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6
May 2009 |
Data caps and metered billing have generated significant consumer resistance not because the idea of metered billing is always bad, but because the new packages on offer feel like highway robbery. Proponents of such caps, like Time Warner Cable, often claim that people need to "pay their fair share" in order to fund future upgrades, so we rounded the quarterly earnings statements out last week from the major US ISPs in an attempt to gauge how accurate that argument might be.
It turns out that just about ... |
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6
May 2009 |
The European Parliament has cast its final vote in favor of an amendment that will prevent member states from implementing three-strikes laws. Disconnecting alleged file-sharers based on evidence from anti-piracy lobby groups restricts the rights and freedoms of Internet users, according to the amendment.
For the fifth time in a year the European Parliament has spoken out against tougher anti-piracy legislation that would allow alleged file-sharers to be disconnected from the Internet, based on evidence ... |
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6
May 2009 |
UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency), Utah's municipal fiber-to-the-premise network, has connected its first customer to a 100 Mbps service. The customer, in Layton, Utah, is setting records by connecting his home to the first symmetrical, non-shared 100 Mbps fiber-optic Internet connection in the United States. His Internet service is provided over the UTOPIA network by Idaho-based FuzeCore, one of the service providers on the network.
The ultra-high-speed connection is available... |
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1
May 2009 |
A French firm plans to launch a satellite next year that it says will offer the entire UK up to 10Mbit/s broadband, including rural areas that are poorly served by ADSL and cable.
This week, Eutelsat is launching "Tooway" broadband in the UK at up to 2Mbit/s, via an existing satellite.
Its new craft, launching in the third quarter of 2010, will use the Ka band of the microwave spectrum to deliver speeds close to those typically offered by the ADSL2+ equipment currently being installed in local exchang... |
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28
April 2009 |
$62,000 to download a movie? That's what happened to a caller named Alberto, who told his data roaming tale of woe on the air to HLN "money expert" Clark Howard on CNN. Alberto made the grave mistake of downloading Wall-E for his nephew while vacationing in Mexico over his data card and was slapped with a $62,000 bill from his wireless carrier when he returned home. Alberto tried to contest the charge and the carrier reduced the bill to $17,000, arguing that the five-figure charge was what it cost them to d... |
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28
April 2009 |
Cablevision Systems will crank top broadband speeds up to 101 Megabits per second -- the fastest advertised for any residential Internet service in the U.S. -- with a launch set for next month across its entire New York-area footprint.
Optimum Online Ultra, priced at $99.95 per month for both consumers and business customers, will for now outstrip Verizon Communications' FiOS Internet service, which delivers a top tier of 50-Mbps downstream for $139.95 per month.
100 speedometerStarting May 11, Cablev... |
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28
April 2009 |
Mi-Fone, an African mobile device company, plans to release it's lowest-cost handset to date in Africa during the second quarter of 2009. The Mi-X, which has a black and white LCD screen, sms capability, alarm and phonebook functions will retail at US$15.
Commenting on the new handset, Alpesh Patel, CEO of Mi-Fone, said: "The Mi-X shows we are serious about our commitment to bringing mobile communications to the African mass market. We are calling it the Mi-X as it has been designed specifically for people... |
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27
April 2009 |
ONE of Africa’s leading mobile communications provider MTN is set to exhibit at this year’s Zimbabwe International Trade Fair raising high hopes that the South African company is preparing to operate in the country.
Although no position could be readily availed from the company, ZITF Company General manager Mr Daniel Chigaru told Sunday Business that the company has confirmed its participation at the exhibition that starts on Tuesday.
“MTN has confirmed to participate at the fair but we cannot confirm... |
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27
April 2009 |
India's Reliance Communications has set itself a target of breaking the 100 million subscriber mark before the end of this year - requiring an additional 25 million new customers to sign up to its network. The firm reported a surge in subscriptions following the launch of its GSM network, which overlays its existing CDMA service.
"We have a goal," he told the Financial Times. "We should have 100m customers before the end of the year. That will take us into the top five in the world."
The past three mo... |
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24
April 2009 |
US lawmakers are set to limit the way ISPs use deep packet inspection (DPI), even though no American service providers are using the technology.
Representative Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, and three privacy experts, speaking at a hearing before the House Energy Commerce sub-committee urged lawmakers to pass comprehensive online privacy legislation in the coming months.
While DPI can be used to filter spam and identify criminals, the technology raises serious privacy concerns, Boucher said. "Its ... |
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24
April 2009 |
Estonia's government and telecom companies operating there announced on Friday a 283 million euro (374 million dollar) project to provide access to broadband Internet for all by 2015, a report said.
"If the railway was developed in the 19th century and the electrical grid in the 20th century, then the 21st century is the era of developing communication networks," Estonia's Minister of Economy and Communications Juhan Parts was quoted as saying by the Baltic News Service (BNS).
"The project makes it po... |
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23
April 2009 |
3 is ‘opening up’ Skype to allow any customer with an unlocked 3G phone to use the service on its network.
Consumers can bring an unlocked phone to 3 and buy a £1.99 Sim card to be used for free Skype-to-Skype services from this summer.
Meanwhile, from 1 May, there will be no data charges or top-up fees for all customers that use Skype on 3’s UK network. Therefore consumers will not have to pay anything for calls to other users of the service. It will initially be available on 3 Skype-enabled handse... |
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22
April 2009 |
Euro MPs have voted overwhelmingly to cut the cost of texting and using the internet on mobiles abroad.
The cap for a "roaming" text will fall to 11 euro cents (10p; 14 US cents), from about 29 cents on average today.
The EU-wide caps, excluding VAT, will take effect in July. They cover text messages and data roaming services, such as checking e-mails while abroad.
The current price cap of 46 euro cents per minute for an outgoing voice call will also fall to 43 cents in July.
The legislation was... |
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21
April 2009 |
Tanzania's government has joined the growing trend for countries to require all PrePay SIM cards to be registered with the network operators, citing the usual reasons of crime and terrorism. The Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, Prof. Peter Msolla, said the government would soon table a bill in the National Assembly for the establishment of a Central Equipment Identification Register (CEIR).
Prof. Msolla also said the new technology would help the police trace people who use mobile phon... |
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20
April 2009 |
We've been discussing US broadband policy and the stimulus package, and this table shows the cost of fiber-based, residential Internet service in several cities (Brough Turner provided the European and Asian data):
| Where? | Monthly
cost | Uplink
(Mbps) | Downlink
(Mbps) |
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