Recent Headlines
October 2, 2009
Be Sure to Read Part One: Astroturf Overload — Broadband for America = One Giant Industry Front Group for an important introduction to what this super-sized industry front group is all about. Members of Broadband for America Red: A company or group actively engaging in anti-consumer lobbying, opposes Net Neutrality, supports Internet Overcharging, belongs to […]
October 2, 2009
Astroturf: One of the underhanded tactics increasingly being used by telecom companies is “Astroturf lobbying” – creating front groups that try to mimic true grassroots, but that are all about corporate money, not citizen power. Astroturf lobbying is hardly a new approach. Senator Lloyd Bentsen is credited with coining the term in the 1980s to […]
September 27, 2009
Hong Kong remains bullish on broadband. Despite the economic downturn, City Telecom continues to invest millions in constructing one of Hong Kong’s largest fiber optic broadband networks, providing fiber to the home connections to residents. City Telecom’s HK Broadband service relies on an all-fiber optic network, and has been dubbed “the Verizon FiOS of Hong […]
September 23, 2009
BendBroadband, a small provider serving central Oregon, breathlessly announced the imminent launch of new higher speed broadband service for its customers after completing an upgrade to DOCSIS 3. Along with the launch announcement came a new logo of a sprinting dog the company attaches its new tagline to: “We’re the local dog. We better be […]
September 23, 2009
Stop the Cap! reader Rick has been educating me about some of the new-found aggression by Shaw Communications, one of western Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, in expanding its business reach across Canada. Woe to those who get in the way. Novus Entertainment is already familiar with this story. As Stop the Cap! reported previously, Shaw […]
September 22, 2009
The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, the Canadian equivalent of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, may be forced to consider American broadband policy before defining Net Neutrality and its role in Canadian broadband, according to an article published today in The Globe & Mail. [FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s] proposal – to codify and enforce some […]
September 21, 2009
In March 2000, two cable magnates sat down for the cable industry equivalent of My Dinner With Andre. Fine wine, beautiful table linens, an exquisite meal, and a Monopoly board with pieces swapped back and forth representing hundreds of thousands of Canadian consumers. Ted Rogers and Jim Shaw drew a line on the western Ontario […]
September 11, 2009
Just like FairPoint Communications, the Towering Inferno of phone companies haunting New England, Frontier Communications is making a whole lot of promises to state regulators and consumers, if they’ll only support the deal to transfer ownership of phone service from Verizon to them. This time, Frontier is issuing a self-serving press release touting their investment […]
September 7, 2009
I see it took all of five minutes for George Ou and his friends at Digital Society to be swayed by the tunnel vision myopia of last week’s latest effort to justify Internet Overcharging schemes. Until recently, I’ve always rationalized my distain for smaller usage caps by ignoring the fact that I’m being subsidized by […]
September 1, 2009
In 2007, we took our first major trip away from western New York in 20 years and spent two weeks an hour away from Calgary, Alberta. After two weeks in Kananaskis Country, Banff, Calgary, and other spots all over southern Alberta, we came away with the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Good Alberta […]
August 31, 2009
A federal appeals court in Washington has struck down, for a second time, a rulemaking by the Federal Communications Commission to limit the size of the nation’s largest cable operators to 30% of the nation’s pay television marketplace, calling the rule “arbitrary and capricious.” The 30% rule, designed to keep no single company from controlling […]
August 27, 2009
Less than half of Americans surveyed by PC Magazine report they are very satisfied with the broadband speed delivered by their Internet service provider. PC Magazine released a comprehensive study this month on speed, provider satisfaction, and consumer opinions about the state of broadband in their community. The publisher sampled more than 17,000 participants, checking […]
Subscribe
I really hope that Time Warner will be regulated like crazy as a result of this stupidity.
I don’t know if they should be regulated “like crazy” , but legitimate consumer protecting regulations need to be implemented. Fair and equal access to all, by all is a paramount concern of mine. I will not be penalized through caps or extra fees to visit sites because they compete with TWC content. Going to Hulu, YouTube and watching network TV on demand should not cost more when I already pay to go online.
It’s kinda like paying to get into a restaurant and then paying for the food I eat while I’m there. Nobody will do that.
T.M., great analogy regarding the restaurant!
I’ve been trying to think of more analogies that would make the most sense to the average semi-non-technical person.
I was the one asking the question in the video. I wish they got the whole statement I made which was that in my area, unlike Rochester(I am in Macedon), there is no other option for high speed internet access. Nevertheless, I was happy with his response.
Although,we have yet to hear anything from Rep. Dan Maffei even though he stated he would get on it after the weekend and that was nearly two weeks ago.
Thanks Colin for the video. You were great talking about your concerns. There is alot of hurt and a big mess in the country right now and this is just one more issue to hit the pile. Notice just how little is coming out of washington lately. Lots of mouth service but little else. Its all going to take time. Time we really dont have. Maybe it will never happen. We have a few months at most. I have a huge plastic bag sitting on top of the computer and if TWC pulls this off on it goes then I… Read more »
Colin: years ago using the net was a joy talking to people thousands of mile away as if they were in the same room with you. It is not a joy anymore. Ads java ads flash ads script kiddies trying to break in often spam I could go on for hours but it no longer a joy. It is actually a pain. Running so much anti everything programs sure does slow the computer. My anti everything loaded new files 6 or 8 times just today. That is how bad it is and that counts as bandwidth held against you. What… Read more »