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In the Media: Verizon hiking DSL fees
March 6, 2013 3:01 pm | by Brian Santo | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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.
Google Builds White-Space Spectrum Database
March 5, 2013 2:16 pm | by Ben Munsen, Wireless Week | 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 | 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.
Study: Core router market continues slide in 4Q
March 5, 2013 12:13 pm | by Mike Robuck | CommentsFor the sixth straight quarter, the service provider core router market continued its decline in the fourth quarter of last year as market revenue fell to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2009. Dell’Oro Group’s latest research said market revenue core routers dropped because network operators cut back investments on their backbone networks.
The Weather Channel picks Elemental Technologies for TVE
March 5, 2013 12:10 pm | by Mike Robuck | CommentsThe Weather Channel is powering its cross-platform video services with Elemental Technologies’ multi-screen platform. The Weather Channel is using Elemental video processing systems to support live programming and simulcasts to more than 100 million U.S. households and to stream live content to the company’s YouTube channel.
Leavitt joins Comcast as SVP of global benefits
March 5, 2013 11:56 am | by Mike Robuck | CommentsComcast announced today that Shawn Leavitt has joined the company as senior vice president of global benefits for Comcast and NBCUniversal. In this newly created role, Leavitt will develop a strategic plan for the research, design and development of Comcast and NBCUniversal’s benefits, including retirement, health and welfare, and health services.
In the media: Comcast plans free VOD promo
March 4, 2013 1:55 pm | by Brian Santo | CommentsComcast is looking to promote increased use of its VOD service later this month with a week’s worth of free VOD access. The MSO hopes to draw consumer attention to its broad VOD catalog late this month by offering shows from its broadcast, cable, and premium cable networks for free for a week.
Omnitel extends fiber to the home
March 4, 2013 1:52 pm | by Brian Santo | CommentsUsing Broadband Stimulus financing, OmniTel Communications has deployed Adtran’s Total Access broadband platform in parts of Iowa. Omnitel is a RUS grant winner; its network expansion is in accordance with efforts by the Iowa Broadband Deployment Governance board to make high-speed broadband service more widely available in rural areas of the state.
