Time Warner Cable introduces DOCSIS 3 service in New York today.

Time Warner Cable today finally launches new high speed broadband service possible from DOCSIS 3 upgrades.

Calling the new service Time Warner Cable Wideband Internet, the company will now market the 50Mbps/5Mbps residential service for $99.95 per month.

“With substantially increased Internet speeds, Time Warner Cable continues to lead the way as the most popular broadband provider in New York City. Time Warner Cable Wideband Internet gives all home network devices – desktops, laptops, gaming consoles and iPhones – our fastest connection yet,” stated Howard Szarfarc, Executive Vice President of the company’s New York City Region. “Time Warner Cable Wideband Internet customers can instantly multitask – and when family members are online simultaneously, everyone can get the speed they want at the same time.”

Calling the company a proven innovator, Szarfarc touted Time Warner Cable’s “advanced fiber-optic network” for making the upgrade possible.

Yet Time Warner Cable has dragged its feet on DOCSIS 3 upgrades for more than a year now, claiming such upgrades weren’t necessary because consumers weren’t clamoring for faster speeds.  The company also had a major misstep in April when it attempted to roll out an Internet Overcharging scheme that would have raised broadband service pricing for consumers up to 300%, with no immediate improvement in service.  Those plans were shelved indefinitely.

Providers like Time Warner Cable are looking to premium services to enhance revenue, and offering higher speed service has proven successful for the company in the past.  Time Warner Cable has positively reported revenue benefits from its Road Runner Turbo add-on product, providing faster speeds to consumers for an additional $10 per month.

The rush to DOCSIS 3 in metropolitan New York may have come from increased competition from Verizon FiOS, as well as consumer awareness of Cablevision’s 100Mbps broadband service, available in suburban New York neighborhoods.

Time Warner Cable Wideband Internet is available starting today in Manhattan (below 79^th Street), Staten Island and Queens (Fresh Meadows, Forest Hills and South Flushing). It will be available throughout the company’s entire NYC service area by Spring 2010.

BendBroadband introduces a new logo and tagline

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 good.”

What some BendBroadband customers didn’t realize was that dog comes with a leash.

“The new speeds sound great, right until you read the fine print and discover the awful usage allowances they attach to them,” writes Seth, a Stop the Cap! reader.  “That’s Bend (Over) Broadband.”

BendBroadband plans range from 8Mbps service for $36.95 a month ($46.95 broadband-only), 14Mbps service for $44.95 a month ($54.95 broadband-only), and a forthcoming Gold 25Mbps plan for $54.95 a month ($64.95 broadband-only).  The 14Mbps service represents a speed increase for their current Silver plan.  All of these plans have a 100GB usage allowance, with a $1.50/GB overlimit penalty.

A new Platinum plan will offer 60Mbps service for $89.95 a month ($99.95 broadband-only), yet only incrementally bumps the usage cap up by 50GB, to 150GB per month.

BendBroadband's dog comes with a leash... 100GB Usage Caps

Company officials seemed pleased with themselves.

“Who would of believed ten years ago that we would have these types of speeds available?” said Frank Miller, the company’s Chief Technology Officer. “60Mbps…that’s one fast puppy!”

“That dog (logo) has broadband rabies and needs to be put down,” replies Seth’s wife Angelica, who telecommutes and does most of her work from home.

“Central Oregon can be wowed by the speed, but what good is it if you can’t use it without running into their usage caps and limits,” she asks.

“I’d pay for the premium tiers and get on a waiting list today if they did away with the usage caps.  There is no way I am paying to support a company that sticks usage caps on their customers and makes me waste time doublechecking how much I’ve used this month,” she said.

Seth and Angelica have taken a pass on BendBroadband’s dog show and are sticking with the local phone company’s DSL service until something better comes along.

“The speed isn’t the best, but at least you can use the service and not have to worry about it,” Seth writes.

Delta, part of the Vancouver metro area, British Columbia

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 launched fire sale pricing on its cable, broadband, and telephone services ($9.95 a month for each) and target marketed those limited special offers in and around buildings wired for Novus service.  Novus protested to the BC courts, claiming Shaw was engaged in predatory pricing behavior.

A few days ago, an Ontario court judge dismissed a suit brought by Rogers Communications against Shaw over Shaw’s plans to buyout Mountain Cablevision, a smaller cable provider serving parts of southwestern Ontario.  Rogers was upset because the purchase violated a “covenant” between the two telecom giants not to compete in each others’ service areas.

