Netflix has announced that they'll no longer require that ISPs join Netflix's Open Connect Content Delivery Network if they want to offer subscribers "Super HD" and 3D video streams. Netflix announced they'd be offering Super HD and 3D streams back in January, but broadband customers could only access that content if their ISP used Netflix's CDN.

Netflix announced that they'd be untethering the SuperHD option from their CDN in a blog post.

"Based on the performance data we've seen, and in response to member requests, we are now expanding availability to give all our members the ability to enjoy Netflix in the best possible quality," said Netflix's Joris Evers.

Netflix had also been using their monthly ranking of ISP video streaming performance, started back in 2011, to "name and shame" ISPs who didn't partner with Netflix. Use Netflix's CDN and your performance in the rankings would magically skyrocket, something Sandvine recently criticized for being scientifically dubious at best.

Netflix, traditionally a network neutrality advocate, had also taken criticism from ISPs for being hypocritical when it came to witholding content from companies not willing to be CDN partners.

"While they call it 'Open Connect,' Netflix is actually closing off access to some of its content while seeking unprecedented preferential treatment from ISPs," Time Warner Cable complained back in January.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told PBS in an interview this week that broadband live TV streaming company Aereo is breaking the law by refusing to pay retransmission-consent fees. "Here comes a company that says, 'I don't want to pay that fee.' Well, I understand that, but I don't think that's the law of the land," Roberts told PBS NewsHour in a segment about the future of television.

Netflix has stated that the company's goal is to stream content in the 4K format by 2014 or so. Netflix recently started offering Super HD and 3D streams, if your ISP has signed up for the company's new content delivery network.

T-Mobile chief financial officer Braxton Carter this week told Reuters that a T-Mobile merger with Sprint would be an excellent idea. "We think it's not a question of if but when that there's further consolidation in our industry," Carter told public attendees of the Goldman Sachs Communacopia investor conference this week in New York. Speaking privately to Reuters, Carter then called a Sprint T-Mobile pairing the "the logical ultimate combination."

Regulators likely won't agree, having recently preserved four competitors by blocking the T-Mobile AT&T merger, though Carter insists that the two smaller companies merging would "create a more competitive environment" by posing a bigger threat to AT&T and Verizon.

T-Mobile and Sprint continue to slowly make inroads in their battle against the wonder twins of wireless (AT&T and Verizon), in some part due to their continued dedication to unlimited wireless plans. Trying to pour some cold water on their momentum, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam stated that sooner or later, both companies will give up on their unlimited offerings and join Verizon and AT&T in only offering metered plans.

Less than a year ago, every technology news outlet and blog was busy proclaiming that Intel's planned subscription broadband live TV service was going to revolutionize the TV industry. Intel (and by proxy bloggers buying into their hype) was bizarrely confident (mostly via anonymous press leaks) that this service would succeed where many before it failed, and would surely launch any day now.

We were the first to report on AT&T's new 45 Mbps U-Verse speeds before they officially arrived back in August. First made available in California and Nevada, AT&T has since expanded the offering into 17 states, and today announced five more.

AT&T has joined a number of ISPs that now offer slightly faster than advertised speeds after FCC speed rankings showed ISPs failing to deliver promised throughput during peak times. Previously, U-Verse customers stated they were luck to receive their advertised speeds; now many users say that has changed.

Is this thing on?

As noted previously, Verizon's FiOS expansion has been over for several years, with the exception of franchise build out promises for major cities (though some of those deployment promises, like in NYC, probably won't be met). Still, some of the forgotten regions in Verizon's footprint (like Alexandria, Baltimore, Buffalo & Boston) continue to hold out hope that the company will eventually decide to extend FiOS a little bit further.

Verizon today unveiled their new 4G LTE Broadband Router with Voice, which as the name creatively implies provides users with a home router for voice and data powered by Verizon's LTE network. The Novatel-made device features a backup battery, one jack for a home phone and three Ethernet ports, with the ability to connect up to ten devices simultaneously.

Broadband delivers everything at the touch of a key or click of a mouse. Broadband delivers healthcare, security, education, entertainment.

Last October, Time Warner Cable introduced the $3 a month rental fee to a rather annoyed public. Last June, Time Warner Cable then informed customers that rental fee would be bumped to $5 a month, and by July, some customers were already getting notifications that fee would be increased to $6.

Early last year AT&T, the company that really started the network neutrality debate to begin with, came up with yet another controversial new idea: charging app makers a fee if they wanted to send data to consumers without impacting their usage caps.

While AT&T presented the idea as akin to a 1-800 number for data or "free shipping," consumer advocates argued AT&T was simply imposing arbitrary caps, charging customers who crossed it, then charging the biggest companies yet more money so their content received special treatment.

