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Time Warner Cable continues tapdancing around whether its new $3.95 monthly modem rental fee is a hidden rate increase. WGRZ in Buffalo presses a spokeswoman on whether this is just another cable company money grab.   (2 minutes)

Cable companies are starting to lay the groundwork to support the next generation of HD video — first with 4K, an improvement over today’s HD standard, and eventually 8K Ultra High Definition TV — delivering pictures 16 times better than the current 1080p HD standard and coming close to the level of detail supported by IMAX.

The 8K evolving standard, proposed by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK and dubbed Super Hi-Vision, remains years away, but cable operators are preparing their systems to support 4K UHDTV (3840 x 2160 – 8.3 megapixels)  much sooner.

By the time 8K comes into use, most cable operators will rely entirely on a single broadband pipe to deliver video, Internet access and telephone service. To handle that traffic, and the bandwidth UHDTV demands, providers will have to upgrade their systems to support much faster speeds. A single video channel transmitted in 8K UHDTV requires around 360Mbps.

That makes Google’s decision to construct a gigabit broadband network in Kansas City seem less revolutionary and almost evolutionary, considering how quickly bandwidth demand will increase in the next eight years.

The cable industry is now moving fast to finalize the next version of the DOCSIS standard which supports cable broadband. DOCSIS 3.1 is expected to be introduced Thursday at the Cable-Tec Expo. An initial preview seems to suggest the standard will be backwards-compatible with prior DOCSIS versions — good news for those buying their own cable modems — and will support multi-gigabit speeds, if the cable operator decides to dedicate more of its available bandwidth to broadband.

An essential goal of the cable industry is to match or beat 1Gbps, currently on offer from several fiber to the home service providers and Google. Some operators want even more — up to 10/2Gbps capacity, as they consider future speed needs.

But engineering advancements and innovation fly in the face of bean counters attempting to monetize broadband usage with usage caps and usage-based billing. The industry’s justification for usage caps becomes even more tenuous as it moves to a single pipeline for all of its services and treats its cable TV package differently from Internet traffic. AT&T and Bell are already doing that today with their U-verse and Fibe platforms. Both claim their TV channels move over a different network than traditional Internet, but as costs for both continue to decline, that is becoming a distinction with little difference.

Google and a handful of independent or community-owned broadband networks are largely the only ones calling out the cable industry’s bogus claims that consumers don’t need super fast broadband, usage caps are necessary, and broadband speed upgrades are difficult and too expensive. These new competitors have correctly predicted the exponential growth in bandwidth demand and are prepared for it, even as the industry continues to dismiss their competitors’ networks as unnecessary overkill.

But cable’s hurry to DOCSIS 3.1 tells a different story.

Jeff Baumgartner from Light Reading Cable observed cable executives at Tuesday’s annual Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) conference, where those attending beat the drum for faster and better networks:

[DOCSIS 3.1] will also focus on the quality of cable’s pipe, reduced latency and other smarts designed to help enable a new set of broadband-based services. Cable’s interest in offering 4K HD services, which offer four times the resolution of today’s HD, was an example that was brought up several times during the session.

The cable industry also hopes to shorten the process of creating the specs and having them turn into deployable products. An average generation of DOCSIS has typically taken three to four years.

“We can no longer do that,” said Phil McKinney, the new president and CEO of CableLabs, but didn’t offer a guess on the anticipated cycle for 3.1. “We have to deliver higher and higher performance.”

[…] And 3.1 is also about the almighty dollar as broadband usage continues to climb. Getting costs down “is a key part of Docsis 3.1,” said Cox Communications Inc. EVP and CTO Kevin Hart.

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Jeff Baumgartner from Light Reading Cable was invited to a demonstration of 8K UHDTV, which will require much faster broadband networks to handle the super high quality video. (3 minutes)

Sprint’s deal with Softbank is bad news for margin-obsessed Wall Street. More competition=lower profits.

Wall Street is turning a cold shoulder to today’s official announcement that Japan’s Softbank will acquire nearly 70% of Sprint-Nextel, giving effective control of the company to Japanese business magnet Masayoshi Son.

The $20.1 billion acquisition is the largest-ever foreign buyout by a Japanese company, made possible by the combination of a historically low U.S. dollar against the increasingly strong yen, giving Softbank even more value for money.

But outside of a handful of investment banks that stand to earn $200 million in fees for helping to advice the two companies about the deal, Wall Street is not happy.

