What's been a side show to the general battle over net neutrality, the possible Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, and the FCC is the more technical issue of network interconnects and "paid peering." Google Fiber -- which has been seen as the only hope for a fair, open internet if the FCC allows "fast lanes" and the largest cable merger in history -- just announced it doesn't and won't charge for peering.
Some common attitudes in our culture are pretty evident to anyone: Go out anywhere and strike up a conversation about mobile tech and the internet, and you'll discover most people love their devices, but have no love for the companies that provide service to them. This week, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index confirmed everyone's suspicions: we love our smartphones, but hate subscription TV and ISPs.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak published an open letter on Tuesday calling the current action on Net Neutrality one of the "most important times ever" for the FCC. At the same time, reports that Apple has made interconnection deals with ISPs might indicate that the company he helped found doesn't have a problem with the proposed "fast lanes" of the internet.
Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen has come out against a statement he made earlier in the week about the future of Comcast broadband and data usage caps. While Cohen emphasized that there are "no plans to announce a new data usage policy," the real truth is that you should expect data caps from more ISPs than just Comcast in the future.
At the Federal Communications Commission's meeting on Thursday to take the first step towards controversial new Open Internet rules, it seemed no one on either side of the political spectrum -- inside or outside of the building -- was entirely satisfied by the proposal. Nevertheless, the FCC voted to advance the process of adopting new rules that may drastically reshape the way the Internet works.
Netflix now takes up about a third of North America's peak downstream traffic, according to a new report by network analysis company Sandvine. The company's report also purportedly shines a light on "cord cutters," a segment of internet users which it says is using more than seven times the data of typical internet users.
Amid a large and growing backlash from advocacy groups and top Internet companies to the Federal Communication Commission's draft Open Internet proposal, the FCC is considering yet a new draft to mollify critics. The changes reportedly emphasize the FCC's willingness to reclassify broadband providers if anti-net neutrality practices become widespread.
The Federal Communications Commission will release a proposal soon on a new set of Open Internet rules to replace the net neutrality-friendly rules recently struck down by a federal court. But early leaks suggest the new replacement system is not so net neutrality-friendly, sparking a war of words between FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and the tech community.
Google Fiber is a relatively new, semi-experimental super-fast internet service provider that only a few cities in the U.S. have had the pleasure of experiencing so far, and other municipalities are bending over backwards to try to get Google's gigabit fiber internet. Now AT&T wants to play the same game with its fiber service, including in some of Google's prospective domain.
If you're a customer of Comcast cable broadband, you might have noticed an uptick in the streaming quality of your Netflix videos - or at least an end to constant buffering and blocky video. Netflix released data showing that its bandwidth deal with Comcast has boosted average connection speeds in recent months, begging the question: Was it worth paying the toll?
Comcast put forth an argument this week in favor of its merger with TWC. In the final of a five part series, we look at contradictions in Comcast's argument.
In recent weeks, Netflix subscribers have noticed that their instant streaming service has increasingly degraded in quality and load time, even some with hefty broadband connections. The big question on everyone's minds is: does the slow-down have to do with the recent suspension of Net Neutrality, or something else?
Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler told the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) - a national non-profit organization dedicated to preserving civil rights in mass media and closing the digital divide for minorities including Latinos - that the FCC would find other ways to enforce the Net Neutrality-based Open Internet Order that was discontinued after the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington D.C. struck it down on Tuesday.
Just a few days ago, AT&T's new "Sponsored Data" wireless project reminded us that omissions and sloppy policy writing in previous regulations by the Federal Communications Commission can be a threat to Net Neutrality. Now, that point has become blazingly clear, as a U.S. Federal appeals court has struck down the FCC's Net Neutrality-based "Open Internet Rules," possibly clearing the way for a future internet that's completely unrecognizable from the current system.