DirecTV CEO Michael White this week told attendees of an investor conference in New York that subscribers should probably expect more rate hikes in 2014. The company hit subscribers with an average increase of 4.6% last February, with White stating that 2014 hikes "might be not as much" the increase "is still going to be meaningful." White blames soaring programming costs and retransmission fees, which have jumped 50% this year and 600% since 2010. "I would say clearly I've seen an impact from consumers on churn in terms of their feelings about the bill," White said.

Broadcasters trying to squeeze Netflix out of the industry through licensing isn't anything new, and so far Netflix has managed to negotiate quite a minefield -- even if it means agreeing to some ridiculous provisions, like delaying all new releases by a month. But Variety notes that a new deal between Comcast and Fox could spoil the Emmy glow for Netflix while causing serious problems for their catalog. From the report:

quote:

---

21st Century Fox and Comcast are said to be on the verge of one deal in particular that could steer entire runs of select series to the cable operator, which wants to expand its VOD beyond the typical handful of most recent episodes to the territory Netflix has made its specialty.

---

Netflix faces a new round of bidding wars against companies perfectly happy to throw billions around to protect legacy business models. That's of course why Netflix has focused more and more attention on original run series. Though for every "House of Cards" there's considerably less impressive fare like "Hemlock Grove" -- so it's unclear if original series alone will be enough to fend off the existential storm Netflix is facing.

Broadcasters aren't having a very easy time suing Dish's convenient ad-skipping Hopper DVR technology into oblivion. Last week, ABC lost a ruling in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in their attempt to impose an injunction on the technology.

AT&T has yet to offer a single customer 1 Gbps service, but that didn't stop AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson today from hinting at additional 1 Gbps market launches that may or may not happen. To counter media excitement created by Google Fiber's move into Austin last April, AT&T issued an ambiguous announcement one day later proclaiming they were "prepared to build" networks with "advanced fiber optic infrastructure" under select circumstances.

Back in June Google unveiled Google Loon, the latest in a long line of similar projects that will use hot air balloons to deliver broadband and wireless services to under-served or emergency prone areas. Project Loon will use hot air balloons 49 feet wide stationed 12 miles above the planet, well above the range of commercial aircraft.

While Verizon has been offering FiOS TV customers the ability to watch FiOS TV content via tablets and phones for some time, broadcast licensing restrictions limited this ability to only within the home, while connected to a user's home network. Now Verizon says they're taking their FiOS Mobile App to a new level with the ability to stream nine live channels outside of the home. That still doesn't compare to the 75 channels you can stream while at home, but it appears that Verizon's going to expand the total number as they manage to get new licensing deals with broadcasters.

Back in January AT&T announced they'd be paying $780 million to acquire Alltel -- or what was left of Alltel after Verizon acquired most of it back in 2008. After seeing some FCC delays regulators have now approved the deal -- with a few "conditions." According to the FCC announcement, AT&T needs to deploy HSPA+ and LTE across all of Alltel’s current cell sites within the next 18 months. AT&T also needs to keep Alltel's CDMA 2G and 3G (EVDO) networks online until June 15, 2015 in order to aid roaming partners.

After acquiring Clearwire over the summer Sprint has begun taking the axe to redundant employee positions at the company. The Seattle Times notes that around 161 people were laid off Friday in Bellevue and Kirkland.

The MPAA, RIAA, AT&T and Verizon have joined forces to "educate" California school children on the details of copyright, ignoring things like "fair use" -- lest it confuse the toddlers. Wired has a report on the curriculum the coalition is pushing on California schools for grade one, grade two, grade five and grade six (pdfs), all of which is about as nuanced as you might imagine.

Every six months for years another media report highlights that the FAA is quite glacially getting ready to lift some of the restrictions imposed on in-flight electronics. This week, the New York Times notes that an FAA advisory panel is meeting this week to finish up recommendations that would allow passengers to use e-readers, watch videos or listen to podcasts during takeoff and landing. Restrictions on using Wi-Fi during take off and landing will remain in place, as will the ban on in-flight voice call yammering by that immensely-annoying guy in 17C.

C Spire Wireless today announced that the company is getting into the 1 Gbps residential fiber game. C Spire is clearly following the Google Fiber model by encouraging communities to compete for attention (in the process generating huge nationwide PR), announcing that they'll offer the fiber service to any community in its Southern service region "near an existing fiber route that opens its arms to welcome it."

C Spire says they'll be using their existing regional 4,000 miles of fiber (with 1,500 more being built) to feed the service, noting that their focus will initially be on towns and cities in Mississippi.

Comcast has long led the way in terms of the IPv6 transition, and that continues with the company's announcement that they've launched native IPv6 in both portions of Washington State as well as Phoenix, Arizona. Comcast says that customers can verify whether their current device supports IPv6 by visiting here, and can find a list of devices that support IPv6 here. Users in our Comcast forum so far report no serious problems with the launch.

