FCC Expresses Concern Over Widespread Cable Price Hikes
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[Via Columbia Tribune, image courtesy of YouthRetirement]
Posts with tag comcast
[Via Columbia Tribune, image courtesy of YouthRetirement]
Ugly Broadband Boxes Not Welcome in Our Towns
As anyone reading this is surely aware, the 'information age' has come with its fair share of visual noise. With Internet, television, and phone companies aggressively competing for market share, the need to install physical equipment in neighborhoods around the country continues to grow. And, in case you hadn't noticed, the delivery mechanisms are ugly as sin.
Thankfully, several towns are now fighting back.
"We have nothing against the technology. We just don't want that delivery system," San Francisco resident David Crommie told CNN. "It's 19th century packaging for 21st century technology." Crommie complained after seeing a series of refrigerator-sized boxes show up on sidewalks and in parks near his house, and managed to delay AT&T's plans to install up to 850 more. AT&T is expected to reapply for an exemption to the city's environmental-review procedures. In most locations, these "U-verse" cabinets are 4 feet tall, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet deep.
Likewise, several residents in Lower Makefield Township, just outside of Philadelphia, took similar issue when Comcast boxes started popping up around town.
"All of a sudden we have cable boxes appear," said 64-year-old resident Bernie Goldberg. "They seem to think our community is their open job site." Goldberg and his fellow residents successfully battled the installation of aboveground boxes in the 90s with Comcast's corporate predecessor.
Well, we all want our high-speed networks, so what can be done about it? Goldberg points out that Verizon was able to bury its own fiber-optic boxes underground. Someone buy Bernie Goldberg a beer. [From: CNN]
AT&T Would Like To Track Your Web Use For Advertising
This all comes after a Congressional committee began investigating Web-tracking for advertising purposes after hearing that some Internet service providers would sell their customers' browsing histories to a company called NebuAd. The committee asked 33 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) about their tracking plans, and many companies (including AOL, Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Verizon) said they only monitor on sites they run. AT&T says their tracking would require customers to sign up for the service.
AT&T said that Google has "the ability to observe a user's entire Web browsing experience at a granular level" and only answered questions about deep packet inspection, not general tracking. Google responded in kind, basically saying, "we answered the questions, and AT&T's just trying to shift negative attention to us. Not cool." Depending on what the committee does from here, we could see a sweet tech company catfight with your Web surfing privacy at the core of the issue. [From: Silicon Alley Insider]
Philadelphia Video Wall Packs 10M Pixels Into 27-x-87-Foot Display
So what does it do? It's kind of a giant screensaver that may get old over time, if you ask us. It displays the time, shows figures pushing the panels open, and plays with the space in surreal, 3D-esque animations that are, admitedly, fun to watch. Check the video after the break. [Source: Deputy Dog]
Crooks Wearing Comcast Uniforms Terrorize Baltimore Resident
by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 5th 2008 at 3:57PM
Beware, Baltimore readers, a couple of crooks in Comcast cable uniforms and with a Comcast van are on the loose. According to police reports, the pair broke into a man's apartment, handcuffed him, and shot him in the stomach. The two men demanded money, though it is unclear if they got away with any. They used their uniforms to gain access to the victim's apartment, from which the victim tried to flee by jumping through his window after he was shot.
The gun shot, while certainly painful, is not life-threatening, and the victim should be released from the hospital soon. Police are searching for the pair, who may or may not actually be Comcast employees. [Source: ABC News, Via: Consumerist]
Time Warner Cable Looks to Bring Internet Content to TVs
Shortly after hearing TiVo's top dog speak of a "whole home model" to reduce the amount of STBs required for entertaining individuals in various rooms, along comes Time Warner Cable's chief executive talking up some innovation of its own. We'll be frank -- we're not entirely sure what Glenn Britt is getting at here, but through a broken series of quotes, we're led to believe that the carrier is prepping some "equipment" that will easily bring Internet content to TVs. Not like there isn't a perfect solution for this quandary already, but we digress. Specifically, he mentions a " new wireless cable modem that will allow you to network everything in your house," which is about as broad / vague as you can get. Nevertheless, it's enough to keep us watchin', though we can't say our expectations are extraordinarily high. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]
[Source: Forbes via eHomeUpgrade]
Download HD Movies In Four Minutes With New Comcast Broadband
Internet connections in the United States lag behind much of the developed world, but it looks like things are finally starting to improve. Comcast is launching DOCSIS 3.0, the next-generation of broadband technology, in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.
This new modem connection technology promises speeds up to 160 megabytes per second (Mbps) -- 50 times faster than current broadband speeds, which average around megabytes per second. This means you can download a full-length HD film in four minutes. Yes, that's minutes, not hours.
Of course, access to these kinds of speeds doesn't come cheap. Consumers are going to have to shell out around $150 each month for the top-tier access. All Comcast users will see speed upgrades, even if they don't decide to go with the extreme broadband (or "wideband") connection.
