New Data Report Indicates the US Fastest ISPs - 18.01.12: Data compiled by the Ookla Net Index has indicated that the six fastest ISPs in the US were Comcast, Charter Communications, Cable Vision Systems, Time Warner Cable and Insight Communications - all cable companies. The information was based on the average download speeds and included o...


Sprint's CEO Disputes their own Company's Advert Claims - 11.01.12: The CEO of Sprint Dan Hesse has been caught out this week saying that the company throttles the heaviest unlimited data users on their network. At a conference Hesse admitted that around 1% of those users are throttled at this time and also that if the unlimited data access was abused ...


Verizon to Charge Customers $2 for Paying Their Bill Conveniently - 04.01.12: In late December Verizon informed their customers that from January 15 they will be charged a $2 "convenience" fee to pay their bill over the phone or online. They described the charge as being about offering their customers the best possible wireless service. The fee would not be char...


AT&T's T-Mobile Merger Not Going Ahead - 21.12.11: AT&T have finally made it clear this week that their deal to acquire T-Mobile will not go ahead. Amid opposition for customers and regulators, it was just a matter of time until the announcement was made according to experts. In a statement released this week, AT&T have commented that ...


$4billion in Government Broadband Infrastructure Development - 14.12.11: It has emerged this week that as of the third quarter of this year, none of the projects which were funded by the broadband stimulus fund have yet been completed. The money was part of the governments Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and were designed to fund broadband infras...


Verizon Best Wireless Provider Ahead of Sprint, T-Mobile & AT&T - 07.12.11: AT&T has been ranked in last place in the annual Consumer Reports survey of wireless broadband providers. 66,000 subscribers were questioned about their customer service and customer support experiences. Verizon was ranked highest, followed by Sprint and T-Mobile came in third. All of ...


AT&T Pull Out of T-Mobile Merger Deal - 30.11.11: AT&T have officially withdrawn their application to acquire T-Mobile, acknowledging that the chances of approval are slim. However they have said that they will reapply at a later date. Despite this, the FCC have said that they will still be releasing their report into why they would h...


Comcast Issue Christmas Price Increases but Slow on Refunds - 23.11.11: Comcast has decided that a few weeks before Christmas is a good time to announce a raft of price increases for their broadband and television subscribers. Customers who use the Performance package which bundles together TV services will have a $3 per month increase to $48.95, while tho...


Two of the World's Leading Tech Investors State Concerns - 16.11.11: The people behind how the Internet works have been warning that ultra fast networks may not be as reliable as predicted. Despite putting $100 million of their money into the businesses behind the Internet, David Cheriton and Andreas Bechtolsheim have said that the promise of having acc...


China Telecom Have Plans for the United States Early Next Year - 09.11.11: It has been revealed that China Telecom has plans to set up a wireless service in the US next year. They will be seeking to sign up Chinese Americans, students and tourists who travel between China and the US. Donald Tan from China Telecom Americas has said that the cost of the service...


Cox Communications Sets Up New Call Centre to Enforce Data Caps - 02.11.11: It has been revealed that Cox Communications are introducing new procedures to deal with those people who go over their usage caps. In the past they have had "soft caps" which were only enforced at peak times, however they are about to get much tougher. A new call center is to be added...


US Improves to 12th Place for World Broadband Speed - 26.10.11: The latest State of the Internet Report figures from Akamai have shown that the US is ranked 12th in the world in terms of broadband speed with a 5.8Mbps average. This represents an improvement of 9% from the first quarter of this year. The report also shows that 27% of all connections...


God, Gays and Lesbians Approve of the T-Mobile / AT&T Merger? - 19.10.11: In an attempt to garner support for the merger with T-mobile, AT&T have now asked the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission to lobby for support. The faith based provider is to receive a donation of $50,000 for their troubles. The Reverend in charge has equated calling on God with the abil...