The New York Times this week has an interesting read on the deals Time Warner Cable strikes with landlords in New York City. The company's Apartment Managers' Program offers free or discounted service to landlords who "identify, discourage and report" instances of cable theft, while requiring they allow the company building access to "promote new products" in the building.

Add Cox Communications to a long list of ISPs whose usage meters don't appear to be entirely accurate. Our users have recently been complaining in our forums that the company's online usage meter falsely reports usage (both over and under estimates).

You might recall how Spanish startup named Fon aimed to build a global network of one million wireless hotspots by the end of four years. Originally the company urged users to install Fon firmware on their Linksys residential routers, turning them into a unified community of global hotspots.

HBO and Time Warner have repeatedly stated that you shouldn't hold your breath if you're waiting for a standalone HBO streaming option that doesn't require you have a traditional cable and HBO subscription. As the company has stated previously, they simply don't see the numbers working in their favor, despite the massive piracy seen of HBO shows like "Game of Thrones."

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia conference this week, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes acknowledged that Time Warner might be "open" to bundling HBO Go with a broadband service.

Earlier this month a Federal Appeals court ruled that Google could be held liable for their 2011 scandal in which Street View vehicles collected snippets of data from unsecured hotspots when passing by. The court's ruling was rather odd in that to conclude Google violated the Wiretap Act, the court had to first declare that Wi-Fi isn't a radio communications (it is) and that unsecured open hotspots aren't readily available to the general public (they are).

On the heels of last week's launch in Houston, streaming TV provider Aereo today announced they've also launched in the Dallas market. Locals there can now access KDFW (FOX), KXAS-TV (NBC), WFAA (ABC), KTVT (CBS) and KERA-TV (PBS), as well as COZI-TV, ME-TV, UniMas, Telemundo, EstrellaTV, ION, The CW, AntennaTV, Qubo, and Bloomberg Television. Aereo has also announced (pdf) that they've added four new cities to their nationwide expansion plans: Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and San Antonio, Texas. Dates for those cities will be announced later this year.

Blackberry this afternoon announced that the company has signed a letter of intent agreement (LOI) to be acquired for $4.7 billion by a consortium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings. Blackberry announced they were looking for a buyer back in August, with subsequent leaks suggesting they wanted a deal done by November. According to the Blackberry news release, shareholders would receive U.S. $9 in cash for each share of BlackBerry held, though the deal is still "subject to due diligence" on the part of Fairfax, who may not like what they see when they get a look at Blackberry's books.

From the kick them when they're down department, T-Mobile executive vice president for corporate services David Carey has stated that T-Mobile will no longer stock Blackberry devices in stores. According to Carey, "keeping stock in the retail distribution system was inefficient" because of the low demand they've seen for Blackberry devices in stores. If it makes you feel any better you can still visit; T-Mobile says they will still "display and sell it in the store for those consumers who would like to see one," though you'll have to order it online.

Google and the government's U.S. Ignite program (which we profiled last year) have joined forces to host a competition aimed at finding applications that can utilize such connections. According to a Google blog post, the Gigabit Explorer Challenge will take place in Kansas City from November 1 to November 3, and urges users to submit ideas to U.S. Ignite for next generation applications that can truly put 1 Gbps networks to use.

Independent California ISP Sonic.net (see our user reviews) is preparing to offer 1 Gbps business lines (100 Mbps upstream) and a hosted PBX service for $40 per month. According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Sonic is currently burying fiber at a local industrial park in Santa Rosa and along the Highway 101 corridor, and hopes to have the first businesses up and running within two months. Sonic, a rare survivor of the independent ISP wars, started planning for residential fiber back in 2010. The company says they'll ultimately offer residential users access to these fiber runs, but hasn't given a timetable for deployment.

Netflix already made history back in July when it was announced original Netflix series had been nominated for 14 Emmys. Now Netflix has taken the history-making further after David Fincher won an Emmy for directing Netflix's original series "House of Cards." The company won two additional Emmys at last week's Creative Arts Emmys. Variety has a full list of the Emmy winners available here.

It wasn't that long ago that it looked like Sprint CEO Dan Hesse could be forced out the door, the Sprint board blocking his attempt to acquire MetroPCS while keeping him on a short leash. Now that Japan's Softbank owns Sprint, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son seems rather enamoured with Hesse, and has given him a contract that extends through 2018. Hesse's base salary will be $1.2 million annually (plus "targeted opportunities" to take compensation far higher), unchanged from his previous contract. There's no word on whether the contract requires Hesse continue his acting career.

