Time Warner Cable back from the dead?: [4th Feb 2010]

>>> A California Democrat has suggested that the US Federal Communications Commission should set up a fund under the Universal Service Fund to subsidize broadband subscriptions. Doris Matsui said in her speech at the Washington think tank that many Americans simply cannot afford to pay up to $60 a month for the service and fewer than two thirds of Americans have a subscription. The Lifeline Assistance program currently provides discounts of $10 a month for those on low incomes and Matsui's proposal would add a further $100m a year to this fund.


>>> The latest US budget, as revealed by President Obama, included an increased fund for tech-related research and education, plus more Internet based Government services. However the budget for the NASA moon program was cut. In addition to the current $7.2bn in broadband funding, the budget allows for $418m in broadband loans and grants for rural areas. The FCC will get $352m to implement the National Broadband Plan, to manage the spectrum use and to improve the data systems and operations. The President also announced moves to improve energy use and to save money in Government departments. Measures such as turning off computers and switching to appropriate cell phone plans will be encouraged.


>>> Verizon's FiOS TV, broadband and wireless customers are to benefit from an agreement between the company and NBC Universal which will see the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games coverage to be aired for their customers. The coverage will start on February 12 with the opening ceremony and will be available across all platforms. The service will include on-demand, high definition and online coverage. In total 835 hours of coverage will be available - more than any other winter Olympics. The games run for 17 days.


>>> AT&T has announced the activation of a new 3G site in Adams County which will improve access to the Internet for people living in the area. The move is part of the company's efforts to extend its wireless 3G network, which is the fastest in the US according to independent reports. The company has expressed a commitment to continue to grow their coverage across the US an in particular for rural communities such as Adams County.

Expectations that Apple would announce which carrier would supply the network for the iPad did not come to fruition this week when the new device was launched. It was expected that the iPad would have multiple carriers, but it seems that AT&T will hold on to its current deal with Apple which includes the iPhone. AT&T did announce improvements in their range speed and strength of its network. The carrier has had a 5000% increase in data traffic on its mobile network and experts are questioning if it will be able to handle the increase from iPad users. AT&T claim they have already factored iPad usage into their plans for 2010 and have invested $2bn to expand the network. Rick Lindner from AT&T believes that iPad users will rely more heavily on WiFi use and so will not have such an impact on their network.


>>> Southwest Airlines has announced it will install WiFi equipment into its planes during the second quarter of this year. They hope to install the equipment into 15 planes per month, increasing to 25 per month. This means the whole fleet will have WiFi by 2012. The pricing structure of the service will be decided during the second quarter of 2010. Southwest uses Row 44 technology which uses satellites to transmit the broadband signal to the aircraft. Other airlines use ground based transmitters.


>>> Time Warner Cable Inc. has said that it has moved into profit during the last part of 2009 as their demand for broadband and phone services sharply increased. As the nations second largest cable TV provider, Time Warner earned $322m compared to a loss of $8.16bn during 2008. The company has since announced it will issue a dividend of 40 cents per share starting on March 15. Residential broadband customers rose by 120,000 and video subscribers fell by 105,000. The results showed that they picked up 2.7 times as many new high speed Internet subscribers as Verizon during the same period.