AT&T 3G MicroCell

If you are an AT&T customer with a 3G MicroCell, AT&T’s home-based “cell tower”, take note: your 3G data usage, even while at home, counts against your monthly usage cap.

AT&T’s MicroCell ($150) does not use AT&T’s mobile network — it instead relies on your home broadband connection — but AT&T charges customers as if they were.

For customers who assume MicroCell traffic should be exempt because they provide and pay for the connectivity, AT&T’s overlimit fees await.

The company’s pricing and policies make owning a MicroCell increasingly pointless, particularly for data applications.  That’s because AT&T does not meter Wi-Fi usage, even when using AT&T’s own Wi-Fi network.

The disparity between femtocell traffic (the industry name for devices like the MicroCell) and Wi-Fi doesn’t make much sense to Dean Bubley, writing for his Disruptive Wireless-Disruptive Analysis blog:

Given that the RAN generally costs much more than the core network for most operators, there should clearly be differential (or zero-rated) pricing for traffic using femtocell offload. Either that, or there should be a mechanism for customers to charge AT&T for using THE USER’S broadband pipes for backhaul.

It is critical that any policy management and charging infrastruture is capable of discerning bearer type (which could also be UMA WiFi tunneled via the core on some other networks). Otherwise it makes a total mockery of the concept that policy is intended to align pricing with the underlying costs of service delivery.

It also makes a mockery of the femtocell concept as a mass proposition, if the end-user has to pay more than using their own WiFi. If I was a femto vendor today, I’d be spitting feathers about this, as it completely undermines the positioning vs. WiFi as an offload tool.

AT&T doesn’t care.

“The 3G MicroCell complements Wi-Fi by providing enhanced in-home voice coverage and reliable data when Wi-Fi may not be available — but it is primarily intended for voice calls,” an AT&T spokeswoman wrote in an email to Light Reading Mobile.

As the website notes, for consumers, the femto price model means that they will pay AT&T for the Microcell to get better indoor 3G coverage, pay for the backhaul connection to AT&T’s core network, and pay AT&T to use that indoor 3G base station.  What a great deal — for AT&T.

Despite claims that broadband is not eroding Time Warner Cable’s cable television business, the nation’s second largest cable operator has begun a “TV Everywhere” trial to expand broadband viewing options for “authenticated cable subscribers” and plans IPTV tests by the end of this year.

A “small number” of subscribers are now participating in the TV Everywhere trial in the New York City area, accessing premium channel content online, if they also subscribe to the channel.

James Manchester, regional president of network operations and engineering in the company’s New York City system told Broadcasting & Cable that the tests will verify whether the authentication process functions properly.

Manchester expressed urgency that unless Time Warner Cable moves to manage video content online, the company will continue to lose subscribers.

He told B&C cable’s erosion of video subscribers, at a time when digital voice and broadband subscriptions continue to grow, makes it essential to move to more of an IPTV environment.

“It’s no secret that we’re losing video subscribers as an industry,” he said. “We can’t afford to wait.”

Time Warner Cable sees challenges from several potential competitive threats:

• Online video: Services like Hulu and Netflix, and time-shifting services that allow viewers access to on-demand programming online represent a real threat to the traditional cable-TV model.  Customers can cut the cable cord and watch everything online for free or for around $10 a month.
• IPTV: Niche and ethnic programming delivered over IPTV networks allows third parties to create mini broadband-based cable systems using hardware that mimics a cable box, delivering potentially dozens of channels to subscribers without giving a cut to the cable company.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Skyangel IPTV.flv[/flv]

SkyAngel used to deliver its lineup of Christian television channels over satellite, but switched to an IPTV platform in 2007.  This video explains how the service works.  (3 minutes)

TV Everywhere allows Time Warner Cable to control who has access to cable programming, restricting it only to those who haven’t cut cable’s cord.

Time Warner Cable’s solution for IPTV competition is to bring those services under TWC’s own menu of offerings.

One example in KyLin TV, a multi-channel Chinese language IPTV service.  Today, customers pay KyLin TV for service they watch over Road Runner’s network.  But Time Warner Cable could potentially get a piece of the action if it moved KyLin TV into its own IPTV package.

