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AT&T testing bandwidth caps, Verizon says no plans to cap FiOS or DSL

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Corporate News, Internet

If you’re in Reno and you use AT&T as your broadband Internet provider, you’re now unfortunately the latest victim of this whole capped bandwidth nonsense that seems to be taking hold across the US. It started when Comcast implemented a 250GB per month cap on October 1. Now word has hit that metered billing of between 20-150GB per month is going to be tested in Reno on AT&T’s DSL network. If you are a new customer who’ll be apart of the trial, depending on the speed tier you choose, you’ll get a cap somewhere between 20 and 150 gigabytes per month. If you’re an existing customer, you’ll be chosen to be a part of the trial if your monthly bandwidth happens to exceed 150GB in a month.

The trend is something we are vehemently against, so I figured I’d ask one of the Verizon PR reps that I know on Twitter, Kevin Laverty, if we should expect a similar announcement from Verizon, after another Verizon rep said no. His answer:

That’s an affirmative - Verizon has no plans to cap bandwidth on either its FiOS or High Speed Internet/DSL services.

It doesn’t get much clearer than that. It’ll be a nice bullet-point for Verizon if they can say that FiOS is not only faster, but also is completely uncapped as far as usage goes.


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Comcast overcharges me by $772 on two cancelled accounts, offers support via Twitter - UPDATED

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Features, Home Entertainment, Household

Comcast customer serviceUpdate: Within two hours, I got a call from a Comcast representative who stated that, since the payments were made by credit card automatically, there is no reason they can’t credit it back to that credit card. She went on to tell me that they’d process the refund tomorrow. Very cool. However, I wonder what the response would have been if we hadn’t been paying by credit card, and instead used ACH transfer from a bank account. In any event, the Comcast folks on Twitter really are listening, and really are aiming to put out fires. Good stuff.

This morning I opened mail from Comcast, which, to my surprise, showed that I was two months late on paying up. I thought that was odd, since I kicked to the curb for Verizon two months ago. I called and got it taken care of, to find that I was owed $72 and that it would arrive in 6-8 weeks. Kind of annoying, but no big deal. Then they called me back, to tell me that I had another active account that has been auto-debiting from one of my accounts. That one was to have been cancelled back in May. Once that was straightened out, the damage was that Comcast owes me a cool $772. I asked when I’d receive it, and they said 6-8 weeks. I thought that was fairly crappy, being that when I cancelled the services, I also revoked Comcast’s right to take any money from my private accounts. I threw up a gripe on Twitter, and a few minutes later, Comcast’s Twitter customer service went into full effect. Gotta give them props for that. They asked me to email them the details, so they could look into it. You can read the email I sent them, after the break. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts. We will update with any progress made on this, let’s see how customer service on these Web 2.0 Internets works. [Photo Credit]

Click to continue reading Comcast overcharges me by $772 on two cancelled accounts, offers support via Twitter - UPDATED


Verizon FiOS vs. Comcast: Feature-by-feature

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet


FiOS vs ComcastFiOS vs Comcast

Ten days ago, Verizon TV officially launched here in Washington state. I was actually invited to speak at the launch event that took place that day, alongside Verizon representatives, and local government officials. I was specifically chosen as a case study of just how good FiOS is, since I literally moved specifically because was way too slow for the things we expected out of our Internet connection here at Gear Live HQ. It was an event meant to talk up the advantages of FiOS over cable (specifically, Comcast, in this area). Obviously, with FiOS looming over their territory, Comcast went into damage control mode to combat Verizon’s claims that they were the best option for Internet and television services. We were sent both the FiOS press release and the Comcast press release, and we figured we would respond to the claims of each, point-by-point.

For some background, we’ve been Comcast customers for over six years, for both Internet and television services. When we moved for FiOS 15 months ago, Comcast was still our cable television provider. As of today, I am a FiOS customer for both Internet and television, and as of 10 days ago, am no longer a Comcast customer. Now, on with the comparisons.

Click to continue reading Verizon FiOS vs. Comcast: Feature-by-feature


Comcast to cap Internet bandwidth to 250GB per month, starting October 1

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Movies

Comcast logo has decided to change its users agreement so that as of Oct. 1, users will only be allowed 250GB per month. This means you can still download about 4 standard def movies per day.

“We know from experience the vast majority of customers we ask to curb usage do so voluntarily,” the company said. While they already reserve the right to eliminate those who use too much, now subscribers will be contacted by the company, as if we don’t already get enough nasty phone calls and letters.

Read More | USA Today

Verizon FiOS speeds increasing to 50 Mbps

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Internet

FiOS speed upgrade

For all you subscribers out there, Verizon just announced this morning that they are going to be upping a couple of their speed tiers across the country, beginning next week. Of course, you need to live in one of the FiOS-covered areas in one of the 16 states where the service is available, like we do.

So, first things first - if you are in New York or Virginia, don’t expect any changes. You guys are already enjoying the upgraded speeds that the rest of us have been waiting for. For the rest of us though, two changes are in order. First, the 30/15 speed tier will be going away, and will be replaced by the newer 50/20 tier. Crazy, we know. The 50/20 speed will remain at the same $139 per month cost. Those of you on the 15/15 symmetrical tier will also say goodbye to your current speeds, as you will be upgraded to the new 20/20 speed tier, and it will remain at the same $64 per month cost.

The lower tiers are getting upgrades as well, as 15/2 becomes 20/5, and 5/2 becomes 10/2. It should be noted that recently bumped up their speeds across the board to 16/2. I guess Verizon was just waiting on Comcast before spreading their NY and VA speeds to the rest of the country.

Read More | Verizon Press Release

Halo 3 Pre-orders Top One Million, Merchandising Blitz Begins

Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Bungie, Corporate News, Culture, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, Xbox 360

Halo 3 Burger King

won’t be out until September 25th, but the hype machine is already well in gear.  Microsoft has just announced that pre-sale numbers for ‘s upcoming behemoth have already exceeded one million copies.  Chris Di Cesare, Microsoft’s director of creative marketing, says, “This September, Halo 3 will push video game entertainment into the forefront of mainstream culture.”

And he’s not kidding.  Microsoft is backing up its big gun by way of some big merchandising deals with major brands.  For starters, Pepsi is releasing a Halo-branded version of Mountain Dew, called Mountain Dew Game Fuel.  7-11 is getting in on the action with Halo-themed Slurpee cups, as well as a Doritos promotion.  Not wanting to be left out in the cold, Burger King will be doing its own in-store promotions, Pontiac is launching a Halo 3- themed contest, and Comcast will offer its subscribers all kinds of downloadable Halo goodies.  Phew! A marketing campaign of this depth and scope is truly unprecedented in the gaming industry.

Read More | Next Generation

Comcast’s VOD and CBS To Offer Eight Free Primetime Shows

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Home Entertainment, Internet

survivorComcast and CBS have announced that eight of CBS’ primetime series will now be available at no cost through its VOD (video-on-demand) service. The shows included are CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, NCIS, Big Brother, Survivor, Jerico and Numb3rs.

Previously, Comcast had allowed viewings for $.99 per episode on CBS owned and operated stations. These “free” episodes will now contain commercials sold by CBS. Available to all On Demand viewers beginning the day after network airing, they will be viewable for four weeks. Considering that you can already watch those full episodes without commercial interruption at no charge on the CBS Website (via innertube), us non-subscibers can go there to play catch-up or just survive until the reruns.

Read More | CBS

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