The bill is backed by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), and it’s being called the Broadband Adoption Act of 2013, which would instruct the FCC to modify the Lifeline program in order to include broadband internet. Matsui says that the Lifeline program is fantastic, but it needs to be updated and modernized to fit within the 21st century.

Lifeline is funded by the “Universal Service” system, which helps low-income Americans pay for their landline phone, but this new bill would see Universal Services also helping pay for broadband internet access. In addition to subsidizing services, the Universal Service also helps pay for telephone service in rural areas around the country.

However, the discussion of whether or not to provide low-income households with cheaper broadband internet has been up and down in Washington for several years now, with a 2010 government report showing up that recommended the addition of broadband internet to the existing Lifeline program. Plus, Matsui introduced similar legislation in 2011, but it quickly faded away.

[via Ars Technica]

Still holding the top spot is South Korea, though Japan – with a year-on-year improvement of 19-percent – is closing the gap. Hong Kong takes third position. South Korea’s average rates are almost double those of the US, though the country actually saw a decline year-on-year.

The research also looks at mobile connections, with data on mobile devices – according to Ericsson – doubling year-on-year. Average connection speeds varied considerably, however, from highs of 8 Mbps down to 245 kbps. Most popular requests from cellular devices indicate Androids hold the lead, with 35.3-percent of requests coming from Android Webkit. Mobile Safari came in second, at 32.6-percent, though was most popular when non-cellular devices – such as WiFi-only iPads – were counted too.

Globally, Akamai says that broadband adoption grew at 2.1-percent, though was slightly outpaced by what’s referred to as “high broadband” – that is, services offering speeds of above 10 Mbps – which grew 2.7-percent in the same period. However, speed isn’t the only thing that increased: Akamai counted a more than 200-percent increase in DDoS attacks, predominantly targeting commerce customers, with enterprise in second.

[via TechCrunch]

Previously, ARRIS was expected to give Google $300 million worth of its shares, giving the company a 15.7% share of the company. However, ARRIS decided to split the $300 million shares in half, giving Google one half of the shares, while giving Comcast the other half. Both companies will have 10.6 million shares of ARRIS’s common stock, giving both companies an equal 7.85% share in the company.

With the acquisition of Motorola Home, 7,000 Motorola Home employees will transfer on over to ARRIS. ARRIS’s management team will be led from the top executives from both companies. With their combined efforts, they hope to expand their customer base, and develop innovative new technology. The acquisition will provide ARRIS with Motorola Home’s 2,000 patents, and will allow the company to sell new equipment “to customers whose cable-TV sets don’t support internet-video delivery.”

This deal is a win-win for both ARRIS and Google. Google acquired Motorola Home in a packaged deal when it purchased Motorola Mobility. It only wanted the mobile patents from the deal, not the set-top box business. Now Google can let go of Motorola Home and focus entirely on its mobile division, while ARRIS now has more resources to advance farther in the video delivery and broadband techology industry. Bob Stanzione, Chairman and CEO of ARRIS, says

“This acquisition creates a global player in video delivery and broadband technology. We are combining the industry’s top experts and technologies to create a powerful solution for the entire multiscreen delivery chain – from network infrastructure, to transport, to user experience. The new ARRIS has the expertise to transform the industry.”

[via ARRIS]

Arris’s acquisition of Motorola Home will be completed around April 17th. It will pay $2.05 billion to Google, and will give it $300 million in shares, which may be a much more important factor to Google than the money itself. However, originally, the $300 million in shares would have resulted with Google owning a 15.7% stake in the company, however, Arris recently announced that Comcast will also pay for a stake in the company. Comcast will be purchasing $150 million worth of shares from Arris when Arris completes its acquisition of Motorola Home. The deal will increase Google’s “cash consideration” by $150 million, but will also reduce its stake in the company to 7.85% and give Comcast an equal 7.85% stake in the company.

