Business

AT&T announces 30-, 40- and 50 GB shared data plans

March 19, 2013 2:48 pm | by Ben Munsen, Wireless Week | News | Comments

The plans start at $300 per month—plus a $10-$30 per device fee, depending on the type of device—and go up to $500. In addition, AT&T will now offer new data-only plans for business customers bringing more than 25 devices into the fold.

Liberty Media plunks down $2.62 billion for 27% stake in Charter

March 19, 2013 12:08 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

John Malone’s holding company, Liberty Media, has bought a 27.3 percent stake in Charter Communications for about $2.62 billion. The deal is slated to close in the first half or second quarter of this year. Liberty expects to fund the purchase with a combination of cash on hand and new loan arrangements.

Disney, News Corp. finalizing plans for Hulu

March 18, 2013 2:14 pm | by The Associated Press | News | Comments

At issue is whether Hulu should completely dedicate itself to the free streaming of TV shows with ads, or whether its value lies in paid subscriptions for viewers. Disney is said to prefer the ad-supported model, while News Corp. prefers a paid service. The two might put the operation back up for sale.

Ciena sets up CenturyLink for GigE

March 18, 2013 2:07 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

CenturyLink has upgraded its metro networking capability with packet optical technology from Ciena, in order to target business customers with Gigabit Ethernet access services up to 100G. The upgrade allows CenturyLink to offer a 1GE, 10GE, 100GE and equivalent wavelengths to businesses.

AT&T begins new broadband promo

March 18, 2013 1:56 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

New customers signing up for U-verse High-Speed Internet are eligible to get one of the following Wi-Fi-enabled products: an Xbox 360, Sonos Play:3, Kindle Fire or a Nexus 7 Tablet. The promotion aims to underscore Wi-Fi based connectivity that AT&T offers, first through the company’s gateways with Wi-Fi.

Comcast cues Ethernet up in Vermont communities

March 18, 2013 12:54 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Comcast Business announced today that over the coming weeks its Ethernet services would be available across six communities in Chittenden County, Vermont. The six towns in Chittenden County feature a large number of the state's businesses, ranging from snowboard manufacturers to global high technology.

San Jose fires up free Wi-Fi network

March 15, 2013 2:23 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

The city that considers itself the capital of Silicon Valley is offering free connectivity via a network built by SmartWAVE Technologies using 802.11n Wi-Fi products from Ruckus Wireless. San Jose also has one of the best acronyms ever for its metro area network exchange (see story).

BuckeyeTelesystem debuts cloud services for businesses

March 15, 2013 8:51 am | by Mike Robuck | Products | Comments

Buckeye Telesystem’s cloud-based commercial services offering for businesses lifted off earlier this week. Buckeye Telesystems, which shares resources and infrastructure with sibling Buckeye CableSystem, is offering businesses the option of a point-to-point Metro Ethernet service that can scale as the bandwidth demand grows.

Suddenlink ups Archer to VP of service delivery, CAO Group

March 15, 2013 8:44 am | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Suddenlink Communications has promoted Tim Archer to vice president of service delivery for the company’s commercial and advertising operations (CAO) organization, which is headquartered in Dallas. Prior to his promotion, Archer was senior director of operations for Suddenlink systems in Amarillo, Texas, Clovis, N.M., and some California systems.

Rogers’ security service rolls into Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe area

March 14, 2013 12:18 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Rogers Communications has expanded the availability of its Smart Home Monitoring service into Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe, which includes Hamilton, Oakville, Burlington, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and other areas. Rogers was the first cable operator to launch a home automation and security platform in Canada in September of 2011.

Zenverge to bring MoCA on board

March 13, 2013 1:18 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

The transcoding specialist, fresh off getting its chip adopted by Arris for a new gateway based on the Comcast RDK, is in the process of integrating Entropic’s MoCA circuitry into its products. Entropic is one of Zenverge's investors, along with Motorola and Verizon, among others.

Synacor forms joint venture in China

March 12, 2013 2:03 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

The web-based portal specialist has formed a joint venture with Beijing-based Maxit Technology, as a means of expanding into China. It will be known as Synacor China Limited (and as Beijing Xing Mai Technology Limited in China). Synacor expects to invest about $2 million over two years.

Research: Fiber gap for businesses shrinks

March 12, 2013 12:07 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

According to a recent study, the “fiber gap” to businesses across the nation is steadily closing, but 64 percent of commercial buildings in the United States don’t have access to fiber-based network services. Vertical Systems Group’s latest report said that despite the current gap, business fiber availability has more than tripled since 2004 when the penetration rate was 11 percent.

Chasing big business

March 8, 2013 6:17 pm | by Craig Kuhl, Contributing Editor | Articles | Comments

The lucrative small- to mid-size business (SMB) services market is growing organically to include larger enterprises and is now in phase two as cable operators and related service providers accelerate the expansion of their business services model to include the enterprise market.

QuickPlay joining white-label multiscreen market

March 8, 2013 1:37 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

QuickPlay Media is the latest company planning to offer multiscreen delivery as a cloud-based service. The company’s name for its cloud-based managed service solutions for the distribution of media to IP-connected devices is TVX. The service includes ingest, content management, play-out, and reporting.