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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Ciciora's Corner: Technology needs rich people
March 6, 2013 5:31 pm | by Walt S. Ciciora, Expert on cable and consumer electronics issues | Articles | CommentsIn some quarters, wealth has received a bad name. A little thought reveals that our industry and our careers strongly depend on there being “rich people.” Start-up endeavors need investors, people with at least a little excess money they can put at risk in hopes of making a return.
Engineering-Wise: The intelligent cable network
March 6, 2013 5:18 pm | by Daniel Howard Senior vice president of engineering and CTO of the SCTE | Articles | CommentsBesides the capacity and robustness improvement, there’s something else about DOCSIS 3.1 and its use of OFDM) that excites me: the network intelligence it enables. We already use DOCSIS devices as network health probes, but OFDM will essentially turn our equipment into multifunction test generators that can be used to measure most of the key RF performance parameters.
Ad platform startup gains $11M in vencap
March 6, 2013 3:08 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsInnovid, a startup that specializes in equipment used to create and distribute interactive advertising, has just nailed down another $11 million in venture funding. The company develops tools to create, deliver and measure video campaigns, in any format, on any screen, publisher or ad network. The suite of products includes the Innovid's own Ad Server.
In the Media: Verizon hiking DSL fees
March 6, 2013 3:01 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsVerizon will be upping the price of its basic tier of DSL service by $5 a month. The price hikes are not universal. The price has not changed in some cities where they company has franchise obligations to not increase its rates. The company says the new rate will remain in effect for one year.
Roku adds headphones to latest online video player
March 6, 2013 2:54 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe Roku 3 box going on sale Wednesday also includes a more powerful search engine to find movies, TV shows and music more quickly and a new menu for perusing the more than 750 online services available through the device. The new model will be sold for $100, initially only at Roku's website and Amazon.com.
Schools shift from textbooks to tablets
March 6, 2013 2:46 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsSchools are increasingly looking to the hand-held tablets as a way to sustain students' interest, reward their achievements and, in some cases, actually keep per-student costs down. News Corp. just introduced its $299 Amplify tablet designed for the education market; some 2,000 schools use Google's $199 Chromebooks.
FreedomPop giving away home broadband
March 6, 2013 2:21 pm | by Ben Munsen, Wireless Week | News | CommentsAfter announcing its plans to enter home broadband service back in December, MVNO FreedomPop has today made its Burst wireless router available to the public. The device retails for $89 and gives users access to FreedomPop’s freemium service on Clearwire’s WiMax network.
Time Warner Cable accelerates IntelligentHome rollouts
March 6, 2013 12:19 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsAhead of a nationwide rollout by year’s end, Time Warner Cable has launched its home automation service, which is called IntelligentHome, in all of its Carolinas markets as well as in Kansas City and Maine this week. Time Warner Cable finished up last year with IntelligentHome available in six of its markets.
Comcast achieves goal of hiring 1,000 veterans
March 6, 2013 12:14 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsComcast announced today that it and NBCUniversal reached their three-year goal of hiring 1,000 veterans two years ahead of schedule. Comcast will double down on its pledge, which was made through U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s "Hiring Our Heroes,” by hiring an additional 1,000 armed services veterans by 2015.
Charter hires TWC’s Dudley, promotes Dykhouse
March 6, 2013 12:09 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsCharter Communications has beefed up its senior leadership team at company headquarters in Stamford, Conn. Time Warner Cable executive Alex Dudley will join Charter Communications in the newly created position of senior vice president, communications while Richard Dykhouse was promoted to executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary.
Suddenlink promotes Nau
March 6, 2013 12:04 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Commentsuddenlink Communications announced that Tyler Nau has been promoted to vice president of finance and general manager of carrier services for the company’s commercial and advertising operations (CAO) organization, headquartered in Dallas. He was previously vice president of finance and business development for CAO.
Memory Lane: When the sky was the limit
March 5, 2013 9:15 pm | by Stewart Schley Media & technology writer | Articles | CommentsOn Dec. 13, 1975, RCA gave the cable industry a pre-Christmas gift to remember when the first of RCA’s Satcom series of geostationary satellites was launched by NASA from a Delta 3000 rocket. That satellite and its progeny have endured for decades as an essential conduit for cable programming.
DOCSIS theft and cloning
March 5, 2013 8:52 pm | by Owen Parsons, cable access ops engineer III at Cox Communications | Articles | CommentsAs long as there are services, there will be service thieves. Preventing this theft may take some configuration changes in software, firmware upgrades and the removal of problematic cable modems, as well as adjustments to CMTS settings. Combating service theft has been a series of moves and countermoves, not unlike a game of chess.
Google Builds White-Space Spectrum Database
March 5, 2013 2:16 pm | by Ben Munsen, Wireless Week | News | CommentsGoogle has unveiled a searchable map of the available white-space spectrum in the U.S. The company said this new effort is in order to help promote dynamic spectrum sharing. The FCC is in the process of evaluating the map for accuracy.
Comcast expands access to Internet Essentials
March 5, 2013 2:10 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsComcast said it has connected more than 150,000 families thus far through its program to provide Internet access to low-income students and their families. Eligibility criteria for the program will soon be expanded to include parochial, private and homeschool students, bringing the estimated total number of eligible families to nearly 2.6 million.
