Communications Technology

Internet access just as important as food and sleep, study finds techspot.com Verizon's Wireless 'Voice Link' as a Replacement of the Wires? The Downgrading and Disconnecting of America's Communications huffingtonpost.com Experimentation with pricing structures will let the broadband providers and their customers test new business models without regulatory interference cio.com Dish Exec Talks Advantages of Fixed-Wireless Broadband wirelessweek.com Wireless charging on the go for the iPhone 5 nytimes.com Ready for the Industrial Internet? GE Announces Predictivity Platform, New Partnership With Amazon Web Services allthingsd.com Ubuntu phone OS has eight carriers signed on to boost development - Carrier list may put Ubuntu on phones throughout the world arstechnica.com Apple's screw-up leaves tethered iPhones easily crackable - 24 seconds from pickup to pwned theregister.co.uk Charter converts Texas systems to all-digital platform fiercecable.com Microsoft, Ruckus and others form Dynamic Spectrum Alliance to boost TV white space fiercebroadbandwireless.com GSMA: Every new car will be a 'connected car' in 2025 fiercebroadbandwireless.com Apple iPhone gaming controllers are coming, and it's a whole new game fiercewireless.com read comment(s)

#Facebook is introducing #video for #instagram. Will you use it?

Netflix may have just voluntariliy lost access to Viacom's library, but the streaming operator hopes to counter those losses with the news that they've struck a deal with DreamWorks to develop content exclusively for Netflix. According to Netflix, this is the largest deal they've every struck for exclusive new content, the results airing as a suite of new television shows that should premiere sometime next year. The new series will be "inspired" by previous Dreamworks Animations characters including "Shrek" and "The Croods." The streaming landscape got increasingly more fractured this week with the news that Downton Abbey is now an Amazon exclusive. read comment(s)

New incoming FCC boss Tom Wheeler is expected to have his confirmation hearing today before the Senate Commerce Committee. Wheeler's ties to wireless and cable companies aren't expected to be much of an obstacle for his hearing, and in fact are likely why Wheeler was chosen (in order to see as little resistance from an industry-friendly Congress as possible). While he will be approved, his campaigning and fundraising for the Obama Administration will likely be the big target of the day. A Republican staff memo has leaked showing what Wheeler lists as his priorities when he begins work at the FCC:1) implementing the spectrum auctions and creating a public safety network; 2) the IP transition--overseeing the transition from analog switched-circuit networks to Internet Protocol (IP) delivery (Wheeler has been chairman of the FCC's Technological Advisory Council, which has been wrestling with that IP transition); and 3) advancing civil society through communications, including the broadband buildout and promoting diversity.You'll note the utter lack of any mention of improving competition, the lack of which results in higher prices, predatory behavior, and all manner of other problems. Instead Wheeler's focus is status quo FCC agenda items: more spectrum (usually for incumbents), managing the IP transition away from the PSTN and toward IP (which may include deregulating AT&T and Verizon so they can hang up on millions of DSL users they don't want to upgrade) and the digital divide (usually used as a show pony issue for political brownie points). You'll recall the Wheeler pick received praise from Susan Crawford and consumer groups like Public Knowledge, who brushed aside his lobbying ties. It's possible Wheeler is hiding his pro-consumer activist side simply to get approved by Congress. It still seems unlikely that after approval, he's going to magically shake off thirty years of thinking forged by life as a lobbyist and address broadband-sector consumer issues more seriously than his predecessors. With his confirmation likely, it shouldn't take long to see if we're dealing with something new, or the status quo. Those interested in watching the confirmation hearing can catch it over at CSPAN. read comment(s)

If you're a Verizon customer that's having some Netflix performance issues lately, the likely culprit appears to be a peering spat between Verizon and Cogent Communications. GigaOM has managed to sniff out the dispute, quoting Cogent as saying Verizon is intentionally allowing the ten peering points they share with the company to degrade. Verizon isn't really commenting on the feud outside of issuing some basic quotes about their superior network, so the GigaOM story lacks any technical detail coming from Verizon's side. Cogent is certainly no stranger to disputes over peering, which involve companies exchanging equal (or quite often not so equal, resulting in these feuds) amounts of bandwidth for free.read comment(s)

AT&T is constructing solar stations for a free and quick recharge in New York #att #solar...

We've now seen two different studies that have shown that AT&T's LTE network is the fastest, even though Verizon's tends to have broader coverage and be more reliable. That's effectively what PC Magazine's new analysis of the fastest wireless networks found, the company working with Sensorly to collect data in thirty cities. "In our first truly fair fight between LTE networks, AT&T came through with faster upload and download speeds overall than Verizon Wireless, although Verizon offered better reliability and greater rural coverage than its competitor." Another trend we're seeing in these studies: T-Mobile's LTE (where available) is faster than Verizon, while Sprint's average LTE speeds fail to impress. It will be interesting to see if these numbers change as both AT&T and T-Mobile see greater user loads on their LTE networks.read comment(s)

Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt recently crowed before investors that the company's new and unpopular modem rental fee had room to grow. He now appears to have carried through on that promise, with the news that the company's $4 modem fee -- is now a $5 modem fee for new users. Alongside the new higher modem fee, Time Warner Cable is charging news users a $20 "one-time charge" simply for signing up for certain promotions. Given Comcast charges $7 for modem rentals you can expect Time Warner Cable's charge to continue growing in time (users are strongly recommended to buy their own modem instead of throwing more money at their cable operator). As for the new $20 charge, it's just one more way these companies jack up your advertised price post sale.read comment(s)

AT&T recently annoyed users by blocking Google Hangouts video chat, just a year after taking heat for blocking Facetime. AT&T pretended the move was about network logistics, but they were actually using the blockade to force grandfathered unlimited users on to metered plans (the Facetime block was ultimately removed for metered users). AT&T recently tried to blame handset makers and developers for AT&T's own bad behavior, promising they'd ease off of these blocks by the end of this year. Keeping to this promise of better behavior (and likely hoping to avoid regulatory action, even though the FCC has been deaf and dumb on this issue), Apple Insider notes that users in numerous markets are now able to use a feature they should have been able to use from the beginning:So far, activation of the service has been verified in parts of New York, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, California and Hawaii. Voice and video quality is nearly on a par with the Wi-Fi implementation of the service, suggesting AT&T is not throttling those subscribers who choose to use the feature while on the go. The rollout comes less than one month after AT&T announced it would be enabling first-party video chat apps on its network over the course of 2013. At the time, the telecom said it expected to complete the rollout by the end of the year.Note how Apple Insider is fooled by AT&T into calling this a "rollout," instead of what it is: AT&T backing away from obnoxious behavior that blocked functionality in devices people bought and paid for.read comment(s)

Earlier this month Sprint tried to scrap Dish's proposed takeover of Clearwire by arguing that the proposal was technically illegal under Delaware law. Now Sprint has filed a new lawsuit against both Dish and Clearwire in an effort to prove it and derail the deal once and for all. According to the lawsuit, Dish has "repeatedly attempted to fool Clearwire's shareholders into believing its proposal was actionable in an effort to acquire Clearwire's spectrum and to obstruct Sprint's transaction with Clearwire." The fuss over Clearwire's spectrum has resulted in the Wall Street Journal calling the historically dismally-performing Clearwire the "darling of telecom" in a report yesterday.read comment(s)