22 Jan 09 Crafty Comcast?
What are they up to now?
Back in August, Comcast got their knuckles rapped by the FCC for throttling specific P2P programs.
Now the FCC is asking Comcast in a letter filed on January 18, to give “detailed justification” as to why the new network management system they put in place since last August appears to affect the quality of third party VOIP services such as, for example, Vonage; yet doesn’t seem to have any effect on Comcast’s own Digital Voice Service.
I used to have Vonage here myself, but switched away from it last year to considerably reduce costs, and switched to a combination of Skype and MyFax, and this saves over $500 a year.
I’ve not had any noticeable degradation of service myself, and the fax service is noticeably better. (There is a class action suit happening right now regarding Vonage’s Fax service, but that is for another article).
The bottom line regarding Comcast though is this:
If they’re using different technology to provide their Digital Voice Service, then it could become a telephony service and not simply VOIP, and could be taxed as such; if they’re not doing that; then they need to explain why their service is getting priority over other IP based services on their network, contrary to what they’ve told the FCC after last August.
FCC logoIn a letter filed January 18, the US agency asks Comcast to provide “detailed justification” on why its new network management practices affect the quality of competing VoIP services, but apparently doesn’t degrade Comcast’s own Digital Voice Service.
The ISP recently switched its traffic management plan in response to an August order from the Federal Communications Commission demanding Comcast stop throttling specific P2P programs like BitTorrent, eDonkey, and Gnuetella.
Tags: bottom line, class action suit, comcast, digital voice, edonkey, fax service, fcc, federal communications commission, gnuetella, justification, knuckles, management practices, myfax, network management system, p2p programs, skype, telephony service, traffic management plan, voice service, vonage
05 Jun 08 Alltel Sale?
Could this be the end of Alltel is we know it? Alltel is near to working out a deal to sell the business to Verizon Wireless for $27 billion.
This would make the combined business the largest US carrier, with over 80 million subscribers. It would mean Verizon adding coverage in the Midwest and the South.
The two companies have been talking about such a merger before, but it has been opposed in the past by the UK based Vodaphone who own a 45% share of Verizon, as it would dilute their holdings.
Possible issues arising with such a merger – would the FCC allow all the overlapping of the 805Mhz spectrum? This could have consequences in much of the South West, and also in South Carolina.
Sure the technologies are the same – Alltel and Verizon both use CDMA – but once Verizon has swallowed up Alltel, are they likely to keep the parts that are useful to Alltel’s customers, such as Celltop, and My Circle? Quite possibly not.
News is that we won’t have long to wait for the outcome. A deal could be announced as soon as today.
Tags: alltel, cdma, celltop, consequences, fcc, merger, midwest, million subscribers, South Carolina, spectrum, verizon, verizon wireless, vodaphone
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