Groups like San Francisco Beautiful fear AT&T's U-verse cabinets will succumb to graffiti, like this one in nearby Oakland. For the group, U-verse cabinets on the sidewalk promote urban blight.

Construction of the first of nearly 500 four-foot-tall utility cabinets is scheduled to begin this morning by AT&T, eager to expand its U-verse fiber-to-the-neighborhood service in the city of San Francisco.

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 last Tuesday to allow AT&T to begin building the metal cabinets, which hold the interface between the company’s fiber optic network and individual subscribers’ copper phone lines.

Mark Blakeman, AT&T’s vice president of external affairs, wasted no time announcing the location for the first box, to be situated on La Playa in Outer Richmond.  AT&T promises to launch U-verse service in the area within six months.

Most of the company’s initially-proposed 495 cabinets will be located on public sidewalks or other nearby rights-of-way.  Unlike San Francisco’s other utilities, AT&T will be able to install its boxes above-ground.  That has brought years of criticism from neighborhood groups who decry the cabinets are ugly, block the view of pedestrians and vehicle traffic, and are magnets for graffiti.

For groups like San Francisco Beautiful, it’s just the beginning.  AT&T’s longstanding goal is to install more than 700 boxes across the city’s landscape.

“It is going to put the blight of 726 utility boxes on our streets,” San Francisco Beautiful spokesperson Milo Hanke said. “Utility boxes from AT&T that are ugly and in most instances we still believe they are unnecessary; they should be on private property.”

AT&T will roll out its U-verse service in different parts of the city in segments, starting with the Richmond and Sunset Districts.

AT&T anticipates taking at least two years to complete the project across the city, but claims it remains open to bypassing neighborhoods that simply refuse to accept its boxes.  AT&T might not have a choice, considering the agreement they have with city officials.

Neighborhoods must be given time to provide input to city officials before permits are issued to AT&T.  If a city supervisor in a particular district doesn’t like the boxes, the “memorandum of understanding” grants the politician ultimate veto power over AT&T’s permit requests.  That means AT&T will be forced to do a lot of hand-holding public relations throughout the city to win support for their equipment.

That’s something AT&T is not used to in other states, where the company has won the right through deregulation to install its equipment cabinets anywhere it pleases, so long as they are located in a public right of way.  That has left a series of 4-6 foot tall boxes in the front yards of consumers in states like North Carolina, with absolutely no recourse.

AT&T will install its "compact model" cabinet within city limits, not the 6' tall boxes some homeowners in other states contend with.

In California, regulators can require utilities screen equipment with plants, maintain boxes to remove graffiti and correct noisy cabinet fans, and give property owners some input about where the often-unsightly boxes end up.  But those regulations are only as good as those willing to enforce them.

San Francisco Beautiful notes AT&T boxes in nearly Oakland are often covered in graffiti for extended periods, reducing property values and promoting neighborhood blight.

Hanke claims last week’s agreement violates a 2005 city order from the Department of Public Works mandating utilities put their equipment underground wherever possible.

“The supervisors fell victim to AT&T’s bluster,” said Hanke. “This benefits a private company at the public’s expense.”

AT&T’s Lance Kasselman told the San Francisco Chronicle it won’t go where it isn’t wanted.

“Obviously, those who clearly want it will get it first,” Kasselman told the newspaper. “People who want it or don’t want it, or have questions and concerns, should tell us on our website. We’ll meet with whoever wants to talk about it.”

With a close 6-5 vote, some city supervisors are well aware of the public minefield that awaits them in neighborhoods that despise AT&T’s equipment.  With opponents calling on citizens to complain, Supervisor Scott Wiener (Castro/Noe Valley/Diamond Heights) knew he needed to prepare.

“This morning, I did a yoga class to clear my head before writing a letter to neighborhood associations in my district,” Wiener told the Chronicle.  “I’m trying to make sure people understand what (Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors) vote means.”

KGO-TV in San Francisco covers the AT&T U-verse box controversy, and the Board of Supervisors’ decision to approve their installation.  (2 minutes)

Don’t like the prospects of a merger between AT&T and T-Mobile and worried your AT&T bill will increase as a result?  If you are an AT&T on-contract customer, the New York law firm of Bursor & Fisher wants to talk to you.

Scott A. Bursor, the founding partner of the firm, says he wants to represent AT&T customers to help stop the proposed merger, or win significant financial concessions on behalf of those who could face skyrocketing cell phone bills as a result of reduced competition in the marketplace:

AT&T’s $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile would turn back the clock to the era of the Ma Bell monopoly. The deal would give AT&T and Verizon control over 80% of the wireless market, would stifle the competitive market forces that would otherwise help to keep prices down, and would stifle new products and innovation.

