Fine settles case of WiFi routers and tablets broadcasting beyond permitted power.
FCC Holds Up Its Review of Merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable
Ted Cruz Falsely Likens Net Neutrality to Obamacare
In a new political move by the Senator, Ted Cruz has likened Net Neutrality to Obamacare after the President announced his support for a Title II status.
ATSC Wins Emmy for Loud Commericals Ban
The end of loud commercials? Definitely worth an award. The Advanced Television Systems Committee’s (ATSC) will be awarded a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award for their successful collaboration with industry groups to end the reign of really, really loud commercials on television. The FCC, SMPTE, and other organizations already mandate “safe level” broadcast standards for both video and audio. However, some advertisers would use heavy audio level compression to achieve much higher perceived loudness and clarity while staying within the approved decibel limits. This advertising practice became widely popular during the 2000’s, and when the US made its official switch to all-digital television broadcasting (DTV) in June 2009, it became even worse. Because digital audio signals are perceived
AT&T Might Owe You a Refund for Cramming
AT&T just paid a $105 million fine to the FTC to settle a cramming lawsuit where the company charged its customers bogus charges on their bills
FCC Gets Over 1 Million Comments on Net Neutrality
As we’ve been reporting over the course of the past few months, the FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) on Net Neutrality where the FCC’s chairman, Tom Wheeler, and the remaining 4 members of the FCC’s panel voted to approve such a notice. Upon approval, they entered a comment period which was supposed to end on July 15th, but upon that deadline coming to and end, their site became bogged down and crashed completely. As such, they extended the deadline until the end of today at midnight. Since that deadline was extended, the FCC has reported that they have now received
650,000 Comment on FCC's Net Neutrality Rules
Nearly 650,000 people have left comments on the FCC’s website regarding their proposed Net Neutrality rules, which were proposed roughly 2 months ago. The comments have been open since May 15th, and will be closed on July 15th, likely with over 650,000 comments on the topic, many of which are criticizing the FCC for not taking a strong enough stance to protect consumers. The FCC’s very own Chairman Tom Wheeler even tweeted about the milestone on Friday, reminding people to continue to leave their comments. We’ve received about 647k #netneutrality comments so far. Keep your input coming — 1st round of comments wraps up July
Time Warner Cable Rolling Out 300 and 200 Mbps Service July 7th
Time Warner Cable is rolling out one of the fastest internet speeds available in the country today next month. Our sources have been indicating to us that Time Warner Cable has been in the process of rolling out a 200/300 Mbps service in the San Diego area. They already offer 100 Mbps to new customers, but many of those people will get upgraded to Time Warner Cable’s 300 Mbps service which is one of the fastest in the country. Keep in mind that this 300 Mbps service is still only over cable, so it can’t compete with Google’s 1 Gbps fiber service or the uploads
FCC Broadband Report Finds US ISPs Failing to Deliver on Many Levels
The FCC recently released their fourth Measuring Broadband America report, which I believe to be their most damning. This year’s broadband report hit on five major points: Speed consistency Download speed performance varies too much DSL is lagging behind fiber and cable speeds Consumers continue to move to faster speeds Upload speeds vary sharply In terms of speed consistency, The FCC stated that very few ISPs were delivering 100% of the speeds that they were promising to consumers. Most of the broadband ISPs claim their speeds as ‘up to’ in order to save their skin, however some ISPs like Cablevision are delivering 100% or better of
Why Comcast is Lying to Us, Again
Comcast is trying to lie to us, again. Comcast is continually changing their story about why they should be allowed to acquire Time Warner Cable, constantly looking for reasons why it won’t hamper competition or consumer choice. They look towards the fact that our mobile carriers are also our internet service providers and that they are technically competitors with Comcast. Even though, anyone that knows anything about how the mobile industry works knows that mobile industry growth and competition has almost no negative effects on landline based internet. In fact, in a lot of cases users with mobile data coverage end up getting landline service
Why Comcast is Lying to Us, Again
Comcast is trying to lie to us, again. Comcast is continually changing their story about why they should be allowed to acquire Time Warner Cable, constantly looking for reasons why it won’t hamper competition or consumer choice. They look towards the fact that our mobile carriers are also our internet service providers and that they are technically competitors with Comcast. Even though, anyone that knows anything about how the mobile industry works knows that mobile industry growth and competition has almost no negative effects on landline based internet. In fact, in a lot of cases users with mobile data coverage end up getting landline service
FCC Passes Proposed Net Neutrality Rules
