Qwest Communications today announced it has filed an application for a $350 million stimulus grant to bring faster broadband to rural communities throughout its 14-state local service area.

Qwest proposes to create a $467 million dollar broadband deployment fund based, in part, on the grant to expand broadband service into areas that currently lack access.

Davis

“Much like the water and electric programs the government established to encourage rural development, federal grants are needed to enable the deployment of broadband to high-cost, unserved areas,” said Steve Davis, senior vice president of Qwest Public Policy and Government Relations.

Downstream speeds would range between 12-40Mbps, which indicates Qwest is looking at ADSL2+ or potentially even VDSL2 service for parts of its western and midwestern service areas.

The company claims the funds would allow Qwest to reach more than 500,000 homes, schools, and businesses — mostly located within 50 miles of a city or town.

Qwest, like most larger telecommunications companies, did not apply initially for broadband stimulus funding.  Most objected to requirements recipients adhere to Net Neutrality requirements.  Although those requirements remain, some companies believe the second round will be more favorable to projects that extend access from already-existing broadband service lines.  The so-called “middle mile projects” improve connectivity by helping to reduce the length of copper wiring broadband must travel across.  The greater the lengths, the slower one’s speed.  They can also improve speeds and capacity overall for every customer.

Qwest released this promotional video last year to show the benefits of VDSL2 service, which the company currently provides in major urban areas inside its service area. (2 minutes)

AT&T is challenging customers to switch to paperless billing, and promises to help out the Arbor Day Foundation if customers follow through.

The telecommunications company is promising to plant a tree for each customer who signs up for paperless billing, with up to 1 million trees being planted this year.  Since March 1st, the company has nearly reached 14,000 new trees pledged for planting.

“AT&T’s commitment to planting trees is a shining example of how corporations can make a positive impact on our environment,” said John Rosenow, chief executive and founder of the Arbor Day Foundation. “The trees planted by AT&T will help clean the air and drinking water for millions of Americans, restore habitat for wildlife and restore our nation’s forests for future generations to enjoy.”

To opt in to paperless billing and activate the tree planting, AT&T customers can go to www.att.com/paperfree (registration requires) and follow the instructions. After enrolling, they can choose to have a tree planted where there is the greatest need — or they can choose between regions of the U.S. that have various needs for reforestation.  As examples, in California this helps provide clean drinking water, and in Michigan, it protects rare birds.

It also protects AT&T’s bottom line – printing and mailing paper bills can cost more than $1 per customer per month — even more if call detail records run several pages.

Many telecommunications companies have found other ways to discourage paper bills – charging consumers extra to receive them.  Paper billing fees of $2 per month or more are not uncommon if a customer is unwilling to accept electronic statements.  AT&T hopes a voluntary switch to electronic billing in return for reforestation efforts will make it worthwhile for customers.

According to PayItGreen, a corporate-funded electronic billing advocacy group, if a million customers switch to paperless billing, it would save 400,000 pounds of paper, avoid six million pounds of greenhouse gases, and prevent four million gallons of wastewater from discharging into lakes, streams, and rivers in a year.

The Delmarva Peninsula

Four towns are better than one when trying to negotiate improved service and better terms for Delmarva Mediacom cable customers.

Bethany Beach, Millville, Ocean View and South Bethany are considering joining forces to renegotiate their agreements with Mediacom, all coming up for renewal within a year of each other.

Councilman Jay Headman from South Bethany is among those advocating the joint effort to get a better deal from Mediacom, which provides cable service across many parts of the peninsula encompassing Delaware and parts of Maryland and Virginia.

Mediacom serves many parts of the Delmarva Peninsula with cable service

“If we could come together and negotiate as one, we could save money and have more clout,” Headman told The Daily Times. “We know for a fact that it’s smart to negotiate together. When we have a larger clientele, (Mediacom) has to deal with us, and we can split the cost for the lawyer.”

While the four communities would find a competing provider launching service on the peninsula a useful tool to increase competition, they don’t necessarily believe its likely.  Many residents of the towns are part-timers, staying for extended summer vacations.  In fact, getting a better deal for part-time residents who wish to subscribe for part of the year is one of the concessions they hope to obtain from Mediacom.  The towns are also seeking a shorter agreement — the current franchise is for a 15-year term — and better service in general.

Vice Mayor Carol Olmstead, of Bethany Beach, told the newspaper the town is allocating $5,000 in next year’s budget to cover legal fees related to the negotiation.

“I think everyone who has cable TV would like better service,” she said. “Why not join together? I think the feeling is there’s strength in numbers.”

