Items tagged with ISP
We've said it in the past, and we'll say it again: if there are two mainstream tech industries that could use a disruption, it's cable TV and broadband Internet. Google is actually doing a fair job of disrupting both, and if you had any worries about Google investing in Fiber for Kansas City and then forgetting all...
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Google Fiber is, in a word, awesome. In addition to bringing unprecedented Internet speeds to a few lucky areas in Kansas City (at an attractive price point no less), the presence of the service has apparently been attracting startups to the area and has people calling it the “Silicon Prairie”. Google is...
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Content delivery company Akamai has just issued its Q3 2012 "State of the Internet" report, and with it comes some promising signs that "high broadband" Internet connections are on the up. The report doesn't mention what caused the growth, but between Q2 and Q3 of last year, the number of people equipped with a...
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It's a well-known fact, outside of China's walls, that China is one of the tougher places to truly indulge in the full Internet. A nationwide filter prevents easy access to places like Twitter and Facebook, as well as certain images that the government deems unsuitable for citizens to view for one reason or another...
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For too long, the download/upload speeds advertised by ISPs fell far short of real-world performance, but things have been improving of late. According to the FCC’s “Measuring Broadband America” 2012 report, ISPs were delivering an average of 96% of advertised speeds during peak traffic times, which is up significantly from...
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It’s a long-running joke that most of us use our phones to make phone calls rather rarely, opting instead to use them for texting, Web browser, games, productivity, and social media more often. Perhaps that’s partly why AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson suggested this week that data-only wireless plans are likely coming within two...
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Good news if you get your Internet service through Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, or Time Warner Cable: You just got free access to about 50,000 WiFi hotspots. The quintet of cable ISPs announced that they’ve partnered to provide free WiFi hotspot access to all of their combined customers under the network...
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Net neutrality. Throttling. Shaping. Data discrimination. Lots of weird terms, and plenty of headaches for Internet users. ISPs are looking to all sorts of methods in order to curb usage and abuse where possible, but Bell Canada is taking a rather unusual approach. But now, according to a letter to Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications...
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A major ruling from the European Court of Justice found that an ISP is not responsible for monitoring Web traffic for illegal downloads. The ruling was in a case between European ISP Scarlet Extended SA and an organization responsible for authorizing the use of musical works called SABAM. SABAM discovered that users...
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Most ISPs advertise the upload and download speeds of their broadband, but just how much truth is in advertising? A recent study by the FCC aims give consumers the answer for the nation's largest providers. The Federal Communications Commission has released the results of a year-long scientific study it conducted with regard to the upload...
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The National Sheriffs' Association has announced it supports mandatory logging provisions incorporated into a proposed federal law that would require ISPs to store all customer data for 18 months. The bill (HR 1981) is intended to amend title 18 of the USC and is known as the "Protecting Children From Internet...
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Last month, we covered AT&T's decision to impose caps on its previous unlimited Internet service plans. An estimated 56 percent of Americans now pay for bandwidth-capped service, almost always at the same price point that once allowed them unlimited bandwidth. Now, toss in the fact that you can't swing a dead cat two feet without smacking...
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Comcast was always a major player in the cable / ISP space, but now it's almost unfair. These guys have managed to coerce even a monstrous company like Intel to team up with 'em, with their newest Xfinity TV set-top box being powered by none other than Chipzilla herself. Intel's CE media processor has been kicking...
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In America, there's HughesNet. It's usually a last-resort for people seeking high-speed internet, mostly for two reasons. For one, it's crazy expensive. Two, it's really slow, at least on the uplink. But satellite-based internet is still useful in rural places where no other broadband is available, and evidently those same demands are also...
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In a development that's glad news for any AT&T customer stuck with the company's new 150GB broadband cap, the New America Foundation and the Public Knowledge group have jointly asked the FCC to examine data caps. While they admit that such caps are not prima facie evidence of monopolistic abuse, they note: "they...
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We have to believe that most of the suits in Washington, D.C. were in a hurry to get back home for the holidays, but an FCC ruling was able to be hammered out just before the Christmas break. Net neutrality has been one of the biggest issues in the FCC circle this year, along with rural broadband. As the Internet has grown, so has concern...
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Comcast hasn't exactly been one to avoid bad PR. We need only think back to the whole BitTorrent throttling fiasco, or more recently, Level 3's accusation that Comcast is essentially putting an extortion charge on whisking Netflix traffic down to its subscribers. But here's one bit of good news coming from the Comcast camp -- the ISP reportedly...
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Earlier in the year, Google made clear that they wanted to get in the business of providing Internet service, not just service search on the Internet. A ton of cities made their case to Google in order to be selected for one of the first rollouts, but Google has still yet to make their decision on that. In fact, an update today provided by...
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This doesn't actually have anything to do with Google's own intentions to get into the Internet servicing business, but you may assume so at first glance. It seems that Google is still considering where to roll out their fiber-based ISP, but if you need lightning fast Internet right now, you may need to move to Chattanooga, Tennessee. That...
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It's about time! For years, gamers have been fighting for respect. Most people don't take them seriously, though the gaming business is obviously a huge one. Razer makes a living from selling accessories to hardcore gamers, and gaming PC sales don't seem to be hurting. So if high-end mice and GPUs sell so well, why wouldn't a high-end Internet...
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Ever heard of AT&T U-verse? Unless your neighborhood is one of the few scattered about America with access to U-verse, there's a good chance that you haven't heard about it. Basically, it's a rival for cable carriers, DirecTV, DISH Network and Verizon's FiOS. It's a fiber-based system that provides Internet, TV and phone service just like...
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You may assume that you have no real reason to thank Finland today, but you do. If you're an avid Internet user, you owe the first nation to make broadband service a basic right a great deal of gratitude, because without them being first, there's no telling how long it would've taken for some other country to finally...
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