After the deal is finished, 7,000 Motorola employees will be transferred over to Arris. Google will be able to focus entirely on its mobile division. When it purchased Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., it only wanted the mobile patents from the deal, not the set-top box business. When Arris announced it was going to acquire Motorola Home back in December, Marwan Fawaz, the Executive VP of Motorola Mobility, stated,

“We share a similar vision and strategy with Arris for the industry’s migration to IP. The combination of our solutions, expert technologists, and roadmaps promises to transform how service providers deliver the smart, simple connected home to consumers throughout the world.”

Arris stated that Motorola Home will help it “triple sales”, grant it 2,000 patents, expand its customer base, and get its products out to the markets quicker. With the new patents it will be receiving, it will be able to sell new equipment “to customers whose cable-TV sets don’t support internet-video delivery.” It will also be able to branch out its sales to more customers, aside from those from Comcast or Time Warner. This acquisition is a win-win for everyone.

[via TechCrunch]

The deal isn’t complete just yet and is subject to regulatory clearance. The two companies expect the deal to close in April. If the deal receives regulatory approvals Telefonica UK customers will be moved from existing O2 and BE broadband and will become Sky customers.

The deal will make Sky the UK’s second largest Internet provider putting it behind BT and ahead of Virgin Media in size. The deal breaks down to £180 million for Telefonica’s broadband business. An additional £20 million will be granted conditionally. The condition for that extra money is the “successful delivery completion of the customer migration process.”

According to reports, Telefonica’s broadband fixed line service has seen its customer base shrinking. The company peaked at 671,000 customers and then declined to its current 560,000 customer range. Many companies within the UK are keen to acquire other firms so this isn’t likely to be the only consolidation in the UK market for telecommunications this year.

[via Gigaom]

There are a few caveats that may deter many of you from Comcast’s pre-paid internet service. The first caveat is the $69.95 starter kit that you are required to purchase from your local retailer, whether it’d be Target, Radio Shack, T-Mobile(?), or many others. The starter kit comes with a 30-day service card/activation code, and all the cables you need to get started.

The second caveat is the slow data speeds allotted for pre-paid subscribers. Users will only get 3 Mbps download speeds and 768k upload speeds. While that may be adequate for casual Google searchers, that’s certainly not enough for everyone else. Even Comcast’s lowest tiered contract plan offers at least 6 Mbps download speeds.

So while this may be good enough for the average consumer, it’s pretty terrible for most of us. Watching Netflix movies, playing online games, and even watching YouTube videos can be a less-than-pleasant experience with these speeds. I, personally, need at least 20Mbps download speeds (I’m currently using 30Mbps) to feel satisfied when downloading my videos and playing my games. What data speeds do you need to be satisfied? What service do you use?

The service is expected to be a packaged content sort of subscription, meaning that customers won’t be able to pick and choose individual channels to subscribe to. According to the sources, Sony is currently negotiating with two “major content companies” for channel licensing. Some of the companies that have been approached are said to be skeptical about whether the online service will ever actually be launched, but that thus far negotiations are moving forward.

If all this sounds familiar, it is because this isn’t the first time Sony has looked into entering the TV content business. Back in 2011, Sony made a move towards delivering broadband television content via Internet-enabled TVs. While the sources state that Sony is more serious this time than last, the biggest hinderance to such a move is cost, something that is particularly important to the currently-struggling Sony, which has suffered layoffs and financial blows.

Still, if all works out and Sony presses ahead with this plan, it could have the potential to be lucrative, and bolster sales of its other devices, such as the PlayStation 3 and Bravia television sets. There’s no word on whether the TV service would be limited to Sony’s devices, or if it would be available to a wider consumer base. Not surprisingly, Sony declined commenting on the rumors.

[via Variety]

Apparently, the white paper caught the attention of a Democratic senator from Oregon named Ron Wyden. Wyden has introduced legislation to regulate the use of data caps this week. The Senators Bill would allow the use of data caps only to control congestion on a network and would not allow them to be used to maximize a carrier’s revenue.

