Broadband

sprint

Sprint To Cap"Unlimited" 3G Data Service at 5GB

A leaked internal Sprint memo says that the company will be placing limits on the previously unlimited EV-DO mobile broadband data service. If you go over 5GB per month total or 300MB/month while off-network roaming you will be subject to extra fees. Two Sprint employees writing on Sprint user forums vouched for the leak's authenticity. Now Sprint will no longer be the only carrier to offer actually unlimited 3G service. Somehow I don't see CEO Dan Hesse bragging about this move while strolling through black and white cobblestone streets.

Sprint is NOW LIMITING DATA USAGE - 5GB - just like the rest... [Sprint Users] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)

9:34 AM on Tue May 20 2008
By Ben Popken
2,051 views, 29 comments

Latest by n/a: the "ex" sprint CSR who says 5 gb is more than enough based on experience from a few years ago cracks me up. years ago I had a 1200 baud modem What is great is this allowed me to get out of more »

bait and switch

Qwest Sells Woman "Cheaper" Package That Costs More, Has Unmentioned 2-Year Commitment, And Requires New Modem

Matt's mom, a longtime Qwest customer, called up the company to switch her long distance over from AT&T. The CSR suggested she switch over to a bundled package that would save her $11 a month and offer faster Internet connection speeds. What the CSR didn't mention was that the new package required a 2-year commitment, that it wouldn't work with her current DSL modem, and that it actually came out to about $3 more per month. More »

11:06 AM on Mon Apr 7 2008
By Chris Walters
4,074 views, 22 comments

repairs

Time Warner Sends 12 Techs To Home, But "High Speed" Cable Remains A Fantasy

Thomas writes in to ask why Time Warner needs to send 12 different technicians to his home to get his Roadrunner speed up to the 10 mbits/sec that they promise in their advertising, as opposed to the 2.5 mbits/sec that he averages. He tallied up some of the more interesting facts from his recent experiences.
More »

7:11 AM on Wed Apr 2 2008
By Chris Walters
10,313 views, 54 comments

broadband

Congress Asks FCC To Accurately Count U.S. Broadband Homes

Congress has added its voice to the growing number of critics who have noted that the FCC is misreporting broadband penetration in the U.S. According to eWeek, last Wednesday a House subcommittee "approved legislation to change the Federal Communications Commission's methodology for determining deployment." The FCC currently counts a single home in a zip code as representative of the full zip code—so one home having broadband access is considered the same as every home in that area having broadband access. By doing this, they inflate the number of homes with broadband access and present a picture of increased "natural" competition in the market, which is then used by telecoms and lobbyists to argue against policy decisions that don't favor existing corporations. More »

5:08 PM on Tue Oct 16 2007
By Chris Walters
1,079 views, 19 comments

Latest by JustAGuy2: @Xkeeper: Unless you're literally living in a cave, you can get broadband. Period. Hughes or WildBlue will happily set you up. If you're willing to pay enough, you can get _terrestrial_ broadband anywhere. Want a T-3 to rural Nebraska? No problem. Want more »

isp competition

Wal-Mart Will Now Sell Satellite Broadband Internet Access

Today, Wal-Mart announced that it will start re-selling HughesNet satellite broadband Internet access, starting at 700Kbps for $59.99 a month, through 2,800 of its stores "including locations throughout most of rural America where terrestrial broadband services, such as cable and DSL, are often not available." To help spur initial sign-ups, Wal-Mart will give new customers $100 RFID-enabled "ExpressPay" cards to use while shopping at the retailer. More »

9:49 AM on Tue Oct 9 2007
By Chris Walters
1,871 views, 13 comments

net neutrality

UK Broadband Providers Show US What Real "Competition" Looks Like

Even our readers can't agree on whether net neutrality is a good or a bad thing, so we thought we'd stoke the fire with a nice side-by-side comparison of sample broadband options for consumers in two "free markets," the US and the UK. Art Brodsky of the Huffington Post (oops, we probably already lost half of you) writes that a British man he met while traveling showed him a spreadsheet he'd put together that compared 59 different broadband providers, so he'd know which one to do business with. More »

9:33 PM on Fri Sep 7 2007
By Chris Walters
5,904 views, 77 comments

Latest by dbeahn: @mac-phisto: You're right. Your conspiracy theory, in spite of having zero facts, evidence or even sound reasoning to support it, is much more likely to be the REAL reason. more »

net neutrality

Department of Justice Says No To Net Neutrality

The U.S. Department of Justice officially spoke out against net neutrality this week, in a filing with the FCC that says such regulations would "prevent, rather than promote, optimal investment and innovation in the Internet, with significant negative effects for the economy and consumers." The department says the free market has done just fine so far, and that "precluding broadband providers from charging [content providers] directly for faster or more reliable service" could shift the burden of cost directly onto consumers. More »

5:53 PM on Fri Sep 7 2007
By Chris Walters
2,354 views, 64 comments

Latest by boandmichele: @mac-phisto: to be blatantly off-topic that sucks for you. i have charter, 10down/1up. i regularly hit speeds of 7000 kbps on speed tests and torrent speeds of over 1100 kbps. i also have charter telephone and tv, and pay 180 more »

telecommunications

OECD Says US Broadband Network Is Flailing; Telecoms Respond, "You Mean Superior!"

