Tag archive: DSL

In the race to make sure you’re connected to the Web, able to download game demos, and stream high-def video to your desktop, there’s always a mix of fantasy and reality. (How much fantasy depends on exactly which games you play and which videos you watch.) Broadband providers routinely quote specs about download speeds, always careful to include an asterisk about your location and equipment. Well, we decided to take the asterisk and blow it to… Read More

A new FCC report looks at the state of broadband Internet access in the United States and generally finds that providers are improving on actually delivering the upload and download bandwidth they advertise to their customers—but, as a group, they aren't there yet. The FCC's Measuring Broadband America report finds that providers are generally delivering 80 to 90 percent of advertised capacity to consumers, with a small… Read More

Today marks the beginning of AT&T's limited monthly data allotments for subscribers to its DSL and U-Verse broadband Internet services. AT&T announced that it would be imposing the data caps last month and becomes the second American telecom company to do so after Comcast launched its own metering policy nearly three years ago. Subscribers to AT&T's DSL service will now face a 150 GB monthly limit and AT&T's… Read More

CenturyLink has announced it has completed its $12.2 billion all-stock acquisition of Qwest Communications, resulting in a new company with some 47,000 employees that's the third largest telco in the United States. Between Qwest's and CenturyLink's networks, CenturyLink now offers services in some 37 states, as well as wholesale connectivity to government and business customers via nearly 200,000 miles of fiber. The combined… Read More

With AT&T's recently announced plans to limit the amount of data its DSL Internet customers can user on a monthly basis right around the corner, the company is reportedly doing a terrible job of accurately determining how much data customers actually use. According Broadband Reports, AT&T customers have noticed gross disparities between their own analytics information about how much data they've used (based on firewall and… Read More

When AT&T introduced data caps to its cellphone plans, customers balked initially but they eventually got over it. Will they accept the change so easily though when the same model is applied to at-home Internet service? That's what the service provider is banking on with its plan to launch a new pricing structure built around data usage for landline DSL and U-Verse customers, according to DSLReports. Under the new terms, customers… Read More

Many a broadband customer has been excited to pay extra money and upgrade their service to new high-bandwidth technologies that promise they'll be able to download movies and music in just seconds. However, a nearly equal number of broadband customers have also been dismayed when, once everything is hooked up, they rarely seem to get anywhere near the amount of bandwidth their ISPs claim to be selling them. Now the UK's… Read More

At this year's Broadband World Forum event in Paris, Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it has successfully tested a new “Phantom DSL” technology that can bring massive broadband to ordinary bonded copper wiring—the kind that carries plain old telephone services to millions of homes around the world. According to the company, the technology managed transmission bandwidth of 825 Mbps per second over 400 meters of… Read More

ViaSat Inc. is acquiring Wild Blue Communications Inc., a provider of high-speed Internet access via satellite, for $568 million in cash and stock, the companies said Thursday. Privately held Wild Blue, in which Liberty Media Corp. holds a 37 percent stake, will become an operating subsidiary of ViaSat, which makes satellite communications equipment for defense and consumer markets. Carlsbad, Calif.-based ViaSat plans to buy Wild Blue for… Read More

Canon has unveiled its new Canon EOS 7D DSLR digital camera…and rather than being an update to an existing EOS model, the 7D offers features that haven't been seen in Canon shooters to date, including high-definition video capture capability, an eight frame-per-second continuous shooting mode, and a new 19-point autofocus systems—all combined with an 18 megapixel resolution. “The EOS 7D represents a completely new chapter in digital… Read More

Introduction And you thought the megapixel wars were over! Earlier this year Sony announced it had designed a full-frame 24-megapixel imaging device and officially stated a camera featuring this chip would arrive later in 2008. Well, that time is here. Sony officially took the wraps off the alpha DSLR-A900, a 24.6-megapixel digital single lens reflex camera for a cool three grand (body only). It arrives in stores come November. You may think… Read More

Centillium Communications unleashes its revolutionary eXtremeDSLMAX technology that will redefine the broadband access market for multimedia services by delivering up to 50 Megabits per second (Mbps) in downstream and 3 Mbps in upstream data rates using existing ADSL copper network infrastructure. Centillium's eXtremeDSLMAX(TM) technology enhances capabilities and increases performance of ADSL for residential markets, accelerating the… Read More