Wyden plans to address three major issues with his bill. He wants to increase the accuracy and amount of information carriers provide consumers. This bill also proposes to allow the FCC to regulate methods used by carriers for measuring bandwidth. The second major issue the bill seeks to address would be to require any data caps used by ISPs to “reasonably limit network congestion without unnecessarily restricting Internet use.”

A statement released along with the legislation noted that some data caps might work to discourage Internet use even when it has no effect on network congestion. The third thing the legislation seeks to address could be the most controversial. The bill would require any data cap in place not be used to provide preferential treatment of data based on the source or content of the data. That would mean the legislation would eliminate any paid fast lane for data, which has been proposed by some users.

[via ArsTechnica]

The Federal Communications Commission has several hearings set to take place throughout next year concerning national disasters, the latest of which was Hurricane Sandy. The series will kick off in New York, and will then take place in various locations across the nation. In addition to talk about having carriers report on their performance, the agency will also discuss disaster preparation for carriers, service provider cooperation, how to speed up recovery, and better backup power systems.

Several carriers and cable providers experienced outages during Hurricane Sandy, including T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Time Warner. The agency noted that several companies shared their resources, including cellular sites, during the process, and questioned how such sharing can be better facilitated in the future. Another major focus of the hearings will be backup power, which is an integral part of keeping systems up and functioning.

Said the FCC, “Users of communications services appear to lack information about the performance of the services they pay for … Would it help consumers to know the performance and reliability of the companies’ service or devices as compared to competitors during past emergencies?” The agency’s chairman said the disasters in recent history have prompted a need for “ideas and actions to ensure the resilience of communications networks.”

[via PC World]

ATG-4 provides speeds up to 9.8mbps, which, according to the announcement, is three times the speed of the previous offering of 3.1mbps. Adding to the mix are directional antennas, dual modems in the aircraft, and the use of EVDO Rev. B. The service is expected to be available on American Airlines as well in 2013.

Gogo’s President and CEO Michael Small offered this statement. “This significant step in Gogo’s technology roadmap allows us to better address the demand for in-air connectivity services. We continue to find ways to implement new technologies that bring more bandwidth to the aero market … ATG-4 planes will have improved that service today – especially on transcontinental routes.”

The company plans to roll out ATG-4 on hundreds of planes by the end of next year. Says Gogo, installation is typically an overnight process, and includes the additional of one antenna on each side of the plane, as well as a modem and the latest version of the software. Over 150 of the company’s cell towers have already been upgraded to support ATG-4.

So far, AT&T’s goal has been to get 250m people covered by LTE service by the end of next year. This new target extends that by a further 50m over 12 months; when it comes to the 22 states AT&T has wireline service, the carrier says it plans to cover 99-percent of customer locations.

Internet connections, meanwhile, will get faster than before, with Project VIP targeting up to 75Mbps U-verse rates and up to 45Mbps U-vers IPSDLAM rates. AT&T will also invest in wirelessly-connected cars, delivering real-time traffic updates and entertainment to drivers, as well as feeding vehicle diagnostics back to manufacturers.

Part of AT&T’s VIP push will include adopting new technologies, including smaller cellphone base stations. These “small cell” installations will also be accompanied by new macro cells and additional distributed antenna systems, something AT&T promises will increase speed and stability for wireless users.

That fiber option promises up to 76 Mb/sec, with plans starting from £25 per month. There’s also the promise of a £5 monthly discount if you’re also an LTE subscriber, while EE also offers a regular (i.e. non-fiber) broadband package priced from £5 per month, for those with more humble speed needs.

All of EE’s mobile plans come with unlimited calls and messaging, though some LTE-hopefuls were disappointed by the data limits the carrier had opted for. £36 gets you a mere 500MB, while bundles up to 8GB are available; EE says it has made for better value by throwing in numerous extras, such as free movie rentals and cloud backup for devices.

EE Film isn’t just for EE subscribers, either; the app is available for subscribers of other networks, too. It’s currently to be found in the Google Play store, though is also promised for iOS at some point in time. More information here.

