The months-long game of chicken between Netflix and Verizon has come to an end, with the streaming video company agreeing to pay off the ISP for a more direct connection to its network. For Netflix users with FiOS accounts, it means you will finally be able to watch streamed reruns of Mad Men without having to guess which character you’re looking at, but it continues to demonstrate that ISPs can passive-aggressively compel data-heavy content companies to ante up in order to reach their users. [More]
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Stories You Might Have Missed Because You Were Too Busy Being Awesome
April 26, 2014
We post a lot of stories during the week, and we know that most of you have jobs, families, lives, hobbies, nagging itches and other more important things to do than read every single thing we write. So for those who might be playing catch-up on the weekend, here are some of the things you might have missed… [More]
You Know Who Made A Great Case Against Internet Fast Lanes? The FCC
By 4.25.14
Judging by new FCC Chair Tom Wheeler’s vision of net neutrality, one might think the commission has no understanding of the very concept it is claiming to try to enforce. But that wasn’t so only a few years ago, when the FCC laid out a version of neutrality that is very, very different from the snake oil Wheeler is attempting to sell as a cure-all tonic. [More]
FCC Chairman Insults Consumers’ Intelligence With Attempt To Defend Flimsy Net Neutrality
By 4.24.14
Today, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler is walking around to the offices of his fellow commissioners and passing out freshly mimeographed copies of his proposal for new net neutrality rules. He’s also typed up, presumably on a trusty Imperial A, a defense of his baffling decision to disregard the whole “neutrality” aspect of net neutrality by allowing deep-pocket content companies to pay for “fast lane” access. [More]
FCC Makes Mockery Of Net Neutrality With Proposal To Allow Internet “Fast Lanes”
By 4.23.14
Recently installed FCC Chair Tom Wheeler apparently has no interest in actual net neutrality, as the new rules he’s proposing this week allow for Internet service providers to create so-called “fast lanes” for content companies willing to pay extra to more reliably deliver their data to the end-user. [More]
FCC Chair Almost Ready To Share His New Take On Net Neutrality
By 4.23.14
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Earlier this year, a federal appeals court eviscerated the FCC’s Open Internet (aka net neutrality) rule following a legal challenge by Verizon, effectively allowing ISPs to give priority access to their own content (or content from sites and services that pay for the privilege) while also blocking or throttling access to competing services and content. Net neutrality has been recuperating from that back-breaking defeat in a virtual underground prison, but is now preparing to scale the wall and return to the real world. [More]
Comcast Officially Files for TWC Merger, Claims Broadband Competition Is Fine Because You Have A Smartphone
By 4.8.14
It’s a big day for Comcast: not only did they win a big old golden poo this morning, but also they formally took the first step in the regulatory dance that stands between them and their purchase of Time Warner Cable by filing a mountain of paperwork with the FCC. The massive document contains all of Comcast’s explanations for why the merger is the best idea ever… and it’s a doozy. Let’s take a closer look at their arguments, shall we? [More]
Stories You Might Have Missed Because You Were Too Busy Being Awesome
April 5, 2014
We post a lot of stories during the week, and we know that most of you have jobs, families, lives, hobbies, nagging itches and other more important things to do than read every single thing we write. So for those who might be playing catch-up on the weekend, here are some of the things you might have missed… [More]
FCC Isn’t Considering Pay-For-Access Deals In New Net Neutrality Rules
By 4.2.14
Back in February, after a federal court gutted net neutrality but before Netflix agreed to pay a premium to Comcast to alleviate its data bottleneck, we predicted that any new neutrality rules would not do anything to prevent the slowdowns that users of Xfinity, FiOS and U-Verse had complained about. If you were more optimistic and holding out hope that the FCC would at least consider this issue, prepare to be disappointed. [More]
Even Business Travelers Don’t Want Anyone Yakking Away On The Phone In Mid-Air
By 3.31.14