Microsoft and BestBuy Join Forces with FCC to Improve Americans Internet Skills - 12.10.11: A number of companies including Microsoft and BestBuy have joined forces with the FCC to help the 100 million Americans who do not yet have high speed Internet access. The initiative known as "Connect to Compete" will be announced this week by the FCC and it is hoped it will help those...


FCC Orders all Wireless Handsets to be Fitted with GPS Tracking by 2018 - 05.10.11: The FCC has ruled this week that all telephone service providers must offer GPS capable phones by 2018. The ruling has been made to make it easier for 911 callers to be located via their handset. Currently any call made to a 911 service via a mobile phone requires the emergency service...


Broadband Internet has Best Potential for Job Creation and Economic Growth - 28.09.11: Julius Genochowski, the chairman of the FCC has given yet another speech this week where he suggested that broadband Internet was more important for job creation and economic growth than any other type of infrastructure. He even described Facebook, Twitter, tablets, the Kindle and app ...


"Network Optimization" - not "Data Throttling" says Verizon - 21.09.11: It has now been confirmed that Verizon's new throttling system is now in force in most of their markets. While the company states that the system will only impact the top 5% of their users and only those on 3G unlimited data plans, it is still unclear exactly what will trigger this "ne...


Verizon Blames Strikes and Hurricane Irene for Delays - 14.09.11: Verizon has been telling customers that both the recent strike and the problems associated with Hurricane Irene and the flooding caused by a tropical storm have led to further delays to the installation of their FiOS service. There is now a backlog of more than 100,000 orders. Staff ar...


Sprint and Verizon Beat T-Mobile and AT&T in Customer Satisfaction - 07.09.11: An American Customer Satisfaction Index report has shown that Sprint and Verizon now have the happiest customers of the top four carriers in the US. Both AT&T and T-Mobile have seen a decline in customer satisfaction, possibly due to the proposed merger between the two. The designer of...


Department of Justice Moves to Block Merger of T-Mobile and AT&T - 01.09.11: The Department of Justice has this week moved to block the merger of T-Mobile and AT&T. The DOJ filed papers in a federal court in Washington to block the deal saying it could harm consumers and would effectively eliminate T-Mobile as an independent, low priced rival and remove competi...


AT&T's Facebook Phone Pulled After Just 36 Days? - 24.08.11: Rumors have it that AT&T have already pulled their "Facebook Phone" after just 36 days on the market due to low sales . It seems that having a dedicated Facebook button doesn't really appeal to customers after all. AT&T have said the phone remains part of their portfolio but experts ha...


Verizon Accuses Workers of Sabotaging Equipment Ahead of Strikes - 17.08.11: With the Verizon worker's strike heading into its second week, the company has been alleging that workers are engaged in sabotage against their equipment and that there has been aggressive behavior towards staff and management who have chosen not to strike. In fact Verizon have claimed...


Data Caps, LTE Preparation, Hijacked Searches and iPod Streaming? - 11.08.11: According to leaked information T-Mobile has plans to impose usage caps on their customers which will impose further charges. Until now the company has simply throttled those customers who use more than their monthly broadband limit. As of August 13 customers can expect 10 cents per MB...


Some Internet Providers only Giving 80% of Advertised Speed - 04.08.11: The FCC has released figures which show that some Internet service providers are delivering speeds which are only 80% of those they advertise. During peak times the result can be even worse than this. The FCC hired research company SamKows who asked 9,000 volunteers to to monitor the d...


Superfast Broadband Development Still Going Slow - 28.07.11: It has been announced this week by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that rural telecommunications companies are to receive almost $192 million in loans to develop broadband projects for rural areas in eight states. The loans are coming from The Department of Agriculture's Telecommunic...


4% of People use the Internet for TV - 21.07.11: A study by research company SNL Kagan has indicated that around 4% of US households will have substituted Internet video for their cable, satellite or telco TV services by the end of the year. This represent 4.5 million homes, which is 2 million more than the figures from 2010. They al...


