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19
Nov 2008 |
Japan's largest mobile network operator plans to beef up its wireless data services by introducing LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile broadband in 2010, becoming one of the first companies globally to offer the new technology.
NTT DoCoMo started testing LTE, which it calls Super 3G (third generation mobile telecommunications) and others call 3.9G, in July of 2006. The technology improves wireless download and access speeds over current EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and HSPA (high-speed packe... |
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18
Nov 2008 |
The FCC has one more chance to avoid a knee-jerk reaction that could cost taxpayers billions.
In the past months, the outgoing commission has been rushing to conclude two proposals that promise to deliver for free new capabilities to consumers and public safety agencies. These proposals are deeply flawed and far from "free."
The costs to consumers, taxpayers and public safety agencies would be so great that rather than rushing, the incoming commission under President-elect Obama should be given the op... |
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18
Nov 2008 |
The Obama camp has pegged two long-time net neutrality advocates to head up their Federal Communications Commission Review team, according to Wired. One is Wharton professor Kevin Werbach (see his CircleID articles), who was a former FCC staffer, and is organizer of the annual tech conference Supernova. The other is Susan Crawford (see her blog), a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and traditionally very pro-consumer -- particularly when it comes to broadband deployment:
This March a... |
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17
Nov 2008 |
In the 1960s, the rock band The Kinks sang, "I'm a lover, not a fighter."
Now, one industry analyst is suggesting the nation's telecom carriers would benefit from showing some love toward Google Inc. instead of fighting over issues such as net neutrality, white space spectrum usage and selling software-as-a-service over carrier networks.
If the carriers don't accommodate and partner in some areas with Google, they stand to lose, said Alex Winogradoff, a Gartner Inc. analyst who wrote a report on ways ... |
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17
Nov 2008 |
The average global cost of residential high-speed internet services has decreased 20% this year alone, according to new analysis by Point Topic, a British research firm.
The biggest price drop this year has been for DSL services, which dropped from an average monthly cost of $67 in the first quarter to $53 in the third.
The U.S. market has been relatively untouched by the trend, with American consumers still paying about $16 per megabit/second of downstream bandwidth. This is significantly less expens... |
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14
Nov 2008 |
The internet service provider Easynet are about to start trials of a 40 Mbps broadband service for business customers.
This broadband will be using the company’s existing copper wire network, but they are confident that these high speeds can be achieved.
The Easynet network covers around one thousand two hundred exchanges, but customers willing to take part in the trail must be located within a kilometre of the exchange nearest to them.
This will be an opportunity for small and medium businesses to... |
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13
Nov 2008 |
BT will cut 10,000 jobs by the end of this financial year, after reporting a weak third quarter, which saw the firm weighed down by its struggling Global Services division.
The majority of the cuts will be “indirect workers” – those supplied by agencies, or working as contractors, as well as offshore employees.
The firm employs some 160,000 people globally. Of those, 50,000 are such indirect staff, while 110,000 are staff directly employed by BT.
A BT spokesman told IT PRO that 6,000 of the jobs be... |
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11
Nov 2008 |
Growing financial pressures, unforeseen threats, and a volatile and rapidly changing business landscape — apt descriptions for both the world economy and this years Worldwide Infrastructure Security Survey.
Arbor Networks once again has completed a survey of the largest ISPs and content providers around the world. Some 70 lead security engineers responded to 90 questions covering a spectrum of Internet backbone security threats and engineering challenges. This fourth annual survey covered the 12-month pe... |
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11
Nov 2008 |
As if Australians weren't riled up enough over their government's Internet filtering initiative, the level of discontent has risen amid recent revelations that certain filters will not be optional, as citizens were first led to believe. Criticism is building against Australia's Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, and now Australia's ISPs are joining the dogpile.
The Australian government first unveiled its filtering initiative in 2007, expected to cost AUS$189 million to implement. The money would be... |
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7
Nov 2008 |
If broadband is an animal, we've got a donkey.
In the UK, the average connection doesn't even deliver 8Mbps, which means we're so far behind other countries even Lithuania is laughing at us.
So who's got the best broadband, and why isn't it us?
To find out, TechRadar spoke to the broadband experts at Point Topic and immediately became depressed.
In parts of Asia, the average broadband connection is five times faster than ours, and in Japan – the king of high-speed broadband – the average connect... |
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5
Nov 2008 |
Warner Bros. announced plans Tuesday to become the first Hollywood studio to make its movies available digitally in China through video on demand.
The joint announcement was made by Marc Gareton, executive vice president international of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, and Shao Yiding, chief executive officer of Union Voole Technology in China.
In the first transactional VOD deal of its kind in China, Warner Bros.' new release movies, including some that have never been released theatrically in Chi... |
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4
Nov 2008 |
AT&T Inc., the country's largest Internet service provider, is testing the idea of limiting the amount of data that subscribers can use each month.
AT&T will initially apply the limits in Reno, Nev., and see about extending the practice elsewhere.
Increasingly, Internet providers across the country are placing such limits on the amount of data users can upload and download each month, as a way to curb a small number of "bandwidth hogs" who use a lot of the network capacity. For instance, 5 percent of ... |
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31
Oct 2008 |
Qwest Communications today announced plans to reduce its workforce by 3% -- or 1200 people – in the fourth quarter to adjust for softening markets. But although the company reported what it called “mixed” results for the third quarter (and predicted it will come in at the low end of its previously stated expectations for the year), one particularly bright spot was its consumer broadband business.
Qwest roughly doubled its quarterly residential subscriber additions in the third quarter, adding nearly 40,0... |
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31
Oct 2008 |
Nigeria's formerly state-owned telecoms firm Nitel said on Thursday it had invited two foreign companies to help fix its damaged main gateway for international calls and Internet connections.
The damage to the South Atlantic Terminal III (SAT-3) underwater cable on Oct. 15 has disrupted Internet connections in Africa's fastest-growing telecoms market, forcing big businesses to turn to back-up satellite communications.
SAT-3 is the main cash-cow for Nitel, Nigeria's first national telephone carrier, an... |
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31
Oct 2008 |
High-speed data customers love the product, but two-thirds will drop the provider as soon as they think they can save money with another provider, according to data released Thursday by J.D. Power & Associates.
The research firm's 2008 Internet Service Provider Residential Service Customer Satisfaction Study indicated that both cable modem and DSL digital-subscriber line use grew significantly in the past year, to the detriment of dial-up services.
Cable modem use is up to 41% from 36% in 2007 while D... |
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