Manchester says TWC would like to be able to make such IPTV programming services an extension of the TWC offering.

Despite some earlier assertions made by company officials that DOCSIS 3 upgrades were designed to improve broadband service for Time Warner Cable customers, it turns out DOCSIS 3 is the foundation for the cable company’s future IPTV and “big pipe” platform.  Manchester says DOCSIS 3 will enable the company to service the wired home of the future.  It will deliver content to an edge device (such as an advanced router) with a hard drive and caching capacity that will link to home computers, MP3 players, or any other device on which consumers want to view content.

Before: Auernheimer waves a gun while delivering a “sermon” on his iProphet Blip.tv channel

AT&T’s iPad security breach saga turned into an episode of COPS and the X-Files yesterday with the arrest of a key member of the group that exposed the security flaw.

Andrew Auernheimer, 24, a key member of Goatse Security, was arrested Tuesday after Fayetteville (Ark.) police uncovered drugs while executing a search warrant in his home.  Auernheimer was charged with four felony counts of drug possession and one misdemeanor charge for prescription medication inappropriately in his possession.  Police found cocaine, ecstasy, and LSD, along with controlled substance-designated prescription medication. The authorities generally take the drug addicts and dealers to rehab centers like mission viejo rehab, to make sure they’re not under the influence of drugs at the time of investigation.

Auernheimer is a key figure in Goatse Security’s revelation of a security flaw in AT&T’s systems that allowed more than one hundred thousand e-mail addresses of iPad owners to be disclosed.

He remains in the Washington County Detention Center pending a bail hearing this afternoon.

His arrest came days after AT&T officials said they would pursue prosecution of the hacking group to the fullest extent of the law.  The FBI is reportedly involved in an investigation over the security breach.

Auernheimer is a controversial figure.  The self-styled “prophet” records anti-Semitic video sermons for his iProphet channel on Blip.tv.  A quick and mind-numbing review of the contents included “revelations,” perhaps drug-fueled, that the Jews represent vermin, Christians should be armed, everyone needs to use mescaline, and a consideration of the essential need to obtain temporary tattoos of dogs named Rocket.  On one of his more recent videos, Auernheimer announced he was “fleeing” the Los Angeles area due to “attacks by the Jews.”

After: Auernheimer is now a guest at the Washington County (Ark.) Detention Center, charged with drug offenses

Ironically, one year ago this month, Auernheimer was detained by Portland FBI officials and questioned about threatening phone messages left on the voicemail of Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon on the night of June 16, 2009.

Before uncovering AT&T’s security lapses, Auernheimer’s online aliases —  “Escher” and “Weev,” made appearances in the media, especially in an August 2008 piece in the NY Times, “The Trolls Among Us.”

Meanwhile, speculation about how AT&T allowed an obvious security flaw to remain open is now narrowing in on recent company layoffs.

Gawker reports AT&T slashed up to 200 employees in its Security Office in March, nearly 20 percent of its staff.  The group kept its layoffs quiet, Gawker’s tipster said, to avoid damaging the image of deep security expertise its sells to businesses.

That a company as profitable as AT&T was willing to slash employees willy-nilly was a point of confusion for Gawker:

The layoffs seem puzzling given that AT&T had just posted profits up 25 percent to $3.1 billion. The profits rose on strong performance in the wireless division, whose association with the iPhone helped it surpass Verizon Wireless in new customer additions. The wireless division continued to add customers and revenue the next quarter, even as a health care charge ate into its profits.

Simple greed could be one explanation. Our source was told upper management intentionally cut CSO payroll and accepted “greater risk in operations” to fatten up company profits and even their own bonuses.

But even more problems cropped up at AT&T when an untested ordering system crashed when customers tried to reserve the latest iPhone.  CNET covered that story:

As the iPhone 4 preorder disaster worsens by the minute, the blame looks to fall squarely on AT&T’s shoulders as we learn more about what went wrong. The most damaging of these may be an source close to the carrier which now claims the system which AT&T was not tested before the launch.

The source works at a third party facility that processes the orders for AT&T. Apparently, the reports of users being able to login to others accounts even though they were attempting to log into their own could be related to a botched update on AT&T’s side related to fraud.