Now, Shaw’s trucks are rumbling down the roads of Delta, a community south of Vancouver,  as work begins on constructing a cable system that will directly compete against Bragg Communications’ Delta Cable.  Shaw also has won approval from the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to competitively wire Ladner and adjacent neighborhoods southeast of Vancouver.

Shaw president Peter Bissonnette told industry news site Cartt.ca the wiring of Delta and Ladner comes as a result of “people there saying they would like to get Shaw.”  So now residents can look out their windows and see Delta Cable’s wiring on one side of the street and Shaw’s wires on the other.

Another success story for head-on competition leading to lower prices and more choice, right?

Not so fast.

As Cartt.ca reports (one article view is available for free, subscription required thereafter), there is a history to be considered here, and that may include another agenda beyond the “consumers wanted us so we came” explanation.

There’s a bit of history to the Delta system and Shaw, however. Back in 2006, when then-owner John Thomas decided to sell Delta Cable and Coast Cable, many assumed he would sell to Shaw. After all, Thomas was on Shaw’s board of directors. However, aware of the fact most of his employees would likely be out of work if nearby Shaw bought it, he instead surprised most by selling to what was then Persona Communications, for about $90 million.

Some months later, Persona itself was purchased for a reported $750 million by Bragg Communications, which does business, of course, as EastLink, primarily in Eastern Canada.

Cartt reports it is no secret Shaw wants the Delta region as part of its greater Vancouver service area, and the traditional route by which most cable companies do this is by buying out the incumbent provider.  Bragg Communications understands this, and has sold some of its own systems in the past, most recently in Saskatchewan.  But so far, not in Delta.

Bissonnette was cagey when asked if Shaw had pursued the buyout route, which is always cheaper than overbuilding an area with all new wiring.

“They know what we are doing. There’s always more than one way to skin a cat you know,” he said.

If Shaw adopts the same aggressive strategy in Delta they have used against Novus in downtown Vancouver, it will likely make Delta’s current cable system unprofitable.  Bragg would be forced to consider either engaging in a sustained price war, something Shaw is in a better position to handle because of revenue earned from non-competitive areas, or eventually sell the Delta Cable system at a fraction of its original value.

For comparison, Delta Cable charges $26 a month for analog basic cable plus $26.95 a month for a robust digital channel package.  Broadband service, with a 62GB usage cap is $39.50 per month.  They don’t seem to offer telephone service.  Shaw promoted a digital/basic combination package in downtown Vancouver for $9.95 a month and broadband for an additional $9.95.  Shaw to Delta Cable: Compete with that.

For a time, up to 28,000 households in the area may enjoy some benefits from a sustained price battle, unless Bragg capitulates and sells out early, but in the end, if Shaw engages in the kind of allegedly predatory pricing it has in downtown Vancouver against Novus, the benefits will be short-lived, and Shaw always has time to make up the difference down the road.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who often adopts anti-consumer positions on telecommunications policy, has written a so-called “killer amendment” that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing proposed Net Neutrality rules.

Her amendment, informally proposed Monday as part of a House Interior Appropriations spending measure (H.R. 2996) states:

Purpose: To prohibit the FCC from expending any funds in fiscal year 2010 to implement any Internet neutrality or network management principles, or to promulgate any rules relating to such principles.

Hutchison’s amendment has several Republican co-sponsors: John Ensign (R-Nevada), Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), David Vitter (R-Louisiana), Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina),  and John Thune, (R-South Dakota).

Hutchison released a statement explaining the amendment: “I am deeply concerned by the direction the FCC appears to be heading. We must tread lightly when it comes to new regulations. The case has simply not been made for what amounts to a significant regulatory intervention into a vibrant marketplace. These new regulatory mandates and restrictions could stifle investment incentives.”

Ensign said Net Neutrality would punish a telecommunications industry at a time when it’s managing through an economic downturn.

“Any industry that is able to thrive should be allowed to do so without meddlesome government interference that could stifle innovation,” he said.

Brownback also has a history opposing the consumer interests of his constituents.  Back in May, he penned a letter to a Stop the Cap! reader in Kansas openly favoring Internet Overcharging schemes.

