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What is Broadband Internet?
The Internet is becoming more useful and more necessary. You can access your bank accounts, brokerage accounts, utility accounts, and other financial services you depend on. In addition, many people use the Internet for purchasing products online instead of battling traffic and spending time finding a store with the product they want in stock.
People communicate with others over the Internet via email, instant messaging, viewing photos, personal websites, and even sharing family videos. Telephones also work over the Internet using "Voice over Internet Protocol" or VoIP technology.
As more information is transferred over the Internet, the speed of that transfer has increased. More and more people are using broadband Internet. Broadband is a technology that allows transmission of data at speeds faster than you would expect with a typical phone modem.
The most common broadband technologies used by the public are DSL and Cable broadband.
DSL works over your phone line. But, DSL uses higher frequency bands than that used for normal voice transmission. By using higher frequency bands, DSL can transmit and receive multiple pieces of information simultaneously. This produces much more rapid transmission of video and other data.
Cable allows the transmission of data along the cable that brings cable TV to your home. Transmission speeds are also much faster than a dial-up modem could provide. The transmission speed of cable Internet is sometimes limited by the current local usage of the cable for Internet traffic.
Broadband Internet provides enough speed to handle VoIP telephone calls. Many people have eliminated their traditional telephone service by using cable Internet and VoIP service.
Any way you look at it, broadband Internet is increasing important to our lives.
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Broadband Reports
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On Tuesday it was revealed that Apple had banned Google Voice from the iPhone app store. The new service has the potential to be a game changer, allowing users, among other things, to send free SMS messages and make international calls at reduced rates. The obvious conclusion was that AT&T played a role in the ban, given that SMS revenues are a massive cash cow with a limited life span the carrier wants to protect at any cost. When we asked AT&T if it was their call, they told us to ask Apple, who is too cool to comment publicly. Neither should get a free pass, yet both probably will.
AT&T has shown they have the authority to cripple or ban applications that erode AT&T's bottom line. The Skype application for iPhone was released back in March with crippled 3G functionality to limit its impact on AT&T voice revenues. 3G functionality was also crippled on the Slingbox app, and while AT&T blamed network congestion, the telco has been cooking up their own place-shifting solution exclusive to iPhone and U-Verse users for some time.
More motive? The vast majority of executives at AT&T despise Google because the search giant represents their deepest fear: a future where companies like AT&T are just dumb pipes, over which content companies deliver services that soak up advertising revenue old school phone executives really do believe belongs to them. The baby bells so despise Google, they pay gentlemen whose entire purpose is to smear the search giant.
While the motive for AT&T is fairly obvious, not everybody seemed to think AT&T deserved the blame. Blogger Om Malik has been arguing for several days that AT&T couldn't be responsible for the ban, because AT&T hadn't banned the Google Voice app via Blackberry. Of course that's only because AT&T doesn't have the technical ability to do so under the decentralized Blackberry app distribution platform. Otherwise they certainly would.
On Tuesday, blogger John Gruber cited a source at AT&T who confirmed AT&T was behind the decision, but the debate still seems to be raging over who exactly deserves the blame. Why precisely we can't blame both AT&T and Apple isn't exactly clear. Apple's walled garden and schizophrenic application store approval process has been the bane of most developers for months, and AT&T has a long track record of anti-competitive behavior that most of the bloggers covering this latest scuff up probably didn't even know existed.
Both Apple and AT&T conspired to prohibit competition and limit the open Internet in order to protect revenues. While brand loyalists will proclaim such anti-competitive skulduggery is just good business, I'll go so far as to use the dreaded nerd N-word and call this what it is. While AT&T's 4chan block was just stupid, the AT&T and Apple decision to block the Google Voice application is a rare, clear example of a network neutrality violation. As we've discussed all week in terms of Verizon's not so open app store, a baby bell in charge of the chicken coop is going to net the same bloody results every time.
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On Tuesday it was revealed that Apple had Rumor: AT&T Cooking Up 24Mbps U-Verse Tier - Company says they have nothing to announce yet... 
As it stands, the fastest tier AT&T offers is the company's "Max" 18Mbps/1.5Mbps U-Verse tier, which costs $65 a month as part of a TV bundle. We're now seeing rumblings in our forums that the carrier may unveil a $75, 24Mbps downstream 2Mbps upstream tier in the middle of August. AT&T wouldn't comment on the rumor, only telling us "We've got no specific plans to share at this time." Of course, that's what they said when we leaked news of their 18Mbps tier last fall.
