Items tagged with spectrum
In today's work from home climate, a reliable internet connection is more important than ever. From logging in to corporate networks and remote meetings from home, to kids trying to access online assignments while simultaneously joining in on Google Meet/Zoom sessions, high-speed internet is now of even greater importance and an essential utility for virtually anyone. Some internet service providers (ISPs) have taken advantage of the situation by raising prices and instituting consumer-unfriendly data caps. Comcast caught quite a bit of [warranted] flak for planning to implement data caps in the northeastern United States during a pandemic, and has twice been forced to delay the...
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Most of us across the United States have been hunkered down in our homes, only venturing out for necessities over the past few months amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That means that millions of Americans are relying on their home internet connection now more than ever to work from home and complete school work. Unfortunately for millions of Spectrum customers, they woke up to no internet access this morning. Outages have been reported across Much of Spectrum’s service area, with hotspots up and down the East Coast and in Chicago, Texas, and Southern California. It’s not uncommon for ISPs to have brief outages due to technical glitches, but this particular outage has lingered on longer...
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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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Outgoing FCC chairman Julius Genachowski is leaving his post sometime in the near future, but he’s no lame duck; according to the New York Times, Genachowski and the rest of the FCC are working hard on making in-flight WiFi cheaper, faster, and more readily available. The FCC voted to begin the process of using newly-available 500MHz spectrum to bolster in-flight WiFi. The process will likely years, but the end result will ideally be in-flight WiFi speeds that rival those that people enjoy at home and in various coffee shops and other restaurants. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Unlike airplane-to-satellite Internet service, which is expensive and relatively slow, the ground-to-airplane...
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AT&T on Friday said that it has agreed to acquired wireless spectrum in the 700MHz B band from Verizon Wireless for $1.9 billion in cash and Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum licenses in several markets, including Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles and Fresno, California, and Portland, Oregon. A total of 39 lower 700MHz B band licenses will change hands, and according to AT&T, it will cover 42 million people in 18 states, including California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. The acquisition beefs up AT&T's existing holdings in the 700MHz B band...
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Sprint will acquire PCS spectrum and customers from U.S. Cellular as part of a deal that involves $480 million in cash and the assumption of certain liabilities. Customers in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio including the Chicago and St. Louis markets are included in this deal. Sprint intends to use the additional spectrum it receives to supplement its coverage in these areas. As part of the deal, Sprint will acquire 20MHz of PCS spectrum in the 1900MHz band in various Midwest markets. Sprint will also acquire 10MHz of PCS spectrum in the St. Louis market. The transaction involves about 585,000 U.S. Cellular customers. After the transaction is complete, U.S. Cellular will...
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It’s no secret that Verizon is kicking AT&T’s tail on the 4G LTE front. Big Red has been rolling out 4G service at a comparatively breakneck pace, and AT&T is struggling to catch up. Today, the latter announced an acquisition that should help it gain a bit of ground on the former. AT&T has agreed to purchase NextWave Wireless, which holds Wireless Communication Services (WCS) and Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) bandwidth licenses. AT&T (and Sirius XM) petitioned the FCC for changes to the WCS spectrum to allow it to be used for mobile devices, which would potentially help the company with its mobile bandwidth capacity problems. An approval on that front would make...
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Rivals T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless have inked a deal to exchange spectrum in the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) band in 218 markets across the U.S. The mutually beneficial deal will improve T-Mobile's spectrum position in 15 of the top 25 markets throughout the country as it looks to launch 4G LTE service next year, in exchange for spectrum covering 22 million people and "certain cash considerations" paid to Verizon. "This agreement will provide T-Mobile with critical AWS spectrum, enhancing both network capacity and performance and allowing us to meet the growing consumer demand for 4G mobile broadband," T-Mobile CEO and President Philipp Humm said. "This is good for T-Mobile and good for...
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LG and Verizon Wireless have brought the same display technology used in LG's premium HD televisions to a new smartphone dubbed the Spectrum. Featuring a 4.5-inch True HD IPS display and a resolution of 1280x720, the LG Spectrum uses Real Stripe subpixel arrangement which LG says is denser and 1.4 times sharper than the PenTile subpixel arrangement used on Super AMOLED displays. The phone's display features a screen density of 329 pixels per inch to provide a sharp, crisp picture that shows fine details. The LG Spectrum features a Qualcomm 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 processor and connects to Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network. The phone also supports 4G mobile hotspot capabilities for up to...
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