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 […]
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I’ve got you in my fee reader, so I see every post y’all make. I don’t read them all (I’m more US and NC-centric), and I tend to pass on the multimedia stuff. That just how I tend to browse. I like the fact that y’all to research and actually try and contact the folks from the cable/telcom industry, even though all their stuff seems pretty easily refutable.
The comic and fake tag lines (Like Represenative Joe Smith (R. Time Warner)) are kind of silly.
I occasionally try and contact the “other side” although some of the companies (Frontier in particular) won’t respond to me… ever. That’s why I try and find the other side represented in some other articles and include their position where it fits. I was glad to see Time Warner popping up with an explanation for the Kentucky debacle. It helped their position by providing information that probably sailed over the head of the reporter who wrote the story we linked to. I don’t think of any company as all-bad, but some are worse than others. Time Warner Cable is not… Read more »
1) I usually do not watch/listen to multimedia content – I prefer to (quickly) read the material – but, of course, there are sometimes where you really need to see the video. 2) I guess for Apple compatibility, you should (but I don’t have a Mac but our children are rapidly moving in that direction. 3) Home. I don’t care about mobile access (but that’s just me). 4) No 5) + Depth of coverage, – (at times, gets a little long winded) But I do like your depth. 6) Daily (whenever you post) 7) Skim – particularly long articles on… Read more »
1) The multimedia has never worked for me in Firefox. I probably wouldn’t use it anyway unless it was something special – reading text takes less time and I can skip parts I’m not interested in. 2) I have you in my feed reader so I see every title you post. I usually read all the broadband related ones and some of the mobile related ones. 3) You have done several posts that took some serious research such as the one about the astroturf groups and their backers. I’d like to see a links module on the home page pointing… Read more »
I use Firefox as my browser here. Do you have Flash installed? I am very surprised to find you cannot access the videos. I see a trend in the comments that people want snappy and fast, and the statistics we gather on readership seems to prove this. The average visit here is just over one minute per visit, which tells me people are skimming or reading single articles before moving on. Watching or listening to multimedia content usually takes longer than that. The information on multimedia content is very useful because it is one of the most time-consuming elements of… Read more »
1. I don’t listen to the multimedia, honestly what I like about this site the most is the focus on the issue and written articles. 2. Don’t really care, maybe if I had an iPad or something it would matter. 3. Unnecessary 4. basic information links about the issues that give NPOV explanations of the issue. 5. Focus, writing, and updating speed 6. daily 7. I read the ones I find most interesting all the way through, ones that aren’t related to my interests like Canadian ones I tend to skip reading. 8. You sometimes explain well enough. I think… Read more »
1. I usually check the site out from work inbetween downtime and playing multimedia just often isn’t possible through our web filtering anyway. I do think it’s good to link official TV broadcasts of the topic if possible, but I prefer text to video media. 2. Per #1, I don’t or can’t watch the video currently. The only way I’d suggest you do support an Apple or HTML5 compatiable codec is if you found an automated cheap/free plugin for wordpress to do it for you. Not a big priority IMO. 3. Office computer. Given the large volume of information and… Read more »
On point #4, are you looking for something that has more content (old and new) linked from the home page, like a traditional news site? Can you be more specific about what needs to be added?
On point #9, I agree about the time consuming nature of producing audio. I used to do a radio show on cable/satellite issues for home satellite dishowners about a decade ago and it consumed a lot of time and energy. I have yet to see anyone say they wanted something like this, so that idea is probably going to be put away for now.
