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Comcast Experimenting With Raising Internet Service Data Caps

Comcast Internet Caps

Last week Comcast announced that it is trying to experiment with increasing its monthly data cap which limits its customers from streaming video and surfing the Internet. It will soon start with 2 trials in select areas.

The Internet Company said that in the first plan there will be a data capping of 300 GB per month. As of now the cap is at 250 GB before users get throttled. In the second plan the limit will be 300 GB for its lowest 3 tiers and a little higher for its top two tiers. In both plans customers can get more than 300 GB data per month provided they pay $10 for additional 50 GB data usage.

David Cohen, Comcast’s Executive VP, said while speaking to the media that the company is moving away from data caps towards a more flexible product. But he did not mention in which markets were selected for the trials. However he did say that pricing would remain unchanged for its Internet users. He further added that Comcast would continue monitoring and alerting users who exceed the current data cap of 250 GB. Cohen also said that the company did not like telling the customers that their maximum usage per month is static 250 GB. Instead the message that the company is trying to give to its customers is that they can feel free to use their service and go to the Internet.

Comcast is not the only Internet Company which has put data caps on their user’s Internet usage. Telecommunications giant, AT&T already has similar data cap on its Internet plans. Other Internet service providers are also contemplating to put data caps on consumer’s usage. With increasing demand for online video, companies are thinking of various solutions to ease network congestion and provide usage based subscription plans.

Comcast Usage Caps Ruining Families?

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Comcast Metro Ethernet Service’s Latest Addition Is Pennsylvania-Based Sarris Candies

Metro Ethernet Service

Sarris Candies, based in Canonsburg, Pa is the latest addition to Comcast’s Business Class Ethernet service for transferring of company data and improving customer experience. During a recent fire in February at the company’s headquarters, this service continued uninterrupted while 5000 pounds of chocolate were destroyed.

Sarris candies employ more than 350 full time workers and 830 stores. The company depends heavily on the Internet for connectivity support for credit card transactions, order processing and shipping. Norm Candelore, retail operations manager said that prior to Comcast, the company had three T1 lines and it still didn’t find any difference in their service. There came a point when they had to shut down their email servers so that they could catch up with each other. In this industry lost time means lost business.

Comcast Internet provided the solution to this problem by providing two Ethernet dedicated Internet lines connecting the storefront and the warehouse. These two lines came in handy during the fire in early February as the company could still process its orders while the fire department battled the fire.

Glenn Lytle, regional Vice President, Comcast Business Service said that when it is impossible to predict when establishments would face a disaster situation but companies who stay ahead of time like Sarris Candies can greatly reduce the impact and quickly get back on track.

Comcast launched its Metro Ethernet services last year after spending several years developing it. It is now available in all areas where Comcast has a presence. The bulk of Comcast’s revenue now comes from small establishments employing less than 20 people. This has started reflecting in the company’s bottom line also. In its first quarter earnings for 2012, the company posted revenue of $541 million as compared to $394 it posted in the first quarter of 2011.

Cox Makes It Even Easier to Check Home Voice Mail While Away

Cox Makes It Easier to Check Voice Mail

Cox Communications announced last month the availability of Readable Voice Mail for Cox Digital Telephone customers. This helps Cox Internet customers to access their home voice messages from any device having email connectivity.

Philip Nutsugah, Vice President of Cox’s product development and management said that the company continues to listen to its customers and strives to bring Cox’s services no matter where its customers are. The Cox Mobile Connect program enables its customers to access voice mail of their home phones from any device which has email access like a mobile phone or a laptop. With Cox Mobile Connect you can access your voice mail messages by email or mobile phone. This provides a great tool for people on the move who want to stay connected with their homes while being on the move. It shows the company is adapting to their customer’s needs and continues to invest in product development and growth.

The company has received lot of positive feedback from its customers regarding the new service. Cox digital telephone has latest features like caller ID, TV, Phone Tools and Cox Mobile connect plus it generates significant savings over your old phone company. This represents a significant development for Cox communications, who had invested heavily in the Cox Mobile Connect program over the past few years.

Cox provides broadband communications, Internet and telephone services over its own IP network. It is the third largest cable TV company in the US and has a subscriber base of over 6 million users. Cox business provides voice, video and data solutions to commercial customers. Cox media is a service provider of local and national media advertising.  The company is known for its pioneering efforts in commercial services, cable telephone, customer care and outstanding workplaces. Cox has been top ranked for seven years by DiversityInc’s top 50 companies for diversity.

Pennsylvania Democrat Worried Verizon Deal Will Hurt Constituents

Pennsylvania Verizon Broadband Internet

Verizon’s proposed Spectrum deal with its competitors has got Pennsylvania Congressman, Mike Doyle concerned. In a letter sent to the company the Congressman has asked many pointed questions regarding Verizon’s intentions towards its traditional telephone, FiOS TV and Internet service.

Verizon has proposed an agreement with SpectrumCo, a consortium of cable companies including Bright House Networks, Time Warner Cable and Comcast wherein it will purchase spectrum from these companies and market few of their products and services in return. Verizon also plans to invest in new technologies that will integrate wireless and wire-line phones. Verizon has already entered into a joint agreement with Cox along similar lines.