The new service is called DishNet and it will offer two main packages. The cheapest plan will cost $39.99 per month and it will offer 5Mbps down and 1Mbps up internet access with a 10GB data cap. You can bump the speeds up to 10Mbps with a 20GB data cap for $49.99 per month. However, in order to get these prices, you’ll have to sign a two-year contract and bundle the internet plan with at least Dish’s “America’s top 120″ TV package or any other TV plan that’s more expensive.

You’ll have to pay equipment fees, but installation can be free for both new and existing Dish customers if they bundle up with a TV package. Otherwise, installation will cost $99. That’s not a bad price to pay anyway, seeing how installation fees for other companies can cost upwards of $200 to $300.

DishNet will be available nation-wide, but its aimed and focused on rural areas that don’t have access to high-speed broadband internet. The data caps are definitely a bummer, seeing as other internet service providers usually provide a more generous cap (especially in the city) or no cap at all even. However, if you’re not one to download and stream a bunch of video content, we think you’ll be fine with the small data caps.

[via The Verge]

To begin with, EarthLink will start with fixed wireless service in consumers’ homes and will later expand to include mobile devices. That sounds rather odd considering wireless broadband is typically associated with mobile devices more than home Internet access. EarthLink will offer the service using a WiMax USB dongle for computers, and mobile phones later.

While EarthLink’s 4G service will start using the Clearwire WiMax network, both EarthLink and Clearwire say that the 4G access will be offered via Clearwire’s LTE network when it launches sometime next year. EarthLink today sells Internet service using DSL more than the dial-up access were familiar with from the past.

EarthLink is Clearwire’s latest wholesale customer, and Clearwire counts Sprint and prepaid mobile companies Jolt Mobile and Cricket Communications as customers as well. While Clearwire plans to roll out a LTE network, it will not discontinue its WiMax network. Sprint has an agreement in place with Clearwire that allows Sprint continue to use the WiMax network through 2015. There are no pricing or availability details on the new EarthLink service right now.

[via Computuer World]

Robert McDowell, who happens to be the only Republican on the FCC commission, has rejected the idea that he supported taxing the Internet. He went so far as to say that he is unsure that the FCC has the legal authority to tax broadband service. The row started when the FCC was urged to broaden the base of contributions that flow into the Universal Service fee.

In the past money in the fund was used to pay for phone service for the poor. With more and more people not using traditional home phones, the funds going into the service have significantly shrunk. Last year, the Universal Service Fund was overhauled and turned into the Connect America Fund, which would also use money to subsidize the construction of broadband networks to American communities that lack them.

Obviously, if the FCC wants to broaden the base of contributions into the Connect America Fund, services not currently taxed would have to be taxed. One unnamed FCC official has stated that broadband is the biggest and most obvious option for expanding the base. However, a spokesman for FCC Chairman Genachowski says that he is skeptical about a broadband tax because it may discourage people from adopting broadband.

[via TheHill]

The BCM4335 chip is a complete WiFi system, with Bluetooth 4.0, FM radio, and software on a single chip. This includes the MAC, PHY, and RF. Broadcom claims it is the only chip to address “unique interference challenges in systems with both 4G LTE cellular radios and wireless connectivity.” Also, it is platform agnostic so it can be added to any smartphone or tablet.

Additional features of the new chip include: the most advanced idle power consumption performance to improve battery life, 10% faster throughputs than 802.11n speeds when communication with other 5G devices, built-in media processing to off-load host processor, PHY rates of 433 Mb/s, and integrated support for Wi-Fi Driect, WiFi Certified Miracast, and WiFi Certified Passpoint technologies. It will be available in devices in early 2013.

[via Broadcom]

To be fair, the study looked at the complete cost of “triple play” bundles in the US – not the promotional deals you get for the first 12 months when you sign up. It found that prices range from $65.60 for AT&T’s triple play in Louisiana, to $154.98 for Verizon’s service in New York City. Meanwhile, Seoul and Paris all had comparable packages for less than $40 per month.

