bandwidth

Is the $100 Triple Play viable?

November 21, 2008

So on Linkedin, Neal Lachman, asked if the $100 Triple Play was Viable in today's economic molasses. Neal writes:

Bundling voice, video, data services for a higher ARPU was an obvious, great move when broadband services and advanced digital services were first introducded...... However, the market is moving more towards a lower ARPU for the triple play services. This is especially going to play a big role in future operations. The time of high ARPUs is going, and soon it will be history.

Posted in Internet, Marketing, bandwidth, broadband, cableco, duopoly, economy, linkedin, telco, telecommunications, video, wi-fi, wireless

Bandwidth Caps

November 17, 2008

Bandwidth caps have more to do with preserving TV revenues than network management business. Yes, there are issues of last mile and node congestion for both telco and cableco networks. It is also a function of the band-aid approach that these companies take. instead of one huge upgrade (like say Verizon with FiOS), there have been baby step fixes.

It's also about preserving revenue.

Posted in FTC, Internet, Web 2.0, bandwidth, broadband, cableco, duopoly, telco, telecommunications

The IP Resale Tumble

November 17, 2008

As prices of IP bandwidth sink to new lows, resellers - like Bandcon, AlphaRed, and the rest - are facing pressure. In fact, AlphaRed has apparently closed its doors, which could create problems for other resellers that it buys from and sells to, like BandCon who is the CDN for AlphaRed. For every reseller that closes, a new one opens up.

(Please note: the other reason that AlphaRed may have closed was that the Washington Attorney General is suing AlphaRed CEO for scareware.)

Posted in Internet, bandwidth

Fiber Lit Buildings

November 17, 2008

Rob Powell has an update to his fiber list on Telecom Ramblings blog. What is interesting about the chart is that TWT and L3 have about the same number of route miles - 26,000 - but TWT has way more buildings lit that Level3. TWT has 10,700 buildings lit and L3 has about 7550. TWT lights about 250 per quarter.

Posted in bandwidth, telco

It's Going to be Limiting

November 5, 2008

AT&T is testing broadband caps in Nevada. First, cable now Ma Bell. In both cases, the reason may have to do preserving TV revenue than anything. There is concern. It even popped up as a LinkedIn question.

Posted in FCC, Internet, bandwidth, broadband, duopoly, wireless

Frontier Adds a Cap

November 3, 2008

Frontier Communications has added a download cap to its Internet service. It will charge folks for heavy usage.

The company caused confusion and some dismay among customers earlier this year, when it said it would charge for Internet use above 5 gigabytes per month, starting next year. [tbo.com]

What's most interesting is the comments. People are not happy about caps.

Caps are not new. We had time limits in the dial up days. (When you can only access at 33K, time is the limiting factor.) Satellite has always had bandwidth caps on its Internet service. It will become more pervasive as revenues for ISP's decline in this economy.

UPDATE: AT&T Trials Tiered Broadband in Nevada

Posted in Internet, bandwidth, telco

Cogent and Sprint De-Peer

October 31, 2008

According to Alex Muse, DSLReports and GigaOm, Cogent and Sprint de-peered this morning in a tiff of some kind. Cogent claimed this year that it was settlement free - coupled with its roots in the PSInet backbone network made it a Tier 1 provider. Cogent has had issues with other backbones including Level3 and Telia.

Cogent is incensed at the move,saying it violates a contractual obligation to exchange internet traffic on a settlement-free peering basis, and is taking legal action. It wants Sprint-Nextel to re-establish the link on the same basis.

So Cogent decided to make an offer:

Cogent is taking the moral high ground, and offering every Sprint-Nextel wireline customer that can't connect to Cogent's customers a free 100MBps internet connection until Sprint reconnects, though it says it can't do the same for wireless users.

Posted in Internet, bandwidth, telecommunications

Bandwidth isn't free

September 28, 2008

"The leaders of three of Australia's largest ISP's have declared the Net neutrality debate as solely a U.S. problem--and further, that the nation that pioneered the Internet might want to study the Australian market for clues as to how to solve the dilemma..... "The (Net neutrality) problem isn't about running out of capacity. It's a business model that's about to explode due to stress." [CNET]

Basically they are saying that someone has to pay for the plumbing, which is exactly what Verizon's Ivan and AT&T's CEO were saying last year (but a lot less diplomatically).

Posted in Internet, bandwidth, broadband, cableco, telco

Network Management, DPI, Whatever

September 4, 2008

Here's the thing that most folks don't understand. The main responsibility, duty, and sanction of Congress and any Federal Agency (like the FTC and FCC) is to protect the Consumer. The end user. Remember it is By and For the People.

Posted in FCC, Internet, bandwidth, cableco, politics

FCC, Comcast and Muddy Water

August 5, 2008

The FCC made a ruling on Comcast's network management (or P2P traffic interference). There are 2 blogs that give an excellent view of the ruling - one is from OpenID and the other from Prof. Susan Crawford.

I wonder why they just don't use the Common Carriage definition. If cable is a Common Carrier like telcos then stuff like DPI and traffic interference are a no-no. What? You mean Embarq and others are infringing on Common Carriage with something like NebuAd and Sandvine? No. Couldn't be. Not with the FCC around protecting the consumer and stuff. Oh, wait. ILEC's have a hall pass. I forgot.

UPDATE: Kevin Martin 's Open Network Manifesto on NYT.

Posted in FCC, bandwidth, broadband, cableco, duopoly, politics

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