AT&T’s claim that the takeover will help improve network quality makes no sense. T-Mobile’s network overlaps almost entirely AT&T’s. And AT&T already has more spectrum than any other company. In most areas, AT&T already holds at least 40 MHz of spectrum it is not even using. AT&T is keeping that spectrum off the market, which prevents competitors from using it to provide better service at lower prices.

Turning back the clock to the Ma Bell monopoly era will allow AT&T and Verizon to dictate what type of phone you can use, how you can use it, and what you will pay. It will destroy competition, leading to higher prices and worse service.

Since AT&T’s wireless contracts specifically prohibit customers from suing the company for any reason, the law firm seeks to pursue the alternative “mandatory arbitration” specified by AT&T in an effort to either derail the merger or force the price much higher.

Customers who retain the law firm on their website can expect the firm to follow four steps that could bring arbitration awards as high as $10,000 per customer:

First, when you sign up, you will receive a confirmation email with a copy of our retainer agreement. We will also provide you with the an email address where you can contact us if you have any questions or concerns about the process.

Second, shortly after you sign up, we will send a letter on your behalf by certified mail to AT&T giving them notice that you intend to file an arbitration seeking to enjoin the takeover of T-Mobile. This is the first hoop you have to jump through to bring an arbitration under the fine print of AT&T’s Arbitration Agreement. We will send you a copy of that letter by email.

Third, if AT&T does not agree to cease and desist from completing the merger within 30 days, we will file a demand for arbitration on your behalf with the American Arbitration Association. The demand will include extensive evidence and legal authority we have gathered to prove that AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile will harm competition in violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act. We will email you a copy arbitration demand when it is filed.

Fourth, our team of lawyers will litigate your arbitration case aggressively to make sure that your arbitration rights, and your rights under the antitrust laws, are protected. If we are successful, we may seek a $10,000 payment for you.

Bursor

AT&T scoffs at the effort, releasing a statement calling Bursor & Fisher’s actions “completely without merit.” Company officials also claimed arbitrators have no standing to block a corporate merger, hinting the endeavor may be more about winning the law firm a substantial payout than representing the interests of consumers.

Bursor & Fisher are not pursuing AT&T for free.  The attorneys will deduct 50 percent of any award as their contingency fee — a percentage considerably higher than the more common 33-40 percent attorneys usually deduct, and this does not include further reductions to cover any “costs” advanced by the firm.

We found this somewhat curious, considering AT&T’s own arbitration legalese already provides for an attorney premium in their award — twice the amount of any legal fees and reimbursement of expenses.  So deducting an additional 50 percent and taking fees from any consumer awards seems like a case of unfair double-dipping.

But since you are not obligated to pay a cent in fees, anything you might manage to walk away with is more than you started with.

Verizon Wireless customers who subscribed to the company’s legacy America’s Choice wireless plans are receiving notification of a pending class action settlement between Verizon Wireless and two law firms that will bring a handful of free calling minutes to impacted customers while netting up to $6 million for the attorneys bringing the suit.

At issue was a dispute over whether Verizon Wireless properly provided roaming service for customers under America’s Choice I and II calling plans.  The plaintiffs claimed the company charged roaming rates for calls that should have been covered by the wireless plans at no additional charge.  Verizon Wireless denies the claims, but has agreed to settle the case.

Unfortunately for average consumers, the proposed award is a pittance — 25 additional wireless calling minutes that you can use for a period of one year if you go over your monthly minutes allowance.  Former Verizon Wireless customers, and those who don’t want that award, can alternatively select a Verizon calling card good for “40 units” of domestic or international long distance, good for two years.  That amounts to around 40 minutes of calling in North America, considerably less for international calls.  The only cash being handed out goes to three Ohio plaintiffs, who will receive up to $20,000 each.  But the real prize goes to two Cincinnati law firms — Strauss & Troy and Statman, Harris & Eyrich LLC, who are seeking a payout of up to $6 million.

The firms defend their request claiming they spent more than five years in litigation with Verizon Wireless, which has long since discontinued signing up new customers to either calling plan.  While a judge reviews the proposed settlement, Verizon has taken to e-mailing most impacted customers.  If you missed yours, you can track the progress of the suit on the official website for the Cowit v. Cellco Proposed Class Action Settlement.  You can also claim your minutes starting now, before the deadline of November 8, 2011.