And in most other major European cities – London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen – it was less than $50 per month. And in Hong Kong, you can get service for just $37.34, where download speeds are 500 Mbps. By comparison, San Francisco was almost the fastest city in the US at just 200 Mbps. The New America Foundation admits that some of this comparison is like comparing apples to oranges because it’s hard to really get a pulse for the experience you’re paying for with broadband connections, but those huge discrepancies show that there is at least some sort of higher price/performance ratio that US consumers are paying for broadband.

[via Ars Technica]

An undetermined amount of subscribers to the telephone company’s U-Verse high-speed Internet service are unable to track their monthly data usage. When they try to check online, they are greeted with the following message: “Note: Your usage is not yet available for display. You should not be concerned about your usage for billing purposes. AT&T will keep you informed about your data usage via email.”

AT&T knows this is an issue, but still charges those who exceed their limit. The company said in an email to GigaOM, “All customers will hear from us early and often if they are close to exceeding their data plan. Before a customer’s usage surpasses his or her data plan and an additional charge is applied, we send that customer an alert when they reach 65, 90 and 100 percent of their monthly data plan. And we offer two billing grace periods.”

[via GigaOM]

In addition, if you were told that you could save money on your Internet bill if you hold back on your usage, would you? Time Warner Cable is testing out a new idea that instead of forcing everyone to switch to a capped broadband plan, it could reward users who volunteer to opt into a low-tier plan with a reduced monthly fee.

The new plan is being tested in Texas markets, where any customer that agrees to be capped at 5 GB per month will receive $5 per month off of their service charges. Overage rates will be billed at a rate of $1 per gigabyte, with a maximum overage fee of $25. This is the same plan that the company rolled out to smaller markets over the past few years, but now has etended into places like Austin, Dallas, and El Paso.

[via Multichannel News]

That’s based on a two-year agreement for the maximum-speed FiOS Quantum service. If you’re content to “make do” with 150Mbps downloads instead of 300Mbps (and the same 65Mbps upload rate) then you can pare it down by more than 50-percent, to “just” $100 per month.

Cheaper packages offer 75/35Mbps for $90 per month, and then carry on down the scale trading speed for price as you’d expect. All plans come with a wireless router – exact model may vary, Verizon warns – and the installation process will involve fitting a new fiber terminal box to the outside of your house and then any necessary wall jacks inside.

Add-ons include FiOS TV Prime HD, with various on-demand services, and of course phone service. You’ll need to be in a fiber-to-the-home supported area, of course, and can check whether you’re eligible for the high-speed service at Verizon’s site.

If you’re wondering, that download speed is a world record and was set in the city of Schwerin. The download speed is so fast that normal computers can’t even handle the data transfer rates. KD used EuroDOCSIS spec on 8 MHz channel to achieve the world record-setting download rates. In the US, we use 6 MHz DOCSIS, so we may not see the sort of performance.

To compare, Verizon offers download speeds of 300 Mbps on its FiOS service. If you break that 4.7 Gbps down to Mbps, KD is offering 4700 Mbps. Quite a speed difference there isn’t it. My local company would have to double my speed to get a measly 1 Mbps.

[via Engadget]

If you already have the 150Mbps FiOS plan, then you will be eligible for a free upgrade to 300Mbps. The 50Mbps tier actually gets the best boost, tripling to 150Mbps. However, Verizon isn’t planning on any major expansions of its FiOS infrastructure, so if you’re in an area without FiOS, don’t expect to be getting it anytime soon.

The new speeds will be made available starting in June, but Verizon hasn’t revealed yet whether there will be any pricing adjustments. Instead, they said that existing users could choose to remain at their current speeds and not upgrade.

Verizon will offer to replace the older slower routers for existing users that choose to upgrade. The new routers can transfer data event faster than FiOS’s latest speeds. At the slowest tier of 15Mbps, it will take about 44.4 minutes to download a 5GB two-hour HD video, while at the highest tier of 300Mbps, that same video will only take 2.2 minutes.