It's great to see faster Internet connections finally coming to the U.S. Comcast is rolling out these high-speed connections to the Twin Cities first, and Engadget reports that much of the rest of the country can expect wideband as early as 2009.
From Engadget
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Comcast Wants to Put Cameras In Your Home
Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this story. In fairness, so will just about everybody else. We hope.
Comcast is experimenting with camera technology. More specifically, it trying out technology that turns cable boxes into camera-equipped devices that would utilize body-form-recognition as a means to provide custom-tailored service, and, of course, custom tailored advertising. The boxes would be able to tell who is in the room based on the shape of their body, thus tailoring programming to fit their specific desires and security settings (when children are involved). Facial recognition is not in the works as of yet.
We should be clear: This is all in the experimental phase. There has been no consumer testing and Gerard Kunkel, Comcast's senior VP of user experience, stresses that any final decision is predicated on the boxes providing more to the viewer than just precision advertising.
Custom Tailored. Security. Efficient. Your New Best Friend. Now You Can Leave the Kids At Home With Super Cable Nanny! Those are hypothetical buzz-words and -phrases Comcast will most likely lay on in hearty layers if and when it begins to roll out this new technology.
Honestly, what is your immediate gut reaction when you hear that a massive corporation might want to place cameras that actually track your movements in your own home? We won't say what we think. Trust your gut reaction and don't let any amount of mediocre advertising sway you.
Security. Customization. Blah blah blah.
Gut Instinct.
From NewTeevee (via Rantings of a New Yorker)
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Comcast to Offer 50x Faster Web Speeds, More HD On-Demand, and Fancast
Today at CES, Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts announced a bevy of new services and technologies for the cable giant's customers. The signature development Roberts touted is the launch today of Fancast, a Web site that that translates cable television services to the PC. Under the new service, consumers will be able to search for content from most major networks and a plethora of video sources, with the option to view the selected items on TV, the computer or DVD. In addition, Fancast offers remote DVR recording capability, meaning consumers can direct their television to record shows from a PC or handheld device. In the future, Comcast plans to enable access to the Web site through the customer's television set.
An equally important announcement to the Fancast debut is the coming availability of the DOCSIS 3.0 modem connection technology, the next generation successor to broadband. Wideband, as Comcast has termed it, transmits at 100 Megabytes per second (Mbps), roughly fifty times the speed currently available, with the potential to reach 160 Mbps. While current cable connections typically run around 5 Mbps, fiber optic systems like Verizon's FiOS boast 100 Mbps capability. In one fell swoop, Comcast aims to blow other cable companies out of the water and offer Verizon stiff competition. To give some perspective, customers with wideband service could download a feature-length film in HD in an impressive four minutes, compared to the six hours it would require to download HD films using a DSL connection. Roberts signaled that Comcast's intention is to offer wideband to consumers this year.
Other notable pronouncements include the advent of a Java-based open cable platform called tru2way. Open to all two-way cable services, tru2way will eliminate the need for cable set top boxes and is open to third party innovation. The tru2way system will enable users to control media through computer, cable or handheld devices. In addition, Comcast partnered with Panasonic to unveil the AnyPlay, the first portable DVD/DVR device equipped with tru2way technology that can recall all Comcast content. Customers simply attach the piece, record desired material and detach for mobile viewing.
Furthermore, Roberts stated that Comcast plans to offer 1,000 HD screening choices by the end of 2008 for its cable subscribers. Additionally, a new architectural structure for its cable system called Project Infinite will make putting up 6,000 movies, with 3,000 of them in HD, possible. The development of Infinite means that Comcast will deliver any conceivable video from any type of business model, whether free, by subscription, etc. Finally, Roberts received help from comedian Dennis Miller in releasing the Smart Zone communications center, a service that allows customers to check E-mail and voicemail from a PC.
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American Internet Access Destined for Meltdown?
Internet users have become accustomed to the idea of things getting faster as time goes on, but a warning from analyst firm Nemertes Research Group is raising fears that within three to five years, Internet access in the Americas could actually get slower. Much, much slower.
The reason for the fears, which some are calling a 'meltdown,' is simply the popularity of the Internet. As anyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows, the Internet has become nearly ubiquitous in American households over those last ten years. The global network connections that bridge access between countries, called backbones, are said to have plenty of bandwidth to support the expected growth. However, the infrastructure that fills in those gaps -- actually bringing connectivity into your home -- is said to be woefully lacking to maintain this growth in Internet popularity.
Add in the increasing demand many are placing on their Internet providers by using bandwidth hungry apps like peer-to-peer file sharing, and you have a problem. It's this sort of pressure that has led providers like Comcast to attempt to throttle the bandwidth usage by some of its customers, leading to irate customers, lawsuits, and plenty of bad PR.
Expect more providers to start implementing these sorts of changes as they struggle to cope with increasing demand, and expect higher prices from those who don't resort to those restrictions.
From NewsVine
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