So, even after all of the huffing and puffing the FCC have decided to pass 3 to 2 (along party lines) their Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) that would in the FCC’s eyes promote an ‘open’ internet, which is really a farce. As we had already reported, the FCC got quite a clear indication via their public comment session on Twitter that the public was not happy with this NPRM that they were planning to vote on today. Yet, even though they claim to ‘listen’ to our comments they still passed the NPRM and now move into the 60 day + 60 day periods of comment
FCC Chats Net Neutrality with the Public on Twitter
The FCC recently decided that they would have a Twitter chat with the public via Twitter using the hashtag #FCCNetNeutrality. Using this hashtag, for an hour, Gigi Sohn the FCC’s Special Counsel for External Affairs would answer questions for the FCC’s Office of the Chairman. Which would essentially mean that she is representing the Chairman, Tom Wheeler, even though he didn’t participate directly in the chat itself. So many people started asking questions and tweeting and retweeting the #FCCNetNeutrality hashtag that it became the number one trending topic on Twitter at that time. In addition to responding to users that tweeted the #FCCNetNeutrality hastag, Gigi
FCC Chats Net Neutrality with the Public on Twitter
The FCC recently decided that they would have a Twitter chat with the public via Twitter using the hashtag #FCCNetNeutrality. Using this hashtag, for an hour, Gigi Sohn the FCC’s Special Counsel for External Affairs would answer questions for the FCC’s Office of the Chairman. Which would essentially mean that she is representing the Chairman, Tom Wheeler, even though he didn’t participate directly in the chat itself. So many people started asking questions and tweeting and retweeting the #FCCNetNeutrality hashtag that it became the number one trending topic on Twitter at that time. In addition to responding to users that tweeted the #FCCNetNeutrality hastag, Gigi
Why Isn't Apple Opposed to New Net Neutrality Proposal?
Most people don’t quite understand what Net Neutrality is all about or how important it is to the future of the United States as a knowledge economy, especially one driven by software companies that rely on fair internet behavior to survive. Without Net Neutrality, we could never have a Facebook, Twitter, Google, Snapchat, Instagram or plenty of other cloud-based internet businesses. However, it appears that Apple has chosen not to take a side in the Net Neutrality debate, by not signing a letter signed by virtually every other major tech company in opposition to the new Net Neutrality proposed law. Perhaps it has to do
FCC Chief, Tom Wheeler, Sends Mixed Messages on Net Neutrality
In yet another public blog about new neutrality and the open internet, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, has once again tried to clarify where he stands on the open internet and net neutrality, while almost entirely focusing on the open internet and trying to define exactly what it means. In his blog post, Tom Wheeler tries to quell some of the backlash of some of his statements and previous blogs in a way that placates the masses that are currently angry with the FCC and their proposed rules for open internet standards that would effectively create a “fast lane” for companies that pay for that access
Comcast to Divest 3.9 Million Customers, 1.4 Million to Charter
In an attempt to placate the FCC, DoJ, FTC and basically every government agency on earth against their acquisition of Time Warner Cable, Comcast has announced that they will be divesting 3.9 million subscribers from the potential Comcast-TimeWarnerCable merger. This new announcement is a huge farce on the part of Comcast attempting to make it look like they’re seriously divesting from certain markets and giving subscribers to Charter. When in reality this new deal they are proposing actually muddies the waters further than a straight Comcast-TimeWarner acquisition and lines Comcast up for a quiet re-acquisition of those 3.9 million subscribers as well as “New Charter”
Netflix Calls Out Comcast, Comcast is Ruining the Internet for All
So, late last week the good people over at Netflix that have been battling the ludicrous battle with the ISPs posted a blog about why they believe Comcast’s behavior is something that they vehemently oppose. While the post itself talks about their opposition of ‘ISP tolls’ where ISPs like Comcast charge them more money to deliver their content to consumers more quickly, they also mentioned their opposition to the Comcast-TWC merger. Netflix’s Kevin Florance, VP of Content Delivery at Netflix, took the time in their post to explain how their performance had been suffering with Comcast customers and amid talks with Comcast eventually came to
Net Neutrality on The Line with New FCC Rules
It seems as if we’ve been talking about this way too long, and in fact, we have been. So long, that even then Senator Obama had pledged Net Neutrality laws if he was elected President. Alas, President Obama has more than failed to deliver on his promise of Net Neutrality, he has allowed the ISPs and the FCC to run amok in ways that seriously jeopardize the US’ position of the leader of the internet. The NSA revelations regarding their spying on global network traffic hasn’t helped much in the US’ position either, but ultimately these new proposed FCC rules would make it difficult for
