Comcast Demos Skype via Set Top
Posted by Jesse Ward on Tuesday, July 5, 2011 · 
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At the Cable Show just a few weeks ago Comcast revealed that it is working on a new service integrating the Skype video chat application into the Comcast Xfinity cable set top box.
This service will be delivered on the subscriber’s HDTV through an adaptor box, a high-quality video camera and a specially designed remote control that enables customers to type Skype chat messages as well as control their television. Subscribers will get notifications of incoming calls on their TVs and will be able to answer calls with full-screen video or in a window while watching TV.
The other calling party does not need any special equipment beyond what is needed to use Skype. Read more
Comcast to Offer $10 Broadband to Low-Income Homes
Posted by Jesse Ward on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 · ·
The FCC imposed several conditions on Comcast’s merger with NBC-U, including the requirement that the new company offer $10 broadband to any household making less than $20,000 a year. It was actually a condition Comcast volunteered. At an event today in Chicago, Comcast announced the launch of its Internet Essentials service.
According to Comcast, every household in Comcast’s footprint with children who receive free lunches under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) will qualify to receive Comcast XFINITY Economy broadband service (1.5 Mbps down, 384 kbps upstream) for $10 a month, the opportunity to buy a PC for $150, and access to digital literacy training. The program will launch this summer. Read more
Comcast Prepares for IPv6 Transition, Tests ‘Native Dual Stack’
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, January 31, 2011 · ·
Comcast announced today via a blog entry that it has testing a new IPv6 transition method. The cable company has successfully activated its first group of cable modem customers using IPv6 in a “Native Dual Stack” configuration. These customers have access to content and services natively over both IPv6 and IPv4, since they have both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Comcast notes that these are the first Native Dual Stack users activated in a production DOCSIS network in North America, and a key landmark in the service provider’s transition from the version 4 to the version 6 world.
IPv6 has been a hot topic of late. If you haven’t been following the news, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is predicting that it will run out of IPv4 addresses within the next few days. However, it will take several months before rural service providers and end users will feel the results – i.e. before they will be unable to obtain an IPv4 address for their Internet capable device.
All Internet service providers and businesses with publicly available Web content should have an IPv6 transition plan in place. Stop-gap measures include network address translation (NAT) or ‘tunneling’ methods whereby an IPv4 device can access IPv6 content and services.
For more on IPv6, read NTCA’s ePaper, and attend the 2011 IP Possibilities Conference & Expo where a panel of experts will discuss the IPv6 transition in depth.
FCC Approves Comcast-NBC Universal Merger
Posted by Jesse Ward on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 · ·
Update: The deal is now done. The FCC and the DoJ have both approved the transaction, imposing separate but overlapping conditions on the merger.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) still has to approve the transaction, although industry analysts largely view DOJ’s approval as a given.
As part of its approval, the commission stipulated certain conditions and “enforceable commitments” which will require Comcast-NBCU to take affirmative steps to foster competition in the video marketplace. In addition, Comcast-NBCU will increase local news coverage to viewers; expand children’s programming; enhance the diversity of programming available to Spanish-speaking viewers; offer broadband services to low-income Americans at reduced monthly prices; and provide high-speed broadband to schools, libraries and underserved communities, among other public benefits.
For more, see this FCC release.
Washington Report will have more analysis later this week.
Comcast Beta Tests Internet-Cable Device
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, December 20, 2010 · ·
Comcast Corp. is beta testing a new service that joins together traditional television and the Internet, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Under the new system, which is being tested in Augusta, Ga., content flows through a set-top box that combines features of the Web with those of a DVR.
The service, known to participants as “Spectrum” and internally as “Xcalibur,” is a walled-garden which doesn’t let participants freely browse the Web. Instead users can watch a smattering of Web video through their televisions and search across live, on-demand and recorded programming. Participants also have limited connections to social networks to comment on television shows.
The cable provider is using information collected in this beta trial to determine if the service will eventually launch nationwide and at what price. “We are testing many technological approaches to understand how best to meet consumer interests, and this small trial is one of those experiments,” a Comcast spokeswoman said in a statement sent to the Wall Street Journal. Read more
Dish Drops RSN
Posted by Steve Fravel on Monday, November 29, 2010 · (1) ·
Saying that “…..the arbitration decision was based on significant legal and factual errors,” Dish Network dropped regional sports network CSN California on November 24, the day following the finding of the FCC arbitrator in favor of Comcast.
Big Cable Operators See 500,000+ Cord Cutters
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, November 8, 2010 · ·
Subscribers are cutting the pay-TV cord in record numbers. Adding up cable TV losses from four of the five biggest cable operators brings the quarterly cord cutter total to more than half a million subscribers.
The carnage began last week when Comcast announced that it had lost 275,000 basic cable subscribers. No. 2 cable provider Time Warner Cable followed suit, announcing that it has lost 155,000 cable subscribers during the third quarter, which included 46,000 digital video subs. Charter Communications reported that it lost 63,800 basic cable subscribers during the previous quarter, and Cablevision announced that it lost 24,500 subscribers during the same period, including about 5,000 digital video subscribers. Read more