Communications Technology

Don t expect Google Fiber to come to your town anytime soon bgr.com U.S. the leader on broadband philly.com Dish Versus the Wireless World fool.com AT&T adds 'administrative fee' to wireless bills, stands to rake in hundreds of millions from unwitting customers theverge.com Walmart: TracFone's Straight Talk is 'one of the best-kept secrets' in wireless fiercewireless.com Google Fiber ups the broadband ante in Raytown, Mo. fiercetelecom.com Sprint could pay $1B to rip out Huawei's kit from Clearwire's network fiercewireless.com WOW blames losses on disconnects of non-paying subscribers after converting to new billing platform fiercecable.com Microsoft s revamped Kinect for Xbox One will also come to Windows next year thenextweb.com Google engineer bashes Microsoft's handling of security researchers, discloses Windows zero-day computerworld.com Comcast eyes Groupon approach to day-and-date VOD movie sales fiercecable.com read comment(s)

Over the years there have been no shortage of studies showing that pirates actually buy significantly more content from legit outlets than anybody else. That point was brought up repeatedly as the entertainment industry tried to pass rules requiring these users be kicked off the Internet. Now UK regulator Ofcom has come out with another such study (pdf). The study found that 10% of the country's largest infringers accounted for nearly 80% of all infringements carried out online -- but that those same individuals (and an additional 10% of infringers) spend 300% more than "honest" consumers who never violate copyright. During a six month span "honest" consumers spent 54 ($82) on content, while the worst infringers of the bunch spent 168 ($257). read comment(s)

KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh recently examined FiOS customer complaints (via Consumerist) about dying batteries in Verizon FiOS ONT units. The batteries generally give users about eight hours of talk time during a power outage, but let out a repeated, shrill beep when the battery is depleted (usually after a year or two). Despite the fact that you don't technically even own the ONT and are paying to lease it, Verizon makes maintaining the device and replacing the battery the end-user's responsibility. They also ensure that responsibility is an expensive one. Through Verizon, the battery costs $35 plus $9 for shipping. Verizon also offers users the opportunity to get "free" battery replacement if they sign up for a Verizon Protection Pak plan, starting at $20 a month. But Phillip Dampier at Stop the Cap notes that Amazon offers a highly-rated replacement battery with the exact-same specifications for just $18. Some users who only have FiOS broadband and don't need the power backup functionality for voice have simply tried to remove the battery, only to find that many ONTs simply continue beeping. In other words, if they want to sleep they're paying for a battery they don't want or use on a unit they don't own. Verizon isn't the only company that believes paying for replacement batteries is your job. Comcast XFINITY Voice users used to get replacement batteries for free. Now Comcast charges those users $35.00 plus $5.95 shipping and handling to replace batteries that wear out. As with Verizon FiOS batteries, there are alternative, cheaper buying options (like this website run by Arris) for those customers as well. In short, if your ISP is going to make battery replacement your responsibility, you can at least ensure they don't get any more of your money.read comment(s)

According to a new report by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, gaps related to faster broadband availability continue to persist, especially in rural regions. According to NTIA data, while nearly 100% of urban residents can get speeds of at least 6 Mbps, 82% of rural communities can access those same speeds. As things get faster the numbers get worse -- 88% of urban residents can get speeds of 25 Mbps, while only 41% of rural consumers can get that same connectivity. Keep in mind that U.S. government data on broadband coverage is traditionally not very good and always tends to be overly optimistic, often hallucinating competitors and speeds in areas they don't actually exist (read: the real numbers are probably much, much worse). The NTIA report offers no suggestions on how to shore up these coverage and speed shortcomings.read comment(s)

A CompTIA training course and a home Cisco network has helped one ex-serviceman secure a post as a network engineer

"We don't focus on megabits, we don't focus on gigabits, we focus on activities," Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter stated at an investor conference last week, clearly trying to counter some of the buzz around Google Fiber. "We go to the activity set to get a sense of what customers are actually doing and the majority of our customers fit into that 6 Mbps or less category." Granted many Frontier customers in our forums will tell you they're lucky if their copper and loop length supports anything more than 3 Mbps, and those who can get faster speeds may not be able to justify paying Frontier's steep price premiums. Frontier's massive deal to acquire Verizon's unwanted DSL networks also left them in a financial position where "focusing on gigabits" is somewhat of a pipe dream anyway. Many telcos (like CenturyLink) are suddenly having to explain why companies presumably focused on offering broadband services are incapable of offering the kind of speeds now being offered by a search engine company. Granted a big reason these companies aren't offering anything faster or cheaper is because they face no real competitive pressure to do so, something Google Fiber is helping to painfully highlight in some markets. Frontier is currently using a talking Buffalo to pitch a 6 Mbps DSL line for $20 a month -- if users tack on costly landline voice service and sign a three year contract. read comment(s)

How fast are America's wireless networks? techhive.com Kim Dotcom accuses Google, Facebook, and Twitter of violating his two-step security patent theverge.com Hackers Find China Is Land of Opportunity nytimes.com Wary of China, U.S. Steps Into Sprint's Board wsj.com Tablet use soars among U.S. airline passengers usatoday.com Telecom s Big Players Hold Back the Future nytimes.com Internet Service Providers Are Now The Most Hated Companies In U.S. huffingtonpost.com Upcoming Auctions Key to Wireless Internet Future huffingtonpost.com GM commits to in-car apps by the end of the year theverge.com How digital camera technology took out Kodak huffingtonpost.com Why won t Bitcoin die? theverge.com

Cablevision has spent the last few years deploying Wi-Fi to NYC metro region commuter areas, and now says they're getting close to offering service on the trains themselves. Speaking on their recent earnings conference call, Cablevision executive Tad Smith stated the company is "in active, productive, very positive conversations with the trains" but that deploying such technology has been "complicated." The company filed a proposal with the MTA back in 2010 and originally hoped the project would be up and running within twelve months. Still, Smith says the company is "optimistic for the future" of the project, which is making slow but steady progress. Whether commuters (most of whom now have an LTE connection in their pocket) will need or use it might be something else entirely.

Porn copyright trolls like Prenda law already do plenty of sleazy things in their attempt to frighten BitTorrent porn downloaders into ponying up extortion settlement money. While Judges are just now starting to take aim at these firms, the trolls remain busy trying to frighten porn downloaders into ponying up cash. Torrent Freak points to a new round of letters being sent out by the "Anti-Piracy Law Group," the latest incarnation of Prenda Law. In those letters, the group ups its game by threatening to call a user's neighbor unless they pay up. From the letter:"The purpose of this step is to gather evidence about who used your Internet account to steal from our client. The list of possible suspects includes you, members of your household, your neighbors (if you maintain an open wi-fi connection) and anyone who might have visited your house. In the coming days we will contact these individuals to investigate whether they have any knowledge of the acts described in my client s prior letter."Granted Prenda and its various tendrils don't want these cases ever actually going to court, and if they send out letters in enough volume, it's more than enough to pay off the rather small legal penalties incurred so far.

Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference earlier this month, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo stated that the company's earliest FiOS markets are now reaching penetration targets and that most of their new customers are signing up for faster speeds. According to Shammo, 60% of new FiOS Internet subscribers added in the first quarter chose Quantum speeds of 50/25 Mbps or faster. He also stated that Dallas, Verizon's first FiOS launch market, is now reaching 50% penetration. Previous Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg once suggested he'd wanted to see 40% penetration in most existing markets before continuing FiOS expansion. Subsequent CEOs (and Shammo) have made it pretty clear that another big FiOS expansion push will probably never happen.