Items tagged with Internet
Over the past week, we've reported quite a bit about the rise of cord-cutting and how big cable and satellite TV companies are adapting to the changing landscape. Comcast in particular lost 96,000 customers last quarter, and is looking for new ways to stop defectors from moving to cheaper alternatives. Last week, Comcast responded by raising internet speeds out of the blue for customers in specific regions of the United States: Houston, Oregon, and Southwest Washington. We don't know if these areas in particular have seen heavy defections from Comcast's TV packages, but customers in these...
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Each year on April 1 we are a bit skeptical about some of the stuff we read because some of it isn’t real. Cloudflare, the same company that uses a wall of lava lamps to generate encryption keys, swears that its new 1.1.1.1 consumer DNS service is the real deal. The promise is that the new DNS service is the fastest on the web and is designed with privacy-first in mind. If you aren’t sure what DNS is, Cloudflare describes it this way, "DNS is the directory of the Internet. Whenever you click on a link, send an email, open a mobile app, often one of the first things that has to happen...
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What happened yesterday was outrageous. Officials at the FCC voted 3-2 to repeal net neutrality rules enacted during the previous administration, stripping away consumer protections against ISP abuse. The vote ignored a public outcry that had grown loud and clear leading up to the vote, one that included voices from many of the Internet's pioneers, along with 18 state attorney's general and tens of millions of people from all walks of life, both Republicans and Democrats. The process was a farce, though the fight for net neutrality is not over. Yes, net neutrality advocates lost a battle yesterday....
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AT&T is testing out a new way of delivering ultra-fast Internet connectivity to customers that is on par with fiber-optic networks, only AT&T's solution is over the air. Called "Project AirGig," this first-of-its-kind system consists of a contraption that clamps onto existing power poles, negating the need to build new towers or run lines under the ground. According to AT&T, it only takes a few minutes to train an electrical worker how to install these devices. Project AirGig is the result of over a decade of research by AT&T Labs. More than 300 patents and patent applications are...
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The net neutrality debate is hard upon us, but not everyone understands what's at stake. Most tech-savvy folks understand the issues and have a thoughtful position based on their understanding of the technology and how it's used. But some have no position, mainly because they simply don't follow the tech press on a daily basis. This may be especially true when we're speaking of folks who are somewhat older or younger, or who simply don't have a tech background. The following is provided mostly as a resource for those folks. We have always had an "open Internet." In the old days (i.e., the early...
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Verizon has announced that it will begin its rollout of 5G services to customers in certain U.S. markets next year. However, this isn't lightning fast 5G wireless for your smartphone to connect to while you are out and about. Verizon plans to use this 5G wireless service to provide faster internet access to homes and business using technology it purchased earlier this year. Verizon wants to light up wireless residential broadband service in three to five markets during 2018. The first, and only confirmed market for its 5G launch will be Sacramento, California during the second half of 2018....
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), led by Chairman Ajit Pai, is set to vote on whether it should dismantle net neutrality rules that were put in place under the Obama administration. As this has become a political issue, the FCC is assuredly going to proceed with Pai's plan to withdraw the rules, after having voted 2-1 back in May of this year to advance the process. A final vote is scheduled for December 14.In case you are not aware, net neutrality rules were put in place to ensure that all Internet traffic is treated equally and fairly. Through government regulation, wireless carriers...
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Google is all about adding tools to Chrome to prevent annoying things from happening while you surf the web. Chrome already has a bunch of tools to help protect you when you are surfing the web, like telling you when traffic is HTTPS secure, blocking pop-ups, and stopping annoying autoplay videos. In coming versions of Chrome, Google will build in more protections to take the annoyance out of web surfing.Google says that one of the most common bits of feedback it receives are reports of websites redirecting unexpectedly to other places. Google says that it has found that these redirects often come...
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One of the main problems with rolling out super-fast fiber optic internet services to people around the country is cost. Google has found this out the hard way with its Google Fiber deployments being axed in some areas and TV service cut out of the picture in all new markets. Finishing out the "last mile" of those networks to get fiber speeds to homes has proven to be costlier than expected, but there is new hope for the blazing fast internet speeds we all want. That new hope is called "twisted" light. Twisted light is a form of wireless communications able to handle high-capacity data transmission...
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Microsoft is celebrating now that that its undersea cable between the United States and Spain has been completed. The cable is called the Marea subsea cable, with Marea being the Spanish word for tide. Microsoft and partners ran the cable between the US and Spain to help upgrade the global internet infrastructure to meet the demand for internet and cloud services. The cable was quite the undertaking, as it resides more than 17,000 feet below the surface of the ocean in some places. Microsoft says that Marea is the most technologically advanced subsea cable crossing the Atlantic. However, Microsoft...
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The only people who think data caps are a good things are the ISPs that make huge amounts of money by charging customers each month for overages. While ISPs with data caps are in the minority, new research from a company called BroadbandNow has surveyed every internet provider out there and found that out of all the ISPs in its database (over 2,500), 196 of them have imposed data caps. The data caps vary regionally, meaning that some providers will have smaller or larger data allotments in different areas. While 196 providers out of around 2,500 sounds small, the carriers on the list imposing data...
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One of the biggest challenges that major technology firms have committed to solving is extending broadband Internet service into remote areas. Facebook and Google are both actively involved in connecting the world, and now Microsoft is joining the fray with a unique solution. What Microsoft wants to do is utilize the unused channels between television broadcasts—these are known as white spaces—to bring online broadband connectivity to rural spots in America. Microsoft's effort is part of a $10 billion program to close the broadband gap. Fittingly enough, the Redmond outfit announced its massive...
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Brace yourselves, Arizona residents—if you receive broadband Internet service from Cox Communications, you are about to be hit with a 1-terabyte data cap. Arizona is one of four new locations where the Internet service provider is expanding its 1TB data cap, bringing the total number of territories with a data limit to 13. Customers in Louisiana, Las Vegas, and Oklahoma are the other three. "To help our customers in the Arizona, Louisiana, Las Vegas, and Oklahoma service areas get accustomed to this change, we are providing a grace period for two consecutive bill cycles (about 60 days) before we...
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The space above Earth is about to get a little more crowded. The FCC has recently granted approval to OneWeb to launch over 720 Internet-beaming satellites into orbit. OneWeb is “the first satellite constellation of its kind to receive approval from the full commission.” The low-Earth orbit satellites will employ on-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) technology. OneWeb as a company is backed by some industry heavy-hitters as well, with Dr. Paul Jacobs, Executive Chairman of Qualcomm and Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, among others residing on its Board of Directors. Image...
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