At the end of November, an analyst claimed that either Time Warner, Cox Communications or Charter Communications will start charging its broadband internet customers based on the amount of bandwidth they use. This is a method that would certainly get under the skin of customers that are used to paying a fixed rate for internet based on download and upload speeds. On the other hand, the extra funds acquired from the heaviest internet users could in theory help make up for the number of customers that are ditching cable service in favor of constant video content through the web. Now Comcast, the largest internet service provider in the United States, has come out and announced it will not switch to tiered broadband plans.

Individuals who pirate music and movies on the internet have a new concern thanks to a partnership between major internet service providers, movie studios and record labels. The organizations have created the Copyright Alert System which is designed to give suspected pirates fair warning before action is taken against them. This method currently has the support of AT&T, Time Warmer, Comcast, Verizon and Cablevision.

Sonic.net is an internet service provider that supplies web access to some areas of California. It was recently revealed that Sonic.net is going to be providing something that not too many ISPs provide to residential customers. The company is going to supply hundreds of homes around Sebastopol, California with internet connection speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second) this year.

Producers of the movie “Hurt Locker’ filed court documents demanding a judge issue a court order forcing ISPs to turn over the names connected with over 50,000 IP addresses they say are guilty of illegally downloading the movie. Voltage Pictures says they must have the names to proceed with their case. “This lawsuit cannot proceed more »

Those who have been around the geekier parts of the Internet over the last few years probably know at least a decent amount about Net Neutrality. For those who don’t or need a refresher, Net Neutrality is an idea that’s meant to keep the Internet free, to prevent ISPs from throttling your service, blocking access more »

AT&T just can’t seem to get enough bad press as of late. First it comes out that AT&T Wireless won’t be bringing MMS to the iPhone until August. Then there’s the lack of tethering for the iPhone, followed closely by a push-back of iPhone MMS to September. Now it looks like AT&T’s DSL service wants more »

Comcast customers, already frustrated by the bandwidth cap put in place back in October have been further frustrated by the company’s complete lack of tools to help them monitor their usage and stay within the cap. A web based usage monitor was supposed to be released in January but that date came and passed. Now more »

With a name that comes back like a blast, or maybe more like a nightmare from the past, CompuServe is back in the headlines. My nightmare of CompuServe came in the form of horrible dial up moments and hourly charges back in the early to mid nineties, but there was a CompuServe even before that more »

A U.S. judge has shut down an ISP after FTC complaints that it offered a haven to spammers, child pornographers, hackers, and more. ISP Pricewert, also known as 3FN and APS Telecom has been disconnected from the net. The FTC claimed the ISP deliberately advertised to malware distributors, botnet servers, spammers, illegal porn sites and more »

“U.S. Government Broadband, Inc. now bringing you the World Wide Web at lightning speeds.” Wait – the U.S. Government provides broadband? But, the Government isn’t a telecom — yet. A member of the Obama Administration is supporting the idea of a U.S. tax-subsidized public broadband network. Just imagine, high-speed internet everywhere, even in the most rural parts of the country. Plus, this isn’t your ordinary cable internet – when they say high-speed, they are talking 100 times as fast as what we have now.

So, theoretically, you could sit back and stream HD movies to your laptop, even if you’re in the middle of nowhere. Isn’t that what we all want? For most of us, the answer is yes, but, is such a large-scale telecom project possible? Well, Australia and Singapore are already in the process of successfully implementing such a network and Britain and the Netherlands are making their own network plans.