Rumors of the faster tier come as AT&T competitor Comcast continues its deployment of faster DOCSIS 3.0 service, which offers 22/5Mbps ($62.95) and 50/10Mbps ($99 per month) tiers. AT&T's decision to save upfront investment capital and deploy fiber to the node and VDSL service instead of fiber to the home, means AT&T's broadband service continues to suffer from distance limitations in the fight against cable.
Customers as close as 1,400 feet from the DSLAM have registered speeds of 100Mbps to their home gateways, while customers at 1,850 feet see total potential speeds closer to 58Mbps. But most customers sit further out, and customers as far as 5,000 feet may struggle to get 25Mbps from AT&T's service -- that bandwidth also being shared between data and AT&T's IPTV service.
AT&T employs TV signal compression tricks and variable bit rate encoding in order to squeeze data and TV service out of constrained pipes. Given that few AT&T customers watch 2 HD shows, 2 SD shows, and download full throttle simultaneously, AT&T has had a little wiggle room in providing 18Mbps downstream.
But 24? Last year, AT&T had to change their terms of service to "better manage customer expectations" as to how much bandwidth they're actually getting. The carrier had hoped by this point to have perfected VDSL line bonding, which would allow faster speeds at longer loop lengths, but the technology won't be ready until 2010. So will 24Mbps only be available to non-IPTV customers, or has AT&T further perfected their compression tricks (and at what cost to image quality)? Hopefully we'll find out soon.
Meanwhile, for AT&T's top shelf premium product aimed at heavy users, 2Mbps upstream is starting to look a little long in the tooth. Not to bludgeon a deceased Equus Caballus, but much of this could have been avoided if AT&T had decided to follow Verizon's lead and heavily invest in fiber to the home technology, instead of placating myopic investors (who in telecom lack patience and long-term vision) by nursing copper infrastructure.
Update: User uid://162762 directs our attention to this thread in our forums, which answers a few more questions. AT&T appears to be in the process of deploying an entirely new 32Mbps/5Mbps gateway profile intended to not only support the faster speeds, but three simultaneous HDTV streams as well. There's still a lot of questions about the particulars we won't see answered until AT&T makes the new tier official. While the tier hasn't been officially announced yet, several customers insist AT&T sales reps are already pitching the tier to customers.
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As it stands, the fastest tier AT&T offers is the company's "Max" 18Mbps/1.5Mbps U-Ver
Qwest has issued their second quarter earnings, which indicate the baby bell reported a net income of $212 million, compared with $180 million one year ago. Revenue sunk slightly more than expected by 8.6%, down to $3.09 billion. Of course continued landline losses are a major reason why, the number of Qwest lines in service falling 11.8% to 7.29 million from 8.23 million a year earlier. Qwest added 34,000 broadband and 21,000 DirecTV customers on the quarter. Operating expenses dropped 8% to $219 million.
Given Qwest lacks the resources to deploy fiber to the home, and their recent ADSL2+ service only topped out at 896kbps upstream, the company recently announced that they'd be converting to VDSL, an upgrade that increases Qwest's top available speed to 40Mbps downstream and 20Mbps upstream.
Just like AT&T, the company continues to test VDSL line bonding solutions that may be able to nudge those speeds ever higher, and at longer loop lengths.
According to Qwest, the company expanded deployment of the fiber to the node service, making it available to 375,000 additional homes. Qwest COO Tom Richards says the FTTN service is available to about 2.6 million homes, and Qwest hopes to reach 3 million by the end of the year. Richards confirms that Qwest currently actually serves just 265,000 customers with the faster speeds right now.
Qwest had recently been sending mixed marketing messages as to whether higher speeds were really necessary to compete, at one point even proclaiming that most customers didn't want them. Qwest CEO Ed Mueller says that the company's new 40Mbps service is just "icing on the cake," adding that company executives still believe that 20Mbps service was more than fast enough for most users (they didn't much care for 896kbps upstream, though).
Of course if you listen to users in our Qwest forum, a significant number will tell you they're still stuck on vanilla DSL at speeds of just 1.5Mbps. Given that Qwest lacks a wireless division to bolster earnings, the deployment of VDSL service will be slow. That pleases investors who think Qwest is the poster child for network upgrades, but it means there's a lot of unhappy customers who will be continually looking for faster alternatives.
