Using the Web to buy a carton of milk in Nunavut. Satellite Internet in Nunavut (Canada’s newest territory – the White Stripes played there) is slow and has such draconian bandwidth caps (2GB a month) that nobody downloads audio or video. But they use it for every kind of online banking and E-commerce in a territory with barely any retail stores. [more inside]
posted by joeclark on Nov 13, 2008 - 15 comments

Shooting the Messenger (PDF). A new report from Free Press "dispels the many myths manufactured by the telecommunications industry to excuse America's poor broadband performance compared to the rest of the world."
posted by homunculus on Jul 19, 2007 - 38 comments

Broadband is exploding!
posted by ZenMasterThis on Nov 10, 2006 - 16 comments

New Zealand is a backwater when it comes to high speed internet. Today the government has done something about it.
posted by Samuel Farrow on May 3, 2006 - 16 comments

The End of the Internet? "The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online."
posted by allkindsoftime on Feb 4, 2006 - 32 comments

Looking for a broadband connection in the UK? Dont believe all you read from all providers (even well known ones, like Pipex). A geek fights back; annoyed by his download rates being cut down from 200kb/sec, to 1kb/sec (with a geeky video of wow, gta and him downloading stuff). A bit more info (some annoying pop ups - and the videos a bit slow paced - but Pipex users beware!)
posted by 13twelve on Dec 15, 2005 - 23 comments

What do you pay for dsl/broadband? (salon.com article) Next time you sit down to pay your cable-modem or DSL bill, consider this: Most Japanese consumers can get an Internet connection that’s 16 times faster than the typical American DSL line for a mere $22 per month. Across the globe, it’s the same story. In France, DSL service that is 10 times faster than the typical United States connection; 100 TV channels and unlimited telephone service cost only $38 per month. In South Korea, super-fast connections are common for less than $30 per month. Nations as diverse as Finland, Canada, and Hong Kong all have much faster Internet connections at a lower cost than what is available here. In fact, since 2001, the U.S. has slipped from fourth to 16th in the world in broadband use per capita. While other countries are taking advantage of the technological, business and education opportunities of the broadband era, America remains lost in transition. How did this happen? Why has the U.S. fallen so far behind the rest of its economic peers?
posted by halekon on Oct 18, 2005 - 115 comments

The BBC announces plans to make its TV channels available on the internet. As you already know, you can already listen to all BBC radio channels live and view news clips and some news programmes. Now the BBC has ambitions to expand its internet offer even further. Starting next year, on demand radio and tv content will be available through MyBBCPlayer, with the past seven days of programmes, along with live streaming of BBC tv channels (apparently to be restricted to UK viewers only) and access to the archives. Plans also include the ability to purchase music downloads.
posted by funambulist on Aug 28, 2005 - 26 comments

As dial-up internet access begins to fade, a fight is happening over the right of municipalities to install and run their own broadband Internet access networks. Various think tanks like the market oriented Heartland Institute and the community oriented Institute for Local Self Reliance have chimed in on the debate. Last week the Supreme Court ruled that cable companies do not have to provide "open access" to rival Internet providers. And down in Lafayette Louisiana, where the community will soon vote on whether to install a municipal Fiber to Home Network, some of the citizens decided to inject some humor into the issue by holding a film festival.
posted by thedailygrowl on Jul 2, 2005 - 13 comments

Robot planes may make phone towers obsolete "...it's a "Stratellite", and its makers believe it will revolutionise the broadband and wireless industry; if it ever gets off the ground.

Wisconsin communications company Sanswire on Tuesday unveiled its almost-finished prototype of a hard-framed, unmanned airship designed to fly in the stratosphere 21km above the earth and send broadband and cellphone signals to an area the size of Texas."

This in my opinion is an example of truly innovative technology.
posted by jaydedx on Apr 13, 2005 - 25 comments

There are now more home internet users using broadband than dialup in the U.S. - Does this mean that web designers will continue down the same path as some programmers and create bloated code? Are the days of trying to be efficient and keeping pages less than 70k a thing of the past?
posted by tomplus2 on Aug 23, 2004 - 29 comments

Proposal to have companies rewire their networks to support easy wiretapping by police "A far-reaching proposal from the FBI, made public Friday, would require all broadband Internet providers, including cable modem and DSL companies, to rewire their networks to support easy wiretapping by police. The FBI's request to the Federal Communications Commission aims to give police ready access to any form of Internet-based communications. If approved as drafted, the proposal could dramatically expand the scope of the agency's wiretap powers, raise costs for cable broadband companies and complicate Internet product development." Read more about the FBI's proposal at Cnet.com. or MSNBC. But where is the actual proposal?
posted by fluffycreature on Mar 15, 2004 - 8 comments

HeavyTV screens different full-length movies every week for broadband users. Showing this week: Airheads, Live From Baghdad, Pacific Heights and Extreme Ops.
posted by crunchland on Sep 10, 2003 - 10 comments

Got Dog Food Cans? Get Broadband. David Taylor, an IT manager in Britain, has built a 802.11 receiver out of dog food cans, in order to have his access reachable at a Travelodge hotel across town. A fascinating arrangement, and quite the entreprenuerial showing.
posted by djspicerack on Mar 11, 2003 - 3 comments

Stringing broadband connections through the city sewer system is a dirty smelly job but something has to do it! Check out the companies and the sewer-bots that are doing this dirty work.
posted by thedailygrowl on Nov 21, 2002 - 9 comments

Buy SBC now. "In order to make sure the economy grows, we must bring the promise of broadband technology to millions of Americans,'' Bush said at a White House-sponsored economic forum. "Government at all levels should remove hurdles that slow the pace of deployment.''