According to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in a ranking of broadband penetration among 30 member nations, the US has slipped from 4th place (2001), to 12th place (2006), to 15th place this year. Corporations, lobbyists and politicians have skewered the report, but this follow-up piece from Free Press provides a point-by-point rebuttal and confirms that yes, by pretty much every account, the United States enjoys craptastic Internet access. More »

6:02 PM on Wed Jul 25 2007
By Chris Walters
2,160 views, 17 comments

news from the swamp

Congress Wants Consumers To Have More Information About Their Broadband Connection

The government may soon help consumers pick between competing broadband offers, if a Senate bill becomes law. Last week, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation unanimously approved S. 1492, the Broadband Data Improvement Act. The bill focuses primarily on refining the FCC's analysis of broadband deployment: the Commission would have to reevaluate the definition of broadband as anything over 200 kbps; broadband access would be evaluated by smaller zip+4 codes, rather than full zip codes; and, the Commission would need to create a new metric for services such as high definition video. Most helpful to consumers, however, is a provision calling for the Government Accountability Office to provide consumers with information about their broadband connection's costs and capabilities: More »

12:33 PM on Sat Jul 21 2007
By Carey
909 views, 7 comments

Latest by mrrbob: I am an ISP and I can guarantee you one thing for sure. You want your connection as cheap as possible? Keep the government off my ass. Who do you think I will pass this cost on to? No it more »

verizon

Verizon "Unlimited Access" Plan Is Extremely Limited

If you've got a wireless PC card from Verizon and are on their "Unlimited Access" plan, you might be surprised to learn what isn't permitted. Gaming for example, is not permitted. Neither is YouTube. Or "redirecting television signals for viewing on laptops." In fact, your unlimited access is limited to 5GB a month, which you may only use for internet browsing email and "intranet access." From Verizon's TOS:

Unlimited Data Plans and Features (such as NationalAccess, BroadbandAccess, Push to Talk, and certain VZEmail services) may ONLY be used with wireless devices for the following purposes:
(i) Internet browsing;
(ii) email; and
(iii) intranet access (including access to corporate intranets, email, and individual productivity applications like customer relationship management, sales force, and field service automation). The Unlimited Data Plans and Features MAY NOT be used for any other purpose.

More TOS fun inside! More »

11:23 AM on Thu Apr 5 2007
By Meg Marco
3,337 views, 25 comments

Latest by lukemason: ONLY 5GB!!! For 10 min of access to verizonwirless.com, yes VERIZONWIRELESS.COM, I clocked 12.2mb of data transfer thats 732mb per hour. (I used Verizon's VZ access manger to get these numbers) so if the monthly allotment is 5gb, thats 5000mb, you need only more »

aol

AOL Broadband Goes Free

What happens when that booty becomes too shriveled and diseased to shake for cash? Honey, you gotta start giving it away. More »

2:40 PM on Thu Jul 6 2006
By consumerist.com
126 views, 5 comments

voip

FCC & Homeland Security Begin Tapping VoIP

You know, say what you want about Orwellian dystopias — at least murky and nightmarish Big Brother states in the realm of fiction tend to front the thought police surveillance bill. More »

7:15 AM on Fri May 5 2006
By consumerist.com
24 views, 1 comment

complaints

Waiting for Comcast Install Screed

You call up the cable company, schedule an appointment, take off time from work and they don't show up. You've heard, or told, the story many a time. In fact, we receive this same complaint several times a month. More »

2:52 PM on Wed Apr 5 2006
By popkin
789 views, 10 comments

complaints

Comcast Oversold Bandwidth

Comcast oversold bandwith in Bay Area, California, resulting in speeds slower than dialup. More »

evil

'Broadband Scandal': How the Phone Companies Screwed Us All

A new book called The $200 Billion Broadband Scandal claims to detail the variety of tax breaks and compensations offered to the Bell-spawned phone companies to build out our nation's fiber-optic network—a network designed to bring 45-megabit per second connections into every home. We don't know about you, but we are sending this text via a rickety old copper line, using the best 1-megabitish DSL connection Verizon has to offer. More »

9:33 AM on Wed Feb 1 2006
By consumerist.com
223 views, 8 comments

Consumerist

Spherion Corp. Steals $426,000 From Widow

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