Best Broadband

Friday Evening Links –

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:06:51 +0000

Fixed-line broadband not threatened by mobile internet growth, says expert cable.co.uk/
We're trudging down the long road to universal 4Mbps broadband arstechnica.com
The reality of deploying 4G fiercewireless.com
FCC and Title II: All Options Said To Be Still On Table multichannel.com
Huge Push In Brazil To Legalize File Sharing techdirt.com
French ISPs Pushing Back Against Hadopi; Threaten To Ignore Requests techdirt.com
Novatel Wireless Inks Master Purchase Agreement with Comcast tmcnet.com
O2 claims broadband users waste millions on fast connections cable.co.uk
Apple TV: Internet TV is Still a Hobby pcmag.com
Edmonton International Airport offers free Wi-Fi ottawacitizen.com
Could Connectivity And Smartphones Open Your Car Up To Hackers? thecarconnection.com
AT&T speeds up Alltel market switches fiercewireless.com

Labor Day Weekend Open Thread – Have something to say?

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:03:10 +0000

Enjoy your holiday! Speak your peace in our comment section below.
read comment(s)

FCC To Vote On White Space Broadband – Will vote on rules governing unlicensed wireless devices in vacated TV spectrum

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:41:56 +0000

As some tipsters had suggested earlier this week, the FCC will be addressing white space broadband at their upcoming September 23 meeting. According to a meeting agenda (pdf) posted to the FCC website, the FCC's September meeting will focus on the E-Rate program (specifically, letting universities and schools purchase dark fiber directly), some E911 issues, and White Space broadband. The FCC announcement says that by creating rules that will allow "unlicensed wireless devices to operate in unused parts of TV spectrum," they'll "create opportunities for investment and innovation in advanced Wi-Fi technologies and a variety of broadband services." Somewhere, Wally the interference demon and Dolly Parton (aka the National Association of Broadcasters) are really pissed off.
read comment(s)

Wi-Fi War Driving Drone Flying? – The WASP (Wi-Fi Aerial Surveillance Platform)

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:46:20 +0000

If you remember the hysteria that surrounded war driving (people who drive around looking for unsecured hotspots), surely those terrified by the concept will enjoy this. According to Popular Science, a couple of hackers have modified a US Army gunnery target drone, turning it into a flying Wi-Fi sniffer. The WASP (Wi-Fi Aerial Surveillance Platform) is guided by an open source auto pilot system that uses Google Earth, and is capable of 1,000 square feet of "sniffing" at an altitude of about 400 feet. Once the drone finds the hotspot the pilot's looking for, it can be put into a holding pattern. The WASP's website has only the basic construction details if you're looking for a holiday weekend project.
read comment(s)

Ripe FCC Data: Our Broadband Is Still Pretty Slow – Only 44% of subscribers meet FCC’s new 4/1 Mbps benchmark

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:25:26 +0000

As we've long noted, the FCC has made broadband policy decisions based on flawed and incomplete data for years. Part of the 1996 Telecom Act required that the agency release quarterly reports on the status of broadband deployment. Unfortunately for consumers, that data has always been essentially useless -- with the FCC declaring any zip code that has just one served broadband customer in it to be "wired" for service. This rose-colored glasses mentality is (very) slowly changing.

The FCC this week released their latest report (pdf) on the state of the broadband union, though they're still working with fouteen-month-old data.

According to the FCC, as of June 30 of 2009, there were 71 million residential landline broadband connections, and only 44% of them met the agency's goal for the standard definition of broadband: 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream.

This report is of particular note because it's astonishingly the first time the FCC has required that ISPs provide details on what speed tiers consumers subscribe to. The FCC's data shows that 5.4% of consumers subscribed to 200-700kbps service, 14.1% subscribe to 768kbps-1.5 Mbps service, and 13.7% subscribe to 1.5-3 Mbps. On the faster end of the scale, 31% subscribe to 6-10 Mbps service, and 17% subscribe to speeds between 10 and 25 Mbps.

