Broadband

Mediaroom VP joins SeaWell board

May 1, 2013 2:01 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Pete Thompson, vice president of Microsoft Mediaroom, has joined the board of directors of SeaWell Networks. Before joining Microsoft, Thompson developed new products and services at T-Mobile, Graviton, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and Levi Strauss & Co.

Comcast's Q1 fueled by price hikes

May 1, 2013 1:49 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Price increases on video service and customers upgrading to HD packages and digital video recorders (DVRs) helped boost Comcast’s first quarter profit by 17 percent. It lost 60K basic video subs, but increased its broadband subscriber count by 433,000 in the quarter. It also added 211,000 new voice customers.

CenturyLink uncorks 1 Gig pilot in Omaha

May 1, 2013 12:49 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Next week in Omaha, Neb. CenturyLink will fire up a fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) service that feature speeds of up 1 Gbps. The service will eventually be available to 48,000 business and residential customers in CenturyLink’s Omaha footprint.

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 | Product Releases | 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 | Product Releases | 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.