Is the USTA happy about this type of talk? You bet. They would like to see passage of S.2430, also known as the Broadband Regulatory Parity Act of 2002. Others wouldn't. Some have studies (300K PDF) that argue local phone companies are slowing the growth of DSL for anti-competitive reasons.

Also, notice how the President said "bring the promise of broadband technology to millions of Americans", not all Americans? Might have something to do with the fact that rural DSL is really, really expensive to provide.
posted by dglynn on Aug 14, 2002 - 14 comments

FBI enforcing the bandwidth CAP. With broadband caps spreading across North America, I wonder if we will see more stories like this, as users find they want to use more than 4 to 6 gigs a month.
posted by Iax on Jul 1, 2002 - 18 comments

Are you an AT&T Broadband cable internet customer?
Did you buy your cable modem to save on your monthly fee?
You made a mistake.
posted by darukaru on May 28, 2002 - 33 comments

75% of dial-up users are satisfied with their current speeds. This opinion piece states that, out of those people that have not yet made the switch to broadband, only 25% of them even would if available. Thus, little ISP's shouldn't worry about losing dial up business so much anymore. Can the Internet continue to evolve at 56K speeds?
posted by WolfDaddy on May 3, 2002 - 47 comments

Congress is now calling for public comments on the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA). EFF has a new action alert about it and a sample letter. Everyone should write, even if you have already.
posted by rhyax on Mar 29, 2002 - 3 comments

Announcing CivicNet, a Metropolitan Area Network (or MAN). In short, it is broadband for the masses in the Chicago area to be developed over a span of 10 years (if you're lucky). To be clear: I am not the man.
posted by moz on Jan 7, 2002 - 9 comments

eek! at+t broadband cable units to be bought by comcast. this means chicago cable service will shift to its third owner in two years (at+t broadband having purchased prime cable just last year, and having just gotten cable modems back online from the excite@home failure two weeks ago). anyone have any clues about the ramifications of this purchase?
posted by patricking on Dec 20, 2001 - 21 comments

Dump broadband? *gasp* Well, according to this ZDNet article, it's a movement. With price hikes and a souring economy, some people can't justify the cost. Could you let it go?
posted by hotdoughnutsnow on Nov 7, 2001 - 50 comments

Internet II a series of articles from Forbes ASAP on such things as the coming broadband revolution through private/public consortiums, security and reliability improvements, Washington sclerosis and various other interesting miscellania. (and an update on Michael Milken!) Reminds me of the heyday of Wired :)
posted by kliuless on Oct 13, 2001 - 0 comments

AOL may buy AT&T broadband in a deal that could allow them to own the browser, net access, data pipes, and content for a vast majority of internet usage and users. How far will AOL/TW go to control any and all forms of media? Are hearings to break the company up far off?
posted by mathowie on Sep 10, 2001 - 14 comments

Cringely's insight deepens with this new article on Excite@Home's troubles. Is broadband here to stay? If so, is it going to go anywhere? Three years from now, what will the options be and what kind of performance can be expected?
posted by bloggboy on Aug 31, 2001 - 6 comments

Back to two tin cans and a string? With so many of the broadband providers going down (and with it, their service), will the promise of broadband ever be fulfilled, or will consumers decide we can get by without it?
posted by msacheson on Aug 27, 2001 - 34 comments

I don't get it. I have AT&T@home, but this still loads as fast as on my dialup. Are you too displeased with your cable modem connection? Do you think there is anyone out there who has actually called tech support about this? Or other ad's like it. "You have new mail" masquerading as a real window etc. This is a very stupid thread I'm starting. Be advised
posted by crasspastor on Aug 1, 2001 - 13 comments

Alternative broadband delivery systems So now that all the DSL providers are going bankrupt, and the cable modem providers can't meet the demand, scheming entrepeneurs are looking for other ways to bring broadband to you. The guy with the plan for the hi-altitude airplanes sounds like he escaped from some lame-brained dot-com.
posted by briank on Mar 19, 2001 - 5 comments

beam me up! the ultimatetv thread made me wonder which satellite TV system would be best for me (and why is directTV evil?) -- anyway with this gadget you can watch DISH channels plus upload AND download via satellite IP. too good to be true?
posted by subpixel on Jan 8, 2001 - 12 comments

AOL's walled garden. Anyone who doesnt think that AOL will only link to AOL/Time Warner properties in the broadband future is fooling themselves.
posted by owillis on Oct 27, 2000 - 3 comments

Holy Schnikies! Broadband video that doesn't look too bad. I don't know what they're using for the tech behind this (besides some shockwave 7 and a plugin of their own design), but the video is compression-free and clear (well, if you ignore the stupid scanlines). If you're on a fast line, by all means check it out, pretty amazing stuff (now they just need to stream some good content, like the simpsons :).
posted by mathowie on Mar 3, 2000 - 3 comments