• Comcast: No complaints with Web traffic system [columbiatribune.com]
• GE To Merge TV/Internet In One Unit [imdb.com]
• AOL UK - Credit Crunch Causing Mass Broadband Migrations [ispreview.co.uk]
• Broadband fiber subscribers up to 3.76 million in U.S. [eetimes.com]
• Juniper Courts WiMax [lightreading.com]
• Cricket leaps in the wireless broadband market in San Antonio [bizjournals.com]
• Comcast Offers Credits To Customers Struck By Hurricane Ike [multichannel.com]
• Google phone is nice, but not a game-changer [marketwatch.com]

• US startup launches online airwaves market [theregister.co.uk]
• Was EarthLink's failed citywide Wi-Fi a blessing in disguise? [News.com]
• Consumers dig mobile broadband: 3G device ownership up 80% [arstechnica.com]
• Telefonica to provide broadband access via fiber despite open network protests [lightwave.com]
• VoIP Enhancements Coming to iPhone [wi-fiplanet.com]
• Retrials of 3 ex-Enron broadband execs postponed [chron.com]
• Joost To Kill Desktop Client [gigaom.com]
• Sophos DNS snafu creates update problems [theregister.co.uk]

• The Risks of Treating Broadband like a Cheap Utility Service [ispreview.co.uk]
• Cablevision completes first phase of WiFi buildout; service not available to non-customers [orlandosentinel.com]
• Free Wireless Broadband by Fall 2009? [overclockersclub.com]
• EDGE, HSPA and LTE Continue to Lead and Innovate Mobile Broadband [newspress.com]
• Reding tells Euro MPs to back telecoms reforms [theregister.co.uk]
• WildBlue Raises $50M to Help Fund Customer Programs [multichannel.com]
• Why the US is losing its lead in innovation and excellence, not just in tech [muniwireless.com]

• Verizon stand-alone High Speed Internet for Students [product-reviews.net]
• IP telephony carrier market 2008 [thechannelshow.com]
• BT Delays 24Mbps Broadband Exchange Upgrades [ispreview.co.uk]
• Netflix scuppered by technical error [theinquirer.net]
• Smartphone manufacturers cramming more and more technology onto platforms [vnunet.com]
• Ofcom Moots Theoretical Limits of Broadband via Copper [ispreview.co.uk]
• A closer look at Clearwire’s spectrum [muniwireless.com]
• Firefox users running both OS X and Windows report mystery attack that hijacks your clipboard [theregister.co.uk]

Earlier this week, a small Southern ISP called Speedfactory seemed to disappear on its customers after its site and services went down. The Speedfactory website is back up and running but DSL customers are still having problems getting service.

A group of Internet users in Georgia is facing connection trouble as their small ISP seems to be on the verge of disappearing. Speedfactory mysteriously shut down without explanation due to what they say is a router issue but some suspect is a non-payment problem.

Users in our forums began reporting this morning that they were experiencing outages with their AT&T service. The Consumerist points out that there are conflicting reports as to who has been affected. It appears that both 3G and EDGE users have experienced problems with Internet connectivity. One update reports that eighteen states, primarily in the Midwest, have been impacted. The latest report says that AT&T does not know what has caused the outage but is working to remedy the problem.

Businesses and individuals throughout India and much of the Middle East are facing a lack of Internet connection after an undersea cable was accidentally cut. The cable may have been severed by the anchor of a ship that was rerouted due to storms. The outage has caused over two thirds of Egypt’s Internet network and over half of the bandwidth in India to be lost. Partial service should be restored soon but full service could take up to two weeks to resume. It is unclear at this point how business and commerce will be affected as a result of the outage.

Mediacom subscribers seem to be having problems with outages that the company doesn’t know how to handle. The Columbia Tribune reports on one user who has had continuous service interruptions with phone and Internet going out 1-6 times per day every day for the last six weeks.

Welcome to the Product Spotlight -- a continuing series of articles highlighting individual products commonly used by our members.

In The Spotlight: The magicJack VoIP Device
Previously:
• Verizon FiOS Spotlight
• HughesNet Satellite Spotlight
• Optimum Online Spotlight
• Comcast HSI Spotlight
• Clearwire Wireless Internet Spotlight
• EV-DO Showdown - Sprint Vs.