1. I watch some of it depending on the topic. Yes. 2. The more compatible the website, the greater the amount of traffic? 3. Home; unnecessary 4. Some ideas … A) Interactive map and or links pertaining to certain regions of the country (i.e. NorthEast, SouthWest, SouthEast, etc …) and how the ISP’s are affecting people in each specific area B) Search utility which shows all/most all of the ISP’s for a certain Zip code i) Similar to the following: http://www.dslreports.com/search (not sure how current this utility is) C) More updates on DOCSIS3, Wideband, FIOS, and other Fiber Optics in… Read more »
Thanks for the ideas. We have a bad-looking drop down list right now listing every provider we cover (the next version of the software will let us nest menus and make it less formidable to present the list). Since ISPs are usually national players with systems all over the place, a map might get unwieldy. Since we are friends with Broadband Reports, I’d rather direct people over there for something they are already doing as opposed to reinventing the wheel. I do agree with you we need to have a simpler site/presentation for those who have no clue about these… Read more »
1. I very rarely watch the video content, I think it does make your site different but mostly the editorial takes care of it. 2. I do read on an iPad but never watch the video content 3. Home, Office and an iPad.no need for mobile content 4. No it looks good 5 You are long winded and some of your comments are predictable, but as I have said before I do like the way you write. 6. Daily 7. Mostly I skim them reading only the ones that really interest me, I look at all of them. 8 I… Read more »
Even I know I can be long-winded. I also have an ongoing affair with complex sentence structure, which shows itself when I proofread or read something out loud and pass out from O2 deprivation before I finish the sentence. 🙂
1. I occasionally watch the multimedia content. When I do it’s usually useful. 2. I have an iPad, so i wouldn’t mind. 3. I frequently use Google Reader to view STC articles, including using Reeder for GR feeds on iPad. I’m generally not a fan of mobile sites, but if you implement one, please include the option to view the regular site. I hate it when sites force people to use the mobile version. 4. As others have stated, it would be nice to have something that informs new, non-techie people of the underlying issues, and why it’s important. 5.… Read more »
I mostly read STC through the RSS feed but sometimes click through from Twitter. I only watch videos relating to Rochester, NY. I would not listen to a podcast (I can’t keep up with the ones I follow now).
1. Sometimes. Depends on the subject.
2. I use a PC so…..whatever.
3. Home computer. Would access a mobile site on the BB if available.
4. No.
5. Better because it’s fresh, informative and accurate.
6. Generally once a day.
7. Usually at least a chunk of each article but top to bottom on interesting , IMO, ones.
8. Very well explained.
9. Would listen at home and/or on the BlackBerry if easy to access.
Thank you Phillip for all you do..
Would a mobile version of the site be helpful, or is it unnecessary? My mobile device can read the fill site with out issue, so for me personally, a mobile site is not necessary 4.Is there anything missing on our home page you think should be added, or formatted differently?I think we need some sort of glossary or a quick Internet Overcharging Schemes 101 that is readily available to get rid of many of the major misconceptions before digging into the content and some simple netwroking basics on how the internet works and what NEt Neutrality is and isn’t. It… Read more »
love the site, very helpful info, i would like to see html 5, since i do look at this site on my iphone a lot, or even a mobile version would be good, but other than that i love the layout and i look at the site at least once a day
1. I think the media content that you have is actually quite interesting. The video clips and news stories actually make your agenda real and not just some random thoughts out in the blogosphere. 2. Developing for HTML5 at this point will just be a waste of time. Wait until it’s a bit more mature and don’t be swayed by what Apple is bitter towards. I’ve seen websites go from Flash to HTML5 and the quality is awful in comparison. If Apple product owners really wanted to get the site’s content, they can (Skyfire). 3. I get it using Yomomedia… Read more »
We are currently providing the full text of our articles in the RSS feed, something site scrapers (websites that steal content and monetize it with ads) just love, but it’s not yet a big enough issue for us to worry about. One reason we do not break up content into multiple pages is that I’m convinced people don’t follow the jumps. Even at the risk of a long article, some statistics we’ve gathered suggest giving people everything at once, broken up with a suitable amount of graphic elements to make the text less intimidating, results in longer reads. A lot… Read more »
1. I do watch and listen to the media content and find it very informative. I think it does stand out from other sites I visit. 2. No we don’t need to cater to Apple! 🙂 Joking a side, it wouldn’t hurt to do HTML5 video imo. 3. I mostly access it from my desktop. I don’t think a mobile version is really needed. 4. Front page no except for some of the suggestions already given. The comment section I would like to see more functionality added. 5. I like the articles and investigative reporting, usually more in depth from… Read more »
1. I occasionally watch them multimedia content, if by the description it sounds like something I want to watch. Video/audio that supports an article is great – don’t stop posting the audio from conference calls, meetings, etc. If it comes down to a video or an article though, I’ll pick the article; I’ often doing other things while I read Stop the Cap. If videos help to bring people to the cause, of course, I’m all for them. 2. You should support HTML5 because it’s an open standard and (hopefully) the wave of the future. HTML5 with Flash fallback would… Read more »
Include a running list of the caps that were increased or removed (in part) due to the actions of Stop the Cap. Promote legislation requiring all Internet Providers to offer an (honestly) unlimited data plan limited only by the mathematical capability of the bit rates and number of hours in a month. ISPs should also be allowed to offer limited plans at lower prices, but only under the condition that users are allowed to go over their caps and pay an overage in reasonable proportion to the ISPs costs of carrying the traffic plus a reasonable markup to be invested… Read more »