McCain Bill Seeks a La Carte Cable Programming
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Legislation introduced yesterday by Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) aims to give video service providers greater flexibility when purchasing programming from content providers by encouraging the unbundling of programming packages. If passed that would be good news for cable and satellite TV providers, who have complained that they are required to take unpopular TV channels that...Learn More
Prepaid Wireless on the Rise, Aio is Latest Venture
An announcement from AT&T today illustrates the increasing importance of prepaid wireless. The company announced a new prepaid nationwide voice and data offering under the Aio Wireless brand which, according to AT&T, offers a “first-class wireless experience at a value price without an annual contract.” Although the Aio service offers nationwide coverage, it won’t be...Learn More
Google’s Kansas City Expansion Now Includes Missouri Market
Google has been steadily expanding their Google Fiber footprint in the Kansas City metro area, recently adding Olathe and Shawnee, both located in Kansas to their FTTH overbuild. Now word comes that Google is expanding again, this time on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro area. Grandview, Missouri is the newest Google Fiber...Learn More
AT&T Spearheading State-Level Deregulation
The nation’s largest service providers would like to see regulations governing local phone service relaxed – and as data compiled by the National Regulatory Research Institute illustrates, AT&T has been particularly active on this front. Twenty-five states limited or eliminated public service commission oversight of local telecom service between 2006 and the first quarter of...Learn More
Metaswitch Targets IMS Core with Clearwater Open Source Code
Metaswitch Networks today launched Project Clearwater, an open-source code that aims to enable network operators to create a cloud-based IMS core. The code will be available to network operators and others free of charge — although network operators or a third-party would need to do additional development work to achieve a finished platform. IMS core...Learn More
Report: Apple Has 39% of Smartphone Market
Apple continued to top the ranks of the world’s smartphone manufacturers and Google’s Android continued as the #1 smartphone platform during the three month period ending March, according to the latest from the comScore MobiLens market research service. Apple smartphones accounted for 39% of OEM market share while Android captured a 52% platform market share....Learn More
AT&T, U.S. Cellular at Odds on 700 MHz Interference
Mignon Clyburn has been the strongest advocate for mobile device interoperability on the Federal Communications Commission and now that she has been appointed acting chairwoman – a position she could hold for several months – AT&T saw fit to reiterate its arguments against interoperability in the lower 700 MHz spectrum band in a blog post...Learn More
LRG: More Than 1/4 of U.S. Adults Watch Video Daily on Something Other Than a TV
More and more Americans are turning to TV set alternatives to watch video, according to a new report from Leichtman Research Group (LRG). Twenty-seven percent of U.S. adults watch video daily on devices other than TV sets and 53% do so on a weekly basis. The latest results are up from 14% daily and 37%...Learn More
Report: 20% of U.S. Public Libraries Benefited from Broadband Stimulus
One in five U.S. public libraries have benefited from the broadband stimulus program created in 2009, according to a report issued yesterday from the American Library Association. “In a time of flat and decreased budgets, [broadband stimulus] funding has been a gateway to improved technology access at thousands of libraries nationwide,” wrote the ALA in...Learn More
Tweaks Made to RUS Broadband Grant Program
Several changes in the Rural Utilities Service’s Community Connect broadband grant program announced Friday aim to facilitate the process of bringing broadband to rural communities that cannot get broadband service today. The Community Connect program pays some of the costs of deploying broadband in areas that cannot get broadband today. A requirement of the program...Learn More
Catch-Up Talk with Blair Levin Yields Some Surprises
The man who was charged with crafting a plan to bring broadband to all Americans isn’t happy about the way that plan is being implemented. Currently with the Aspen Institute, Blair Levin headed up the team at the FCC that three years ago created the National Broadband Plan with the goal of spurring broadband deployment....Learn More
Google Fiber Spreads its Wings in Kansas Again
Google likes Kansas, considering it’s announced yet another expansion of Google Fiber in the Kansas City area. Shawnee, Kansas is the latest market to get Google Fiber, the company announced on their blog. This expansion is on the heels of another Kansas City market expansion, announced in March for Google Fiber in Olathe, Kansas. There...Learn More