Tag Archives: comcast

People are pulling the plug on cable television by the hundreds of thousands

August 1, 2012default2011, 2012, analyst, broadband, cable, comcast, company, cord, credit suisse, cutter, gained, high speed, internet, lost, phone, plug, pulling, q2, rivals, satellite, service, stefan anninger, subscribers, television, thousands hundreds, video, voice, yearrobotchampion

People are pulling the plug on cable television by the hundreds of thousands.

Comcast’s Q2 2012 earnings show the cable company is relying heavily on its high-speed Internet service subscribers.

Though the cable giant reports a total Q2 increase in customers of 138,000; the cable company also lost a massive 395,000 television subscribers in the last year.

This number is huge, considering Credit Suisse analyst Stefan Anninger previously predicted 200,000 fewer subscribers would pay for television services this year.

Source: Business Insider

Specific numbers:

In Q2 2012:

Lost 176,000 cable subscribers.
Gained 156,000 broadband.

In Q2 2011

Lost 238,000 cable.
Gained 144,000 broadband.

“While Comcast continued to rack up new broadband subscribers, it is still losing basic video subscribers quite fast — both to cord cutters and satellite/phone company rivals.” – GigaOm

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Sign up for Google Fiber get a free Nexus tablet, or super-cheap internet for $3.57/mo

July 26, 2012default1gbps, cable, cable companies, comcast, fiber, google, google fiber, internet, kansas city, mbps, month, nexus 7, service, speed, tablet, traditional, tv, verizonrobotchampion

Today may very well live in infamy as the day the cable companies died. Internet giant Google announced its new, groundbreaking Google Fiber, a broadband service that will bring breakneck 1Gbps internet speed to Kansas City — service far faster and far cheaper than that offered by traditional cable companies.

How fast is Google’s 1Gbps service? Competitor Comcast recently announced it would launch 305Mbps speed service to much of the Northeast at a cost of $299.95 per month…at 1,000 Mbps, Google Fiber cost of just $70 per month.

Google Fiber allows you to combine your cable TV and internet service into one product, for just $120 per month. Getting service to your house will require you pay a $300 service initiation fee — a fee that’s waved if you agree to keep Google Fiber service for a minimum of two years.

And the remote control for your Google Fiber TV service? It’s a Nexus 7 tablet.

If you’re looking for a lower priced internet option, Google Fiber has you covered there, too. Anyone who pays the $300 connection fee can opt to receive 5Mbps service for free for seven years. That’s an unheard of bargain — you can essentially buy seven years’ worth of internet service for just $3.57 a month.

Keep reading: Tecca - Google launches Google Fiber, 1Gbps broadband service 100 times faster than what you have now

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NBC splits with MSNBC – as it’s biased political persona grows

July 16, 2012defaultautomatically, automaticallyr, biased, cable, channel, charlie tillinghast, comcast, destination, digital, divorce, john kelly, media outlets, microsoft, morning joe, msnbc, msnbc.com, nbc, nbc news, nbcuniversal, news, persona, politically, portal, programs, progressive, rachel maddow, redirect, staff, stafff, yearsrobotchampion

Another driver was MSNBC, the cable channel, which started to take on a politically progressive persona several years ago. As the image of MSNBC changed, the head of MSNBC.com, Charlie Tillinghast, floated a name change.

“Both strategies are fine, but naming them the same thing is brand insanity,” Charlie Tillinghast said to his staff in early 2010.

NBC and Microsoft could not agree on proposed changes that year. But conversations resumed after Comcast acquired a majority stake in NBCUniversal in early 2011. Divorce talks between Comcast and Microsoft started in earnest last winter and were reported by a number of media outlets in the spring. The deal was signed last Friday.

For now, MSNBC.com will automatically redirect browsers to NBCNews.com…At first, the site will retain sections for MSNBC’s political programs like “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “Morning Joe.” But those will be moved onto a new MSNBC.com early next year.

Said John Kelly, “There’s a big opportunity for the MSNBC cable brand to have its own digital destination.”

Source: N. Y. Times - Microsoft and NBC Complete Web Divorce

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White House creates – U.S. Ignite program – to make internet 90% cheaper and start building gigabit networks

June 18, 2012default1 gigabit network, academic, broadband, cheaper, comcast, connect, developer, digital, foundation, future, generation, gigabit, hp, internet, million, mozilla, national science foundation, network, next generation, nsf, start-ups, u.s. ignite, universities, verizon, white houserobotchampion

The President is set to sign an executive order today (June 13, 2012) that aims to cut the cost of broadband construction across federal roadways and properties by up to 90 percent. The White House is also is looking to improve “next-generation applications and (the) digital experience,” running on networks that are a heady 100 times faster than what’s in use today.

Called – U.S. Ignite – the partnership aims to push the growth of next-generation broadband networks, teaming up with over 100 start-ups, universities and existing tech companies like HP, Comcast and Verizon for the project.

The National Science Foundation has thrown in $250 million to assist the partnership’s creation of a national 1-gigabit network that would connect together academic and developer hubs.

Mozilla has decided to team up with the foundation to offer up a $500,000 prize pot for developers looking to help create the “internet of the future”.

via Engadget

Follow the U.S. Ignite program on: Facebook – Twitter

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IPv6 – It’s only the biggest change to the internet – ever!

June 7, 2012defaultarchitecture, AT&T, billion, brian hart, cisco, comcast, facebook, google, hardware, history, internet, internet protocol, internet protocol version 6, internet service providers, ipv4, ipv6, microsoft, time warner cable, world ipv6 dayrobotchampion

It’s only the most significant architectural development in the history of the Internet, and presto, it transpired last night at 00:01 GMT. Did you notice?

I’m betting not, and that you probably didn’t even know it was happening, which is precisely how things were supposed to go down. Don’t worry, you’re fine, you don’t need to do anything, and as far as most of the Internet is concerned, turning on IPv6 — of tectonic caliber at the architectural level, minus the earthquakes — won’t impact how you interact with the Internet any time soon. But it will eventually. And it was necessary, to prevent the Internet from running out of real estate.

Thus “IPv6 Day,” which is what participants have dubbed June 6, 2012, the day some of the world’s biggest Internet service providers and companies like AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Time Warner Cable, enable IPv6 permanently on their hardware. It’s the followup to World IPv6 Day, which occurred a year ago on June 8, 2011, when providers turned on IPv6 for a single day in a kind of symbolic “time to pay attention to this” act.

via Time – Techland

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