By Alana Grelyak
Oh, the wonderful month of May! And what does it hold for us in the world of telecom news? RIM seems to be doing exceptionally well while Nokia isn’t quite where they’d like to be. Time Warner Cable is trying to test out some new ways of charging for internet usage, but they’re being met with opposition from New York Democratic Representative, Eric Massa. Sun got scooped up by Oracle, and AT&T's U-Verse TV subscriptions climb ever higher. Read on to find out more. We hope you enjoy your latest edition of NewsWatch!
Time Warner Cable, with its plans to test out having consumers in Rochester, New York pay per gigabyte for internet usage, is meeting some opposition from New York Democratic Representative Eric Massa, who, at the time of our publishing, is drafting a bill to ban such a maneuver from occurring. Some of Massa’s comments point to the fact that Time Warner Cable, as a utility company, cannot justify increasing rates in such a manner. Will this bill pass? If it does, it will certainly put a damper on pay per usage internet fees, at least in New York, which will likely have an influence on companies across the United States. And if it doesn’t pass? Chances are that consumers will slowly see an end to unlimited internet access.
|
|
We may end up going backward to the early days of AOL and Prodigy where everyone was charged by the hour. |
|
AT&T reported a record 284,000 AT&T U-verse TV subscriber net additions in the first quarter, sending the total number of U-Verse TV subscribers over 1.3 million. This sends the number of subscribers to AT&T Advanced TV services (including bundled satellite TV services) to more than 3.5 million. This is yet another indicator of the growth of telco-based video service, even in this trying economy. Those interested in these developments, and others in the telco TV space, should check out Pipeline's June issue, which will highlight the present and future of the telcos' TV efforts.
|
|
|
|
Those of us that remember the early days of the internet (which is probably most of us) may remember paying almost $10 per hour of overage usage. While future restrictions may not be quite that expensive, they will certainly put a damper on the high-usage customers and, with the growth of internet movies and data sizes getting larger, those high-usage customers may eventually be all of us. Is it possible for ISPs to find a way to avoid such charges without taxing their own internal resources? Let’s hope so, or we may end up going backward to the days of AOL and Prodigy where everyone was charged by the hour.
|
|
Arantech, a provider of CEM consultancy services, has just been acquired by Tektronix, a worldwide provider of Communciations Test and Network Intelligence Solutions. How will such an acquisition be beneficial? “Addressing the customer experience gap is a critical component of the Arantech strategy and managing this gap is a top priority for carriers,” said Rich McBee, President, Tektronix Communications. “Together, the two companies will offer the most innovative, scalable customer experience management
article page
| 1
| 2 | 3 | |
|
