A discussion about the Telecommunication Industry

Charter Communications, the 4^th largest cable operator, has starting tracking user’s web activity in order to push targeted ads to its subscribers.  Charter Communications has 2.8 million Internet subscribers.  Charter will sell the data it collects to a company called NebuAd which will then serve up the advertisements. 

This new policy has raised the ire of privacy advocates.  Charter does allow subscribers to opt out of the program, but most privacy advocates would like to see the program as opt-in.

Charter is going through the effort of notifying its customers of the new tracking program via mail.  Charter claims that many customers do not mind having the surfing habits monitored and would prefer to see ads that are more targeted to them rather then the hodge-podge of ads that blanket the Internet now.

Comcast, is considering abandoning it’s unlimited broadband Internet plan and setting a 250 GB monthly cap on subscribers’

Earthlink is getting out of the municipal Wi-Fi business.  Earthlink one thought setting up city wide Wi-Fi networks would save the company.  Earthlink’s main business is dial up Internet access, but that business has dried up as broadband Internet has become less expensive and the most compelling Internet content requires far more speed then dial up can deliver.

Earthlink’s flagship municipal Wi-Fi network was built in Philadelphia, but the network was an abysmal failure.  Just over 5000 people signed up for the service, a far cry from the 100,000 subscribers that Earthlink expected. Now Earthlink is simply shutting the network down.  They couldn’t even give it away for free to the city.  They are also shuttering similar a network in New Orleans.  A few smaller cities have agreed to take over Earthlink’s networks.

Using your cell phone, without a hands free device, while driving is illegal in many states and the biggest state, California, has passed such a law which will go into affect in 6 weeks.  However, a new study by the independent Public Policy Institute of California claims that, while hand held cell phone ban laws do save lives, the majority of lives saved occur when roads are wet and the weather is poor.  The data does not support a significant increase in accidents and deaths from using a hand held cell phone when driving conditions are good.  I still see many people using their cell phones while driving, even though it is illegal in my state, but hopefully people will think twice before doing so when the weather is bad.

The new 3G version of Apple’s popular iPhone cellular phone must be very close to release.  Apple announced that their web store is out of stock of the existing iPhone model in both England and the US.  There still may be some stock available at Apple or AT&T stores. 

Apple has also changed their one carrier per country policy.  Apple has signed a deal with Vodafone to sell the iPhone in 10 countries, including several such as Italy, Australia, and and India where Apple already has an existing partner carrier.  It’s unclear whether competition will affect the price of the iPhone is these countries.  Many people are still put off by the iPhones high price.

It’s been over a year since Research in Motion has introduced a new model to is ubiquitous Blackberry family.  In that time other newer more sophisticated mobile devices have cut into RIMs market share of smart phones, especially the Apple iPhone.   Several major service outages have also led some customers to defect to other devices.  Hoping to turn the tide, RIM has released a new model, the Bold.   The initial model would only be GSM capable, so it will work on AT&T and T-Mobile networks.  Later models will follow for Verizon and Sprint.   Notable features on the Bold are a higher resolution screen and dual band Wi-Fi capabilities.  Prices have not been released.

For decades cable television has had virtually no competition.  Cable companies enjoyed monopolies in their territories and customer paid the price with poor customer service, constantly rising rates, and very little innovation.  Satellite TV helped a little, but the complexity and cost of satellite dish installation and that fact that many condos and virtually all apartment buildings could not put up a satellite dish kept local cable companies felling safe and their customers felling trapped.

Verizon has changed all that in less then 2 years.  Verizon’s FiOS fiber optic TV service is now the 11^th largest pay TV service in the country and is poised to move up way on that list in short order. To date, 1.2 million people have subscribed to FiOS, the vast majority of them had been former cable customers, and subscriber growth shows no sign of slowing down.  In fact Verizon keeps adding new territories where FiOS is available.  The cable companies have lost their monopolies and customers are the ones who will benefit the most.

Cablevision has announced that it is creating a new wireless network across it’s New York service area.  The new network will be Wi-Fi based and will be free to existing customers.  This would be a huge differentiator for Cablevision, which has been losing customers to Verizon’s FiOS service in the New York Metro area.  According to the COO, the new network will be VoIP capable in the future.  Image being able to access TV, Internet, and Voice from any Wi-Fi enabled device for miles and miles around your house at no extra charge.

This is somewhat competing against other new wireless networks being proposed, except that this will work with existing laptops and other Wi-Fi enabled devices like iPhones.

The US cellular carrier market has become a two horse race according to many critics.  Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless dominate the cell phone carrier business.  Their positions became even stronger after they won most of the most desirable frequencies in the recent FCC spectrum auction.  However, the there may be a new entrant into the fraw.  A consortium of technology, cable, and phone companies has joined forces to build the first of a new generation of nationwide wireless data networks.  Highlighted by industry behemoths such as Intel, Google, Comcast, and Sprint the aims to build the new network in as short as two years and hopes to take Verizon and AT&T head on.  The new network is expected to have speeds rivaling that of cable broadband but with the advantage of being wireless and available anywhere across the nation.