Public interest groups are calling on the public to express their displeasure with the Republican senators for their opposition to Net Neutrality.

One possible explanation for the sudden, strong interest by Hutchison and other Republicans to oppose Net Neutrality can be found in their respective bank accounts.  Hutchison accepted $67,300 in campaign contributions just from AT&T, her ninth largest contributor.

Combined, AT&T donated more than $400,000 among the six Republicans opposing Net Neutrality, and one of those senators, John Thune, used to work for a DC lobbying firm that was hired by Comcast.

The details were compiled by Sam Gustin, a reporter for DailyFinance:

Over the course of his career, Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, has received $220,914 from “telephone utilities,” including some $83,130 from AT&T, his second-largest donor, in the form of employee and lobbyist donations to his campaign and political-action committees. Sprint Nextel has given Brownback $35,550 over the course of his career.

Two of the co-sponsors of the bill, Sen. David Vitter of Lousiana and Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who have both seen their reputations tarnished after sex scandals, have been on the receiving end of AT&T’s largesse. AT&T and predecessor BellSouth have donated $82,050 to Vitter’s campaigns and political-action committees. And over the last four years, AT&T has donated some $61,250 to Ensign’s campaign and political-action committees. Verizon-related entities donated $46,600 to Ensign during that period.

During that time, AT&T has donated $63,750 to the campaign and political-action committees of Sen. Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican. AT&T is DeMint’s second-largest donor.

Sen. John Thune, the South Dakota Republican, has not received significant donations from the telecom industry since his 2006 defeat of Sen. Tom Daschle, then Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. But from 2003 to 2005, Thune served as a senior policy adviser to the D.C. lobbying firm of Arent, Fox, when its client Comcast, the largest cable company in the U.S., paid some $40,000 in fees.

[Update: Yesterday evening, Washington Post reporter Cecilia Kang reported that the Republicans were, at least for now, backing off on pushing for their amendment:

“While we are still generally opposed to net neutrality regulations, we have decided to hold off on the amendment because [FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski] approached us and we are beginning a dialogue,” said a staff member on the committee.

Hill watchers said the amendment itself represented standard operating procedure when attempting to block regulatory agency policy decisions, but characterized the Hutchison amendment’s chances of passage as remote.  Hutchison and the Republicans are in the minority in the Senate.]

Professor Geist

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 general principles of “Net neutrality” – comes as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is expected to release its own position this fall, after public consultations this summer that prompted feedback from tens of thousands of Canadians.

“The kinds of principles that the FCC is now looking to put into rules are precisely what the CRTC heard from many groups this past summer,” said Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law. “The kinds of concerns that Canadians have been expressing have clearly been taken to heart by the FCC.”

Many Canadian citizens have been unhappy with the CRTC after a summer of hearings and policy decisions which have almost universally-favored Canadian broadband providers’ positions.  The CRTC seemed skeptical during hearings over the urgency to enforce Net Neutrality protections and stop provider’s throttling of peer to peer networks.  But consumers were even more upset when the Commission agreed with Bell, Canada’s largest phone company and wholesale broadband provider, and allowed the company to impose “usage based billing (UBB)” (Internet Overcharging) on wholesale buyers — primarily independent Internet Service Providers.  Canadian customers attempting to avoid usage caps and consumption billing relied on more generous policies from independent providers, policies likely to be revoked with the imposition of UBB, potentially making flat rate broadband service in Canada largely extinct.

In general terms, Net neutrality refers to the concept that access to all legal content on the Internet should be equal. The concept often comes up in relation to the practice of “bandwidth throttling,” where ISPs limit the transfer speed of certain kinds of data – such as the transfer of large movie files between users – but not other kinds.

Many large Canadian ISPs have argued that network management doesn’t affect Net neutrality, and taking away an ISP’s ability to manage its network results in worse service for a large number of customers.

Currently, there is no uniform practice among large ISPs in Canada when it comes to network management. Some firms throttle bandwidth during certain times of the day, whereas other limit bandwidth all the time, or not at all. A CRTC ruling this fall could go a long way toward implementing a uniform code for all ISPs.

“In light of what we’ve seen today, [the CRTC ruling] will be particularly telling because the benchmark now isn’t just what the CRTC heard during this hearing, the benchmark now is our neighbours to the south,” Prof. Geist said. “The CRTC will in many ways be measured up against what the FCC is doing in the U.S.”

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