Google Fiber Offers "Free" 5 Mbps Broadband Access in Kansas City

Google Fiber, which is launching service in Kansas City, Kan. and Kansas City, Mo., will offer consumers a "free" broadband access services, offering downstream speeds up to 5 Mbps, with a 1Mbps upload speed, with free service guaranteed for at least seven years.


 Users have to pay a one-time $300 "construction fee," optionally payable in 12 monthly payments of $25), plus applicable taxes and fees. 


The "standard" symmetrical 1 Gbps upload and download service, with no data caps, requires a one-year contract and costs $70 a month, plus taxes and fees. 


The "entertainment television and 1-Gbps service costs $120 a month, and includes a number of standard video channels. The nominal pricing of the video service is $50 a month. A number of the leading networks, including ESPN, Disney and Fox channels are unavailable at that price. 


But Google Fiber at launch will be a "beta" in some ways, so programming line-ups might change, over time. 


The standard package also includes a free Nexus 7 tablet, though, at least in part because the tablet provides remote control features, as well as the ability to eamlessly watch on your tablet in other rooms of  a customer's house.


Of course, users who want broadband access and television will have three different boxes, one for broadband, one for TV decoding, and a third to provide digital video recorder functions. 

There are some ways in which the Google video service offers advantages. There is no separate box or fee for HDTV viewing, for example. Many service providers charge extra for DVR functionality as well. Google video service does not have those add-on fees.

• 3Net
 
• A&;E
 
• Action Weather
• Animal Planet
 
• Antenna TV
 
• Bandamax
• BET
 
• BET Gospel
 
• Biography Channel
• BlueHighways TV
 
• Bounce TV
 
• Bravo
• C-SPAN
 
• C-SPAN 2
 
• C-SPAN 3
• CBS Sports Network
 
• Centric
 
• Chiller
• cloo
 
• CMT
 
• CMT Pure Country
• CNBC
 
• CNBC World
 
• Comedy Central
• Cooking Channel
 
• Create
 
• Crime & Investigation Network
• Current TV
 
• De Pelicula
 
• De Pelicula Clasico
• Destination America
 
• Discovery
 
• Discovery en Espanol
• Discovery Familia
 
• Discovery Fit & Health
 
• DIY
• E! Entertainment
 
• Encore
 
• Encore Action
• Encore Drama
 
• Encore Espanol
 
• Encore Family
• Encore Love
 
• Encore Suspense
 
• Encore Westerns
• Flix
 
• Food Network
 
• FOROTv
• G4
 
• GAC
 
• Galavision
• Game Show Network
 
• Golf Channel
 
• H2
• Hallmark Channel
 
• Hallmark Movie Channel
 
• Halogen
• HGTV
 
• History
 
• IndiePlex
• INSP
 
• Investigation Discovery
 
• ION Life
• KCPT (PBS)
 
• KCTV 5 (CBS)
 
• KCWE 29 (CW)
• KMBC 9 (ABC)
 
• KMCI 38
 
• KPXE 50 (ION)
• KSHB 41 (NBC)
 
• KSMO 62
 
• KUKC 48 (Univision)
• La Familia Cosmovision
 
• Lifetime
 
• Lifetime Move Network
• Lifetime Real Women
 
• Live Well
 
• LOGO
• MeTV
 
• MGM
 
• Military Channel
• Military History
 
• MLB Network
 
• MoviePlex
• MSNBC
 
• MTV
 
• MTV Hits
• MTV Jams
 
• MTV tr3s
 
• MTV2
• MTVU
 
• mun2
 
• NASA
• NBC Sports Network
 
• NFL
 
• NFL Redzone
• NHL
 
• Nick 2
 
• Nick Jr.
• Nickelodeon
 
• Nicktoons
 
• Olympics Channel 1
• Olympics Channel 2
 
• Outdoor Channel
 
• OWN
• Oxygen
 
• Palladia
 
• PBS Encore
• PBS Kids Sprout
 
• qubo
 
• QVC
• REELZChannel
 
• RetroPlex
 
• Ritmoson Latino
• Science channel
 
• Sho2
 
• Showtime
• Showtime Beyond
 
• Showtime Extreme
 
• Showtime Family Zone
• Showtime Next
 
• Showtime Showcase
 
• Showtime Women
• Smithsonian
 
• Spike TV
 
• Sportsman Channel
• Starz
 
• Starz Cinema
 
• Starz Comedy
• Starz Edge
 
• Starz in Black
 
• Starz Kids and Family
• Style!
 