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Qwest has issued their Cox Launches DOCSIS 3.0 In Rhode Island - Third market to see new 50Mbps/5Mbps tier 
Cox Communications gave us a nudge this morning to note that the private cable operator has now launched faster DOCSIS 3.0 speeds in Rhode Island. That's the third market to see DOC 3.0 deployment, after the company offered the service earlier this year in Lafayette, Louisiana and portions of Northern Virginia. The price for the new 50Mbps downstream 5Mbps upstream "Ultimate" tier is $144.99 per month standalone.
In both Rhode Island and Northern Virginia, where Cox is responding to FiOS competition, the faster DOCSIS 3.0 service costs customers $139.99 per month bundled, or $109 per month if you sign a one-year contract. In all markets, the service comes with three unique IP addresses, 10 e-mail addresses, and 50 hours per month of remote dial access, an interesting perk we've seen a lot of carriers throw by the wayside in recent years.
Prices for the service do vary by location. In Cox's initial launch market of Lafayette, Louisiana, the company is competing with a municipal fiber deployment that the company tried for years to derail. Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) offers standalone symmetrical 10Mbps for $28.95, 30Mbps for $44.95, and 50Mbps for $57.95. In turn, Cox is offering their 50Mbps/5Mbps tier in that market for just $90 per month.
According to Cox, the company hopes to offer the faster DOCSIS 3.0 speeds in more than two-thirds of its systems across the country by the end of 2010. As always, our user opinions on Cox service can be found in our Cox review database, where, 1,328 reviews are currently listed, or in our Cox forum.
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Cox Communications gave us a nudge this morning to note that the private cable operator
Time Warner Cable issued their second quarter earnings, posting a better-than-expected rise in quarterly profit. The carrier saw revenue increase 4 percent to $4.47 billion, and second quarter net profit rose to $316 million up from $277 million. Despite claiming flat-rate broadband pricing wasn't sustainable during the company's metered billing fiasco, broadband revenue rose 9 percent to $1.1 billion.
The company lost 57,000 basic video subscribers, but added 88,000 new broadband customers, 54,000 digital video customers, and 103,000 VoIP customers.
Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt told attendees of a conference call this week that Mobile WiMax launches are coming. "You will hear a lot more about this as we build up to the launch this fall," says Britt -- who confirmed Charlotte and Dallas as early launch markets. Like Comcast, Time Warner Cable invested in Clearwire's mobile WiMax network and will re-sell the service as part of a broadband bundle.
Britt did warn those attending the call that the company was seeing some customers leave their VoIP service as households convert to wireless phone only. "There's evidence of significant cord-cutting of voice in this environment," says Britt. "A tough economy is causing people to make that decision faster than they would otherwise."
"Given the slower subscriber growth in recent quarters, we expect that revenue growth will slow in the second half of the year," CFO Rob Marcus said, also blaming "higher expected programming and marketing expense(s)." Of course, Time Warner Cable has yet to launch faster DOCSIS 3.0 speeds in a single market, so in some instances Internet customers may be defecting to faster options. Time Warner Cable still insists their first DOC 3.0 market, New York City, will launch before the end of the year.
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Time Warner Cable issued their Wednesday Evening Links - 
Jailbreaking iPhone could pose threat to national security, Apple claims cnet.com
TWC CEO Glenn Britt says wireless broadband won't cut into wired Internet business chicagotribune.com
The Importance of Broadband hispanicbusiness.com
City libraries shut out of broadband stimulus money? arstechnica.com
SureWest to Deploy Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV cable360.net
Europe Opens More Spectrum for 3G Mobile businessweek.com
Online video keeps growing with help of broadband, mobile arstechnica.com
Lawmakers to propose ban on driving while texting AP via Google.com
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Jailbreaking iPhone could pose threat
Verizon this week unveiled a new deal for NFL fans out of range of Verizon FiOS. Verizon's giving new customers who sign up for select DirecTV bundles NFL Sunday Ticket free for a year. To get the deal, customers need to sign up for Verizon's Freedom Essentials calling plan, DirecTV's $120 per month "Plus HD DVR" service, and Verizon 3Mbps or 7Mbps DSL service. Customers can also get the free Sunday Ticket package if they substitute DirecTV's $110 per month standard def "Plus DVR" package.
