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Tuesday, January 31
EarthLink offers new VoIP service
by
Mike
on Tue 31 Jan 2006 09:16 AM PST
EarthLink offers new VoIP service
Broadband provider EarthLink has begun selling a new Internet phone service that's designed to be easy to use and require no additional hardware.
The company has partnered with broadband access wholesaler Covad Communications to offer the voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, service in Dallas, Seattle and the San Francisco-San Jose area starting this week. EarthLink is bundling the new service with DSL (digital subscriber line) broadband access. More cities in Covad's territory will offer the service later this year; EarthLink would not specify which.
Unlike other VoIP services, including the one EarthLink currently sells for $20 a month, the new service doesn't require consumers to add hardware. Customers can use their existing phones and plug them into phone jacks as they would with any regular telephone service. The technology, called "line-powered voice," puts all the intelligence and equipment for offering VoIP service in Covad's central office, where all the gear to provide the DSL service is housed.
This approach differs from that of most other VoIP services, such as Vonage's. Those services require a special adapter to be hooked to the phone and the broadband connection.
"The line-powered service works just like a plain old telephone system," said Jim Bagnato, director of voice services for EarthLink. "You simply plug your existing phone into the wall and it works. But the calls go over an IP network, so you're also able to get all the IP features."
These new features include e-mail-based voice mail that lets people listen to their messages by clicking on a link in an e-mail, a blocked-caller list that stops annoying calls from ringing and prohibits blocked callers from leaving voice mail messages, an integrated contact list that merges contacts in e-mail with the phone service, and many other call features.
EarthLink is charging $69.95 per month for its top tier package, which includes unlimited calling within the U.S. plus 8mbps (megabits per second) download and 1mbps upload DSL service. For customers who are too far from the central office to get the full 8mbps, the company is offering an unlimited calling plan with DSL service that has 1.5mbps downloads and 384kbps (kilobits per second) uploads for $64.95. And it's also offering a 500 minute calling plan with 1.5mbps downloads and 384kbps uploads for $49.95.
As dial-up Internet users abandon slower access for broadband, EarthLink has been challenged to find broadband pipes on which to sell its service. Unlike phone companies and cable providers, EarthLink doesn't own its broadband infrastructure. It must rely on other providers to lease capacity in order to sell a service.
AOL to Create Nationwide Broadband Network
by
Mike
on Tue 31 Jan 2006 06:43 AM PST
AOL to Create Nationwide Broadband NetworkDespite its focus on expanding beyond its core ISP services, AOL has resolved to expand its broadband internet service network.
This will be done via partnerships with BellSouth, Time Warner, Verizon, and other DSL suppliers, making the $30/month AOL-branded broadband service available coast-to-coast, in most major US markets.
“With the new AOL broadband network, we’re leveraging the strength of our service and our customer relationships to make the most of the shifting broadband marketplace,” said Jonathan F. Miller, the CEO and chairman of AOL.
The company is hoping that this latest series of agreements and expansions will help solve the problem of not offering a true high-speed service to its many millions of customers. After all, exclusively offering overpriced dialup service can only send AOL’s total number of users in one direction.
“AOL has tried many things over the years to solve this problem and none of them have worked,” said independent telecom analyst, Jeff Kagan. “This [plan] sounds good. It’s a branding solution that helps AOL remain important to the customer. AOL has to prove it works, but it could be what AOL is looking for.”
AOL’s next challenge will be to lure subscribers for the new service, which they plan to do with a wide-scale nationwide advertising campaign in television, radio, and print media. Existing AOL members will also be targeted, and informed about the benefits of upgrading.
Monday, January 30
Philadelphia, Earthlink finalize contract for wireless by 2007
by
Mike
on Mon 30 Jan 2006 09:50 AM PST
Philadelphia, Earthlink finalize contract for wireless by 2007
Earthlink Inc. has finalized a 10-year contract to provide citywide high-speed wireless Internet service, and deployment should start as early as spring 2007, a city official said Monday.
Dianah Neff, Philadelphia's chief information officer and head of Wireless Philadelphia, said the contract will go before the City Council for approval in February.
Earthlink will own the network and charge a wholesale rate of $9 a month to Internet service providers that would then resell the services to the public, she said.
Neff said the contract doesn't specify the monthly rate that would be charged to consumers, but she said the wholesale price is low enough to enable ISPs to offer low-cost services. City officials had been trying to keep the monthly price to $20 or less.
Construction should start right after the contract is signed. Earthlink will build the network initially over a 15-square-mile area in Northeast Philadelphia to prove the system will work, Neff said. If successful, citywide access could be turned on by spring 2007, she said.
Under the terms of the agreement, which can be renewed, Earthlink will carry the cost to build the Wi-Fi network to cover 135 square miles.
Earthlink also will pay the city and Wireless Philadelphia, the nonprofit handling the project, a fee to mount wireless Internet equipment onto city infrastructure, such as lamp posts.
Neff said talks are ongoing with six ISPs interested in reselling the service.
Philadelphia was the first large city to announce plans to build a wireless Internet
Web's Fate May Hinge on ISPs' Neutrality
by
Mike
on Mon 30 Jan 2006 07:23 AM PST
Web's Fate May Hinge on ISPs' NeutralityVirtually since the Internet's creation, its most devoted protectors have been wondering how long it would take for the forces of unrestrained commerce to throttle its freedom and innovation.
Now they have a date: Some people believe the breakpoint will come as early as Jan. 6, 2008.