Following Comcast’s lead, Time Warner Cable will begin shrinking western New York analog customers’ channel lineups to accommodate additional HD channels.  While in most cases customers with set top boxes or digital-ready televisions will be able to continue watching (the latter by rescanning the channels on their televisions), those with older televisions without a box are out of luck.

Customers will not receive a corresponding rate decrease based on the lost channels from their lineups.  Here is a rundown of those networks and customers affected:

Buffalo, New York Channel Lineup Changes (effective April 15)

Western New York Suburban-areas

• Style from Broadcast Basic Ch 98 to Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 35 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen Ch 68 to Ch 66 (digital box required)
• YES Ch 70 to Ch 65
• Versus Ch 71 to Ch 35
• Hallmark Ch 69 to Ch 63

City of Buffalo

• Style from Standard Cable Ch 65 to Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 48 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen will remain on Ch 66 (digital box required)
• YES Ch 70 to Ch 65
• Versus from Ch 71 to Ch 48

Dunkirk

• Style from Standard Cable Ch 96 to Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 31 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen Ch 62 to Ch 71 (digital box required)
• Versus Ch 71 to Ch 62
• Shop NBC from Ch 27 to Ch 73 (digital box required)
• SyFy Ch 69 to Ch 31

Westfield

• Style from Broadcast Basic Cable Ch 98 to  Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 35 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen Ch 66 to Ch 71 (digital box required)
• Shop NBC Ch 70 to Ch 73 (digital box required)
• MSG Ch 67 to Ch 35

Olean/Olean North/Wellsville

• Style from Standard Cable Ch 71 to Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 64 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen Ch 57 to Ch 66 (digital box required)
• YES Ch 70 to Ch 64
• Versus Ch 66 to Ch 57
• Shop NBC Ch 31 to Ch 73 (digital box required)
• Fox News Channel Ch 68 to Ch 31

Rochester, New York Channel Lineup Changes (unless otherwise noted, effective April 15)

Metropolitan Rochester Area

• National Geographic Wild will replace FOX Reality on Ch 453 and National Geographic Wild HD launches on Ch 1051 (Effective March 29)
• Speed Channel, Ch 210 will be moved from Digital Basic to CPST (standard cable). Speed will remain available in digital format only (Effective April 1)
• Speed Channel HD, Ch 1065, be moved from Digital Basic to CPST (standard cable). Speed will remain available in digital format only (Effective April 1)
• Oxygen will move from Ch 70 to Ch 75 (digital format only)
• Photoshow TV located on Chs 821 and 822 will no longer be available.
• Vutopia will be added to Ch 968
• Vutopia HD will be added to Ch 1149

Livingston/Southern Monroe County

• All of the above changes, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 51
• Shop NBC will be removed from Channel 7 and will remain on Channel 66

Genesee/Wyoming and Orleans/Niagara Counties

• All of the above changes, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 51

Erie County

• All of the above changes, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 51
• Shop NBC will be removed from Channel 20 and will remain on Channel 66

Wayne, Ontario, Seneca and Cayuga Counties

• All of the above changes, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 55

Yates/ Ontario and Steuben/Schuyler Counties

• All of the above changes, excluding Vutopia, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 55

When the 60 Minutes franchise shows up to run a 15 minute story on your corporate crisis, you know you’re finished.

The scene: Telecom New Zealand’s heavily-marketed XT mobile broadband 3G network has collapsed for the fourth time since December, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without service, government ministers apoplectic about ongoing service problems, and now resignations among senior Telecom officials falling on their swords for endless technical faults that bring excuses and promises of better service that never quite come true.

One Telecom solution: Video their customer service center’s employees trying to cope with a telecommunications crisis in the country in hopes the carefully edited footage, made available to the media, would humanize the company’s own incompetence.  It didn’t work as Telecom New Zealand’s 3G customers rushed for the nearest exits, canceling service and demanding no fee be charged for doing so.

To add insult to injury, after four network crashes, Telecom’s administration of the country’s emergency help line 111 (equivalent to 911 in North America) revealed lapses there as well, when the line suddenly stopped working for several hours.  The problem was discovered not when a Telecom technician discovered it, but rather when a police officer found it strange there were no calls to respond to and called the number himself to test it, finding no response.

60 Minutes aired Telecom’s dirty laundry and pressured Telecom’s CEO to respond to exasperated customers often left without service for days. He blamed Alcatel-Lucent for the problems.  Paul Hamburger, mentioned in this report, resigned earlier today. (15 minutes)

AT&T has announced it is bringing its U-verse broadband, telephone, and television system to Springfield, Missouri providing residents an alternative to cable service from Mediacom.

“We’re very excited to offer a competitive choice to Springfield consumers,” said Kris Ryan, general manager of AT&T Home Solutions for the greater Missouri region.

