1. Monthly archive
  2. January 2016

January 2016

Comcast and Charter may soon control 70 Percent of 25Mbps Internet subscriptions

If Charter Communications is allowed to buy cable rivals Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, just two Internet service providers could control about 70 percent of the nation's 25Mbps-and-up broadband subscriptions. Comcast would remain the country's largest ISP with 22.87 million Internet subscribers, while Charter's merger will push it into second place with at least 20.56 million. (AT&T has 15.83 million.) Combined, Comcast and Charter would account for less than half of home Internet connections. But under the Federal Communications Commission’s updated broadband benchmark speeds of at least 25Mbps, Comcast and Charter would reign supreme in the US. Charter said in November that it would serve 23 percent of the nation's 25Mbps-and-up broadband subscribers if it can buy TWC and BHN. Comcast has about 47.6 percent based on our calculations, pushing the two companies' total over 70 percent.

Cool & Connected: Announcement of Federal Planning Assistance for Broadband and Sustainable Community Development

Communities interested in using broadband service to help revitalize small-town main streets and promote economic development are encouraged to apply for Cool & Connected, a pilot program sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service and US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Sustainable Communities.

Through Cool & Connected, a team of experts will help community members develop strategies and an action plan for using planned or existing broadband service to promote smart, sustainable community development. Quality broadband access can provide new opportunities for people and businesses. A growing number of communities have combined broadband service with other local assets such as cultural and recreational amenities to attract and retain investment and people, including young people. This can help diversify local economies. Such efforts typically require planning among community leaders, businesses, and Internet service providers. The Cool & Connected program will provide assistance to this end, helping communities take advantage of new or existing broadband service to create walkable, connected, economically vibrant main streets and small-town neighborhoods.

Government-funded fiber broadband: Not as straightforward as it sounds

[Commentary] As public interest groups continue to press for government-run fiber networks here in the US, it is instructive to look to a country that has already gone down that path: New Zealand. It has been seven years since the New Zealand government promised to cover around 25 percent of the cost of deploying 100 Mbps-capable fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network reaching 75 percent of the population by the end of 2019. The first lines were laid over four years ago, so the project is technically around its halfway point. However, all has not gone according to plan.

Demand-side troubles: People don’t seem to want superfast fiber. The combination of low uptake of ultrafast connections and low uptake overall confirms that there has not been a pent-up demand for fast connections, even in less densely populated provincial areas. Supply-side issues: Government involvement warps prices, investment, even ownership.

[Bronwyn Howell is general manager for the New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation]

How a DIY Network Plans to Subvert Time Warner Cable's NYC Internet Monopoly

In a warehouse basement in Brooklyn’s (NY) Red Hook neighborhood late in 2015, a handful of self-taught network engineers gathered to casually discuss how they might make Time Warner Cable irrelevant in their lives. Toppling—or at least subverting—a telecommunication monopoly is the dream of many an American, who are fed up with bait-and-switch advertising campaigns, arbitrary data caps, attacks on net neutrality, overzealous political lobbying, lackluster customer service, and passive-aggressive service cancellation experiences that are a common experience of simply being a broadband internet customer these days. The folks at NYC Mesh are actually doing something about it.

Currently, NYC Mesh has about 40 “nodes,” or routers on the network (they are mostly smattered around Manhattan’s East Village and Williamsburg in Brooklyn), with more than 100 people waiting for an install. The network is also capable of “meshing” through the Internet, meaning that if two routers are independently connected to the Internet, they can also talk to each other to be part of the same network, which is why there are various pockets of meshes in the NYC network.

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