With the network neutrality circus back in town, the use of bogus grass roots groups (aka "astroturf") is again on the upswing as corporations lobby Uncle Sam to prevent network neutrality legislation. Such misleadingly named groups (grandmothers for network justice?) are used by corporations in every sector to give the illusion of broad consumer support for ideas that are anti-consumer. In telecom, that means supporting metered billing (it's patriotic!) higher prices (it's good for you!) and fewer consumer protections (all government regulation kills puppies, fellow patriot). Free Press, one of the few consumer advocacy groups these days that actually represents consumers without taking corporate cash, this week took aim at astroturf, highlighting how many additional consumers could be wired for the amount of money spent on misleading lobbying. The group went a little further by creating a handy interactive graphic on the subject. Comcast's annual lobbying budget jumped from $570,000 in 2001 to $12.5 million in 2008, while cable lobbying group the NCTA doubled its lobbying budget to $14.4 million during the same period. Verizon's lobbying rose to $18 million in 2008 from $8.2 million in 2001, while AT&T's annual budget fattened to $15.1 million in 2008 from $6.1 million. But direct lobbying budgets are only a very small part of it.  story continues..99 comments
Earlier this year, we noted how the press became enamored with the idea that the recession was driving people back to dial-up, even if reporters lacked a shred of data to support the idea. The articles (be they from the Associated Press, Tampa Tribune or Chicago Tribune, all started with the sad tale of some poor Joe or Jane who decided to slum it on 56kbps because his or her retirement fund tanked. 39 comments
There's not a broadband provider out there who wouldn't instantly begin billing you by the byte if they thought you (the consumer) would sign off on it. Unfortunately for them, Time Warner Cable's recent PR disaster illustrated that consumers aren't sold on low caps and high overages when broadband delivery costs continue to drop. 70 comments
If you recall, five years ago or so, when Intel first began really seriously hyping their investment in WiMax, they called the technology "the most important thing since the Internet itself." Half a decade later, much of WiMax's U.S. success now hinges on the new Clearwire joint venture -- whose network build is reportedly facing delays because of the credit crunch. Intel this week went into damage control mode, telling any reporter who'd listen that WiMax struggles in the United States aren't a big deal -- and that globally, the technology will reach 800 million people by 2010. Next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, you can expect Intel to unleash an even larger public relations blitzkrieg aimed at shoring up WiMax's sagging image, while keeping AT&T and Verizon at bay. 26 comments
Late in 2007, Verizon made a big deal about "opening up" their wireless network. The announcement got a huge amount of kudos from the press, the news wires filling with talk about how Verizon had turned a corner and embraced the new, open wireless paradigm (either voluntarily or by force). story continues..24 comments
Vermont has been one state that has been left out of the iPhone craze, given AT&T didn't operate there. But given the recent asset swap we mentioned earlier this week, it looks like AT&T has acquired Vermont networks formerly operating under the Unicel brand, according to the Vermont iPhone blog. According to AT&T, the iPhone and the Blackberry Bold will be available at ten former Unicel retail locations in Vermont starting mid-January. We're guessing you may have longer to wait for any sort of uniform HSDPA coverage. 20 comments
The past few weeks, we've been following Comcast's efforts to slow Verizon's entry into the cable giant's hometown market of Philadelphia, by warning city council that Verizon would only deploy to areas with the highest ROI -- and FiOSTV's entry into the market won't necessarily mean lower TV prices. Neither is untrue, but Comcast's pretense that they're concerned with either of those things is a bit of a stretch. 47 comments
Tuesday Evening Links( old news - 06:50PM Tuesday Oct 07 2008) 1 comment
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Friday Evening Links( old news - 06:57PM Friday Aug 29 2008) 5 comments
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As recently discussed, many 3G iPhone users are experiencing dropped connections as they wander between the EDGE and HSDPA portions of AT&T's network. According to Richard Windsor, an analyst with Nomura Securities, the problem is most likely a flaw in Infineon’s 3G chip. "We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain Infineon is the 3G supplier," said Windsor this week in a research note to investors. According to Windsor, the problem likely isn't firmware upgradeable, meaning that Apple would need to physically replace the chips on phones exhibiting the behavior. 48 comments
Despite the activation headaches last Friday, Apple this morning issued a press release saying they sold a million 3G iPhones last weekend. "iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend," says his Jobs-ness. "It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world." Apple also stated that customers had purchased more than 10 million applications from the App Store since it launched last week. 111 comments
Canadian broadband provider Rogers has confirmed that the company will be offering the iPhone "later this year." While Rogers is notorious for capping, throttling and otherwise mucking up their landline broadband network, they haven't been quite as bad about their wireless network -- despite bandwidth being at an even higher premium. Rogers Wireless, formerly known as Rogers AT&T Wireless, offers both EDGE and HSDPA connectivity. 17 comments
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Welcome to the Product Spotlight -- a continuing series of articles highlighting individual products commonly used by our members. In The Spotlight: Clearwire Wireless Internet broadband service. Previously: · Verizon FiOS Spotlight· HughesNet Satellite Spotlight. 12 comments
Tell us if you've heard this song before: A Spanish company wants to start a Wi-Fi "revolution" by using existing user Wi-Fi hotspots to create a web of global, free wireless access points. While that sounds just like Fon, it's actually a new startup named Whisher that's trying the same idea with a twist. 8 comments
GameRail touts itself on the company's website as "the first nationwide network designed exclusively for optimizing online gaming traffic, greatly decreasing latency and increasing the quality of the transmission you receive through your current broadband provider." The company hopes gamers will pay $10-$15 a month for a 35ms ping from NY to LA. The company has basically cuddled up to the major backbone providers in order to clean up your routing. story continues..49 comments
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