Items tagged with DSL
We’ve seen some obvious cases of companies fleecing (or at least attempting to fleece) the American people and the U.S. Government in the past, but AT&T appears to be going for bonus points with its newest proposal to hook up parts of California with outdated DSL service. And AT&T isn’t going to provide the infrastructure for DSL service out the goodness of its heart; it’s asking California taxpayers to fork over upwards $100 million to get the job done. That’s right, AT&T is asking taxpayers to foot a $100 million bill for Internet service that at best will get customers 10Mbps down and 1Mbps up. The California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), provides grants to Internet service providers...
Read more...
Comcast is launching Internet Essentials, a new initiative offering discounted Internet access and home computers to families that meet low income requirements. The program was mandated as a requirement of Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal, earlier this year. In that way, it's very similar to AT&T's Naked DSL program, which AT&T was required to offer as a condition of its merger with BellSouth. Internet Essentials will be available wherever Comcast offers broadband, which means 39 states. To promote the program, Comcast has launched websites in both English and Spanish. To qualify for Internet Essentials, a family must meet the following requirements: Has at least one child eligible...
Read more...
Well, isn't this a bummer. AT&T isn't just changing up their data plans on the mobile side, but also restructuring things on the home Internet side. AT&T currently provides DSL and U-verse services, providing high-speed broadband to a great many homes across America. But soon, they'll follow Comcast down the dark hallways of Internet capping. It seems to signal a shift into a new reality, one where people are thrown the "unlimited" label less and less. According to a breaking report from DSLReports (and confirmed by The Wall Street Journal), May 2nd will mark the day that AT&T turns on broadband capping. The story goes as such: DSL customers will be facing a 150GB monthly usage cap,...
Read more...
Remember when the first 56k modem demolished everything before it? Remember when ISDN made even 56k look sluggish? Remember when cable and DSL modems made the Internet more than just a pain to watch load? Broadband has obviously changed the world as we know it, but even today, many broadband users see upload and download rates that are rather poky in many scenarios. In the U.S., it's unusual to find broadband speeds that exceed 50Mbps, and many ISPs that offer speeds that high charge much more for it than the "standard" rate. Alcatel-Lucent is in the business of pushing things ever faster, and the company's research arm (Bell Labs) has just demonstrated exactly that. The new technology takes...
Read more...
Fifteen separate projects to bring high-speed Internet to rural communities around the United States will be funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Many parts of the United States remain without high-speed options because the cost-benefit of building the infrastructure in far-flung places hasn't been high enough for private providers. So in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last year, $2.5 billion was earmarked for the USDA to make high-speed Internet more universal - though not quite as universal as Finland has. The Commerce Department, through its National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is giving out another $4.7 billion for broadband.In fact, U.S. broadband...
Read more...
The FCC has been particularly concerned about the Internet over the past six weeks, tasked as it is with the job of creating a national broadband policy. The FCC's chairman, Julius Genachowski, has gone on record proclaiming that spreading broadband across the country is a massive, possibly culture-changing event, on par with the creation of the highway system or the introduction of the electric light.Those are noble sentiments, to be sure, but the FCC has already slammed into conflicting viewpoints just by trying to define one word: broadband. The problem between the FCC and AT&T reflect the priorities of each organiztion. As a business, AT&T wants to sell you as little as it can for...
Read more...
Not everyone has the option to choose from a bevy of broadband Internet service providers, nor can everyone afford the high price of Verizon's FIOS service or even some cable broadband options. For some users, DSL is still the most viable option for getting online via a broadband connection. You may not see the same 50Mbps speeds as you'd get with Verizon's much faster FIOS service ($139.95 per month) or Comcast's Extreme Fifty service (also $139.95 per month); but you will also pay a lot less--Verizon's DSL service can be as inexpensive as $17.99 per month for the 1Mbps service.Today, Verizon is announcing that it's "up-to-7.1" Mbps service is now available to over 9 million households and costs...
Read more...
What's "Naked DSL?" It's DSL you can get without having to have phone service as well. With more people going totally wireless phone-wise, it's a "tier" people want.A year after agreeing to offer a no-strings DSL deal as a part of its acquisition of BellSouth, AT&T has started selling high-speed Internet service without requiring consumers to buy regular telephone service.The San Antonio-based company added the DSL Lite option to its Web site Dec. 20. The new offering, priced at $19.95 monthly, allows consumers to connect to the Internet without having to also pay for a landline, as had been required.Talk about sneaking it into action, however. It's not easy to find either; you'd be...
Read more...
Politicians have often been asked what they intend to do when a race is too close to call, and voters are starting to wonder if casting their votes for a 3rd party might not be a good idea. The answer, based on their actions (not responses) is simple: Start the mudslinging campaigns!It seems that Blu-ray and HD DVD might just be in such a position, and while we're not saying that this is the first handful of mud to be thrown, it sure is an ugly one:More specifically, according to Tech.co.uk, Simonis is upset at the significantly higher "attach rate" that the European HD DVD Group recently touted, which (Frank) Simonis (Blu-Ray Disc Associaton's European Chairperson) now says was a "gross...
Read more...
While we were initially hoping that this bit of bad new was somebody's twisted idea of a Halloween trick, it actually appears to be authentic: The 3rd Circuit Appellate Court recently upheld a decision that would grant more authority over physical facilities and data transmission lines to the larger telephone companies, thus potentially causing serious problems to DSL resellers such as Earthlink and Speakeasy.Previously, DSL internet service – and cable modem service before it – was classified as a functionally integrated component of enhanced “telecommunications service,” making it subject to regulations that attempted to ensure fair and open competition. Some of these rules require that the...
Read more...
There are no benchmarks and almost no commentary other than a description of a few pictures, but the crew at TBreak is claiming they've got QuadSLI up and running on Intel's upcoming P965 chipset. Just in case you're wondering, this feat was the result of some driver "tweaks". Don't expect NVIDIA to support SLI or QuadSLI on non-NVIDIA chipsets anytime soon. ...
Read more...
Spanning over 500 stores across 24 states in the US, Wal*Mart's new program will help consumers get connected with Verizon's broadband DSL service. Wal*Mart's staff will be ready to handle sign-up procedures for costumers, and an easy to install DSL kit will be shipped soon after. "Nearly 50 of the Wal-Mart stores will have Spanish-language sales materials to assist Spanish-speaking customers with their purchasing decisions. Verizon Online DSL is already offered in 10 Wal-Mart stores and will be in all of the 549 stores by the end of June." Verizon's basic DSL service starts...
Read more...
I came across some great new pictures of Nintendo's Revolution controller today(thanks blue!). The Wavebird adapter is not surprising as the system supports Gamecube titles. There's still plenty of criticism about the new controller, and Nintendo needs to show it off a little more, possibly with demos of current favorites such as Metroid or Zelda. Anyway, enjoy the news folks, goodnight! OCZ PC2 4200 Gold Edition (2x 1Gb) 3-3-3-8 @ Club Overclocker "For the past year I've always recommended 1gb of good DDR or DDR2. No more, no less. That was until I started playing new games like Doom 3, Half Life 2, and now Battlefield 2. While Doom 3 was more graphics card intensive, it also needed a ton...
Read more...