[via ArsTechnica]

Although the FCC is the regulating body that approves or rejects the deal, recommendations such as the one from Kohl often have a significant influence on that decision. Verizon has already offered to sell off its 700MHz blocks A and B, but Kohl is suggesting that Verizon would need to also divest some of the AWS spectrum that it acquires from the cable deal.

The cable companies Cox Communications along with Spectrum Co., which includes Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks want to sell about 20MHz of AWS spectrum to Verizon in an agreement that would allow the companies to market each others services. Competitors such as T-Mobile are concerned that the deal would allow Verizon to corner the AWS spectrum, which the carriers are vying for to build out their 4G LTE networks.

[via CNET]

The company announced Wednesday it had raised the $200 million and will be collaborating with the Gig.U project to decide on the universities that will get the new high-speed infrastructure. Those high-speed network infrastructures will be rolled out between November and March 2013. The communities that get the new high-speed networks will also participate in a program headed by Gig.U.

The program the communities participated in is called the Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program. This program hopes to use the new high-speed connections to drive innovation in education, healthcare, and other sectors of the communities. I hope Gigabit Squared and Gig.U do well with this program, and it spurs the rollout of superfast broadband networks around the country.

[via Venturebeat]

With the X1, Comcast has shifted the bulk of the work from the firmware to the network, which will make it easier for cable providers to upgrade the system over time without having to push new firmware. The X1 is connected to the cloud and offers integration of social apps, such as Skype, Facebook, and Pandora,

The X1 can also be used with mobile phone apps that turn handsets into remote controls, similar to what’s offered on Roku, AppleTV, and Boxee. The gesture controls on your handset can be used to more easily navigate through the X1 interface and menus.

[via VentureBeat]

The first approach involves instituting a 300GB monthly data cap for basic services, such as its Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance tiers, while offering increasingly higher data caps for each successive tier of high speed broadband, such as its Blast and Extreme plans. Customers that use more data than allotted for each tier can purchase additional gigabytes in increments.

The second approach is to just increase data caps for all tiers to 300GB per month and still offer additional gigabytes at increments. Either way, data caps will be boosted to at least 300GB per month for all plans. It hasn’t been announced yet which markets would be involved in the trials.

[via PC Mag]

The money will also be used to extend broadband access to businesses and other so-called anchor institutions in rural America. The money is being given as part of the Connect America Fund that was created last October. The $300 million comes from savings generated by conditions placed on the Universal Service Fund that was used previously to ensure all Americans had phone service.

The SEC is giving telecommunications companies 90 days to decide whether they plan to participate in the program. The program reportedly has aggressive build out requirements as a condition of accepting money from the program. Carriers are not required to participate in the effort, but the FCC believes that nationwide, improvements will be significant.

[via TheHill]

The system allows BT to dispatch police to the crime scene more quickly, with some early success in trials that began at the tail-end of 2011. In one incident “the [alleged] thieves fled the scene and left evidence – cutting equipment – which gives the police something to DNA swab,” BT Security general manager Luke Beeson revealed. ”We’re pretty confident it’s only a matter of time before we catch thieves in the act.”

Copper is a common target, as the metal is currently high in price on the scrap market, and easily cut through with manual tools. Unfortunately fiber optic cables – which have no real resale value – are often damaged in the process, an expensive and tricky repair job for BT’s engineers.

BT claims it sees copper theft attempts numbering in the thousands each year across the UK, and though identification technologies such as indelible ink markers that stay stuck to thieve’s hands have been implemented, it’s hoped the RABIT system will end many of those attempts before significant damage is done.

[via ZDNet]

Computer World reports that the company has demonstrated optical networking that can achieve speeds of up to 1.7Tbit/s. It’s achieved by using a method called Wavelength Division Multiplexing, which can send data over different wavelengths over the same optical fiber. By combining eight channels, each capable of carrying 216.4Gbit/s, ZTE can that break the Tbit/s threshold.