• SyFy
 
• TBN Enlace
• Teen Nick
 
• Telefutura
 
• Telehit
• Telemundo
 
• Tennis Channel
 
• The History en Espanol
• The Hub
 
• This TV
 
• TLC
• TMC Extra
 
• TMC: The Movie Channel
 
• Travel Channel
• TV Land
 
• TVG
 
• Universal
• Univision Deportes
 
• Univision tlnovelas
 
• USA Network
• VH1
 
• VH1 Classic
 
• VH1 Soul
• WDAF 4 (FOX)
 
• WealthTV
 
• Weather channel
• WGN
 
• Youtoo TV

Mobile Tops Consumer Spending for Technology

Consumer spending on mobile products tops all consumer categories in 2012, according to analysts at Gartner, who point out that "the three largest segments of the consumer technology market are, and will continue to be, mobile services, mobile phones and entertainment services," according to Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Mobile services are expected to generate 37 percent of total worldwide consumer technology spending in 2012, $0.8 trillion, rising to almost $1 trillion by 2016.

Mobile phones will account for 10 percent of total spending in 2012, about $222 billion, rising to almost $300 billion by 2016.

Similarly, entertainment services including cable, satellite, IPTV and online gaming, will account for 10 percent of total consumer spending on technology products and services in 2012, at $210 billion, rising to almost $290 billion in 2016.

Gartner predicts that consumer spending on mobile apps stores and content will rise from $18 billion in 2012 to $61 billion by 2016, and that spending on e-text content (e-books, online news, magazines and information services) will rise from $5 billion in 2012 to $16 billion by 2016.

Consumers will spend $2.1 trillion worldwide on digital information and entertainment products and services in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. This amounts to a $114 billion global increase compared with 2011, and spending will continue to grow at a faster rate than in the past, at around $130 billion a year, to reach $2.7 trillion by the end of 2016.

The $2.1 trillion consists of what the consumers will spend on mobile phones, computing and entertainment, media and other smart devices, the services that are required to make these devices connected to the appropriate network, and software and media content that are consumed via these devices.

Telefonica Suspends Dividend, Share Buybacks

Telefónica will cancel the payment of all remaining dividends and share buybacks for 2012, an action that shows the stresses now experienced by businesses of all sorts in Spain, as a result of the economic and financial crises roiling Spain.


Telefonica's suspension of dividend payments is a risky step, as it would be for any public firm viewed as a "value" stock paying hefty dividends. The problem is partly a debt overhang that has to be rectified, plus a complete lack of revenue growth for the remainder of the year. 


The company said it now anticipates no significant revenue growth this year, compared with a previous expectation of revenue growth of at least one percent.  Telefónica said it will resume its dividend payments in 2013, with a dividend of 75 European cents a share to be delivered in two tranches, in the fourth quarter of 2013 and second quarter of 2014.


That of course assumes Telefónica can fix its immediate problems, namely controlling operating costs and getting debt to below 2.35 times operating profit in 2012. 


Telefónica's Spain operations, in the second quarter of 2012, saw revenue drop 13 percent year over year, compared with a six-percnet decrease for the European unit overall.


Perhaps most shockingingly, mobile phone usage revenue dropped 18 percent. You might conclude either that people indeed are not as attached to their mobile phones as once was thought, or that the Spanish economic crisis is so bad people have no choice, or that substitutes are being used, such as lower-cost services using "SIM-only" approaches. 