Doyle has asked Verizon whether they will continue to deploy FiOS as planned before the deal becomes a reality. Consumer rights groups like Public Knowledge argue that Verizon does not intend to honor its FiOS commitments to areas those are yet to be brought under its cover. The group argues that Verizon now wants to back out of its FiOS commitment by pushing those would be customers to cable and at the same increase its wireless capacity. Consumer groups argue that if Verizon’s deal goes through it would signal the death of cheap Internet and lead to duopoly in the market with AT&T and Verizon being the only two biggest players in the market.

Doyle has argued that Verizon has plans to seek new customers in markets where FiOS is deployed and compete with the involved cable companies. He also wanted to know if Verizon would maintain its DSL network in areas where similar situation is present. He is of the view that Verizon is abandoning its less profitable copper phone service and DSL service. Doyle has asked for a response from Verizon by June 1. The company hasn’t yet commented on Doyle’s letter.

Charter Gains Cable TV Customers

Charter Communications the holding company of Charter Internet and Charter cable reported a loss in Q1 of 2012 but at the same time managed to reverse the trend of reducing cable TV subscribers.

The St. Louis headquartered company reported a loss of $94 million or 95 cents per share. For the corresponding quarter last year the company had reported a loss of $110 million or 97 cents per share.

Gradually Charter is becoming more of an Internet service provider and less of a cable company. Still cable TV remains the biggest piece of the Charter’s revenue. Slow customer drop off has been a long standing issue for Charter. This trend finally changed in Q1 of 2012 when the company added 20,000 video customers which brought the total number of cable subscribers to 4.16 million compared to the 24,000 that it lost in the corresponding quarter of 2011. Tom Rutledge, CEO of Charter Communications said that this is the first quarterly growth in five years. He also said that the company is committed to keep on improving the picture signal quality and number of channels. He also promised its subscriber that the company would be bringing 100 HD channels by mid 2012. However customers should be willing to pay more. Already 40 percent of its video customers have seen an increase of 3 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Losing video customers have become common in the cable TV business which is already facing stress due to competition from telecom companies rolling out video services like AT&T’s U-Verse. Rutledge further added that Charter’s strongest competition is from satellite TV companies. He said that Charter’s video competitors are offering better signal quality and more HD channels. With its analog service Charter is way behind its competitors. The company plans to bridge the gap in the near future.

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CenturyLink Q1 Income Dips 5.2% However Prism TV Subscriptions Rise

CenturyLink Income Dips Prism TV Gains

CenturyLink Inc, the country’s fourth largest company published its Q1 2012 earnings this week reporting a dip of 5.2% in its earnings still beating expectations of Wall Street analysts.

CenturyLink said that its Q1 rise in strategic revenues was basically driven by business demand in high bandwidth data services and growth in its high speed CenturyLink Internet business and also a rise in the Prism TV subscriber base. In the last quarter the company had added 15,000 Prism TV subscribers taking the total number of subscribers to around 85,000.

The company reported that its GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2011 was $200 million as compared to $211 million for the corresponding period in 2011. Operating revenues increased to $4.61 billion in this quarter compared to $1.7 billion in the corresponding quarter last year. The sharp increase was due to its acquisition of Qwest in April 2011 and Savvis in July 2011.

CenturyLink reported adjusted net income of Q1 2012 of $243 million compared to $484 million in Q1 of 2011. Which translates in to a per share earnings of 68 cents which is greater than what analysts’ prediction of 59 cents per share.

The company’s operating expenses without special items stood at $3.87 billion and for the same period year earlier they were $3.89 billion, the company reported.

In a statement the company said that that the increases in its strategic revenues were offset by the dip in legacy service revenues majorly because of reduced access revenues and access line losses.

Glen Post III, CenturyLink’s President and Chief Executive Officer said that the company delivered good financial results once again reinforcing the company’s growth in broadband and Prism TV subscribers and also controlling operating expenses. He also credited the gains in revenues and customers to local operating models.

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Router Issues Won’t Affect Fiber Says Frontier

Frontier - Router Issues Won't Affect Fiber

The recent struggle in West Virginia to put federally funded Internet routers in public facilities throughout the state hasn’t slowed Frontier Communications‘ work in bringing high speed fiber optic cable in West Virginia schools, a Frontier engineer commented early this week.

Mark McKenzie, Frontier’s Engineering Manager said that Frontier did not have any role in the router issue and this problem will have no impact on Frontier’s plans of construction of fiber.

Under a federally sponsored economic stimulus package, in West Virginia Frontier has laid 121 miles of fiber to K-12 schools. More than 470 schools would get a fiber Internet connection under this scheme.

Wade Linger, state school board president remarked that the progress made has been very encouraging and that every day they are getting close.

A recent Gazette report prompted many state school board members to question the purchase of nearly 300 routers under a $24 million stimulus package two years ago but still lying unused. Each router cost $22,600.

The Gazette also stated that costly routers purchased for medical centers, colleges and large corporations were being used for schools, health care centers and libraries. Lowell Johnson, a state school board member said that they wanted to ensure that the money was used correctly.