Other data of note from the study includes the fact that as of June 2009 there were 4 million fiber to the home connections, 31 million DSL connections, and 41 million cable broadband connections. Wireless Internet subscriptions jumped 40% in the first six months of 2009 to 35 million subscribers, though only 45% of those connections met the government wireless stimulus baseline of 768Kbps downstream and 200Kbps upstream.
read comment(s)

Ripe FCC Data: Our Broadband Is Still Pretty Slow – Only 44% of subscribers meet FCC’s new 4/1 Mbps benchmark

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:25:26 +0000

Verizon, Skype Fix Wi-Fi Bug In ‘Exclusive’ Client – Android users can now turn Wi-Fi on while using Skype over 3G…

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:47:13 +0000

Verizon's "exclusive" agreement with Skype has created a Skype client that has a number of quirky restrictions -- including the fact that it eats your wireless minutes in some instances (conveniently keeping voice minutes relevant in the age of smartphone mobile VoIP). But Skype's specialized Verizon application also had a fairly nasty bug: Android users who used the Skype app over 3G couldn't turn on Wi-Fi -- at all.

In other words, they couldn't use Skype on 3G and browse the Internet via Wi-Fi. At the time, Verizon gave a roundabout explanation, admitting there was a bug, but also insisting that CALEA wiretap restrictions were partially to blame for the problem, as the Verizon-specific app runs over Verizon's traditional voice network. Whatever the cause, Verizon and Skype have apparently figured it out, and Skype for Verizon smartphones now works with Wi-Fi turned on.
read comment(s)

M2Z Free National Wireless Broadband Plan Finally Dies – CTIA pleased you won’t be getting ’slow’ free 768 kbps service

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:23:25 +0000

You might recall that former FCC boss Kevin Martin and a company by the name of M2Z Networks had been cooking up a plan for a smut-censored free national wireless service with a free wireless component. We had predicted the plan would never actually leave the ground and that wound up being true, the project derailed by both politics and the fact that the plan itself while creative -- simply wasn't very good. After returning from the dead and being bounced around the halls of the FCC in slightly modified form, the FCC has finally dropped the effort completely. M2Z sent Broadband Reports an e-mailed statement lamenting the decision:

"The FCC s decision to delay the use of this valuable spectrum forgoes the consumer welfare and economic stimulus that would result from putting new spectrum into the marketplace," said John Muleta, CEO of M2Z Networks. A new nationwide broadband entrant that provided a free broadband service would have created tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs throughout the country while giving all Americans an equal opportunity to participate in the digital economy. Despite the spectrum crisis facing the U.S. as documented by the FCC s National Broadband Plan, the AWS-3 spectrum will continue to lie fallow providing no economic value to American consumers."

Of course the plan always faced an uphill battle, and was heavily lobbied against by the wireless industry and their trade group the CTIA, who obviously didn't want the added competition for lower end customers. The CTIA sent us a statement saying they were "pleased" by the FCC's decision:

"As we had argued throughout the proceeding, a designer allocation auction that would be tailored for one company was not in the public s interest, especially when that company was offering broadband service that is slow by even yesterday s standards."

While 768 kbps is certainly slow, you probably would have a hard time beating the price, and M2Z did show a degree of vision in the plan's development. The plan itself was just always various degrees of bad, initially including a mandate that would require porn filters. Various versions were also based on seemingly unrealistic build out schedules, and the end result was never really going to offer particularly compelling speeds.
read comment(s)

OnLive Adding Wi-Fi To Game Streaming Device – Extends founding fathers deal for second time…

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:56:22 +0000

Back in June broadband streaming video game service OnLive launched, offering users what's essentially a dumb terminal community-driven gaming service for $14.95 a month -- plus the cost of games. Reviews for the service so far have been mixed, and not too surprisingly dependent on the quality and speed of your broadband connection. Currently, the service only operates with an Ethernet connection -- but OnLive's considering adding 802.11n to the unit as a beta product sometime before October. They're also extending their Founding Members program for the second time, offering users a free year of service and a $4.95 monthly rate for life (theirs, or yours) to users who signs up before January 1, 2011.
read comment(s)

Verizon Unveils Limited New Prepaid Options – But they’re of course designed to convince you to go postpaid…

DSLreports - front page — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:45:09 +0000

Just yesterday we were discussing how analysts believe Verizon wasn't truly competing in the prepaid space because they were concerned with diminishing the perceived value of the Verizon brand, and having to engage in price competition with smaller carriers. With a flood of recent new prepaid offers, Verizon has announced a new unlimited data package for select smartphone users priced at $30 per month, and a $10 plan with a 25MB monthly cap and 20 cent per megabyte overage fee. As PC World notes this is a mixed bag on value (see chart), with users paying more for their phone, voice minutes and monthly total bill than postpaid, but with no ETF. By restricting qualified phone models and making users pay a monthly premium for voice and data, Verizon's trying to actually discourage users from going prepaid.
read comment(s)