Unfortunately, most Springfield residents will have to wait before the service becomes available in their neighborhood.  AT&T has only limited service available in Springfield, Battlefield, Nixa, Republic and parts of Fremont Hills.  The company has a tradition of announcing U-verse, and then slowly deploying service on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis over the next several years.

Potential customers noticed, complaining that entire zip codes in and around the Springfield area currently do not have U-verse available.

When the service does arrive, residents can expect pricing ranging from $19 – $167 a month, depending on how many channels and what type of broadband speed is desired.

Mediacom can beat AT&T’s broadband speeds in Springfield, as it upgraded to DOCSIS 3 service, permitting customers to get up to 50Mbps service from the cable company. AT&T’s U-verse tops out at 18Mbps in the Springfield area.

Residents can check to see if U-verse is available at their address by visiting the AT&T U-verse qualification website.

KSFX-TV in Springfield reports on the unveiling of U-verse in the greater Springfield area.  (1 minute)

The United States has a goal of 100Mbps ubiquitous broadband service by 2020.  Hong Kong residents already have access to speeds up to 1Gbps, leaving many unimpressed with the American broadband goals established in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan.

City Telecom CEO William Yeung called out the current state of American broadband, noting many Americans are still stuck with megabit speeds in the single digits, while 100+ megabit access is widely available across most of Hong Kong from fiber optic networks.

Yeung thinks 100Mbps service will be considered slow by the time 2020 rolls around, noting an insatiable demand for enhanced broadband speeds.

Google’s Think Big With a Gig project underlines Yeung’s beliefs as hundreds of American communities clamor to be among those chosen for a demonstration project that will deliver up to 1Gbps speed to homes and businesses on an all-fiber network.

Yeung rejects the notion that wiring Hong Kong was a natural for super-fast fiber optic broadband just because of its dense population, reducing potential costs.

“I think it’s a matter of short term vs. long term thinking,” Yeung told Bloomberg News.

According to Yeung, American broadband providers are afraid constructing super-fast broadband lanes threaten to cannibalize their existing revenue streams, especially from cable television.  That’s because Americans could end up dropping their cable packages in favor of watching everything online.  Yeung also thinks Wall Street is preoccupied with short-term Return on Investment, making it difficult to upgrade to fiber service despite the enormous potential long term revenue, even in rural areas.

For Yeung, it’s all about marketing the benefits of fiber.  His company, City Telecom, is busily signing new subscribers despite the fact the island already enjoys near-universal broadband access.  Offering faster speeds and better service will drive customers to switch providers, Yeung believes.

Bloomberg News talked with City Telecom CEO William Yeung about fiber-optic broadband and the fact Hong Kong is well ahead of the United States on broadband speed and service.  (4 minutes)

City Telecom’s HKBN service has a history of running bizarre advertising.  One recent example is included here, along with a short promotional video touting the company’s accomplishments in constructing an all-fiber network.  (4 minutes)

Cincinnati residents relying on Time Warner analog cable are finding four fewer channels on their lineup since last August — two of which have been dropped this month.  Residents with digital-ready televisions will find many more missing, albeit temporarily, as of tomorrow.

Time Warner Cable in Cincinnati is moving channels around, including shifting former analog channels to digital and repositioning others in an effort to create additional space for new HD networks on the local cable system.

John Kiesewetter, the Cincinnati Enquirer‘s media blogger noticed the disappearing act last summer when two regional PBS stations — WPTD-TV Dayton and WCVN-TV Covington, Kentucky were dropped from the analog lineup.

This month, two more channels joined those PBS stations on the digital cable tier — Great American Country and Style.

Kiesewetter notes expanded basic customers’ bills remained the same, despite the loss of four channels from their lineup.  Company officials said customers can continue to watch all four channels by upgrading to digital cable for an additional fee, a prospect that bothers Kiesewetter:

Not everyone wants/can afford digital cable, despite all the TWC ads about bundling and locking in rates. The bottom line is if you’re a country music fan, you’ll have to pay more (getting digital cable) to see GAC.

Kiesewetter

“We realize this is unfortunate for GAC fans, but Time Warner Cable has decided to move GAC to Channel 255 to make  room for additional services,” Scott Durand, vice president, marketing for GAC told Kiesewetter. “Fans with only the expanded basic level of service will need to contact Time Warner  Cable to upgrade to digital in order to continue viewing GAC, the country music network that actually plays music.”

In fact, Time Warner Cable is dropping analog channels to make room for additional HD networks, which are digitally compressed and can be delivered in greater numbers than their analog counterparts.  Comcast customers across the country are also familiar with the erosion of analog cable channels in favor of digital for precisely the same reason — freeing up additional space.

But the result is almost always no reduction in rates for analog-only subscribers, despite the shrinking number of channels.

