Broadband

TWC changes Twitter customer care handle

May 1, 2013 12:42 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Time Warner Cable announced this morning it had changed its Twitter customer care handle to @TWC_Help. The new customer care handle gives Time Warner Cable a more unified front with all Time Warner Cable Twitter handles following the “TWC” designation.

Harmonic adds Netflix presets to transcoder

April 30, 2013 2:00 pm | by Brian Santo | Products | Comments

Harmonic has created transcoding presets for its ProMedia Carbon transcoder specifically for preparing to deliver video to Netflix. The presets are designed to enable to speed the process of programmers using ProMedia Carbon to transform video and audio content into media formats optimized for Netflix.

Time Warner Cable deploys HD DTAs across New York City

April 30, 2013 1:25 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Time Warner Cable’s all-digital project is rolling into other areas of its New York City footprint and the nation’s second-largest cable operator is using HD digital transport adapters (DTAs) from Cisco. The HD DTAs allow subscribers to tap into HD services without more expensive DVRs or set-top boxes that require CableCards.

Comcast Business extends network to N.H. business park

April 30, 2013 1:05 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Comcast Business announced today that it had made a major investment to serve up its entire suite of Ethernet, data, voice and video services to 250 businesses in Portsmouth, N.H. The businesses are located in Pease International Tradeport, which was an Air Force base that has been turned into a business park.

OTT programmers converge on NYC

April 29, 2013 1:42 pm | by The Associated Press | News | Comments

In the last 12 months, companies like Netflix, Yahoo, and YouTube have experimented with original programming, with some hits and some misses. But there were more than enough hits to encourage over-the-top programmers to keep trying. They'll all be in New York City this week talking about it at the second Digital NewFronts conference.

Telesystem begins network upgrade

April 29, 2013 1:22 pm | News | Comments

Buckeye Cablesystem sister company Telesystem said it has embarked on a network upgrade to achieve 99.999 percent availability for its IP-based services. Five-nines availability translates to no more than 5.26 minutes of downtime per rolling year.

Coinstar's popularity slips; Q1 earnings down

April 26, 2013 2:22 pm | by The Associated Press | News | Comments

Coinstar's first-quarter earnings plunged 58 percent amid signs that its Redbox kiosks for DVD rentals are losing their appeal as more people switch to Netflix and other Internet video services. The company plans to change its name to Outerwall this summer.

Assia smooths the path to vectored VDSL

April 26, 2013 2:16 pm | by Brian Santo | Products | Comments

Assia has upgraded its management and optimization software to enable VDSL providers to introduce vectored VDSL gradually, as market demand merits. The software suite also gives VDSL companies the tools to handle common noise impairments.

Comcast bows faster gateway; doubles speeds on 2 data tiers

April 26, 2013 12:52 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Comcast has leveraged MoCA 2.0 and the 5.0 GHz frequency on its new wireless gateway that features speeds of up to 270 Mbps. According to research by Allion USA, Comcast’s new gateway more than tripled the speeds of competing wireless gateways from AT&T and Verizon.

AT&T locks up home automation deployments

April 26, 2013 12:35 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Starting today, AT&T’s home automation and security service, which it calls Digital Life, is available in 15 cities across the nation. AT&T said in January that it planned on launching Digital Life in March to eight cities, but delayed the launch until this month in order to offer the service in more markets.

Time Warner Cable’s 1Q profit driven by business services

April 25, 2013 1:06 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

An increase in Time Warner Cable’s business services revenue helped the cable operator’s bottom line in the first quarter, but the nation’s second-largest cable operator continued to bleed out basic video subscribers. For the quarter, Time Warner Cable lost 119,000 basic video subscribers, which were more than the 91,000 that analysts had projected.

Media: Bright House Networks preps 90 Mbps D3 tier

April 25, 2013 12:53 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Bright House Networks subscribers in Tampa and Central Florida will be able to tap into a new DOCSIS 3.0-based tier that features up to 90 Mbps on the downstream and 10 Mbps up. Bright House Networks is currently letting customers sign up for its Lightning 90 service.

Comcast, EcoFactor win home automation award

April 25, 2013 12:43 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Home automation vendor EcoFactor recently won an award from GTM Research for working with Comcast on the cable operator’s Xfinity Home service. Last year EcoFactor integrated its SaaS infrastructure with Comcast to provide Xfinity Home subscribers monthly HVAC savings on their energy bills.

ActiveVideo taps Brockman as CTO

April 24, 2013 1:16 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

ActiveVideo has promoted Ronald Brockmann to CTO. The position has been open since Rogers Communications hired away ActiveVideo’s previous CTO, John Callahan, almost a year ago. Brockmann was working for Avinity Systems when ActiveVideo acquired it three years ago.

Bright House Networks, Verizon Wireless ring up 4 more markets

April 24, 2013 12:29 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Verizon Wireless and Bright House Networks’ cross-promotional bundles have rolled into four more markets; Bakersfield, Calif., Birmingham, Ala., Indianapolis and Detroit. The latest launches of the joint marketing effort followed up on the initial launch in Orlando late last year