TPile

There’s really no mystery here since the network was already live, we’ve discussed the pricing, and customers have already been signing up for service for weeks — but Clearwire’s “Clear” Mobile WiMax network went officially live in Portland today. A refresher: the mobile version comes in four flavors, all of which offer 4Mbps/384kbps connectivity, but with different bandwidth caps ($30/month for 200MB, $40/month for 2GB and $50/month for unlimited). The home plans come in three flavors with no caps: 768kbps/128kbps for $20, 3Mbps/384bps for $30, and 6Mbps/512kbps for $50. Which market will launch next isn’t clear, the company delaying Chicago and DC launches, after recently announcing a sour economy may delay the network build.
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UK Communications minister expected to introduce a universal service obligation (USO) for broadband requiring service at up to 2Mbps thinkbroadband.com
AT&T Launches U-verse In El Paso multichannel.com
FTTH Council: More fiber nets create more jobs lightwave.com
28m US/Ireland telecoms link announced channel4.com
Motorola Stuffs WiMax, Wi-Fi Into One Device multichannel.com
Adobe, Broadcom Bring Flash to TV cable360.net
NTT Fibre Optic Network to Distribute Movies to Theaters lightwave.com
Microsoft dusts off ‘Apple tax’ argument theinquirer.net
Skype launching new client just for Mac theregister.co.uk

According to a new report by Pike and Fisher, 2009 will see a 12% decline in subscriber growth. That’s in part because the broadband market was already slowing down, but it’s also thanks to the troubled economy and slow home sales (no new homes, no new connections). Interestingly, Pike claims cable will gobble up 75% of all new customer additions next year, due to slower DSL speeds and limited deployment of FiOS and U-Verse. The report does however insist that government involvement in the sector could save the day:

That of course assumes that any new plans developed will be good ones, and that Uncle Sam won’t simply throw money at major carriers and hope for the best.

In a second report issued this week, Pyramid Research puts things in perspective, noting that the United States may have shortcomings when it comes to broadband penetration, price and speed, but leads the world in broadband revenues. The US generated more than $32 billion in broadband revenues in 2008, considerably more than second-place Japan, which generated $23 billion. We’re number one. Sort of.
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Apple today announced several changes to the iTunes store, most notable of which is that the company is eliminating digital rights management (DRM) from their downloads. The change comes at a cost however, Apple bending to the recording industry’s long-standing demand for variable pricing. Apple’s now delivering single tracks for 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29 — with the price tag determined by the major labels and a song’s popularity and/or age. Apple also announced that iPhone users can now preview and purchase the entire iTunes Store via the 3G network, something previously restricted to Wi-Fi.
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Slashdot notes that New Zealand is poised to include a ‘Guilt Upon Accusation,’ clause into their copyright laws, which means that if an ISP user is simply accused of piracy then they are declared guilty — the punishment being Internet disconnection. According to Torrent Freak, there were provisions included in the law that would address a grievance process for the falsely accused, but they were removed. ISPs, who say they weren’t properly consulted, call this “a deeply flawed law that undermines fundamental rights and simply will not work.”
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Back in 2007, the government announced it would be giving each household in the United States two coupons to help pay for digital adapters, made necessary by the February 17, 2009 transition from analog to digital television. But with the program now running out of cash, the government has announced they’ll be putting those who need the coupons on a waiting list. According to the Associated Press, the waiting list was created by the NTIA on Sunday after the program hit a $1.34 billion funding limit set by Congress. Nielsen estimates that as of December, 6.8 percent of the 114 million U.S. households with televisions remained completely unready for the digital transition.
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The RIAA recently announced that they’d struck closed door deals with several ISPs to boot repeat P2P pirates off of their networks. The only ISP we’re sure has signed on to this so far is Cox — and despite what they tell their subscribers, the DMCA does not require ISPs to participate in this project. If anything, the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions protect ISPs from having to participate in a system that’s going to be costly and potentially unreliable.

We are not working with them on this -Verizon, on the RIAA’s new three strikes plan

While the RIAA says they’ve struck deals with a number of “leading” carriers, apparently those carriers don’t want their cooperation publicized. Wired news has tried to track down which ISPs are participating in this plan. Only Verizon offers official comment, saying definitively that “we are not working with them on this.” You might recall that Verizon has won previous run-ins with the RIAA over disclosing P2P user identities. Their FiOS infrastructure capacity also doesn’t require that they use piracy as an excuse to boot P2P users (yet).

AT&T, Comcast, and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association all offer no comment. So why are the deals not only being hashed out in private — but nobody wants to admit they’re participating? If stopping piracy is the right thing to do, why aren’t ISPs proudly crowing about their involvement at every opportunity?

Potentially because piracy has been broadband’s unspoken killer app for the better part of the decade, and ISPs want to eat their cake and have it too. Carriers don’t want the negative PR kick and potential customer defections associated with clearly announcing that they’re fighting piracy, but they want to quietly tackle congestion while staying on the RIAA’s good side — so they’re playing along quietly.

Or perhaps, as Techdirt reasons, the involvement of NY’s Attorney General has some ISPs thinking it’s mandatory. Andrew Cuomo most recently informed ISPs they’d be sued if they didn’t participate in his crackdown against child porn — a plan that in reality didn’t actually accomplish anything.
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AT&T this morning announced that they’ve expanded their VDSL-based IPTV service U-Verse into the El Paso, Texas market. In El Paso, AT&T will do battle with Time Warner Cable, offering considerably more HD options than the cable operator (at least judging by Time Warner Cable’s channel lineup).
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Broadstripe (see our user reviews) apparently needed that NebuAD revenue more than anybody thought. Shortly after the new year began, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Broadstripe (who changed their name from Millennium Digital Media in ‘07) is one of the nation’s twenty largest cable operations, and serves 93,000 customers in parts of Maryland, Michigan, Washington, and Oregon. The company’s CEO posted a letter to the Broadstripe website insisting there’s nothing to worry about:

In a press release, Broadstripe says it has secured $15 million in debtor-in-possession financing from existing lenders. Broadstripe owes $331.1 million to Highland Capital Management LP, $28.8 million to Credit Suisse International, and $13.6 million to JPMorgan Chase.
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US Appeals Court Wary Of Co’s Suit Vs FCC Over Free Internet Nasdaq.com
VzW Asked to Pull Push-to-Talk Ad xchangemag.com
Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse lead latest Consumer Reports survey consumeraffairs.com
Clearwire Simplifies Mobile Broadband Usability xchangemag.com
Atlantic Metro Communications, Rainbow Broadband partner in NYC lighwave.com
Half of all Brits think their Broadband is too Expensive ispreview.co.uk
NTT Talks IPv6 TV at CES lightreading.com
Year of opportunity for O2 and Sky? samknows.com
Microsoft made $1.5 billion from Vista incapable PCs theinquirer.net
FiOS Offers HD Six-Month Freebies multichannel.com
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