What’s the deal with Comcast, Verizon, and other ISPs petitioning the FCC to lower the definition of broadband? It’s all about money—broadband stimulus money—MG Siegler explains on G4′s Attack of the Show.
As the Obama administration looks to expand broadband access to rural and urban areas that are still under-served, the ISPs want to lower what constitutes broadband so that they can get… → Read More
There’s two ways to look at the story that many of the country’s biggest ISPs have refused government stimulus money for broadband infrastructure investment. One, the ISPs patently don’t need the money, and are more than capable of delivering broadband to as many Americans as possible with their own capital. Two, the ISPs could use the money, but they’d prefer not to accept it lest they be… → Read More
By 2013, annual global IP traffic will reach two-thirds of a zettabyte, according to a new forecast of IP traffic issued by Cisco today. What is a zettabyte? It is a trillion gigabytes, dummy. (I had to look that up too). And that number represents more than a fivefold increase in IP traffic from today. (See the forecast in the tables below).
What is driving this growth is video. Cisco… → Read More
From downloading videos and high-resolution photos, to online gaming and chatting with friends over instant-messengers, the mobile broadband networks of today are strong – but they’re starting to feel ancient. Today, AT&T clarified their plans to upgrade their network to deliver considerably faster mobile broadband speeds by way of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access). HSPA roll outs… → Read More
Never have I been happier to be a Cablevision subscriber. The New York area company will offer the fastest broadband in the United States starting next month. Top speed is said to be 101 megabits per second downsteam, and 15 megabits per second upstream. My [private high-def BitTorrent site whose name I've removed] account is jumping for joy. → Read More
How fast is your broadband Internet connection? (Do you even have a broadband Internet connection?) A quick trip to Speedtest.net shows that I’m on a 13mbps/1.7mbps connection. That’s not bad, but in places like Japan, where you can buy a 150 mbps for $60 per month, little kids playing Quake would laugh at my puny connection speed. See, in other parts of the world, for any number of reasons… → Read More
A disheartening report in the Orlando Sentinel finds that some people are switching from broadband to dial-up in order to save money. Sad but true, it seems. Those who are switching are “not the iPod crowd,” according to NetZero CEO Mark Goldstein, but mostly people from older generations who use the internet for very basic e-mail and light web surfing. → Read More
Digital Britain. Broadband everywhere. You’re going down with a billion in the bank. All popular phrases coming out of the UK today, some of which the Government is working toward making a reality. Up first, making broadband as ubiquitous as television. Oh, and eliminating music piracy. Like that’ll ever happen. → Read More
I knew I lived here for a reason! Seattle has moved to the top of Forbes’ annual “most-wired” American cities list, displacing Atlanta (of all places) and further cementing its unofficial title of Most Awesome. → Read More
The Asus EeePC 901 will come with built-in 3.75G networking when it’s released next month. Asus swears up and down that the addition of 3.75G won’t adversely affect battery life, which it claims stands at 7.5 hours. We shall see. On paper, 3.75G is as fast as 7.2Mbps down and 2 Mbps up. Your real world speeds may vary. She’s based on that Intel Atom platform. You have your choice… → Read More
New York City wants to provide its residents with affordable broadband Internet access, but doesn’t think a municipal Wi-Fi network is the way to go. (Those haven’t done too well, remember.) To that end it’s hired some fancy-sounding consultancy, Diamond Management and Technology Consultants, to help come up with an Internet plan. Companies being linked with the job include Time… → Read More
Cuba is set to get broadband internet access in the year 2010 and you can sure as hell bet that CrunchGear will more than happy to provide Cubans everywhere with half-cocked news and reviews that may or may not pertain to the world of technology. Apparently, some documents have been leaked (site is currently down, unfortunately) detailing an undersea cable to be stretched between Cuba and… → Read More
In the vast hinterlands known as the American suburbs a great evil has awoken. While those in the cities lie quiet in slumber, FiOS pumping out Usenet data at alarming rates, the poor victims lying quietly in their McMansions are still using cable modems. → Read More
Flickr’d AT&T is the latest company to consider plans to charge heavy downloaders more than casual downloaders, crippling not only pirates but stifling legitimate innovation in the process. That’s what a spokesperson told the AP, though no specific plans have been announced as yet. Even worse, this is DSL we’re talking about. We’re used to cable providers huffing and… → Read More
Flickr’d Don’t look now, but the FCC, in an unusually egalitarian move, may require the winner of an upcoming spectrum auction to give away free, wireless Internet access. A June 12 meeting will determine the rules of an upcoming auction, with one of the bandied-about provisions being that the winner must provide at least 50 percent of the country (well, the population) with free… → Read More
