Items tagged with spectrum
For a long time, cable and satellite TV providers had customers in a vice grip. If someone wanted to watch premium channels, it was cable/satellite TV or bust. Like so many other things, the internet changed the game, and these days an increasing number of people are cutting the cord, as they say. With more streaming options available (and on the horizon), companies like AT&T and Charter Spectrum could feel the squeeze. Netflix and Hulu are the first two that come to mind, though they're far from the only options. CBS All Access is another streaming option, as are Sling TV and YouTube. The field is expanding, too—Disney recently launched it Disney+ service, and Apple rolled out its...
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Charter is not making many friends in high places in New York. Just the opposite, the New York State Public Service Commission announced it has revoked its approval of a 2016 merger between Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable (TWC) due to Charter, doing business as Spectrum, wavering on promises it made, along with "various instances of misconduct." One of the times the Commission noted in its revocation announcement is a 2017 lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. In the lawsuit, the AG accused Spectrum of throttling Internet speeds for streaming services like Netflix, and online gaming. The lawsuit specifically mentioned Riot Games, with data to show that...
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Charter Kicked Out Of New York Over Inadequate Spectrum Internet Deployments And Willful Obfuscation
Back in March, we brought you word that Charter was skating on thin icewith the State of New York for allegedly lying about Spectrum broadband deployments, and not living up to its promises to expand rural broadband as part of its 2016 merger with Time Warner Cable. Because of these misdeeds, the New York State Public Service Commission warned Charter that it could face franchise revocation in the state and additional penalties. Apparently, Charter has still failed to live up to its obligations because the Commission announced today they that it revoked its preliminary approval of the merger between Charter and Time Warner Cable in the state. This means that the company can no longer operate...
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A la carte TV streaming services, or "skinny bundles", are becoming more popular these days. Astute customers aren't keen on paying inflated priced for hundreds of channels that they may never watch, so these pick-and-choose streaming TV services are an economical way to view a select few channels that interest you the most. Spectrum is the latest to jump on the bandwagon with Spectrum TV Choice, which is being rolled out to a larger segment of the company's subscriber base. Spectrum TV Choice was initially only available in a few pilot markets, but according to a new report, it has been expanded to "most" of Spectrum's existing markets including those that were once serviced by Time Warner Cable...
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With more and more Americans getting fed up with their cable or satellite TV packages creeping up in price month after month, many have decided to cut the cord in favor of over-the-air television, streaming services or “skinny TV” bundles. Charter is testing out a new service called Spectrum Stream for a select group of its existing customer base that only subscribes to internet services. The hope is that it will be able to entice these customers with the promise of local channels and popular cable channels, while at the same time bolstering its bottom line. In this case, the new Spectrum Stream skinny bundle includes 25 live channels that can be streamed via your mobile devices or via a device...
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The people of New York state are taking Charter to court. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office is suing Charter-owned Spectrum (previously Time Warner Cable) for knowingly failing to live up to its promise of ‘blazing fast’ and ‘super reliable’ service. Schneiderman remarked, “The allegations in today's lawsuits confirm what many of you have long suspected: Spectrum-Time Warner has been ripping you off”. Schneiderman conducted a statewide study in 2015 to measure broadband speeds after receiving thousands of complaints from Time Warner Cable customers. The study discovered that at least 640,000 customers who signed up for high-speed internet received much slower speeds. It was...
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is getting ready to auction valuable wireless spectrum to wireless carriers next March. It's a big opportunity for carriers to beef up their networks, though Sprint, the fourth largest wireless service provider in the U.S., isn't planning to participate. Sprint issued a statement saying it "thoroughly" analyzed the situation and determined it's already sitting on enough spectrum to serve its customers, both today and into the future. Rather than allocate funds towards the purchase of more spectrum, Sprint feels it's more important to focus its resources on densifying and adding more cell sites capable of tapping into its existing spectrum. "Sprint’s...
