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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Sprint sues to block Dish’s plan to buy Clearwire
June 19, 2013 1:49 pm | by Ben Munson, Wireless Week | News | CommentsSprint has filed a complaint against Dish and Clearwire, asking the courts to put the brakes on Dish’s tender offer to Clearwire. Sprint said “DISH has repeatedly attempted to fool Clearwire’s shareholders into believing its proposal was actionable in an effort to acquire Clearwire’s spectrum and to obstruct Sprint’s transaction with Clearwire.”
Dish exec talks advantages of fixed-wireless broadband
June 19, 2013 1:46 pm | by Ben Munson, Wireless Week | News | CommentsDish’s vice president of wireless networks sees the unique potential for Dish to offer a combined television and broadband service for underserved customers. David Zufall noted that from an end-user perspective, it’s very similar to other broadband services except that it’s coming via a wireless network and not cable, copper or fiber.
Netgear sampling MoCA-to-Wi-Fi extender
June 17, 2013 1:23 pm | by Brian Santo | Product Releases | CommentsNetgear is sampling a MoCA-to-Wi-Fi extender based on Entropic’s silicon and software. Netgear’s WM2500RP extender is designed for service providers to use to boost coverage in whole-home video and data installations. The device delivers more than 400 Mbps of usable MAC (medium access control) throughput.
NJ Transit approves Cablevision’s Wi-Fi service on trains
June 13, 2013 12:42 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsYesterday New Jersey Transit’s board put its stamp of approval on Cablevision’s plan to make its Wi-Fi services available to commuters on its trains. The Wi-Fi access will be provided to NJ Transit customers via a dedicated, trackside Wi-Fi network, which NJ Transit said was the first of its kind in the nation.
Cable Show: Tech forums get smart about devices, consumers, Wi-FI
June 12, 2013 9:17 am | by Craig Kuhl | News | CommentsMore devices, more choices and more broadband translate to more intelligence in our home networks, and intelligent gateways will lead the way. That was the key takeaway from the first of Tuesday’s Spring Technical Forums: “Human Touch: The Intersection of Intelligent Devices and Intelligent Consumers.”
Cable Show: Cable WiFi Alliance tops 150,000 hotspots
June 10, 2013 10:55 am | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsRoughly one year after five of the top-six cable operators in the nation announced that they had formed a pact to share each other’s Wi-Fi hotspots, the Cable WiFi Alliance has topped 150,000 access points across the nation. All told, the 150,000 hotspots represent the largest Wi-Fi network in the nation.
TWC has more than 12k hotspots in Southern Cal
June 10, 2013 10:50 am | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsTwo years after announcing it was spending $15 million to build a Wi-Fi network in the Los Angeles area, Time Warner Cable announced it was up to 12,000 hotspots. Today the Wi-Fi network spans more than 300 miles of Southern California and features more than 12,000 hotspots.
Obama pushes plan for fast Internet in U.S. schools
June 7, 2013 1:44 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe President is advocating for an initiative that calls on the FCC to use an existing program that funds Internet access in schools and libraries through a surcharge on telephone bills to meet the goal. He also directed the government to do a better job of using existing funds to get Internet connections and educational technology into classrooms, and into the hands of teachers who know how to use it.
In Perspective: Flexinets
June 5, 2013 11:39 pm | by Brian Santo | Articles | CommentsWhen people watch video on cellular networks, the meter is running, and that’s a severe inhibitor to increased consumption. Wireless carriers are understandably reluctant to stop running the meter. So what to do? Subsidize the minutes, somehow - an idea ESPN has been floating.
Virgin Media testing MPEG-DASH
June 3, 2013 1:30 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsVirgin Media is trying out Harmonic's ProMedia Suite as a delivery mechanism for MPEG-DASH. Harmonic's ProMedia Live transcodes MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC H.264 content to multiple adaptive bit-rate streams optimized for the Virgin Media MPEG-DASH service. Virgin Media and Harmonic are demonstrating the MPEG-DASH workflow at the ANGA show this week in Germany.
Mobile video consumption growing at 60 percent / year
June 3, 2013 1:23 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsVideo consumption on mobile devices continues to increase at an extraordinary rate – 60 percent annually, and it is expected to continue to grow at that clip for at least another 5 years, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report. Video consumption is on average 2.6GB per subscription per month in some networks.
Clearwire postpones Sprint vote, could force SoftBank’s hand
May 31, 2013 12:30 pm | by Ben Munsen, Wireless Week | News | CommentsThe wireless broadband carrier has rescheduled a shareholder vote on a bid to buy out Clearwire. Meanwhile, Sprint’s shareholders are scheduled to vote June 12 on SoftBank’s proposal to acquire a 70 percent stake in Sprint. As a result, Softbank may be put in the position of deciding whether to close the deal for Sprint without knowing the fate of Clearwire.
Cisco: M2M manifests; video still driving global traffic
May 29, 2013 1:51 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsAccording to the company's latest global Internet traffic report, M2M Internet traffic has begun to have a measurable impact on global IP networks. The latest version of the annual Visual Networking Index also attested to the ongoing nature of other well-known trends: on a global basis, more people are getting connected, data consumption is increasing, and video represents a growing constituent element of global traffic.
Oi taps home Wi-Fi routers for public access
May 28, 2013 2:05 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsThe Brazilian telecommunications provider is preparing to commercialize a technology that North American MSOs have been only talking about so far: the ability to partition residential Wi-Fi routers to use some of the bandwidth for public mobile access. Oi is using enabling technology from Aptilo Networks.
Cisco wraps up purchase of Ubiquisys
May 24, 2013 1:29 pm | by Associated Press | News | CommentsCisco Systems Inc. said Friday that it has completed a $310 million acquisition of Ubiquisys, a privately held cellphone technology company in the U.K. Cisco said that deal will combine the expertise of both companies to the benefit of service provider customers moving to next-generation radio access networks.
