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10
Feb 2010 |
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Google has fired a warning shot over US telecommunications providers heads after announcing that the search company has plans to enter the broadband market. Google's plans are ambitious, with product manager James Kelly saying that "Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today -- over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. "We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people" |
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9
Feb 2010 |
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British Telecom yesterday announced that it will be opening its fibre broadband ducts to rival internet service providers. The move allows providers to offer their own customised fibre optic broadband packages in much the same way as they currently to using Local Loop Unbundling, or LLU. This saves ISPs the enormous cost of digging up roads and sidewalks, as well as increases competition in the broadband market. BT CEO Ian Livingston said: "We told Ofcom last year we're willing to provide open access to |
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4
Feb 2010 |
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According to the UKs largest Wi-Fi provider, The Cloud, networks dealing with mobile internet are on the verge of a "meltdown." A report released by the company today claims that traffic on mobile networks increase by a factor of 10 every year, rendering the industry a victim of its own success. The report also forecasts that demand placed on the mobile networks will by 2015 be almost 100 times greater per user than it is currently. "Smartphones fundamentally change the way we use our mobile phone. A |
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31
Jan 2010 |
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By the end of 2010 Malaysia will meet its 50 percent broadband penetration target, according to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. Numerous efforts by the Government to bridge the digital divide had delivered positive results, with 31.7 broadband penetration rate as of last year, ahead of the estimated 30 percent. The Malaysian Government launched the first digital Pekan 1Malaysia programme, which is a key contributor to national economic growth and will help achieve the National Broadband Plan |
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31
Jan 2010 |
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Punting a Tory government, Shadow chancellor George Osborne said broadband speeds of 100 mbps would be delivered to the "majority" of homes by 2017, with private investors having to pay for rural areas. Osborne said "In the 19th Century we built the railways. In the 20th Century we built the motorways. In the 21st Century let's build the super-fast broadband network that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Britain." The Tories said money from private investors would pay for better cabling, while |
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27
Jan 2010 |
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UK Broadband site BroadbandChoices has revealed that 75 percent of broadband users on unlimited packages download and upload only 20GB of content per month, and 50 percent downloaded less than 10GB per month. Even with an extremely competitive broadband market, the average uncapped broadband user could save over GBP100 per year if they opt for a cheaper service. British Telecom offers a 10GB ADSL service for GB15.99, and an unlimited ADSL service for just GBP9 more at GBP24.99. Switching to the 10GB service |
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26
Jan 2010 |
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A few of Nigerias telecommunication companies are planning to go to court to force the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to suspend the registering of of all SIM cards by the end of March this year. The telecom firms have taken the legal route as a last ditch effort to stop the exercise if the current lobby fail to persuade the regulatory authorities to prolong the registration by at least another 18 months. The SIM registration move is an effort to have up to date records of Nigerian mobile |
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22
Jan 2010 |
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British Telecom has begun rolling out its fibre-optic-based internet access service, BT Infinity, which will offer download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10MBps, starting at GBP19.99 (+-R245) per month. The new services are delivered over BT's new Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) network which is expected to cover 4 million homes and business by the end of this year. The company said on Thursday that it will offer two pricing plans for the service, with upload speeds of up to 2Mbps included |
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21
Jan 2010 |
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In a statement today Verizon Wireless said it is waiving cellphone call charges for customers calling to or from earthquake-struck Haiti until the end of January. The waiver is retroactive to 11h59PM EST January 12 and stretches to 31 January, which means any calls placed to Haiti since the earthquake hit earlier this month are free of charge. Calls made to Haiti from Verizon residential landlines are also being waived. Verizon says that the intent is to help customers track down friends and family in the |
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21
Jan 2010 |
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According to a new study released by the Phoenix Center, job hunters who have internet access are more inclined to keep looking for jobs and less likely to find themselves without jobs than people who don't have internet access.. The correlation between employment and internet access is even stronger among broadband users, using census data from 2007 the study discovered that broadband users are at least 50 percent less likely to throw in the job search towel because of discouragement. Dialup users are |
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21
Jan 2010 |
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According to figures released by Informa Telecoms & Media, worldwide fixed broadband subscriptions should reach half a billion in 2010, mainly on the back of emerging markets. Fixed broadband markets in mature countries are almost saturated, but the world's developing regions, such as China and India, have tens of millions of homes in need of connectivity. It is these markets that will drive a new wave of broadband growth. In 2009 the number of new fixed broadband subscriptions swelled to over 480 million |
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20
Jan 2010 |
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According to a report, he United States Federal Bureau of Investigation collected more than 2,000 records on US phone calls by invoking fabricated terrorism emergencies or by persuading phone companies to provide them. After collecting the phone records between 2002 and 2006, FBI officials issued approvals afterward to justify their actions in. FBI spokesman Michael Kortan told Reuters "This practice ceased in 2006 and never involved obtaining the content of telephone conversations. Additionally, steps |
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20
Jan 2010 |
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The Chinese government continues to tighten its grip on its citizens, with Chinese mobile providers now monitoring text messages in the country for "illegal or unhealthy content". Service will be suspended when a customer inadvertently causes a red flag. Potentially offending messages will be turned over to the authorities to be reviewed, and if the customer is cleared of wrongdoing, his or her service will be restored. What defines an offence is currently not clearly defined by either the mobile providers |
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19
Jan 2010 |
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Delivery network Akamai, using data from the third quarter of 2009, has announced that the average US broadband speed declined by 2.4 percent compared to the same period in 2008. Delaware currently has the highest broadband speed at 7.2 Mbps. The US in general remains far behind countries like South Korea, where the average broadband speed is almost 15Mbps. The US is currently in 18th place out of 203 nations tested - far behind most of Europe and Asia, with an average broadband speed of only 3.9 Mbps. |
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19
Jan 2010 |
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According to reports, fibre optic broadband provider Virgin Media is trialing new technology that could help in the battle against illegal filesharing. Virgin - which specialises in bundles including broadband, digital TV and home phone offerings - will use Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to identify the type of traffic (email, web surfing, gaming etc) a broadband connection is being used for. Any file-sharing activity will be then be checked against a database of music and films. This technology can |
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