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In what's been described as "by far the highest-earning spectrum auction the United States has ever seen" by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler, AT&T led the way by spending a whopping $18.2 billion on wireless licenses. Combined with its acquisition of DirecTV last year, some are wondering if AT&T is being a bit careless. AT&T spent nearly $49 billion last year buying DirecTV, the largest satellite TV provider in the U.S. with 20 million customers. Along with a pair of smaller acquisitions and the wireless spectrum licenses it just bought, AT&T will see $70 billion go out the door in a year's time. "This spectrum investment will be critical to AT&T...
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Verizon, for all its done on net neutrality and other issues to anger consumers, has been the industry leader in 4G LTE deployments, and the company is stepping things up a notch on that front. Actually, by “a notch” we mean “doubling”; Verizon is deploying a new service called XLTE on Monday that will offer double the speed of current 4G LTE. This is all still speculative. There has been no official announcement from Verizon, but Droid Life caught wind of it, and consistent leaker Evleaks posted an image that seems to confirm the above. Source: Evleaks Droid Life’s sources revealed a few more details, including that the new network will actually be capable of faster...
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Ever since terrestrial broadcasters shut down their stations and went off the air, the FCC has been mulling what to do with sections of spectrum and how that wireless space should be allocated between wireless broadcasters and other types of use. It's a complicated issue, in that much of the frequency in question is in the valuable 1GHz band. Verizon and AT&T have both expressed a great deal of interest in sucking that bandwidth down -- but given the strength and reach of the two carriers, the FCC is evaluating rules that would limit their spectrum purchases in order to encourage competition. In response, AT&T has said that it might prefer to sit out the auction altogether rather than...
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LightSquared has had an interesting (and relatively rough) go as a company. The telecommunications firm launched with a lot of promise, just as North America was starting to embrace mobile broadband and LTE. But it soon realized that building out a network was a costly project, and fell into bankruptcy as bids from Sprint to take it over passed on by. Another company that looked into buying up what was left of LightSquared was Dish Network. In fact, it placed a staggering $2.2 billion on the table last year, but nothing ever became of it. Now, a new Wall Street Journal report suggests that Dish will be pulling that bid altogether. The report suggests that LightSquared's lenders -- the folks who...
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It wasn't just lip service when T-Mobile re-branded itself as the "Un-carrier," the wireless outfit is making an honest-to-goodness effort to get on par with and perhaps one day surpass the competition. For that happen, fleshing out its 4G LTE network is paramount, and T-Mobile is working on doing just that. In fact, T-Mobile just spent $308 million in cash acquiring 10MHz of Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS) from U.S. Cellular. The acquired spectrum covers a total of 32 million people in 29 markets in the Mississippi Valley region, including St. Louis, Nashville, Kansas City, Memphis, Lexington, Little Rock-North Little Rock, Birmingham, New Orleans, and Louisville. T-Mobile says the additional...
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While the issue of divvying up spectrum isn't exactly fun to talk about around the water-cooler, it's an important one inside of the telecommunications industry. And, of course, that extends back to Washington. President Obama today issued a Presidential Memorandum that urges federal agencies to make better use of available spectrum. Obama's administration has stated on numerous occasions that it's a big fan of rural broadband, and it wants to get wireless Internet access to as many Americans as possible, and fast. The memorandum establishes a set of measures that Federal agencies, in collaboration with industry and other stakeholders, will now take to more aggressively enhance spectrum efficiency...
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These days, it's a spectrum turf war for carriers. The more spectrum they have, the more power and coverage they have... so they'll do anything to acquire it. It's a highly limited asset, and Sprint is a carrier that needs more spectrum in the worst way. So, they're acquiring certain bits of U.S. Cellular spectrum to bolster their coverage. Additional spectrum will significantly increase Sprint's network capacity and further improve the customer experience in Chicago, St. Louis and other Midwest markets, which are some pretty monumental markets to be working in. Specifically, Sprint will acquire 20MHz of PCS spectrum in various Midwest markets including Chicago, South Bend, Ind., and Champaign,...
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