Your friendly cable company may soon be carrying the SlingModem, a combination SlingBox and DOCSIS 2.0-certified cable modem. Basically, you’d only have to connect one coax cable to the box and you’d get your internet access, plus you’d be able to sling the cable signal right out of the gate. Sounds cool, I guess. SlingModem is one of Sling Media’s newest place-shifting… → Read More
Normally when you think of fiber and sewers, a different, smellier thing comes to mind than broadband internet access. Hay-oh! Thank you, I’ll be here all week. Bournemouth, UK, which is full of old people — Pem Charnley of EcoWorldly says that a common joke is “that the shop windows are all fitted with bi-focals to allow passers-by to ascertain what lies within” —… → Read More
Cablevision, a regional ISP here in the north-east, will roll outwireless broadband coverage over the next two years. Unlike Comcast and Time Warner’s similar Clearwire venture, which uses WiMax, Cablevision’s uses Wi-Fi. Wonderful. The good news for current Cablevision subscribers is that the service will be free when it launches; non-subscribers will be able to get the Wi-Fi service… → Read More
Comcast doesn’t like its customers. Well, not all of them, especially those who actually take advantage of the massive amounts of bandwidth it makes available, and is preparing to penalize those of you (or of us) that download tons of content. Rumors from Broadband Reports, the excellent connectivity ratings site, show that Comcast might be considering 250GB per month caps on individual… → Read More
This company is advertising a hardware add-on that will multiply your outgoing bandwidth by 10-30x. I’m not sure how much of this is real, how much is PR, and how much is pure snake oil. Check the technology section. They say the speed increase is due to “bypassing the limitations of the TCP protocol.” I’m not sure what they mean by that and that’s about as technical… → Read More
Ubiquitous broadband is a lofty goal, the idea of the “digital divide” is indeed an important one to consider, and Rep. Anna G. Eshoo from California’s got a novel idea on how to deliver it: wirelessly and free. Disappointed that none of the winners of the recent 700MHz auction were going to offer a similar for-profit solution, Eshoo feels it’s time for the government to… → Read More
Cable companies’ ads are typically woeful, but misleading? That’s unthinkable. Or is it? Not if you ask Verizon. And, please, do, they’d love to hear from you. Verizon filed suit today against Time Warner, Internet darling, claiming that one of its ads is a pack of lies. You can see the ad for yourself right up there. Verizon says the ad misrepresents its FTTP service, FiOS, and… → Read More
And to think Hickey was impressed with that new Comcast package. Big yawn right there. Cern, where Web creator Tim Burners-Lee worked, has been working on an Internet replacement called The Grid that’s 10,000 times faster than broadband. I made a graph in Numbers to illustrate just how big 10,000 times is. It’s remarkable, really. Built entirely out of modern fiber optics and routing… → Read More
Verizon Wireless wants you to know, paying customer, that it’s got your back. All that spectrum it won last month? It’s totally going to use it to “further [its] broadband strategy.” I do wonder if *its* strategy will be good for *us* or just another money grab. For those of you bored at your desk this Friday afternoon, VZW just posted a powerfully worded PowerPoint… → Read More
This just isn’t fair. CrunchGear reader windexh8er writes in to gloat: I live in Minneapolis, and my Intarwebs will be getting much faster! Well good for you, braggart. Our own Devin just got hooked up here in Seattle with a 30Mbps pipe, yet I, living just less than a half mile or less from Devin get a measly 15Mbps for the same price. Comcast, can a guy get some love here? Congrats… → Read More
This commercial for Cablevision’s “Triple Play” (cable TV, broadband and VoIP) offends me. It offends me not because it belittles my proud (?) heritage, but because it doesn’t go far enough in making Hispanics look like shiftless, VoIP-loving, beach-going, party-throwing, tiny-car-driving maniacs. (Have you been to Queens lately? Not too far off the mark.) I mean, I often… → Read More
[photopress:googwss.jpg,full,center] Google didn’t have to win any spectrum last week to get what it wanted out of the auction—open access to the resulting wireless networks for third-parties. (How Verizon Wireless and AT&T will coöperate in that regard remains to be seen.) But Google isn’t done throwing its weight around. Now the Mountain View-based corp has set its eyes on… → Read More
[photopress:itvnset.jpg,full,center] These are tough times for IPTV service ITVN. The subscription-based service, which offered hundreds of average to above average quality channels (like 600K streams… think really good Internet streaming) to its subscribers, will no longer be offering Setanta Sports starting next month. Setanta Sports, an Irish corp, broadcasts “other” sports… → Read More
Today, Option announced the GT Ultra and GT Ultra Express for AT&T’s 3G BroadbandConnect and EDGE networks. The GTU works with any laptop with a PC Card Type II slot while the GTUE is, you guessed it, Express card slots. Both cards are tri-band UMTS/HSPA and GPRS/EDGE compatible. The GTUE has a flip-up antenna and automagically installs A&T’s Communication Manager when plugged… → Read More
I am a writer. I write in the English language, one that I can also speak quite well. In summarizing this post on the UK’s T3, which I believe is about a way to get a discount MacBook Air if you sign up for a year’s worth of broadband, I’m lost. A tasty quote: The discount is £250, so 100 nicker less than it could be, but it does bring Apple’s size zero newbie down to… → Read More
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