Distance doesn’t seem to be an issue, either: ZTE say the demonstration was carried out over 1,750 km. They don’t know exactly when products featuring 200Gbit/s and higher be will utilized, but they wanted to demonstrate that it was possible to upgrade from 100Gbit/s per channel. Just like in the smartphone arena, arch-rival Huawei isn’t sitting still: last week it demonstrated a similar system, but managed to achieve 400Gbit/s per channel instead.

Right now, carriers typically use 10Gbit/s for their backhaul, which could become overrun as we move to faster wired and wireless broadband speeds. Right now they’re aiming to upgrade to 40Gbit/s or 100Gbit/s, with the higher speed favoured due to its lower cost per bit.

The external antenna cost $200 and installation work is free. The service starts at $60 a month and provides a mere 10 GB of data for the entire home. Verizon spins that 10 GB data allotment well enough noting that you could watch 10 hours of HD quality video or download the complete works of Shakespeare 2000 times with that much bandwidth. Anyone who enjoys Netflix or other streaming video services will blow through 10 GB in very short order on a single TV. Toss in some online gamers and what you have is a mix for huge overage fees.

Perhaps the 5-gallon bucket over the top the antenna is to hold all the loot Verizon stands to make in overage fees. The service will roll out initially in Dallas, Nashville, and Birmingham later this month. Verizon hopes to be able to provide the service everywhere this year. This may be the only option for some people to get broadband, just watch out for those overage fees that can grow very quickly. There is also a $90 monthly plan that provides 20 GB of data and $120 monthly plan with 30 GB of data. If you run over by a single gigabyte and you will need to cough up an extra $10.

Google has chosen Kansas City as its first trial city for Google Fiber, an ultra-fast 1-gigabit fiber optic broadband network that will provide internet connection speeds 100 times faster than current average connection speeds. Google is on track to deploy the new broadband network in Kansas City later this year.

The use of a flat, flexible molding strip means less need for digging, which in turn produces less damage to property and the environment. The molding can run along driveways, along a crack, pressed into the ground or buried in a shallow trench cut in the ground. This method can significantly reduce the amount of time and cost required for deployment.

At MWC 2012, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said that he envisions Google Fiber in almost every city by 2020. Schmidt also expressed sympathy for network operators as many of Google’s service use up a lot of bandwidth while operators struggle with bandwidth limitations, government regulations, and the inability to raise prices or charge services such as YouTube for the usage. Schmidt seems to be suggesting this as part of the reason Google is pursuing the build out of its own infrastructure, which will also be an enabler for the company’s other services.

[via CNET]

The project will initially involve building a solid fiber backbone. Once this infrastructure is completed, then Google Fiber can connect into homes across Kansas City. It will involve laying down thousands of miles of cables across Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri.

The cables contain many glass fibers about the width of a human hair and can deliver data at 1Gbps speeds. The network will be tested for supporting gaming applications and intensive graphics programs.

The bulk of the changes are aimed at cutting out waste and abuse in the Lifeline program, which has been around for 25 years. The changes include setting up the National Lifeline Accountability Database that will prevent the subsidies from being funneled to multiple phone carriers on behalf of the same family or individual. The changes will also make a more streamlined way to determine if a family or individual qualifies for free service.

The changes also mean that homes with multiple families living in the home will count all families and their income to determine eligibility. The goal of the FCC is to save $2 billion over the next three years and funnel some of that money into a program to pay for rural broadband tests. The rural broadband test program is called the Broadband Adoption Pilot Program. The savings goal from the Lifeline subsidy for 2012 is $200 million, with $25 million of those funds earmarked for the new broadband pilot.

[via The Verge]

The initial plans for the wireless broadband service were shot down due to interference with many GPS devices on the market right now. LightSquared came back with an alternative plan with a lower powered service that it said would not interfere as badly. Even those plans are being frowned on by the FCC, and it appears that LightSquared may be dead before it starts.

A letter from the FAA has been published that used tests by a panel of nine experts in different government agencies and departments. The conclusion was that LightSquared posed a risk of dangerous interference with GPS devices. LightSquared has argued in the past that GPS has no right to protection and that the GPS makers had poorly designed devices. The insinuation by LightSquared was that it’s not its wireless service but shoddy GPS designs that allow interference.