• Shareholders Sue Dish, Charlie Ergen Over $2.2 Billion Spectrum Bid: Alleges chairman personally bid $2 billion on bankrupt broadband provider LightSquared knowing he'd profit handsomely if Dish outbid him - which it did [hollywoodreporter.com]
• Nearly 78 percent of American homes have broadband & 9 percent cord cutters [gigaom.com]
• Netflix expands Super HD and 3D streaming to all of its members [variety.com]
• Will Verizon Go Wireless-Only And Spinoff FiOS? [investors.com]
• LTE to soon replace PSTN? [computerworld.com]
• Netflix Downplays Threat of Usage-Based Broadband Access [thestreet.com]
• Apple releases iOS 7.0.2 with fix for Lock screen passcode bypass flaw [9to5mac.com]
• Big Consumer Win: Gmail Judge Rules For Privacy In Email [huffingtonpost.com]
• What Is the 'Internet of Things'? [huffingtonpost.com]
• The Incredible Shrinking Internet [nakedcapitalism.com]

Remember: we're willing to pay community members or guest contributors who'd like to write content for the front page! Contact me if you're interested. Topics can range from networking tips or your review of a new router, to your experiences as a cable installation technician, involvement with the transition to IPv6, or your effort to get your town wired with better broadband service. Be creative and pitch me a topic. Recent examples range from fredthomsen 's Chromecast review, to Kevin Bryan 's report on extending the life of older Android devices through ROMs.

• Global mobile broadband penetration now three times fixed-line [digitaltveurope.net]
• What if Verizon succeeds in killing the Internet? [infoworld.com]
• Mobile broadband 'fastest growing technology in history' says ITU [theregister.co.uk]
• Cut the cord for home broadband? Not so fast [usatoday.com]
• F.A.A. Nears New Rules on Devices [nytimes.com]
• Is the Internet Evolving Into a Global Brain? [huffingtonpost.com]
• AT&T wins approval of Alltel purchase, but with conditions [fiercewireless.com]
• AT&T's Aio aims to be a nationwide prepaid brand, on par with MetroPCS [fiercewireless.com]
• No luck at all for BlackBerry as Android, iOS BBM app launch stalls [theregister.co.uk]
• Apple TV 6.0 update pulled after reports of bricking and networking issues [9to5mac.com]

• Verizon Wireless nudges into home phone, broadband biz [cnet.com]
• Future of broadband spectrum 'vitally important' to EU economy [theparliament.com]
• Internet radio services becoming more mainstream, survey says [chicagotribune.com]
• 'Eraser' law will let California kids scrub online past [phys.org]
• FirstNet board actions deemed legal by review committee [fiercebroadbandwireless.com]
• Operators starting to plug LTE backhaul's security gap [fiercebroadbandwireless.com]
• FiOS Media Server will 'eliminate the need for coax' and speed installs [fiercecable.com]
• Kindle Fire HDX Revealed: Faster Speeds, Built-In Tech Support [laptopmag.com]
• How a Crypto ‘Backdoor’ Pitted the Tech World Against the NSA [wired.com]

• Auditor's report highlights more problems with West VA. broadband project [herald-dispatch.com]
• Developing Countries Surge in Mobile Broadband, UN Finds [nytimes.com]
• Time Warner CEO open to bundling online HBO subscription with broadband plans [theverge.com]
• Colorado's EAGLE-Net defends its broadband life - Says it is looking to close deal with network operator by end of next month [broadcastingcable.com]
• T-Mobile stops stocking Blackberry phones - Says it's no longer efficient to keep them in stock [reuters.com]
• Who Are The 15 Percent Of Adults Who Don’t Use The Internet? [marketingland.com]
• Sudan loses Internet access — and it looks like the government is behind it [washingtonpost.com]
• T-Mobile CFO makes case for U.S. consolidation, Sprint deal [reuters.com]
• Welcome To Internet Rehab - PA. has first inpatient Internet addiction treatment center in the country [huffingtonpost.com]

• The Real Price of Wireless Of Wireless Data [forbes.com]
• AT&T could buy wireless assets in Europe -CEO [reuters.com]
• A Europe In Denial Seeks To Abolish Mobile Roaming Charges [forbes.com]
• According to a new study, 49% of the hyperlinks in Supreme Court decisions no longer work [nytimes.com]
• Downloading Is Mean! Content Industry Drafts Anti-Piracy Curriculum for Elementary Schools [wired.com]
• BlackBerry Enters into Letter of Intent with Consortium led by Fairfax Financial [blackberry.com]
• HTC staring down the barrel of a US sales ban after Nokia's patent coup [theregister.co.uk]
• Spain Ratchets Up Anti-Piracy Laws To Even More Ridiculous Levels: Criminal penalties for linking to infringing works - Six years in prison for linking for "direct or indirect profit." [techdirt.com]
• NSA Apologist Says The NSA's Actions Are Fine Because 'Privacy Is Dead' [techdirt.com]
• AT&T plans to use the 700 MHz Lower D and E Block licenses it acquired in 2011 from Qualcomm for an LTE Broadcast service [fiercewireless.com]