“It’s a competitive headache,” said Christopher King, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. The transaction is expected to infuse billions in new capital into perennially third-place Sprint, which is far behind its larger rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

King and other Wall Street analysts fear a bolstered Sprint will spark new competition into the decreasingly competitive wireless marketplace. Softbank is well known in Japan for cut-throat pricing competition, something that could directly impact Verizon and AT&T’s increasingly expensive pricing for wireless service. Many on Wall Street fear an emboldened Sprint could overtake T-Mobile offering aggressively priced service plans.

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Stifel Nicolaus & Co., analyst Christopher King calls today’s announcement by Softbank and Sprint “a competitive headache” for the wireless industry, which may face more competition and lower prices.  (2 minutes)

Christopher King, an analyst for Stifel Nicolaus & Co., called the Sprint-Softbank deal a competitive headache.

Sprint is also expected to put Softbank’s investment to good use — acquiring additional spectrum and quickly upgrading its 4G LTE network, now under construction. The surprise investment could mean a more robust network for Sprint, an important objective for a company criticized for offering less coverage than its larger rivals.

Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein, said Sprint’s aggressive upgrades are bad news because it means the company is going to spend a lot to improve service and presumably cut prices, which will hurt profit margins at Sprint and its competitors who may be forced to lower prices in turn to compete.

Consumers, especially existing Sprint customers, will likely celebrate a stronger Sprint, especially if it triggers a wireless price war.

The investment banks offering advice to both parties have little to complain about either. Citigroup and Raine Group LLC may earn as much as $200 million in direct fees from the deal. Softbank’s own advisers — Deutsche Bank and Mizuho Securities will earn $70-100 million. Sprint’s advisers — Citigroup, UBS, and Rothschild will likely earn an equal amount, according to Bloomberg News.

Investment bankers are hopeful the deal will help trigger another wave of wireless consolidation, which will bolster their fee earnings. In addition to Leap Wireless’ Cricket, there are at least a dozen independent regional carriers including C-Spire and US Cellular now ripe for acquisition by AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, or T-Mobile.

Softbank has been acquiring some of its own competitors back home in Japan, including eAccess, largely to gain additional spectrum to bolster its LTE 4G network build.

For now, the deal announced today does not include beleaguered Clearwire, but most Wall Street investors believe the Sprint-controlled company will eventually also be acquired.

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CNBC talks with Sanford Bernstein’s Craig Moffett, who is not thrilled with a deal that will leave Sprint on a spending spree to upgrade its network and potentially trigger a price war.  (4 minutes)

Seattle residents are on edge thanks to incredibly aggressive Comcast contract workers who refuse to take no for an answer, pounding on doors demanding to be let in, and in some cases making repeated visits, even after police were called.

Valerie Bauman told KING News two men turned up at her apartment Friday flashing cards which they said gave them the right to go where they please.

“They said they were contractors for Comcast and had the authority to be there and showed me this card and I mean, I’ve got a deck of cards, I can pull out the queen but I’m not royalty,” Bauman told the station.

Sam Levine, another Seattle resident said Comcast salespeople pounded on his door demanding to be let in and simply will not take no for an answer.

“It’s not acceptable, it’s not cool, it’s not a way to treat your customers,” Levine said.

Bauman called police because she felt unsafe with the two men, especially after they came back.

Won’t take no for an answer.

“One of them smiled at me and said, ‘Are the police on their way ma’am?’” said Bauman.

Comcast told both customers they were powerless to help because the salesmen were contract workers not directly hired by Comcast and it would be hard to pinpoint who they were.

“You don’t have any right to put somebody in a position where you feel unsafe and threatened in your own home,” said Bauman.

After the media got involved, Steve Kipp, Comcast Washington Region vice president of communications issued this statement:

On behalf of Comcast, I want to offer my apologies to our customers. We are taking these complaints very seriously. As a policy, we do not tolerate overly aggressive, inappropriate behavior from the door to door sales people employed directly by Comcast or by our contractor companies and will take steps to ensure that incidents like this do not happen again. If anyone witnesses unacceptable behavior from any door to door sales person representing Comcast, we encourage you to call 1-800-COMCAST to lodge a complaint.