In the UK, government-run turned private telecoms company British Telecom runs the so-called “last mile” of telephone networks. This final connection between the local exchange and users’ homes are what can cause a bottleneck for other DSL broadband providers, like Sky: if they want to do any work on new connections or maintenance, they must contract it out to BT’s engineers rather than do it themselves.

Installing a new cable network – or building out a huge wireless system – would obviously involve considerable investment on Sky’s part, but the upshot would be a system entirely within the company’s control. That could have long-term financial impact, as well as reduce customer frustration when Sky service is interrupted and the company has to look both to its network and that of BT in order to narrow down the fault.

Actually doing that would demand Sky partially replicating or replacing the 5,000 or so BT exchanges, which makes its hotspot wireless roll-out look simple in comparison. According to reports, both are still being tested, though there’s no indication when, exactly, a public launch might take place.

“The internet plays an important role in the lives of citizens, consumers and industry. We now expect and depend on access to the content and services it has to offer” Ofcom CEO Ed Richards said. “Ofcom is now looking to the ISPs to ensure that transparent information is available, and will look to intervene if it does not see improvements.”

The organization has set out three key factors which ISPs must explain clearly: the average speed users should expect, how any traffic management such as throttling might impact service, and details on which services – if any – are specifically blocked. “ISPs should not use the term ‘internet access’ to refer to a service that blocks lawfully available internet services” Ofcom concludes.

If ISPs don’t step up their game, “then Ofcom could use its powers to impose minimum quality of service levels”: that’s not just on how limits are communicated, but which limits themselves are applied. A Net Neutrality framework was passed into UK law earlier this year.

The program was first announced back in early August and is part of Comcast’s regulatory obligation after its NBC Universal acquisition. The service cannot increase in price over time and there are no rental or activation fees. Generally all families that meet the low-income qualifications can apply unless the family has outstanding bills with Comcast or has been a customer within the past 90 days.

Eligibility for the program depends on individual circumstances, but families with at least one child in the National School Lunch Program will qualify. A family of four making less than $29,055 a year should qualify for the program, while a family of three making less than $25,000 a year should be able to qualify as well.

[via Ars Technica]

The new program is part of Comcast’s regulatory obligation after having acquired NBC Universal last year. Although individual circumstances will affect eligibility, a rough estimate is that a family of four making $29,055 per year would qualify for the scheme, while a family of three making less than $25,000 would also qualify.

Comcast promises no price increases, rental fees or activation fees, and sign-ups will be accepted as long as they have no outstanding bills with the company and haven’t been a customer in the past 90 days. Obviously you’ll also need to live in an area with Comcast service, too. Service will begin in the 2011-12 school year.

[via NPR]

Guerra calls the project super WiFi and the system takes the normal WiFi signals and shifts them over to the TV station frequency. The student has already tested the system in a home where the cities free WiFi signals didn’t reach thanks to lots of tall trees surrounding the property. Super WiFi could get the single to the home even though it was a mile from the All Wi-Fi transmission tower that sent the free broadband service.

The system that Guerra designed uses components like an off the shelf 2.4GHz WiFi card on a Linux computer and the card’s frequency was connected to a frequency translator developed by Alcatel Lucent. This is the key bit of magic that downshifts the WiFi signals to the empty channels in the 563MHz frequency. The output from the translator was connected to a TV antenna set up outside the home.

[via Gizmowatch]

The agreement will see passengers on JetBlue flights get access to the ViaSat Ka-band satellite technology that allows for more bandwidth and faster speeds than existing in-flight internet access providers. The agreement between the companies is worth about $30 million.

It will see Ka-band terminals installed into the JetBlue fleet hat has 170 aircraft. ViaSat will install the broadband terminals into the Airbus A320 aircraft that JetBlue operates as well as the Embraer E190 jets. JetBlue will be the first to get the Ka-band service and installation in aircraft is expected to start in 2012.