5 posts tagged “comcast”
After rumors of its demise and resurrection, it looks like WiMax will finally get the push it needs in the U.S. to become a viable contender in the wireless communications space.
Sprint and Clearwire finally rekindled a deal to launch a nationwide service--thanks to a multi-billion-dollar push from investors Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, and Google. The new service will be marketed under the Clearwire brand, and it could offer true wireless broadband Internet access a year or two ahead of Verizon and AT&T's planned offerings.
For those not familiar with WiMax or some of its potential uses (ranging from cars to rural broadband service to virtually free mobile calling), see "WiMax Network's Rollout Abroad" in Popular Mechanics, "Web Surfers Can Take the Internet Along for the Ride" in The New York Times, and "Beyond WiMax" in PC Magazine.
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While Comcast began backtracking (well, sort of) on its policy of shutting down certain Internet traffic, those north of the 49th parallel look like they're about to become second-class Netizens. The culprit? Bell Canada. And to think that all these years they were worried about the ugly Americans controlling the media.
First off: Comcast and BitTorrent (one of only dozens of technologies that legitimately use peer-to-peer software on the Web) have announced that they are talking about how Comcast handles spikes in traffic on its network. To date, Comcast has shut down or tricked peer-to-peer software to interrupt downloads, but it now promises that in future it will adopt a protocol agnostic network management technique to keep data flowing on its overwhelmed lines. (You can read the release for yourself here.)
However, it still means that popular applications, such as digital phone service like Skype could be thwarted for Comcast customers. It also means that Comcast still wants to make the Internet its own and could shut out (or "manage") competitors looking to deliver video entertainment online or digital phone service competing with Comcast's offerings. Indeed, Comcast wants to introduce new standards to control Internet traffic--without going to the official Internet and Web standards bodies (well, it said it would submit its ideas to the Internet Engineering Task Force). Not exactly what people had in mind, we think. And you can imagine the uproar if another company, say, Microsoft had proposed such a thing. There'd be H E double L hockey sticks to pay. (By the way, there's already such an internationally accepted standard for addressing these "management" issues: IPv6.) Of course, what Comcast is really doing is desperately trying to avoid potential government legislation that would protect the Internet as it stands (see Net Neutrality).
Meanwhile, back in Canada (no, we haven't forgotten about you) several companies that sell high-speed Internet service to folks have learned the hard way that there's some fine print in their contracts with Bell Canada. It seems that Bell, which delivers the main Internet hookup to those companies, can reduce service whenever the mood strikes it. And the mood has struck.
Bell Canada has already begun slowing down certain traffic on Canadian Internet connections. In the process, subscribers to so-called high-speed services are experiencing serious slow downs (can you say, "dial-up") and even the venerated CBC got caught up in the controversy when its program,“Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister,” (notice how I'm restraining myself from making a joke about this) was made unavailable online due to Bell Canada's slow down. So much for those Canadian content rules.
The question is: Would Alanis Morissette call this ironic?
For more on the inequities of living in the Great White North, see an article from one of my former employers, The Globe and Mail. By the way, Bell Canada, polite as can be, is planning to slow down all Internet traffic it finds objectionable by April. Well, at least most of the snow should have melted by then and Canucks can play outside...
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Technology is like Taoism: It reveals the interconnectedness of things.
Okay, maybe not. But it's a good excuse for a rambling discussion of technological trends, issues, and advice. Such was the case on Ron Morris' show, The American Entrepreneur, on Saturday, January 26th, 2008. From Comcast and the future of digital phone service to maglev technology, we covered the gamut on Ron's radio program, which airs on AM Newstalk 1360 in Philadelphia.
Of course, it's also available as a free podcast from iTunes. Just search on "Ron Morris" under podcasts and download the January 26th show.
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The issue of who controls the Internet--whether it remains as it is with open access or can be controlled by private telecommunications companies--moved to the fore again this week when a San Francisco subscriber to Comcast launched a suit against the company. The suit alleges that the largest cable company in the U.S. misleads customers and uses unfair business practices by interfering with file sharing programs.
Naturally, lawyers for the plaintiff are looking to form a class action suit (now that's one way to recoup those inflated broadband access charges). So get in early and often by contacting the representing law firm.
Already, a collection of consumer and legal organizations have asked the FCC to prevent Comcast from interfering with legitimate file sharing. One proposal is that the FCC should fine Comcast $195,000 for every subscriber whose Internet access has been restricted.
For its part, Comcast says it does not block programs on the Internet---it just delays some traffic. Right.
To read more on this issue see "Comcast Hijacks the Internet" and "Verizon and AT&T: Web 2.0 Killers."
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For those who wonder what all the fuss about so-called net neutrality is about, witness what Comcast has done to subscribers of its "Internet" service.
Essentially, Comcast is secretly blocking certain Internet requests and Internet traffic in the same manner that hackers hijack computer systems with false messages. Comcast does not inform customers that it is blocking Internet traffic; indeed, it intentionally hides its hacking activity from users.
Comcast's behavior raises several issues: Is the company guilty of deceptive advertising by claiming it offers high-speed Internet access when in fact it only offers access to some parts of the Internet? Can it now be sued by users--including the possibility of a class action suit--for such practices? Is it trying to censor Internet traffic in the same way that government officials in China and Burma censor Internet access? Will the company begin censoring sites that differ from its corporate political views? (In fact, several analysts point out that there appears to be no specific law to prevent Comcast from blocking or hiding, say, republican or democratic sites from its customers.)
Now that Comcast has been caught deceiving its customers and ducking questions about its behavior--questions that were raised as long ago as last August--it may represent a turning point in the battle over net neutrality. Until now, companies such as Verizon and AT&T claimed that there was no reason to enact laws protecting Internet access as it exists because no one was blocking access to customers or planning to do so.
But now the telecom oligopoly has in fact started to hijack the Internet, which may finally spur people and the politicians that represent them into action.
For more on net neutrality, see: Verizon and AT&T: Web 2.0 Killers
For more on Comcast's actions, see: Comcast Blocks Some Internet Traffic
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