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Peter Svensson
Global broadband prices down -- but not in US
Submitted by Benton Foundation on November 6, 2008 - 8:48pmLast updated: November 6, 2008 - 8:49pm
Prices for residential high-speed Internet service are down 20% globally from the start of the year, according to a British research firm. The biggest price drop is for DSL broadband over phone lines, with the average monthly price falling from nearly $67 in the first quarter to $53 in the third, according to the analyst firm, Point Topic.
Location, location, location — and broadband
Submitted by Benton Foundation on November 5, 2008 - 9:43pmLast updated: November 5, 2008 - 9:43pm
In less than a decade, broadband has gone from a luxury to a must for many people, and for some of them, it's started to influence their real-estate decisions. Homes that have broadband are winning out over more remote ones that don't.
Frontier: Heavy Internet users to pay more
Submitted by Benton Foundation on November 2, 2008 - 5:37pmLast updated: November 3, 2008 - 9:59am
Phone company Frontier Communications will probably charge its subscribers a dollar or two per gigabyte of Internet traffic if they go over the monthly allotments the company plans to introduce next year, Frontier's chief executive said Friday.
Internet traffic grows 53 percent from mid-2007
Submitted by Benton Foundation on September 4, 2008 - 7:38amLast updated: September 4, 2008 - 7:38am
International Internet traffic kept growing in the last year, but at a slower rate than before, and carriers more than kept pace by adding more capacity, research firm TeleGeography announced Wednesday.
Phone companies prepare backup plans for Gustav
Submitted by Benton Foundation on September 1, 2008 - 5:24pmLast updated: September 1, 2008 - 5:25pm
The hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast could be a test for the country's wireless carriers, which faced criticism and a regulatory push after Hurricane Katrina took out networks.
Even modest Internet users may hit usage caps
Submitted by Benton Foundation on August 28, 2008 - 11:23amLast updated: August 28, 2008 - 11:24am
Several Internet service providers are moving to curb the growth of traffic on their networks -- or at least make the subscribers who download the most pay more. This could have consequences not just for consumers -- who would have to learn to watch how much data their Internet use entails -- but also for companies that hope to make the Internet a conduit for movies and other content that comes in huge files.
US consumers buying fewer cell phones
Submitted by Benton Foundation on August 19, 2008 - 5:46pmLast updated: August 19, 2008 - 5:46pm
US consumers have been buying significantly fewer cell phones but paying higher prices for them, says NPD Group, a research firm. 28 million cell phones were sold in the United States in the second quarter, a decline of 13 percent from the same period a year ago.
AT&T weighs extra fee for Web's bandwidth hogs
Submitted by Benton Foundation on June 13, 2008 - 7:18amAT&T, the country's largest Internet provider, is considering charging extra for customers who download large amounts of data. "A form of usage-based pricing for those customers who have abnormally high usage patterns is inevitable," spokesman Michael Coe said this week.
Time Warner Cable tries metering Internet use
Submitted by Benton Foundation on June 3, 2008 - 7:50amYou're used to paying extra if you use up your cell phone minutes, but will you be willing to pay extra if your home computer goes over its Internet allowance?
Converter boxes to bring better quality, but different screen setups to older TVs
Submitted by Benton Foundation on April 28, 2008 - 7:34amDid my TV screen just shrink? That's the question a lot of people will be asking after installing one of the converter boxes that will keep their older TV sets tuned into over-the-air broadcasts after Feb, when most stations will switch from analog to digital transmission.