Netflix knows many customers are upset over the company’s recent decision to raise prices up to 60 percent, but company officials are shrugging their shoulders, suspecting the vast majority won’t actually follow through on their threats to cancel service. But Netflix is preparing investors for a possible third quarter decline in revenue, just in case.

CEO Reed Hastings downplayed the vocal protests with shareholders on an investor conference call.

“Believe it or not, the noise level was actually less than we expected,” Hastings said. “Given a 60% increase, we knew what we were getting into.”

Netflix expects revenue will decline temporarily in the third quarter as customers drop either the streaming or mailed DVD component from their rental plans.  The company effectively separated the two options into individual plans, and suspects many customers won’t retain both under the new pricing that takes effect next month.

Company officials also sent letters to major investors defending the new pricing as still reasonable when compared with the alternatives.

“We expect most to stay with us. We hate making our subscribers upset with us, but we feel like we provide a fantastic service,” the letter read.

Dan Rayburn, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, believes the price changes are part of a master plan for Netflix to get out of DVD rental business altogether to save costs.

Many analysts predict Netflix will eventually adopt streaming video exclusively, but some are asking at what cost.  Predictions are widespread that Netflix will be forced to raise prices on streaming, perhaps by double, just to remain profitable in light of growing rights fees.  Sacrificing the labor-intensive DVD rental business, with associated warehousing and postage costs, could provide a savings cushion to protect subscribers from sticker shock should streaming rights fees get out of hand.

Netflix stock is falling fast after consumer dissatisfaction over Netflix’s new pricing plans.  Bloomberg covers who wins and who loses after the price changes.  (2 minutes)

Jonathan Chaplin, a director at Credit Suisse Holdings USA Inc., talks about competition between Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. for customers for Apple Inc.’s iPhone. AT&T spent much of the last quarter discounting new iPhones down to as little as $50 to keep customers from heading to Verizon Wireless. Chaplin also discusses incoming Verizon Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam. He speaks with Emily Chang and Jon Erlichman on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.” (5 minutes)

Frontier Communications claims its expansive broadband deployment efforts in West Virginia will take the Mountain State from the bottom of the broadband barrel to the very top within a few years.

Dana Waldo, Frontier’s senior vice president and general manager, said the company has completely turned around landline and broadband service in West Virginia just over a year after Verizon Communications left the state.

In a wide-ranging radio interview with MetroNews, Waldo claims complaints are way down while DSL broadband deployment is way up.  In just about a year, Frontier has expanded broadband to 76 percent of its West Virginia service area, adding 85,000 additional homes and businesses that previously had no access to wired broadband.

“We made a commitment to spend about $310 million, from the time of the transaction through 2013, to improve the network, to expand broadband across the state and for other capital improvements,” Waldo told MetroNews Talkline.

Frontier Communications’ Dana Waldo talks with MetroNews Talkline about phone and broadband service in West Virginia. July 19, 2011. (11 minutes)
You must remain on this page to hear the clip, or you can download the clip and listen later.

Currently, West Virginia ranks 47th in the United States for broadband access, mostly because large sections of the rural, mountainous state simply don’t have access to any provider.  What access most do have, outside of major cities like Charleston, Huntington, Wheeling, and Parkersburg comes from telephone company-provided DSL.  Verizon used to be the dominant provider in West Virginia, with Frontier providing service in limited areas.  But after Verizon sold its operations in the state to Frontier, the independent telephone company is now the only telecommunications provider for many rural communities.  For the majority of customers outside of the largest cities, Frontier markets DSL at speeds up to 3Mbps, hardly cutting-edge.

Frontier’s backbone network is deemed the worst in the nation for a wired provider, according to statistics collected and analyzed by Netflix.

“When comparing broadband in states like New York or New Jersey with West Virginia… there is no comparison,” shares Stop the Cap! reader Steve who lives in Hempstead, N.Y., but owns a cabin outside of Beckley, W.V.  “You can get Cablevision’s cable broadband at rocket ship speeds or Verizon FiOS fiber-to-the-home, which is even faster, in New York.  For my neighbors and me in West Virginia, there is one choice – Frontier Communications’ DSL, which can manage 800kbps on a good day.”

“I almost drove off the road laughing as I listened to the sheer nonsense of Mr. Waldo’s empty promises,” Steve shares. “This company’s idea of broadband access is up to 3Mbps DSL while nearby states like Virginia and Pennsylvania are getting fiber or cable broadband speeds ten times faster.  How he expects to make West Virginia a top-5 broadband state with their obsolete DSL is a question the gushing host never bothered to ask.”