Internet Providers Feature Heavily in "Most Hated Companies" List - 14.07.11: A list of the 19 most hated US companies has been compiled by The Atlantic with information from the American Customer Satisfaction survey. Among the banks, power companies and airlines, telecoms companies feature heavily. In fact Time Warner Cable came in third, while Comcast reached ...


Can the Speed and Reach Promises of High Speed Internet Providers be Fulfilled? - 07.07.11: A study carried out by the Columbia Institute for Tele-information has discovered that US service providers still have a long way to go before they have realized their ambitious plans. The report states that if AT&T and Verizon were to reach their goals for broadband, at least 50 milli...


Providers Working Harder on LTE and Mobile Wireless Broadband over Fiber Optic Internet? - 30.06.11: A study released this week by VIOP provider BroadSoft Inc. has found that 42% of all global mobile network operators are currently trialling or deploying an LTE network. In addition another 34% have plans to do so in the future. One third of those questioned said that they expect hands...


AT&T's Focus Seems to be Wireless Broadband - 23.06.11: Despite the AT&T protestations that their merger with T-Mobile would result in job creation it seems to already be having the opposite effect. The Wall Street Journal has this week pointed out that even though the deal is not due to be closed until March of next year, some T-Mobile ind...


Comcast Show Off 1GB and 100Mbps Services! Not that you can buy them ... - 16.06.11: Despite caps being put on data usage by providers, the companies involved are still showing that they can offer faster services. Comcast is due to demonstrate a 1Gb service this week at the Cable Trade Show. In addition they will show a service which has upload and download speeds of 1...


Providers running amok. Ex-Regulators taking job offers with them? - 09.06.11: AT&T are to be forced to refund $1 billion in incorrectly collected taxes. It has been found that the company violated the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which bans taxing Internet access by collecting taxes on smartphone plans, laptop connection cards and other prepay data devices which he...


Are Internet Providers Looking to Improve or just Merge? - 02.06.11: As part of their condition of their merger with NBC, Comcast has started to offer the $10 broadband packages as it was required to do. The packages need to be offered to any household with an income of less than $20,000 a year. The Internet Essentials package will be available from thi...


US Government "National Broadband Plan" Failing Half of American Households - 26.05.11: A new study has indicated that almost half of all US households do not meet the broadband goals as set out by the National Broadband Plan. The study from Connected Nation is based on a tool known as The Broadband Readiness Index which assesses the infrastructure for the entire US. The ...


Sprint are Top, AT&T voted Bottom - 19.05.11: The American Customer satisfaction Index has been released this week and the results show that Sprint are now at the top of the rankings for wireless service, just in front of Verizon. However AT&T will not be impressed with their ranking. Both AT&T and T-Mobile have seen a decline in ...


Inventive, Offensive & Apprehensive - this week in broadband - 12.05.11: A new browser app developed by Georgia Tech could allow users to make better use of their broadband connection. It could also ensure that providers are keeping to their speed promises. The Kermit app which was unveiled this week could help users to check whether their broadband is bein...


Most So-Called Unlimited Services are Capped - 05.05.11: A study carried out at multichannel News has found that 56% of all of the US is under a broadband capping system of some description. With AT&T announcing their capping system this week and the fact that they have a huge proportion of customers in the US, the numbers have just increase...


Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Apple Collecting Customer Data - 29.04.11: Letters have been sent to Congress this week by wireless carriers defending the way they collect and store location data. The providers argue that they use the information to keep their network working correctly and to provide location based services. They point out that they do no sel...


AT&T Buys, Comcast Says it Tries and Verizon Shows Highs - 25.04.11: AT&T have this week submitted a 100 page justification of their deal to acquire T-Mobile to the FCC. The document insists that the deal is extraordinary and that it will not reduce competition. It also hints that T-Mobile is not very important in the industry saying that T-Mobile made ...


Obama promises 98% of US residents to have next generation mobile broadband access in 5 years - 14.04.11: Despite major spending cuts in other areas, the Obama administration has insisted it will continue the roll-out of broadband aggressively. In an address at George Washington University the President said that the government will not sacrifice core investments which are needed to create...

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