Linger stated that the routers could be bigger than what is necessary for schools however they will still work. The routers are required by the schools to connect to Frontier’s network.

The state received a federal stimulus package of $126 million in March 2010 to bring fiber Internet connections in more than 1,000 community institutions including jails, 911 dispatch centers, county courthouses, state police detachments, libraries, schools and health care centers. In July 2010, 1,064 Cisco routers were purchased. Questions were raised regarding the size of the routers but they are being deployed at a faster rate in West Virginia as compared to other states.

FCC Chief Defends Review of Wireless Deals

Wireless Deals

Earlier this week Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission defended the agency’s scrutiny of latest wireless industry related deals saying that ensuring correct business practices and the spirit of competition does not mean that the Commission is averse to satisfy growing public demand for mobile services and freeing up additional spectrum.

He further added that some people feel that the Commission’s decision to review recent deals in the wireless industry is somehow causing a shortage of spectrum and the FCC Internet deals review has led to a service provider increasing its broadband subscription rates. But the spectrum availability hasn’t changed and the FCC is taking steps to increase to add new spectrum in the market.

At the CTIA’s annual summit in New Orleans, he provided a hint that the FCC is involved in efforts to free more spectrum to meet growing consumer demands. He further remarked that the perception of competition leads to spectrum inefficiency is wrong as historically competition channels investments in efficient technologies and business models evolve which benefit both service providers and their customers. FCCs track record clearly shows that it is diligent in exercising its responsibilities.

These comments did not find favor with AT&T which had proposed a takeover bid on T-Mobile USA last year but it was disallowed by the FCC. The company said that the merger would have created an additional spectrum by combining the holdings of and networks of the two companies. Without additional spectrum prices will rise.

Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior Vice President stated last week that the FCC should allow companies to buy spectrum from those companies which do not need it.

The FCC is currently reviewing a proposed deal involving Verizon and a group of cable companies wherein Verizon will buy spectrum from this group and in return it will market few of their products and services. The deal is fiercely being opposed by consumer advocacy groups.

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AT&T’s Next Business Is Home Security

AT&T's Next Business Is Home Security

Having trouble selling phones and subscriptions, AT&T has now moved to other markets. In recent months it has invested heavily in its next venture home security and automation.

After selling cell phones, digital TV, DSL, wireless and high speed Internet the company has now turned to selling home security with a hope to succeed. The question is why AT&T has turned to this new business. The answer is because its competitors; telecommunication companies and DSL providers like Verizon and Comcast have already taken the same route.

AT&T plans to sell home automation and security systems on a larger scale through its stores. Dallas and Atlanta will be the first two cities where AT&T will sell the home automation systems through its stores this summer.

 In today’s competitive business world, telecom companies have been facing the heat and adopting new strategies to stay ahead of their rivals. Verizon and Comcast had already started selling home security systems although not on the scale that AT&T has planned. So it was but logical for AT&T to follow its competitors’ footsteps.

Glen Lurie, AT&T executive in charge of the Digital Life Project said that companies of the size of the AT&T look for billion dollar opportunities. Digital Life is looked as a significant investment opportunity by AT&T. The company expects Digital Life to add one billion dollars to its annual revenue which can cover its losses in the phone business. However analysts believe home security is a growing market and customers would not simply switch over to different companies. Companies find it difficult even to lure mobile customers.

Lurie further elaborated that Digital Life would be a solution for people who leave their homes regularly for trips. All it needs is an Internet connection. It can inform you if there is water leakage or a burglary in the house.

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The DSL Death March Continues

DSL Internet

The gradual decline of DSL Internet continues as AT&T and Verizon, two of the biggest phone companies in the US reported substantial losses of customers in the first quarter of 2012. Last week Verizon announced that it lost 89,000 DSL subscribers but gained 193,000 new users of its FiOS services. Verizon’s fiber optic service is much faster than DSL and there is a boom in FiOs subscriptions. AT&T also reported similar trends. Its net gain of 103,000 wire-line broadband customers was majorly due to its U-Verse high speed Internet service. Almost 45 percent of AT&T’s users now subscribe to AT&T’s broadband plans which deliver speeds up to 6 Mbps. Last year the figure stood at 35 percent which is an improvement of around 10 percent. This is reflective of the usage trends among Internet subscribers.

The net addition of 103,000 broadband subscribers for AT&T is an improvement over Q4 2011 where it had a net decline of 49,000 subscribers. In Q1 of 2012, AT&T lost almost 615,000 DSL subscribers. In the previous quarter the figure was 636,000.

As usage patterns of Internet users shift toward bandwidth extensive uses like Netflix, MLB games and Spotify, it is obvious that traditional DSL service will not be able to cope up with the requirements. The demand patterns reflect this. AT&T uses fiber to the node technology for its U-Verse service to deliver data, voice and video.

AT&T meanwhile seems to be in favor of its triple play packages including data, voice and video and even more lucrative mobile web business at the expense of wire-line services just like Verizon. Both players have realized that fighting for net neutrality and broadband caps is not worth it when they can charge a bomb for LTE and when subscribers are also willing to pay for faster and more expensive services.

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