Daily Archives: April 3, 2008

Comcast Brings Big Broadband to Minnesota

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According to the Pioneer Press, Comcast will today announce big broadband service in the Twin Cities. With the new service, subscribers will be able to download at speeds of up to 50 megabits per second and upload at speeds of 5 megabits per second. The cost will be $150 a month for residential users and $200 a month for businesses, which includes support for business e-mail and Web hosting. (I didn’t see any info on the new service on the Comcast site – yet.)

I am very interested to see how popular the service is. They claim to be targeting online gamers. I think the businesses might be the most likely audience. I will look forward to trying out the service once I get home. I wish I could get it here. I run into bandwidth issues almost daily and while I spend a lot of time online – I don’t hitnk of myself as a super user. I don’t do online gaming and I don’t generally send or receive large files such as online x-rays or CAD files.

The article mentions that Qwest will soon be announcing a new product too.

FCC Chairman Says No to Skype

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Sorry I will be posting a few things today. I tried to combine them and I just couldn’t do it. There have been a few newsworthy events in the last 24 hours and they just aren’t relate-able.

First FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said at the CTIA Conference that he does not support Sykpe’s petition for Carterfone regulation that would force operators to connect any device provided it doesn’t do any harm to the network.

Martin insists that regulation is not necessary because (quoted from the San Francisco Chronicle) Verizon Wireless announced last year it would open its network to outside devices and applications, provided they pass their certification process. Sprint and T-Mobile have also embraced openness through Google’s Open Handset Alliance, which calls for similar open access.

Before I make any comment I must admit that I love Skype. I use it almost daily to call home. OK sometimes I use it to make work calls – but really it lets me call family back in the US at any time. It makes me feel so much closer than I ever felt living overseas 15 years ago when I could call on Sunday only.

So, I am sad at this unofficial decision. As a consumer, I feel as if maybe the vendors do just the bare minimum to get by. Sure they say that they’re all over innovation that will happen tomorrow but I don’t see anyone embracing the innovation today.

I think that hesitation to innovate is part of what’s keeping the US out of the top technology ranking on a worldwide basis. As we work to maintain the status quo – the rest of the world is playing as if they have nothing to lose and we’re eating their cyber dust.