Who do you think of when you imagine the chatty kind of person who might want to make phone calls in the middle of a crowded airplane, mid-flight? While your mental picture might land on a businessperson in a suit yelling something about mergers and Hong Kong markets and getting that deal done before they close, a trade group representing business travelers has come out against the idea. [More]
Verizon: Everything Is Great, Let’s Not Mess It Up By Fixing Net Neutrality
By 3.27.14
Ah, Verizon, those well-known lovers of net neutrality. They love it so much that they sued the FCC to get net neutrality tossed out — a move that succeeded earlier this year. And now, Verizon’s showing their deep and abiding fondness for internet openness by telling the FCC just how much we don’t need to protect it at all. [More]
Sen. Franken Calls Comcast/Time Warner Cable Merger A “Terrible Deal For Consumers”
By 3.27.14
While Comcast has financial ties to numerous important members of the House and Senate, there are a few folks on Capitol Hill who have no problem speaking out against the cable company’s plan to expand its domination of the pay-TV and Internet business by acquiring Time Warner Cable and its millions of customers. Sen. Al Franken has already expressed concern about the merger, but yesterday he made his position on the matter very clear. [More]
Lawmakers Call On FCC To Make Complaint Database Accessible To Public
By 3.26.14
Every year, the FCC receives hundreds of thousands of complaints from consumers, but those gripes are rarely made public. That’s why a pair of Senators are urging the Commission to follow the lead of other federal agencies that offer public, searchable databases of complaints. [More]
TV Writers Come Out Against Comcast/Time Warner Cable Deal
By 3.26.14
Given that Comcast is already the nation’s largest cable and Internet provider and the owner of a broadcast TV network, multiple cable channels, numerous local TV stations, a major movie studio, some theme parks, and a partridge in a pear tree, you might assume that people who make their living selling scripts to Comcast-owned companies would be reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them. But last week, the Writer’s Guild of America asked the FCC to block Comcast’s pending $45 billion deal to buy Time Warner Cable. [More]
FCC: Thousands Of Hotels Don’t Have Phones With Direct Access To 9-1-1
By 3.25.14
A few weeks ago, Federal Communications Commission member Ajit Pai decided to start asking hotels if their phones offered direct access to 9-1-1, or if guests would have to dial “9” first to get an outgoing line or are routed through the front desk first. The results are in, and Pai is not pleased.
AT&T Promises: Kill Net Neutrality And You’ll Pay Less For Internet
By 3.24.14
Most of the discussion about net neutrality and paid peering has been about who shoulders the financial burden for increased broadband use — the Internet Service Providers who need to invest in hardware and manpower to meet demand, or the companies like Netflix, Google, and Amazon whose content is so in-demand that it requires extra support from the ISPs? In the end, it doesn’t really matter since it’s the consumer who ultimately foots the bill, but AT&T is making its argument for weak net neutrality by saying it will lead to lower rates for subscribers. [More]
Apple, Comcast Chatting About Streaming TV Service That Would Make End-Run Around Net Neutrality
By 3.24.14
One of the biggest roadblocks for non-cable TV companies looking to get into the business of offering live TV service over the Internet is that these cable companies often control that “last mile” of Internet service to customers’ homes. Since the FCC’s net neutrality rules have been gutted — and ISPs now realizing they can charge tolls to content providers even if those rules were in place — the end-user might just get a TV screen full of blocky, stuttering visuals and intermittent audio. Apple is reportedly chatting with Comcast about a set-top box that would get around this concern by treating Apple’s stream differently than regular Internet traffic. [More]
FCC To TV Companies: You Can’t Broadcast Emergency Alert Tones If It’s Not An Emergency
By 3.3.14
The thing about the Emergency Alert System is that it’s only supposed to be used to alert people when there’s an actual emergency. So anyone viewing the trailer for 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen might’ve been alarmed to hear those telltale tones along with “This is not a test” — at least until Gerard Butler’s face hits the screen. [More]