Steve doesn’t think too many of his Mountain State neighbors are as excited as Mr. Waldo by Frontier.

“God help you if your line goes out, because they can take days to get around to fix it,” Steve says. “Waldo tries to sell you his possum pie with claims the company takes longer to effect repairs so they are ‘done right the first time,’ which is a real hoot considering all of the repeated outages customers experience.”

Steve doesn’t lay the blame entirely at Frontier, however, claiming Verizon fled the state after mangling their outdated landline network and keeping it running with electrical tape.

“Frontier bought into a real mess, and I’m sure they will eventually fix a lot of the problems Verizon didn’t ever care to fix, but that doesn’t make West Virginia a broadband nirvana — certainly not with Frontier’s DSL.”

Time Warner Cable’s newest version of its iPad app — TWCable TV — has more issues than the New York Times.

Stop the Cap! previously judged the latest version of the app ‘garbage,’ and after several weeks of periodic testing, we’ve found nothing to change our mind.

Now the cable company itself is acknowledging what hundreds of reviewers have bottom-rated: it simply doesn’t work right.

We’ve identified a number of frankly aggravating issues that have presented themselves only in a live environment. Comment threads on Engadget, DSLReports, this very blog and others support our internal findings, too. If you’re experiencing the following issues, please be reassured that they should be fixed in an upcoming patch releasing by the end of this month at the latest:

• The app crashes after iPad awakes from sleep or lock
• HD filter returns incomplete results
• Intermittently, guide listings will overlay other guide listings (text appears overwritten and jumbled).
• The device selector slides off-screen or disappears altogether
• In-guide recording indicators do not appear

We’ve also discovered an intermittent quality issue with our live streaming that we are working to fix right now. This problem is independent of the release 2.0 code bugs, and will be fixed very, very soon.

The end of the month is a week away, and nothing appears to have been fixed just yet.  For Stop the Cap!‘s tests, the most obvious and aggravating problem continues to be streamed video that simply does not work for more than 30 seconds.  That such a core function of the product would remain hopelessly broken and unusable for almost a month is a profound embarrassment, tempered only by the fact the app and service is offered for free at the present time.

Time Warner Cable’s Jeff Simmermon tries to offer helpful, but very limited advice to the large contingent of users who find the app bug-laden:

Live TV playback – video buffers (displays “loading” message)

(Note, we are currently working to resolve an intermittent video quality issue that could result in excessive buffering of the live feed.)

Did you experience any video quality issues prior to the 2.0 upgrade? If not, has anything changed on the home network recently?

Simmermon

Download a speed measurement tool or visit an iPad compatible speed measure web site to measure speed on the device at the point in the home where live video is being viewed. TWCable TV’s high definition video streams require a sustained 1.5mbps to avoid buffering. Fringe WiFi areas (e.g., a far corner of the house, backyard, etc) may not achieve these speeds.

Contact customer care with a detailed report of which channels are impacted and the frequency of the buffering (e.g., every few minutes, every 5 sec, etc).

We reported this particular issue and note it is hardly intermittent — it’s a constant for us in the Rochester, N.Y., area.  What is particularly odd is the prior version never experienced any of these issues.  We’ve only received guidance that our home network — the one Time Warner Cable technicians installed themselves when we upgraded to DOCSIS 3 technology — might be responsible.  We think not.

Many Time Warner Cable customers have used the company’s blog postings on the app as an opportunity to vent frustration over the cable company’s foot-dragging on online video.  While other cable companies’ TV Everywhere projects are unveiling a second generation of online playback tools, Time Warner is still withholding HBO Go and CNN Networks’ new live streaming of their cable networks’ digital online productions.

One satellite television customer responded bemused with Time Warner’s technical problems: “My DirecTV iPad app *just works*.”

While cable broadband has never had the same impact on the United Kingdom that it has in North America, top honors for speedy service have been won by Virgin Media, who successfully tested the world’s fastest cable broadband network, delivering 1.5Gbps speeds in London’s East End.

By combining multiple broadband channels together using DOCSIS 3 technology, cable companies can deliver extremely fast downstream speeds to customers, depending on how much of their cable network bandwidth they wish to dedicate towards broadband.

