Best Broadband

As we recently noted, Time Warner Cable is a little behind in terms of DOCSIS 3.0 cable upgrades, and has sold faster 50 Mbps broadband service to just 2,000 users in parts of New York City. However, the company is poised for a fairly quick push into a number of additional markets over the next few weeks. One Time Warner Cable employee familiar with the plans tells Broadband Reports that Time Warner Cable signed up their first DOCSIS 3.0 customer in Buffalo, New York today.

Other markets should be launching in quick succession, so expect a wave of official announcements either this week or next.

Another supposed live-but-unannounced market is Dallas, where users in our forums are the first to note that the service is up and running, and should be live for everyone in the market by the nineteenth of this month (aka late next week). Users interested in the fastest speeds these upgrades offer will of course need to upgrade to a new DOCSIS 3.0-compliant modem.

Users in upgraded markets can sign up for a new 30 Mbps downstream 5 Mbps upstream tier that costs $25 over Time Warner Cable's standard plan (which can vary in price and speed by market depending on competition). Users also have the choice of signing up for a 50 Mbps downstream 5 Mbps upstream tier for $99 a month. That's less expensive than Verizon's 50 Mbps FiOS tier, which costs $140 bundled, or $145 standalone. That $99 price tag is the same for Time Warner Cable whether you bundle additional services or not.

Regional promotional pages have been popping up in Time Warner Cable markets the company plans to upgrade. The carrier has long stated that these upgrades will be "surgical" in nature -- which when translated means markets where Time Warner Cable sees competition from Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-Verse (and that's roughly about a third of Time Warner Cable's market). Those interested should take a look at Time Warner Cable's Wideband FAQ.
read comment(s)

As we recently noted, Time Warner Cable is a little behind in terms of DOCSIS 3.0 cable upgrades, and has sold faster 50 Mbps broadband service to just 2,000 users in parts of New York City. However, the company is poised for a fairly quick push into a number of additional markets over the next few weeks. One Time Warner Cable employee familiar with the plans tells Broadband Reports that Time Warner Cable signed up their first DOCSIS 3.0 customer in Buffalo, New York today.

Other markets should be launching in quick succession, so expect a wave of official announcements either this week or next.

One of those markets will be Dallas, where users in our forums are the first to note that the service should be live there by the nineteenth of this month (aka late next week). Users interested in the fastest speeds these upgrades offer will of course need to upgrade to a new DOCSIS 3.0-compliant modem.

Users in upgraded markets can sign up for a new 30 Mbps downstream 5 Mbps upstream tier that costs $25 over Time Warner Cable's standard plan (which can vary in price and speed by market). Users also have the choice of signing up for a 50 Mbps downstream 5 Mbps upstream tier for $99 a month. That's less expensive than Verizon's 50 Mbps FiOS tier, which costs $140 bundled, or $145 standalone.

Regional promotional pages have been popping up in Time Warner Cable markets the company plans to upgrade. The carrier has long stated that these upgrades will be "surgical" in nature -- which when translated means markets where Time Warner Cable sees competition from Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-Verse (and that's roughly about a third of Time Warner Cable's market). Those interested should take a look at Time Warner Cable's Wideband FAQ.
read comment(s)

According to an FCC announcement (pdf), the FCC will officially unveil our first ever national broadband plan at an FCC meeting next Tuesday, March 16, at 10:30 EST. That's one day earlier than the plan was supposed to be unveiled before Congress, though technically it's about a month behind its originally-scheduled unveiling date. The plan is expected to put a heavy emphasis on delivering more spectrum to incumbent wireless carriers, the construction of a national wireless emergency network and "digital literacy" efforts. However, early glimpses indicate the plan does little to shake up a stagnant U.S. duopoly market or to seriously tackle limited competition and high prices.
read comment(s)

The entertainment industry's efforts to impose U.S.-style DMCA copyright law on the globe (and push ISPs toward being network content nannies) has suffered a bit of a setback. EU Parliamant has voted overwhelmingly against the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) to the tune of 663 to 13. According to the EU the agreement, hashed out largely in secret between the entertainment industry and world governments, "flouts agreed EU laws on counterfeiting and piracy online." One EU lawmaker put his disdain of the entertainment industry's end-around this way:

The past few weeks have seen a strong push in the European Parliament to have ACTA negotiations made more transparent, and to ensure that the rules don't force ISPs to impose "three strikes" rules that would require they boot copyright infringers from their networks.
read comment(s)

The FCC's Misguided Spectrum Quest wsj.com
Google, Yahoo, Ebay, UK's largest ISP's all agree: UK Internet law 'threatens free speech' ft.com
Verizon sees Wi-Fi-only iPad as opportunity to sell 3G data plans appleinsider.com
Fiber firm unplugs from Palo Alto, blaming power outages mercurynews.com
NFL punts Sprint, signs with Verizon as official wireless partner bizjournals.com
EU Politicians Get Serious Demanding ACTA Transparency And No Three Strikes techdirt.com
Vodafone ships malware infested mobiles theinquirer.net
White House Cyber Security Guy: There Is No Cyberwar - Just Espionage techdirt.com

Most major carriers spend a lot of time complaining about regulation in the telecom sector being akin to puppy murder -- unless of course that regulation can be applied to the other guy. With that in mind, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have petitioned the FCC to step in and do something about the kind of retransmission fee disputes that resulted in Cablevision customers almost missing the Oscars (gasp) over the weekend. Time Warner Cable issued a statement saying they wanted the FCC to impose restrictions ensuring that consumers don't lose channels during these disputes:

Of course during Time Warner Cable's recent dispute with Fox over the network's desire for a new per-subscriber fee, Time Warner Cable seemed more than willing to "get tough" against broadcasters, even if that meant consumers losing access to channels. As we've been exploring, neither side in these disputes are faultless, and the end result of these disputes winds up being higher TV rates for consumers -- no matter which company "wins."

Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable have some consumer advocate support in their effort to get the FCC to act. Consumer advocacy firm Public Knowledge issued a statement urging the FCC or Congress to "examine the current retransmission consent process and consider whether the system needs adjustments to ensure that viewers are not disenfranchised." Something tells us they're a little late.
read comment(s)

Most major carriers spend a lot of time complaining about regulation in the telecom sector being akin to puppy murder -- unless of course that regulation can be applied to the other guy. With that in mind, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have petitioned the FCC to step in and do something about the kind of retransmission fee disputes that resulted in Cablevision customers almost missing the Oscars (gasp) over the weekend. Time Warner Cable issued a statement saying they wanted the FCC to impose restrictions ensuring that consumers don't lose channels during these disputes:

Of course during Time Warner Cable's recent dispute with Fox over the network's desire for a new per-subscriber fee, Time Warner Cable seemed more than willing to "get tough" against broadcasters, even if that meant consumers losing access to channels. As we've been exploring, neither side in these disputes are faultless, and the end result of these disputes winds up being higher TV rates for consumers -- no matter which company "wins."

Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable have some consumer advocate support in their effort to get the FCC to act. Consumer advocacy firm Public Knowledge issued a statement urging the FCC or Congress to "examine the current retransmission consent process and consider whether the system needs adjustments to ensure that viewers are not disenfranchised." Something tells us they're a little late.
read comment(s)

The NFL loves their exclusive arrangements and the huge bags of money these make, be it with Electronic Arts (who is the sole publisher of video games allowed to use the NFL brand), or DirecTV (who pays a billion a year to be the sole TV carrier of out of market NFL games). For a while the NFL liked Sprint, who has been paying the NFL about $100 million a year to stream NFL games wirelessly and be the NFL's official wireless carrier. Now the NFL loves Verizon, who just ponied up $720 million to take Sprint's place. Sprint spokeswoman Melinda Tiemeyer tells the Kansas City Business Journal that Sprint chose not to extend the sponsorship because the cost "reached a point where we questioned the return on our investment." Verizon apparently had no such worries.
read comment(s)

Speakeasy CEO talks VoIP success networkworld.com
Comcast: ITV Ready For 50 Networks Later This Year; Targets 100% Deployment of EBIF in Motorola Footprint by Midyear multichannel.com
FCC Plan Asks for Govt.-Funded Broadband Training yahoo.com
Apple s Draconian Secret iPhone Developer Agreement Goes Public wired.com
Smartphone app botnet experiment blows up a storm theregister.co.uk
New Internet Explorer code-execution attacks go wild theregister.co.uk
It's official: Adobe Reader is world's most-exploited app theregister.co.uk
Windows 7 SP1 will be brought forward theinquirer.net
Iowa House OKs Cell Phone Ban for Young Drivers wirelessweek.com
read comment(s)

The FCC has begun their sales pitch for the nation's first national broadband plan ahead of its formal unveiling next week. As we've been discussing, we haven't been too impressed by the plan's failure to tackle competition, or its tendency to make proclamations that sound good but are rather empty upon closer inspection. The FCC is back today making headlines about how the agency hopes to help the estimated 100 million Americans without broadband by offering "free or low cost wireless plans" according to Reuters:

Looking at the actual FCC statement (pdf) however, there's no real explanation of how exactly the agency hopes to do this. The statement also suggests that the FCC will "consider" such a plan, not neccessarily that they'll implement it. With spectrum obviously a limited resource, clearly the FCC's thinking about some kind of subsidy package to the nation's telcos if they provide cheaper service. Of course the FCC already plans to subsidize carriers as they examine "reforming" the long broken USF system.

That reform, according to several people familiar with the plan, could involve a new monthly fee on broadband connections used to expand the plan to cover residential broadband (right now it covers only rural phone service, and broadband provided to schools). We're told the fee is slated to be somewhere around $1 a month per person, but could be higher when the final plan is unveiled. However, "free or low cast wireless service" seems like a long shot.

Reforming the USF is a very complex and difficult task in and of itself, given the fund (and the e-Rate program) has a bit of a history as a poorly supervised mess, according to GAO studies. $25 billion has been dumped into e-Rate alone since 1998, though the FCC for many years didn't track where it went. That means that maybe that money helped, or maybe it didn't. Maybe it just found its way into the pocket of a phone company, or maybe it helped buy a high school PC in Pensacola, Florida.

One thing we know is that AT&T and Verizon have been lobbying Uncle Sam very hard for several years to ensure they get a bigger chunk of the USF pie. From the looks of things they're going to get it to the tune of several billion per major incumbent annually, according to one plan source. Getting more money for incumbents will be the primary goal. Maybe consumers will see that money put to use in tangible ways like "free or cheap" wireless service -- but maybe they won't.
read comment(s)