News Corp.’s Fox and other broadcasters went to court on Wednesday to try to pull the plug on a start-up that takes live TV programming and sends it to mobile devices in New York for a monthly fee. If granted, a preliminary injunction sought by the plaintiffs would devastate Aereo, the company’s chief executive told […]
Telecommunications
Verizon CTO cautious on small cells, Wi-Fi
Verizon CTO Tony Melone turned away from the wireless industry’s sometimes hyperbolic optimism about new technologies during an investor conference yesterday, when he offered a measured appraisal of the benefits of small cells, Wi-Fi offload and VoLTE. Small cells have been touted as the silver bullet to solving the capacity crunch, a claim often put […]
Frontier prepares to offer mobile backhaul
Frontier Communications has deployed Cisco’s high-speed router to support 4G mobile backhaul services for other carriers. Cisco said Frontier is deploying its Aggregation Services Router 9000 Series (ASR 9000) to enable mobile backhaul in up to 20 markets in the United States. Frontier Communications specializes in providing broadband to underserved areas but has had a […]
Windstream to cull up to 400 management positions
After buying nine companies since 2006, Windstream said today that it is streamlining management positions by cutting 375 to 400 jobs. The job cuts, which are slated to be finished by the third quarter, represent 3 percent of Windstream’s total workforce of 14,500. “Windstream has grown rapidly through acquisition, and it is crucial that our […]
Liberty Media spells out plan for Sirius control
Billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Media said Thursday that it will convert nearly half of its preferred shares of Sirius XM Radio into common stock and nominate a slate of candidates to the company’s board, as part of its ongoing push to take control of the satellite radio company. Liberty Media said in a filing with […]
Verizon to unleash 300 Mbps broadband tier
Starting next month, Verizon will push its broadband speed needle up to 300 Mbps on the downstream, with 65 Mbps on the upstream. The new 300 Mbps tier, which appears to be the fastest commercially available tier in North America, will be available next month and is just one piece of Verizon’s plan to restructure […]
RCN taps thePlatform to back TV Everywhere service
RCN Telecom has tapped thePlatform to help it introduce a TV Everywhere service later this year. RCN did not say when the service would begin to be available, nor did it specify which of its markets would get the service first. RCN, thePlatform and RCN’s set-top vendor TiVo are collaborating on the TV Everywhere experience, […]
A zettabyte a year on the Internet by 2016
It appears that traffic on the Internet is, indeed, growing at a rapid pace. Annual global IP traffic should reach 1.3 zettabytes by 2016, according to Cisco. That would be more or less on schedule. If there’s a new nugget in Cisco’s annual network updates, it’s that more than half of that traffic in 2016 […]
Charter adds 20 more HD channels in Great Lake state
Charter Communications is well on its way in achieving its goal of having 100 HD channels deployed across its footprint by mid-year. To wit: Charter will add 20 HD channels in Michigan next month. During the cable operator’s first-quarter earnings call earlier this month, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said the original plan was to have […]
TWC engineers IP workaround for Fleet Week in NYC
Time Warner Cable posted a blog and video yesterday about how the cable operator overcomes the frequency noise that is associated with Fleet Week in New York City. With Navy and Coast Guard ships, along with various military-related aircraft, on hand during the Fleet Week New York event, Time Warner Cable ran into problems with […]