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KING in Seattle talks with local residents about Comcast’s highly aggressive sales force that pounds on doors and demands entry to sell cable service.  (2 minutes)

Softbank’s marketing is baffling to Americans. The company has produced more than 150 different ads featuring a “typical Japanese family” that is anything but. The Otosan (father) is portrayed as a white dog, accompanied by a more familiar Japanese mother, a daughter played by a famous Japanese pop star, and her African-American brother.

Softbank, Japan’s third largest cell phone company, is said to be in advanced talks with both Sprint-Nextel and Clearwire to acquire a $12.8 billion majority ownership interest in both companies, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

Softbank’s primary motivation isn’t a sudden interest in serving American cell phone users. It wants bigger discounts for expensive smartphones and other mobile equipment for its Japanese customers, and volume discount opportunities are wide open if the company can pool Sprint, Clearwire, and Softbank together as a single buyer.

CNBC reports Softbank originally sought a blockbuster deal with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA, Sprint, and Clearwire to form one super-sized carrier, but the German owners of T-Mobile got cold feet and pulled out, fearing the Obama Administration’s antitrust concerns could ultimately torpedo the deal. DT recently proposed an offer for MetroPCS instead, a deal much more likely to pass regulator review.

The deal could provide much-needed financial backing for Sprint, currently embarked on its costly Network Vision plan to upgrade to 4G LTE service. Softbank also sees synergy with Clearwire, because both companies share the same frequencies and TDD LTE network technology, meaning smartphones compatible on one network will work on the other.

Sprint is still said to be considering making a counteroffer for MetroPCS, potentially pulling that company away from T-Mobile, while Leap Wireless’ Cricket also remains a potential takeover target.

Wall Street thinks a foreign player entering the U.S. market will have a much easier time winning regulator approval, because Softbank has no other interests in the U.S. market. The Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission both ultimately rejected a previous attempt to merge AT&T and T-Mobile, fearing a larger AT&T would reduce competition and stifle innovation.

Softbank is a disruptive competitor in the Japanese cell phone market. It aggressively competes with KDDI and market leader NTT Docomo. The company is perhaps best known for its oddball, often mystifying marketing which features a talking dog interacting with well-known Hollywood stars, including Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, and Tommy Lee Jones.

Ads feature a typical Japanese family played by atypical actors — a strict father played by a talking dog, a more familiar Japanese mother, a daughter played by a famous Japanese pop star, and her African-American brother. The ads are almost incomprehensible to North American audiences used to a more direct marketing approach. But Japanese audiences love the ads they consider both funny and more importantly, unexpected.

That latter theme is particularly important to Softbank’s image in the Japanese cell phone market. With 98.6% of the country ethnically Japanese, the unexpected family underlines the company’s efforts to shake up conventional cell phone service. Softbank is known for introducing unique plans that target different groups of cell phone users often neglected by larger carriers. First to take a chance with the iPhone to appeal to youth, Softbank also sells plans targeting older users that emphasize unlimited calling to family members.

If Softbank brings this type of marketing to the United States, it could challenge T-Mobile as America’s most disruptive carrier. Just don’t expect a talking dog to close the sale.

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CNBC covers the deal between Sprint, Clearwire, and Softbank that originally also included T-Mobile USA.  (3 minutes)

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Softbank’s legendary ads have been running since June, 2007 and are beyond prolific. More than 150 different ads featuring “the Shirato family” have been produced so far, often with blockbuster Hollywood talent playing along. But most prove baffling to English-speaking audiences, such as this one featuring Tommy Lee Jones as a threatening maid with a uni-brow. (1 minute)

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Quentin Tarantino hams it up in these two impenetrable ads for Softbank. The rough translation from Japanese does not help much. It starts with the older woman asking Otosan (the dog) if he’s going to a town called Tosa. Otosan says yes. Then, the younger woman asks if Tarantino is also going, and he replies: “I am Tara!” (In the longer version, Tarantino does his Samurai impression “Hai-ya! Samurai spirit! Get him with the Samurai sword! Ho-ha!”)  Otosan responds, “I’m determined to go to Tosa!” The older woman tells Tarantino to calm down. When the phone rings, the younger woman says, “It’s the phone,” and the older woman says, “It’s your wife.” Tarantino gasps. The wife asks for Tara. Tarantino responds, “I am Tara!” His wife yells, “Get home right now!” (1 minute)

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Not every ad features the Shirato family. A barely recognizable Brad Pitt helps out while showing off some creative ways to use his built-in cell phone camera. (1 minute)