The NFL Sunday Ticket package normally costs $299.95. The bundles require a one-year Verizon contract and a two-year DirecTV contract. Keep in mind Verizon is also giving new DSL customers either a Compaq mini netbook or a Flip Ultra camcorder as part of an announcement made back in June.
So why is Verizon suddenly being so generous with DSL-related giveaways?
As we noted on Monday, Verizon's latest earnings report indicates that the company lost 117,000 DSL customers in the second quarter, after losing 46,000 DSL customers in the first. In a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Verizon admitted that just 20-25 percent of that 117,000 total were customers upgrading to FiOS -- the rest were migrating to cable.
While FiOS growth is good, Verizon's hoping to reverse DSL losses with promotions. "It is a great addition for the large number of people who can get DSL service...still more people than can order FiOS," Robert Elek tells us an an e-mail exchange. "And since cable likes to take a hard run at those prospects, we see this as an uber-competitive offer in those markets where copper and cable go head to head."
DirecTV recently paid the NFL hundreds of millions to extend their exclusive deal to 2014. While this arrangement works well for Verizon for now, as FiOSTV expands into more markets through 2014, they're going to want access to that content for FiOS customers. NFL fans who don't want to switch to DirecTV can only hope the collective power of both the phone and cable carriers will prevent any further extensions past 2014.
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Verizon this week unveiled a Shaw Drops Pricing Bomb To Destroy Local Fiber ISP - Local ISP fights back with amusing PR campaign... 
Canadian cable operator Shaw has dropped a bit of a pricing bomb on consumers and competitors in Vancouver. The operator is offering some unheard of deals, including 15Mbps service with a 100GB cap for $9.95 ($9.13 US), 200 channels of TV service (with 25 high-definition channels) for $9.95, or digital phone service with free installation, also for $9.95 a month. The catch? You have to live in an area served by Novus Entertainment, a Canadian fiber to the home operator that's currently wiring Vancouver apartment buildings.
Novus offers symmetrical 10Mbps service for $37.50 a month (110GB cap), 30/10 Mbps service for $89.95 (200GB cap), or 50/10Mbps service for $179.95 (360GB cap). Given Novus's small size of just 9,000 subscribers, Shaw can essentially give service away in Novus markets and just eat the losses.
Unfortunately, if you're a Shaw customer in any other area, such amazing deals aren't available to you. In fact, in some instances, you're paying nearly $150 per month more.
Novus isn't particularly impressed with this maneuver, and has launched a massive PR campaign to fight back. The company is using both Twitter, Facebook, and a new website to take jabs at Shaw's pricing attack. They've even offered a YouTube video featuring a Novus employee begging for mercy. The company also issued a press release urging Shaw customers to call and demand the same deal in their neighborhoods.
"Shaw is abusing its dominant position in the market by offering services - which it normally makes nearly 50 per cent margins on - at a sizable loss as a means to destroy a local competitor," said Donna Robertson, Co-President and Chief Legal Officer of Novus Entertainment Inc. "The millions of existing Shaw customers paying full price should be outraged because they're unwittingly subsidizing the costs that customers with a competitive alternate pay (sic), which is unethical and unfair," she says. 
Shaw is abusing its dominant position in the market by offering services ... at a sizable loss as a means to destroy a local competitor.
While predatory pricing is often frowned on here in the States, carriers still utilize selective cuts to crush competitors (see here and here), though Shaw's effort takes the idea to an entirely new level. According to Novus, the company is pursuing a formal complaint with the Competition Bureau, though Canada's been busy mirroring U.S. broadband policy, where government acts as a well-heeled plaything for incumbent ISP lobbyists. In other words, Novus is likely facing a steep uphill climb if they're waiting for government help.
Of course Novus isn't quite the frightened doe in the woods their campaign infers, given they're owned by Canadian real estate tycoon Terry Hui. Hui also runs Concord Pacific, a major condominium and planned community developer in Vancouver that, not too surprisingly, signs broadband deals (fortunately non-exclusive) with Novus. Still, Novus's public relations effort is an original and interesting way to fight Shaw's market dominance, assuming it doesn't simply announce to Novus customers that they can get cheaper service somewhere else.
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Canadian cable operator Shaw has dropped a bit of a pricing bomb on consume
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