FCC again held up its review of the merger for 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.
Comcast Posts Surreal Response to FCC Comments
As a response to the thousands of comments on the FCC’s website pertaining to the Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) merger, Comcast has released a public statement as a part of a blog post on the company’s own site detailing its side of the merger (really an acquisition, but acquisition is a dirty word). In the company’s own post is links to its official response to the FCC Comments with a 300+ page document that supposedly addresses the concerns and refutes others. The document features sections titled: THE TRANSACTION WILL PROVIDE SUBSTANTIAL PUBLIC INTEREST BENEFITS, AND CHALLENGES TO THESE BENEFITS ARE WITHOUT MERIT Featuring Answers
Verizon FIOS Speeds Go Symmetrical
For the longest time, Verizon’s FIOS service was considered the fastest in the land and everyone oogled over living in an area that offered Verizon FIOS. It also had some of the best upload speeds available at the time, which would make anyone looking to upload their own content an incredibly happy camper. However, Verizon’s FIOS service was an assymetrical fiber optic service which meant that users were getting services like 50 Mbps download and 25 Mbps upload, and 100 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload. However, in some other countries their fiber services are symmetrical, meaning that 100 Mbps download also has a 100
Listen: Cancelling Comcast is Like Pulling Teeth
Ryan Block tried to cancel his Comcast service recently and the Comcast representative simply would not let him do so without explaining why he’s leaving. The Comcast rep was completely unresponsive and employed sales tactics that have been used many times before to keep people from leaving their companies. With Comcast already behaving a lot like AOL did back in the internet’s early years, this kind of experience could become even more common as Comcast and Time Warner Cable are set to merge. This episode is yet another example of why a company like Comcast should not ever be allowed to acquire any of their
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
San Diego Not Getting 300, 200 or 100 Mbps
In one of the most depressing rumor squashings I have ever had to personally experience, I am reporting to you today that Time Warner Cable’s rumored 300 Mbps, 200 Mbps services are not rolling out on July 7th. In fact, after speaking with Time Warner Cable’s representative for the San Diego area we got some even more depressing news. According to Bret Picciolo of Time Warner Cable, the company will not be rolling out their 300 and 200 Mbps services in the San Diego area. This is in spite of multiple CSRs indicating to myself and other people that such services would be available starting
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
Level 3 Communications Buys TW Telecom for $5.6 Billion
Level 3 Communications has announced that they will be buying the former Time Warner Cable internet service for enterprise division (TW Telecom) for $5.6 billion ($7.3 billion with debt), further increasing their size and scope. Some news sites have made the mistake saying that Level 3 Communications is buying Time Warner Cable, which is simply not correct. TW Telecom was started as a joint venture between Time Warner Cable and US West which is now a part of Centurylink. However, TW Telecom has operated as an independent entity for quite some time and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ as TWTC. The deal is currently
Webpass, The Best Little ISP You've Never Heard of
Lately, there has been a lot of talk about ISPs (internet service providers) with the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable as well as all of the Net Neutrality legislation and news going around. In this era of essentially no competition among internet service providers, many customers are generally stuck with 2, maybe 3 choices for internet service in their area, which is actually worse than the current state of wireless which is also essentially an oligopoly. In most places, you have the choice between some sort of cable TV provider that also provides internet service and a telephone provider, usually being Comcast, Time Warner
AT&T to Buy DIRECTV for $50 Billion?
There have been a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the telecom businesses, the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is still up in the air and many people appear to be highly opposed to it. And naturally, it would come as little surprise that AT&T would look to merge/buy one of their competitors as well. After all, if a Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger were to go through, even after divestments they would essentially be a 30 million subscriber base company. That would be much bigger than AT&T’s current 5 million subscriber base, making them even less relevant in the TV space, so obviously, AT&T wants to
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