Virgin’s successful trial managed 1.5Gbps for downloading, but a comparatively slower upload speed of 150Mbps.  The test, conducted in a redevelopment tech park designed to recreate Silicon Valley’s success in the United Kingdom, will likely lead to an eventual increase in broadband speeds for Virgin customers.  The average broadband speed today in the UK is approximately 6Mbps, hampered primarily by substantial reliance on British Telecom’s DSL network.  Satellite television became the primary provider of multichannel video in Great Britain, so development of cable television systems has never been as expansive as found in the United States and Canada.  But where cable providers like Virgin do provide service, broadband speeds have been on the increase.

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey congratulated Virgin for the successful trial, pointing out Prime Minister David Cameron has prioritized technological infrastructure improvements in London’s East End, in hopes it will one day rival Silicon Valley.

“As people are simultaneously connecting more gadgets to the Internet and doing more online than ever before, Virgin Media is delivering some of the fastest broadband in the world and, thanks to our ongoing investment, we’re able to anticipate and lead the way in meeting growing demand for bandwidth,” said Jon James of Virgin Media.

Virgin currently delivers unlimited broadband service at speeds up to 100Mbps, but customers point out the service is subject to “Fair Access Policies” which reduce speeds for heavy users during peak usage periods, particularly for peer to peer file transfers.

It is unlikely 1Gbps service will be marketed for residential customers anytime soon, but as American cable companies have expanded marketing efforts towards the business broadband market, so could British cable providers like Virgin Media.

Rogers Communications has announced usage cap and speed adjustments for many of its Internet service plans — changes that will bring increased allowances for some of the company’s most premium customers.

Rogers has modestly adjusted usage caps on its popular Extreme Internet Plan a year after slashing them, and brings dramatic increases for the company’s most expensive service tiers, even as it leaves usage caps unchanged for the bulk of their customers subscribed to the basic Express service plan:

A Rogers spokesman explained the changes.

The bar gets raised only for those who agree to spend more.

“With the rapid rise of online video, social media and online gaming, the way Canadians use the Internet is changing dramatically. We’re always reviewing our plans to ensure they meet your changing needs so starting later this month, our Hi-Speed Internet tiers are being upgraded with faster download speeds and higher data allowances for customers on Rogers DOCSIS 3.0, our best and fastest wireline network,” wrote RogersMarina on the company’s RedBoard blog.

Apparently the way Canadians use the Internet with Rogers’ most-popular Express plan hasn’t changed much, because Rogers leaves that cap unchanged at 60GB of usage per month.  Rogers previously reduced its usage cap for its Extreme level of service from 95 to 80GB, days after Netflix announced it was bringing its streamed video service to Canada.  Rogers’ latest increase amounts to just 5GB more usage than customers had during the spring of 2010.

The increased speeds that some usage tiers are gaining with the introduction of DOCSIS 3 technology come “at no additional cost” according to Rogers, but the company also mentions it charges higher prices — $1.50-$3 more per month — for the required DOCSIS 3 modem.

For customers certain to exceed their allowance, Rogers will sell you an insurance plan to protect your wallet from their $0.50-5.00/GB overlimit fees:

“Also starting later this month, you’ll be able to add a data assurance option if you’re currently using the Express and Extreme tiers. For an extra $20 per month, you’ll receive an extra 80 GB of data on top of your existing allowances. If you don’t need quite as much data, you can also get an additional 20 GB for an extra $5 per month.”

Most customers were not impressed.  Take Matt, for example:

“Speed increases are great but all they allow us to do is to get to our low data caps faster. These days with YouTube, Netflix, VOIP, and work VPN (heavy work from home user) $60 for 100 GB of data is pretty expensive, especially when a GB of data probably costs Rogers pennies per user. Competitors are starting to offer higher data caps for a similar price. In Toronto you can get a plan for same or slightly cheaper starting with 200GB.  In Vancouver you can get 50Mbps for $29 a month with a 400 GB data cap!”

Cambo notes the usage upgrades come easy for higher-priced tiers, but customers on the most popular Express tier have no increase in their usage allowance at all.

“You guys just don’t get it,” he writes on RedBoard.  “Speed isn’t the issue. Usage is. Why is it every tier gets a usage bump except the most popular Express? What is the point of bumping the speeds up and not significantly increasing usage, so we can get to the caps even faster I suppose. Sounds like a ploy to get people to spend more, to me.”

Andrew agreed:

“I also agree with this. I would rather get a larger usage bump than a speed bump — I don’t see a point in raising speeds when the data cap is still extremely restrictive. After all, I’d want to enjoy using the Internet, rather than monitoring my usage restrictions every day. If Rogers really listened to the customers, they’d know that most of us are more critical of their plans’ usage restrictions than their speeds.”