Tag Archives: telecom operators

The great Verizon FiOS ripoff

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After decades of demanding and getting rate hikes and tax breaks in return for promising to deliver broadband internet access to schools, libraries, hospitals and every home and business in their territories, Verizon is now making it clear that it is no longer expanding FiOS, its fiber optic cable service.

via The great Verizon FiOS ripoff.

America is 15th or 33rd in the world in broadband, depending on which international or research group you believe. The failure to properly upgrade the PSTN, and the con of FiOS expenditures, has cost a large swath of America — from Massachusetts through Virginia and the old GTE territories, such as parts of California — a generation of technology, innovation and GDP growth.

About Wireless Leiden

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The Wireless Leiden Foundation has established an open, inexpensive, fast wireless network for Leiden and surrounding villages. It is an independent network, which technically links up seamlessly to the Internet, but can also be used for free local communication within the Leiden region. Wireless Leiden is a non-profit organisation, operating completely with professional volunteers and aiming at infrastructure and not services. All our software, technological and organisational knowledge is freely available to others under an open source license.

via About Wireless Leiden | Stichting Wireless Leiden.

Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.’s

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The government pays AT&T to place its employees in drug-fighting units around the country. Those employees sit alongside Drug Enforcement Administration agents and local detectives and supply them with the phone data from as far back as 1987.

via Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.’s – NYTimes.com.

The program was started in 2007, according to the slides, and has been carried out in great secrecy.

There once was a time, back when the old AT&T existed,  when all  phone companies viewed customer privacy sacrosanct.

Ignored by big companies, Mexican village creates its own mobile service

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The village of Villa Talea de Castro, dotted with small pink and yellow homes, has a population of 2,500 indigenous people. Tucked away in a lush forest in the southern state of Oaxaca, it was not seen as a profitable market for companies such as Slim’s America Movil. The company wanted at least 10,000 subscribers to bring the village into its mobile coverage, AFP said.

So the village, under an initiative launched by indigenous groups, civil organizations and universities, put up an antenna on a rooftop, installed radio and computer equipment, and created its own micro provider called Red Celular de Talea (RCT) this year.

via Ignored by big companies, Mexican village creates its own mobile service – Times Of India.

AT&T’s new monthly stealth fee has some crying foul

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Because the fee is so small, some call it a below-the-line charge because customers aren’t likely to notice it. That aside, it is also provides a way for carriers to advertise a lower fee than customers are actually charged. Presently, AT&T already charges about 50 cents as regulatory cost recovery charge per phone line, something that has been part of the carrier’s bills for about a decade.

via AT&T’s new monthly stealth fee has some crying foul – SlashGear.

T-Mobile No-contract Advertising: WA Court Orders Retraction

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Under T-Mobile’s new setup, subscribers can purchase handsets by making a relatively small up-front payment and then paying the remaining cost of the phone over the following 24 months. For example, Apple’s iPhone 5 costs $99 down followed by 24 monthly payments of $20. While customers do not need to sign a standard contract committing them to T-Mobile’s wireless service for two years, they do have to sign an agreement taking responsibility for full equipment costs.

via T-Mobile No-contract Advertising: WA Court Orders Retraction | BGR.

Charging $(24×20) + $99 = $579 for an IPhone when you can get a decent tablet with a bigger screen and similar features for under $200 is ridiculous.  It amazes me how people will complain when gas goes up a nickel a gallon but don’t think twice about over paying for cell phones by hundreds of dollars.

SDN’s Killer App: More Network Control

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When I pressed him for a real-life application that could be the result of the simpler networks that SDN promises, he didn’t disappoint. “You know how you have network neutrality now,” he asked. “What if the customer could flip it around and tell the service provider: ‘I’d like to give preference in my home network to Netflix.'”

via Light Reading – SDN’s Killer App: More Network Control.

What if the customer enforced that preference on their firewall?  They wouldn’t necessarily need this feature from their service provider.

FCC: OpenBand Contracts ‘Anti-Competitive’, ‘Forbidden’

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Only one day after Dulles-based telecommunications company OpenBand filed a second lawsuit against two supervisors and the board’s of two of the Loudoun homeowners’ associations it serves in response to denial of its franchise agreement application, the Federal Communications Commission issued a statement claiming the company’s telecommunication contracts should not be upheld.

via FCC: OpenBand Contracts ‘Anti-Competitive’, ‘Forbidden’ – Leesburg Today Online—Daily News Coverage of Loudoun County, Leesburg, Ashburn: News.

Life For European Telecom Carriers Will Not Get Any Easier In 2013

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The European carrier market will continue to suffer. Once upon a time, Europe led in telecom innovation and usage via a couple of large carriers and network equipment suppliers. More than 100 carriers in the 27 European countries are after 650 million consumers — less than the installed base of China Mobile alone. Competition will be fierce, especially in France with Free/Iliad’s aggressive disruption. Expect regulation, acquisitions, and cost-sharing to be high on the agenda, but the No. 1 challenge is to invent a new business model via more strategic partnerships with OTT players.

via Life For European Telecom Carriers Will Not Get Any Easier In 2013 | Forrester Blogs.