An Associated Press report gave credit to Stop the Cap! for getting first official word that AT&T ended its Internet Overcharging experiment in Beaumont, Texas and Reno, Nevada.

Stop the Cap! reader Scott Eslinger managed to get an AT&T customer service representative to read aloud a confidential memo distributed by the company terminating the experiment effective April 1st.  Because AT&T never disclosed the end of the experiment to impacted customers, the coverage by the wire service should help spread the word to residents that the rationing is over:

The phone company confirmed Tuesday that it is no longer holding DSL subscribers in Reno, Nev., and Beaumont, Texas, to data consumption limits and charging them extra if they go over.

With AT&T’s retreat, no major Internet service provider is championing the idea of charging subscribers for their data usage. Time Warner Cable Inc. was a major proponent of the idea and also conducted a trial in Beaumont, but backed away last summer after its plan to expand metered billing to other cities met fierce resistance from consumers and legislators.

AT&T’s trial started in November 2008 in Reno, and was later extended to Beaumont. It ended on April 1 this year, said AT&T spokeswoman Dawn Benton.

“We’re reviewing data from the trial, and this feedback will guide us as we evaluate our next steps,” Benton said.

AT&T should carefully review feedback from customers who despise usage limits and overlimit fees.  Studies show the overwhelming majority of customers do not like their broadband usage artificially limited with arbitrary allowances and overlimit fees, and customers will dump providers who ignore their wishes.

AT&T’s experiment never saved consumers a penny — the company simply slapped allowances as low as 20 GB per month on existing speed-based tiers.  Customers already face practical usage limits from Internet providers.  Those purchasing slower speed tiers are usage limited by those speeds.  Those who pay for higher priced, faster tiers benefit from naturally greater allowances those speeds provide.  Adding a new layer of limits only discourages customers from using the service they already pay good money to receive.  Besides, as profits explode in the broadband sector, the costs (and investment) to provide the service have declined, wiping out the justification for these schemes.

Stop the Cap! opposes all of these Internet Overcharging schemes.  While many providers seek to demagogue some broadband users as “data hogs” or “pirates,” the fact is today’s “heavy user” is tomorrow’s average consumer.  High speed broadband has the potential to revolutionize education, health care, private business, and entertainment, but not if a handful of major providers decide to end innovation by rationing the service to its customers.

North Carolina: the fight against S.1209, the municipal broadband moratorium bill that stops communities from building their own broadband alternatives now moves to the House Ways and Means/Broadband Connectivity Committee.

All 15 members are listed below.  You need to call and e-mail them and let them know you vehemently oppose this anti-consumer legislation as it stands.  Let them know you want that one year moratorium out of this bill at all costs.  Better yet, considering the study group mandated by the bill doesn’t include any consumers, just throw the whole thing out.  The only study that needs to be done is why North Carolina is near the bottom of the 50 states in broadband rankings.  Municipal providers can change that and revitalize local economies, create new high-tech jobs and help advance health care and education.  You can accomplish none of these things with a one-year roadblock on broadband progress.

Some of our allies on this legislation have been forced to mute their opposition, trying to avoid an even worse bill that could make a municipal broadband moratorium permanent.  That means North Carolina residents have to be on the front lines of opposition more than ever.

Let legislators know you understand some groups representing towns and cities in the state may have stopped fighting against the bill, but that doesn’t mean they endorse it.  More importantly, as a voter, you oppose the bill.  If you are personally served by one of these 15 representatives, let them know their vote is being carefully watched.  Will they stand with the people of North Carolina who want better broadband and believe local government should be able to provide it, or do they stand with Time Warner Cable, AT&T and other telecom companies seeking a one year moratorium that guarantees another year of high prices, inadequate broadband, and no alternatives for towns and cities that want better options.

As always, be polite, persuasive, and persistent!  Phone calls work wonders, but at least send an e-mail.  Doing both is even better.  You can click the e-mail addresses in bold to launch your e-mail software.  Please do not carbon copy legislators.  Send an individually personalized e-mail to the representative(s) of your choice.

House Ways and Means/Broadband Connectivity Committee