That's when the telecommunications marriage of Verizon Communications and MCI marks its second anniversary and sheds an important restriction imposed by the Federal Communications Commission when it approved the deal in November: a requirement that Verizon comply with the principle known as "network neutrality" for two years following the completion of its acquisition. (The FCC imposed the same provision on SBC Communications and AT&T. But their deal closed in December, so the restriction expires a couple of weeks sooner.)
Absent network neutrality, network operators could dictate to customers which Internet services they could access, and at what quality. Customers of Apple's iTunes music store, say, might find their downloads slowed down, or blocked completely, if Apple refuses to pay a transaction fee to their ISP. Users of the Vonage Internet phone service might lose their dial tones if their Internet provider wants to sell its own brand of phone service. The Internet might become more profitable for network providers, and less useful for everybody else.
Under the traditional network model, it's none of your ISP's business whether you're using your connection to view video streams, buy music or make phone calls. There are only a handful of exceptions, such as actions aimed at containing spam, blocking illegal activity or maintaining the network's integrity.
Many in the Web community argue that keeping the network open has been the key to the development of new services.
"When you introduce discrimination of any kind, it's anti-innovative," says David Isenberg, a networking pioneer who is currently a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. If service providers are charged for preferential transmission, new services that can't afford the fee might be kept out of the marketplace.
The old model, however, is threatened by some recent developments.
One is the consolidation of broadband Internet providers. Almost all U.S. customers with high-speed Web access get it via high-speed cable TV connections or DSLs offered by phone companies. But the two largest cable firms, Comcast and Time Warner, control nearly 60% of their market, and the two largest phone companies, AT&T and Verizon, boasted a combined market share of more than 60% before the recent acquisitions increased their size, according to figures from the consulting firm Kagan Research. Eventually, customers unhappy with their high-speed service may find themselves without alternatives.
Courts and regulators, meanwhile, are taking a powder. The Supreme Court last year cleared the way for liberalized regulation of cable Internet service, and the FCC responded by taking the same position on DSL. Consequently, the battle has shifted to Congress, where critics of the phone and cable companies are trying to prevent a provision protecting network neutrality from being deleted from a revision of telecommunication law currently under consideration.
"Two years ago, everybody called this a solution in search of a problem," says Chris Murray, a Washington-based lobbyist for Vonage. "Now everybody sees it as a predicate for allowing deregulation."
As it happens, Vonage customers were the victims of the only case of interference yet to draw FCC action — the blocking of its phone service last year by Madison River Communications, a small North Carolina ISP. The FCC fined Madison River $15,000.
Neutrality supporters were also unnerved when SBC Chairman Edward Whitacre complained that popular Web services were essentially freeloading on his network. "For a Google or a Yahoo or a Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes for free is nuts!" he groused to BusinessWeek in November. Whitacre, who is chairman of AT&T, evidently overlooked the charges paid by Web services for the bandwidth they consume, as well as connection fees paid by consumers.
An AT&T spokesman says Whitacre was simply arguing that AT&T is spending so heavily to build a high-capacity network that it needs new sources of revenue to help cover the cost. "AT&T is not going to block access to any service or degrade customer service in any way, shape, or form," James Cicconi, the company's executive vice president for external affairs, told me. But he says AT&T shouldn't be barred from selling premium treatment to any service wishing to get digital bits
to customers faster than its rivals.
Critics of this viewpoint say that allowing network providers to offer such preferential treatment leaves the system open to abuse: What would stop AT&T, which owns the broadband phone service CallVantage, from degrading Vonage's service to make its own seem better? Vonage customers whose calls suddenly sounded lousy would be inclined to blame Vonage and move their business to AT&T instead. (To be sure, AT&T hasn't been accused of such activity.)
It's by no means clear that the phone and cable companies will win the coming battle on Capitol Hill, as well-equipped with lobbyists and war chests as they are. Vonage, EBay, Google, Amazon.com and other online companies have launched their own joint lobbying effort to oppose them. The Internet's very future may hang in the balance.
"Now that the e-commerce companies have weighed in, Congress will have to take a look," says Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America and a firm believer in the value of network neutrality. "These are the brand names of the 21st century."
AOL Teams for Broadband
by
Mike
on Mon 30 Jan 2006 07:21 AM PST
AOL Teams for BroadbandAOL today announced that it will soon expand its broadband network coast-to-coast in partnership with leading providers including BellSouth, Time Warner Cable and Verizon, as well as other major DSL suppliers. Consumers in these markets, which reach a majority of AOL members, will be able to access the AOL service with a reliable high-speed connection for as low as $25.90. In BellSouth's territory, AOL High Speed will be offered at $29.90.
AOL will engage in aggressive marketing for the new AOL® High Speed offering, which will let AOL members access the service's leading security features and exclusive content on a true high-speed DSL Internet or cable connection at a competitive price. Beginning on January 30, 2006, consumers will be able to click or call to sign-up for AOL High Speed and order a DSL or cable modem, making it simple and convenient to upgrade.
"With the new AOL broadband network, we're leveraging the strength of our service and our customer relationships to make the most of the shifting broadband marketplace," said Jonathan F. Miller, Chairman & CEO of America Online, Inc. "We are taking advantage of the improving economics of broadband access to create an offering that combines the AOL service with the speed of broadband at a competitive price. In so doing, we're building a better experience for our members, bringing new subscribers to our network partners, and enhancing the lifetime member value of our customer relationships."
Glenn A. Britt, President and CEO of Time Warner Cable, said: "For AOL members who haven't upgraded to broadband yet, now is the time. By getting your AOL with Time Warner Cable's high-speed online service, you get a better, faster connection without giving up your AOL service."
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