Starting yesterday, our forums began filling up with concerns about a bevy of problems cropping up for Windows Genuine Advantage users. Both XP and Vista users reported that they weren't able to validate their installations, with many problems occurring after attempts at standard update downloads. Microsoft’s Phil Liu personally promised not to sleep until the problem was repaired. Microsoft has found a way around the problem and seems to have repaired it, but they don’t yet know the root cause of it. PC World points out that even if the problem is temporarily fixed, the bigger problem is that this could happen at all with WGA.

For awhile, outages caused by damage to fiber optic cables kept popping up in the news. The wave of reporting consumer complaints about the issue has ended but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still problems. The Eureka Reporter tells us about a fiber optic cable in California which was severed by heavy machinery, causing ATM and high speed internet outages in the area. And the human errors aren’t just here in the U.S.; Engadget reports on damage done by Vietnamese fisherman to 27 miles of critical fiber optic cable connecting the nation to Thailand and Hong Kong.

When Time Warner absorbed Adelphia, they experienced numerous problems in transitioning the systems including the meltdown in L.A., but they say they’re getting better as the transition continues. Maybe they are, but their New New York customers don’t think they have improved enough. A two-day service outage that affected many customers in the Buffalo area caused “widespread ire”, a feeling which was exacerbated when the service, once resumed, ran considerably slower than it had before it went down. Time Warner has offered credit to upset customers who call to request it; well, the ones who can get through on the questionable customer service lines anyway.

According to TVover.net, Verizon customers in West Virginia have reason to be concerned about thefts of copper telephone cables and “vandalism to Verizon's telecommunications network” which have caused loss of service to users in the area. The most recent copper cable theft occurred at the end of January, when a twenty-foot-long section of cable was stolen, causing an outage which affected not only residential customers but also the emergency departments in the area. The resulting loss of emergency communication causes obvious risk to area residents. Verizon, recently noted for its immediate response to emergency outages, has lost a significant amount of money responding to the thefts and so is encouraging West Virginia residents to keep an eye out for the thieves and to report any information they may have about the incidents.

As we’ve noted, outages happen and sometimes everyone in an area loses access to their phone, internet and related services for a short time. Despite the fact that we know it happens, users are often annoyed with the problems, and annoyance can turn into something more serious when the outages leave emergency victims without telecommunications.

A structure fire causing damage to fiber optic cables created the loss of phone, internet, credit card and ATM service in the Humboldt and Del Norte counties of California. This is the second time in the past month that the area was affected by fiber optic damage. The Eureka Reporter informs us that “Redwood Region Economic Development Commission Executive Director Gregg Foster said he was in ‘absolute disbelief this could happen twice in less than a month’ and wants to see an alternative fiber optic line established in the city. However, financial concerns may hinder his hope. In the meantime, should consumers just accept that sometimes outages will happen?

As we noted yesterday, damage to fiber optic cables can create widespread outages which affect the daily interactions of hundreds of people. A severed cable in Illinois put over three hundred AT&T customers out of telephone service last Thursday, and only about a third of those customers have regained their service. Expressing concerns for their consumers, “AT&T will be distributing mobile phones to customers who may need alternative means of communications”. Likewise, “Naperville police also are making a limited number of wireless phones available to elderly residents and those who have no other means of reaching emergency services”. The Naperville Sun reports that as problems with extended outages continue, companies will have to work harder to meet the emergency telecommunications needs of their customers.

Damage to fiber optic lines is an increasing problem for consumers of cell phone and Internet services which run off of these lines. Just last week, Qwest disappointed already-angry customers when an outage in New Mexico caused loss of service to the area for several hours. This week the damage is in Wisconsin and the company is Verizon; “a construction crew trying to replace a utility pole north of Stevens Point damaged the cable” causing long-distance telephone, fax and ATM service to be out for over five hours.

A discussion over at the WebHostingTalk forums points out that GoDaddy.com took down an entire data center yesterday morning. A person posting in the thread states that the Nectartech.com domain was suspended due to the fact one of the customer servers in the data center was compromised with a phishing script. "The Nectar domain was suspended because one of the hundreds of machines on our network was running that script."

It looks like Cogent is suffering some outages after its fiber network was somehow cut in two different locations. Cogent's website appears to be down, and their Keynote Internet Health report is an unhealthy red. According to the Washington Post tech blog, fiber lines were cut in New Orleans and Washington DC within a 12 hour period (correction update, 2PM: DC's issue was faulty hardware), isolating the Southeastern portion of Cogent's network. Also see report from the SANS Internet Storm Center.