London Olympics Bans Personal Hotspots

Big, temporary events always pose a problem for access service providers. Because the large expected increases in access network use are temporary, it is difficult to add enough temporary capacity to cope with all expected demand. One way to manage expected congestion is simply to allow connections to slow, degrade and essentially create blockages.


So it is that, in addition to banning such obvious things as explosives and weapons from Olympic venues, attendees are advised by the London Olympics that personal wireless access points and and 3G hubs (smart devices such as personal hotspot devices or the personal hotspot functions of smart phones are banned from Olympic venues.


Android phones, iPhone and tablets are permitted inside venues, but must not be used as
wireless access points to connect multiple devices, the London Olympics says. 


The ban will be hard to enforce, but organizers say that, in principle, offending devices will be confiscated. 

Satellite Still Makes Sense in Rural Areas, Frontier Bets

The Frontier Communications Corporation wholesale agreement with Hughes Network Systems to create a branded, satellite-based broadband access service shows that debates over "which access network is best" miss the point. A range of networks "make sense" for different population 


Frontier will sell satellite-based broadband services, branded "Frontier Broadband, to what Frontier estimates are several hundred thousand households and small businesses within markets previously unserved or underserved by all broadband providers, including cable.


Notice that Frontier did not brand the service "Frontier Satellite Broadband." It is broadband, provided to some potential customers that Frontier cannot reach using its fixed network. 


As the mobile network provides huge value, even though raw speed is not as high as is possible on a fixed network, so a variety of technologies and networks make economic sense for urban, suburban, rural and isolated potential customers. No single network is "best" for every scenario. 


Still, each type of technology tends to be regulated using different rules. 


And it still raises regulatory hackles when contestants using different networks, and regulated under different rules, decide it makes sense to "cross the lines." That seems to be the case with the agency deals allowing Verizon to sell cable operator services, while cable operators can sell Verizon services.


Historically, the industry has seen strife over issues of which types of networks can receive funds from agencies that support rural communications, as well. Incumbent telcos have argued that it is unfair for competitive local exchange carriers or mobile carriers to receive support funds traditionally awarded only to fixed network telcos, even when the functional capability supplied by all of the contestants is precisely what the programs are supposed to support. 


Those debates are likely to become sharper in the future. 

Virgin Media Says 41% of New Customers Buy Broadband Access at 60 Mbps or Higher

Broadband customers on tiers of service offering speeds of at least 30 Mbps now represent 31 percent of its total broadband user base, according to Virgin Media. About 14 percent of all customers buy services at 60 Mbps or above. 


At least in part, that is because Virgin Media in April 2012 made 30 Mbps the entry level tier of service. 


Around 41 percent of Virgin Media new customers chose took speeds of more than 60 Mbps, while plans to double the speeds of four million users are well underway.


Virgin's experience confirms what most of you would suspect, namely that lower prices drive adoption of faster broadband access services. 


Virgin Media now sells service operating at 30 Mbps to 40 Mbps for £14.50 a momth. Also, says Virgin Media, the 30 Mbps service it sells is less costly than the 40 Mbps service marketed by BT.



Virgin Media services operating at 60 Mbps to 80 Mbps cost £18.50. Service at 100 Mbps costs £25.50 a month. 




Of course, Virgin Media's prices are lower than BT's prices, at each of the tiers. 

Amazon.com Launches a new Training Initiative

Amazon is launching a new, and as yet experimental, "Career Choice Program" for people who work at Amazon's fulfillment centers. 


The program is unusual. Unlike traditional tuition reimbursement programs, Amazon exclusively funds education only in areas that are well-paying and in high demand according to sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and funds those areas regardless of whether those skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.


Many of our fulfillment center employees will choose to build their careers at Amazon. For others, a job at Amazon might be a step towards a career in another field. We want to make it easier for employees to make that choice and pursue their aspirations. 


For people who've been with Amazon as little as three years, Amazon is offering to pre-pay 95 percent of the cost of courses such as aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technologies, medical lab technologies, nursing, and many other fields.