Cincinnati residents with cable-ready digital televisions may find an even smaller lineup waiting for them tomorrow morning.  That’s because Time Warner is shifting most of the local channels to new channel positions, again to make room for new HD networks.  Those with older sets or who use a Time Warner cable box will not notice anything, but those with HD, digital ready sets will need to rescan their channels to allow the TV to map their new channel positions.

WLWT-TV Cincinnati educates viewers step-by-step on how to rescan their television sets to pick up local stations’ new channel positions.  (1 minute)

WCPO-TV in Cincinnati is also impacted by Time Warner Cable’s changes, and explains exactly who is affected.  (1 minute)

Cricket, the mobile provider best known for its urban and youth-targeted commercials, Tuesday launched nationwide “talk and text” service through a new roaming agreement with Sprint and others that delivers unlimited calling for $30 a month.

That’s $10 a month cheaper than any other prepaid nationwide unlimited plan currently available in the United States.  Competitors MetroPCS, which owns its own network charges $40 a month for unlimited service, and TracFone Wireless’ Straight Talk, which uses Verizon Wireless’ network, costs $45 a month.

The other players in the prepaid market will have to match Cricket or face the consequences.

However, Cricket’s new calling plan and extended roaming service agreements do not include mobile broadband coverage.  Cricket provides that service through its own CDMA network providing a mix of 1X and 3G coverage, primarily in its home markets.

Cricket’s “talk and text” expansion means more than 125 U.S. cities can now sign up for Cricket service.  Most of those cities will actually depend on Sprint’s cell towers to place and receive calls.  Cricket subscribers also benefit from the expanded roaming capabilities the company now offers, although customers should verify coverage carefully before signing up.  Using a designated “roaming area” will set you back 25 cents per minute.

For customers choosing service plans of $40 or more, Cricket now offers unlimited international long distance calling to landlines in select cities and towns in more than 100 countries (including unlimited calls to landlines in Mexico) and unlimited text messages to Mexico for an additional $15 a month.

“We believe our nationwide coverage and enhanced service plan structure represents the highest value offer in the wireless marketplace,” said Al Moschner, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Cricket. “Cricket continues to deliver greater value by providing a diversified portfolio of products and payment options and now offers and supports those products everywhere our customers live, work and travel. Each of these new service plans positions the Cricket brand as the wireless leader in the unlimited, no-contract segment of the wireless industry.”

Existing Cricket customers need to contact customer service to switch rate plans if they wish to take advantage of “nationwide talk and text coverage.”  For most customers, there is no change in rates — just a change in their plan designation.

Cricket's new national coverage map (click to enlarge)

All new rate plans include nationwide talk coverage. Changes to previous rate plans are noted below:

The Federal Communications Commission is catching on to a long-known telecommunications industry secret — always provide top quality, showcase service in areas where the movers and shakers of power and politics can make your life easy or hard.  Early results from the Broadband.gov national speed test project confirm this is still the case.  After a few weeks of testing, the FCC reports America’s best broadband speeds are available in and near two cities – Washington, DC and New York, NY.

In Virginia and Maryland, where most of DC’s workers-by-day commute home to at night, average download speeds topped out at 11-13Mbps.  Upstream speeds were, on average, best in the nation at around 3.6-4.3Mbps.  In New York and Massachusetts, where Verizon, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable predominate, average downstream speed was 11.6-13.6Mbps, but upstream speed in the northeast suffered more thanks to upstate New York and western Massachusetts dragging the numbers down.

Several critics have joined Stop the Cap!‘s concern that the two speed tests, provided by Ookla and M-Lab, are providing widely different results.  The FCC plans to expand the available speed test options shortly to attempt to get a wider sampling of broadband speeds.

Despite this, Jordan Usdan, an attorney-advisor to the Broadband Task Force, claims the group is happy with the results:

87% of test takers are home users, which is the FCC’s target audience with this application. Additionally, a clear trend is visible across business sizes, high bandwidth connectivity for community institutions, and lower bandwidth for mobile connections. Again, these results are non-scientific extrapolations from the Beta version of the Consumer Broadband test. Additionally, about 98% of user submitted addresses are geo-coding correctly, which is a very good rate.

Thus far, Californians have taken the most speed tests, but their results are less impressive than those enjoyed on the Atlantic seaboard — average downstream speeds in the state are 10.1 to 11.5Mbps; upstream speeds are 2.1 to 2.6Mbps.

Where are the worst speeds?  In the Northern Plains states, where rural populations predominate.  Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana delivered the worst combined upload/download speed results.  But speeds are only marginally better in the midwest and southeast — with lots of low scores in the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Mississippi.  Customers in northern New England stuck with FairPoint Communications also have little to celebrate.