ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) on Tuesday condemned the practice of redirecting Internet users to a third-party portal when they mistype, or enter a nonexistent URL. You'll recall that the practice gained international attention when Verisign implemented their heavily-loathed Sitefinder initiative in 2003. That effort pushed ad-laden portals instead of proper errors Internet wide, but Verisign was forced to shutter the idea after significant backlash and ICANN criticism.

ICANN published its opinions and findings in a draft memo, which discourages the practice of redirecting requests for nonexistent domains across all network levels, and suggests possibly even a ban of the practice, at least among gTLD owners. The Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) has long opposed such efforts, calling it a "destabilizing practice."Since Verisign's NXDOMAIN substitution effort, ISPs have widely been deploying redirection tools of their own and the tactic, dubbed DNS redirection, has grown to be an industry standard. While it's pushed by ISPs as something helpful, the concept's entire purpose is to create a revenue stream out of your sloppy typing.

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."

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 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.

Comcast's dream of acquiring NBC Universal can't come to fruition until Vivendi executives sell their 20% stake in the company, according to the Los Angeles Times. Obviously the value of that 20% differs greatly depending on how much the company is deemed to be worth -- and according to the Times, Vivendi wants that number to be at least $500-$900 million greater than what's currently on the table. GE has placed a value on NBC Universal of $27 billion to $30 billion. While Vivendi and GE hash out the numbers, consumer advocates continue to lambast the deal as only really being good for industry executives, giving the companies yet more market power, and the authority to restrict competition from Hulu (which Comcast would gain control over after the deal).

While Comcast lobbyists tried their best to slow the encroachment of Verizon FiOS into their hometown of Philadelphia, the Philly city council authorized a citywide franchise back in February (you can read the agreement here (pdf) if you're into that kind of thing). As per the deal, Verizon has around seven years to wire the whole city, though these agreements (as with NYC and DC) often have loopholes that let Verizon extend deadlines or wiggle out of obligations should certain adoption numbers not be met. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, service this week went live in Chestnut Hill, South Philadelphia and North Philadelphia, near Girard College. Additional neighborhoods should come online this year, but Verizon isn't saying which ones. Verizon does keep a PA construction notice (pdf) on their website, but it's quite often outdated.

After his company won approval of its bankruptcy plan this week, Charter Communications CEO Neil Smit tells Bloomberg that upon exiting from bankruptcy, the company will raise prices and consider consumption-based billing. Charter Communications hasn't been profitable since the company went public in 1999, posted a $2.45 billion loss last year, constantly ranks at the bottom of most customer satisfaction surveys, is swimming in debt, and was just forced into bankruptcy and reorganization.

Back in September we noted how it seems like only a matter of time before Verizon engaged in metered broadband billing. After Time Warner Cable's PR implosion, most ISPs are in a holding pattern on the idea until they can sell consumers on it, something they haven't done a good job of so far.

Given the high costs of deploying fiber to the home, we're starting to see new models emerge whereby if customers really want it, they can share the cost of having it installed (one Norwegian ISP gives a $400 rebate if you dig your own fiber trench). Now Utopia, the nation's largest municipal fiber deployment, is testing a new model whereby communities who want the fiber deployed can share the cost of installation. As more Utah cities look to connect to Utopia but debate how they should pay for it, Brigham City has decided that if users want fiber they can pay for it themselves. 1,600 local residents have already ponied up $3,000 a piece, helping the city install a $5.5 million network while the city itself only puts up about $700,000 of the required cost.

For many years now companies (including some of the biggest broadband ISPs) have been issuing gift cards instead of cash as rebates. Why? Companies can impose a number of restrictions on the cards that statistically reduce the amount of actual cash companies have to pay out.

Consumer advocates, unions and state regulators are worried that Verizon's plan to sell a massive chunk of their DSL and landline networks to Frontier Communications won't go very well. The $8.5 billion deal, if approved, would infuse Frontier with 4.8 million new residential and small-business phone lines across 14 states, 1 million broadband connections, and 11,000 former Verizon employees.

With the cable company he founded currently struggling through bankruptcy, Charter Communications founder and Chairman now finds himself facing a much more serious and difficult task: beating back cancer a second time. Allen, who already fought and beat cancer some twenty five years ago, is now facing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to The Seattle Times. "For those who know Paul's story, you know he beat Hodgkin's a little more than 25 years ago and he is optimistic he can beat this, too," says Allen's sister Jody Allen. Allen spent much of the summer battling with creditors, who didn't like Allen's efforts to retain control of the company after restructuring. The restructuring is supposed to eliminate about $8 billion of the company's $21.7 billion in debt.

Verizon suffered from quite a bloody third quarter when it came to DSL numbers, the company losing 135,000 DSL customers -- and only a portion of those having upgraded to the company's FiOS service. To help counter these DSL losses Verizon keeps tinkering with their DSL promotions, and yesterday rolled out a new one. According to a Verizon press release, new Verizon 1 Mbps, 3 Mbps or 7 Mbps DSL customers can get service free for six months if they're willing to sign a one year contract with the company. FiOS customers should note the company has also slightly tweaked their FiOS promotions depending on where you live.

Like the AOL of old, Vonage has cultivated quite a reputation as a company that often makes it incredibly difficult to actually cancel your service. The check for this behavior has finally come due, and it's likely considerably less than they made from the practice. According to an announcement posted to the website of Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, Vonage has agreed to pay $3 million in penalties to 32 states in order to settle an investigation into some of its business practices. The settlement also cites Vonage for failing to note their VoIP service needed broadband and then socking customers with cancellation fees, and for offers of "free" services that wound up charging a litany of activation and other fees.

Ask and ye shall receive. Windstream has confirmed to Broadband Reports that the company has raised the upstream speed of their DSL tiers. Windstream says they're responding to a request in our forums by users who found 386 kbps to be a little dated for 2009. Both the company's 3 Mbps and 6 Mbps tiers have seen the upstream side of the equation nudged from 384 kbps to 768 kbps -- at no additional price. The upgrades apparently started in early November and will be ongoing through December -- so if you haven't seen them yet, Broadband Reports readers can apparently nudge Windstream to get the upgrade now.

Back in 2007, Minnesota's Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Sprint for extending a customer's long term contract without their knowledge. Just a few years back, most of the major wireless carriers had a nasty habit of extending a user's contract quietly every time even minor plan changes were made, then socking the user with early termination fees when they though their original contract was up and tried to leave. Minnesota's suit gained national attention, and carriers have since backed away from the practice. Today Sprint settled with the State of Minnesota, and Minnesota Sprint customers can get their early termination fees refunded in full. Impacted Minnesota consumers can either call the Minnesota Attorney General's Office at 1-800-657-3787 or 651-296-3353, or fill out this form and mail it in.

Whether it comes to triple play broadband or wireless service, pricing plans are often designed to give the illusion of value -- instead of the real thing. Bundle plans are often designed to prevent direct comparisons with a competitor's service, and plans are almost always designed to get you to pay more money than you'd like.

You might remember how during the summer, Teresa Dixon Murray at the Cleveland Plain Dealer did a great job highlighting a phantom $1.99 fee Verizon was hitting consumers with -- even if they didn't use any data. The phantom charges were being incurred when phones were off, phone batteries were dead, Internet access was blocked, or the phones didn't have the necessary software to go online.