered a “telecommunications service,” which meant providers had to open their high-speed networks to other ISPs on nondiscriminatory terms, and follow other common carrier rules.

The order calls for phone companies to keep their transmission offerings available to independent ISPs for one year.

Source: »www.phoneplusmag.com/hotnews/59h···037.html

An exploit for the just-patched IDN bug in Mozilla's Firefox browser and namesake suite has been published on the Internet, a French security vendor said late Thursday. The hack creates a heap buffer overflow, and when it works, can give the user complete control of a vulnerable machine running Firefox, Mozilla, or even Netscape.

Utah’s incumbent broadband providers appear to be fighting back, dropping broadband prices to retard the uptake of new triple-play services provided by Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA).

UTOPIA is a publicly owned fiber network managed by a privately held company, DynamicCity Inc.

CEO Bill Owens regrets Nortel's exit from the DSL market, one of telecom's major growth areas, he told a European press conference today. Owens said: "I wish we had been there for DSL.

DSL accounted for almost three-quarters of the worldwide growth in broadband this year, according to data released by the DSL Forum at its quarterly meeting in Philadelphia Tuesday. By 30 June 2005, there were 176 million broadband connections in the world with Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) comprising 115 million of those.

Qwest Communications International Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

Qwest has won partial relief from price and other regulatory controls in Omaha because of increasing competition in a case that could have broader implications.

The FCC late Friday announced it had relieved Qwest of certain "monopoly" or "dominant carrier" regulations, in large part because of substantial telecommunications investments made by Cox Communications, which provides telephone services over its cable network.

Industry officials had been watching the case closely to see if it would enable regional Bells to relax regulations elsewhere in the country.

The Bells, which own much of the copper-wire infrastructure leading into homes and businesses, have argued in recent years that there's been enough time for competitors to build their own infrastructure.

Source: »www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/b···,00.html

The price gap between cable broadband service and phone carriers’ digital subscriber lines widened to an all-time high in August...

Cable-modem service was, on average, 75.8 percent more expensive than DSL during the month, up from a 53.3 percent gap in July. While phone carriers cut prices, the average DSL price decreased by 9.2 percent, cable companies raised them.

Source: »www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/bu···9314.htm

Worldwide DSL ports jumped 19% to 20.7 million in 2Q05, following a 6% increase in 1Q05, and revenue is up 11% to $1.62 billion, says Infonetics Research. Annual revenue is expected to grow to $5.7 billion in 2008.

The market will get a boost from the imminent VDSL2, the higher bandwidths of which will allow providers to offer new revenue-generating services like networked PVR, video on demand, audio on demand, 3D graphics, interactive games, eCommerce, and video telephony.

"The DSL market is strong and will continue steady single-digit annual port growth through 2008, in part because VDSL2 technology is just around the corner," said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

SOURCE: »www.prnewswire.com/news/index_ma···4&EDATE=

Qwest Communications is warning its customers of a longtime scam that’s popping up again. Customers have reported 100's of dollars being added to their monthly bill.

"Slamming" is the illegal practice of changing a consumer's telephone service - local, intralata service, or interlata service (including state to state, in state and international long distance) - without permission.

News Source: »www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=s···STORIES

Find out more on slamming from the FCC: »www.fcc.gov/slamming/

»www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGN···c01ca7bf

There was a time not so long ago when a T1 at 1.54 Mbps was enough bandwidth for almost anyone. Not anymore.

The current top ADSL standard reaches speeds of 10Mbps, with many U.S.-based DSL carriers offering residential customers DSL speeds of 3Mbps to 5Mbps.

With the new VDSL2 standard in tow, speeds of 25Mbps will become available to most consumers with 100Mbps available on short loops

SOURCE: »www.internetnews.com/infra/artic···/3509676

Lots of attention on the Qwest Froum lately thanks to the new Qwest ADSL speed offerings.

»Qwest 3,5,7Mbps

We've done it again! The new Qwest 5Mbps service made the BBR Front Page news.

»New Qwest DSL Speeds

DENVER, May 2, 2005 – Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q) today announced that a new premium tier of high-speed Internet access will be available to customers beginning May 3. The new service, called Qwest Choice DSL Premier, provides speeds of up to 5 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream, subject to customer availability. This new service delivers a high-speed Internet experience that is up to three times faster than Qwest’s previous top speed of 1.5Mbps and up to 89 times faster than a dial-up connection.

for the full story go to:

»www.qwest.com/about/media/pressr···,00.html

Half the bad laws enacted by the Colorado General Assembly come from back-room political conspiracies. The other half are the results of utter legislative incompetence.

A very bad law stemming from both causes is about to be enacted. (to read more...)

»www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/o···,00.html

By Tim Richardson
The Register

Qwest could be willing to tweak its already sweetened-offer for MCI, according to today's Wall Street Journal.

News that Qwest could be prepared to revise its offer comes just a couple of days after the giant US telco rejigged its $8bn offer for the company formerly known as WorldCom.

Bloomberg

Qwest Communications International Inc., seeking to outbid Verizon Communications Inc. for MCI Inc., sweetened its $8 billion cash-and-stock offer by giving MCI shareholders a hedge against falling share prices.

By Jim Wagner

Qwest will make a new bid for MCI after it reviews Verizon's offer for the long-distance carrier, according to a Securities & Exchange Commission filing.

The news comes three days after Verizon said it would acquire MCI in a stock and cash deal valued at $6.7 billion.