Archive for: bandwidth
In stark contrast to AT&T’s new bandwidth caps scheduled to hit homes this coming May, BT has informed UK Infinity subscribers that they are doing just the opposite — they are removing any and all bandwidth caps. Specifically, BT Total Broadband and Infinity fiber services (tier 2) will soon be able to download any and all of the world should they so choose. With that truly “unlimited” decree, users will have up to 40Mbps (actual speeds ~33Mbps) download and ~2Mbps upload speeds to play with.
As for the still capped packages, BT’s Option 1 and 2 tiers will feature a 10GB and 40GB cap respectively while Infinity Option 1 will also share a 40GB cap. Overages for these plans are priced at £5 per 5GB.
Finally, users of the unlimited plans will still be subject to bandwidth throttling at peak hours (5pm-midnight) “when the network is busy”.
Bad news for “unlimited” data users, AT&T is killing off “unlimited”…again. This time, it’s hitting your household instead of your cellphone. According to reports from DSLReports and confirmation with AT&T PR guy, Seth Bloom, “unlimited” is a thing of the past. Starting May 2nd, your typical non-U-Verse package will have a 150GB data cap. U-Verse customers will have a bit loftier ceiling at 250GB. Overages will set you back $10 per extra 50GB of data. In a small act of good will, AT&T will email customers when they’ve hit 65%, 90%, and 100% of their allotted bandwidth.
AT&T maintains that a paltry 2% of customers (whom consume 20% of the company’s bandwidth) will be affected. That leaves 98% of us to go on with business as usual. However, we can’t but help but feel screwed by AT&T yet again. Comcast has a similar cap set around 250GB for all users regardless of package they subscribe to. With all media providers, ISPs, and every company in between talking up social networking, photo sharing, video uploads, and online gaming, 150GB is going to become less and less generous with each passing year. (Read: today’s heavy user is tomorrow’s standard user.) The most popular online service that could easily bump up against that cap that we can think of off hand — Netflix. AT&T should have led in this regard instead of merely following — half-assed we might add. But that’s business (and AT&T) for you.
We’d like to reach out to AT&T to provide us with some actual data proving to us that the killing of unlimited data is actually justified and that rising bandwidth usage is indeed a problem. It’s only fair, right? AT&T, we’re waiting…
- February 23, 2011 7:05 am
We haven’t said much about the various MacBook Pro refresh rumors thus far, but with this morning’s more legitimate claims from an ever growing list of sources we can’t hold off any longer. First up, the 16GB SSD OS/boot drive rumors are all but confirmed. This dual-mode solution gives you a super fast boot/shutdown times and over OS responsiveness while the second HDD will allow you to store heaps of files. We’re hearing that Apple will also allow customers to swap out the Superdrive for a second SSD.
Display options include a new, higher resolution 1440 x 900 option for the 13″ MBPs along with a matte-screen choice for the higher end MBP baby. The 15″ MBP will gain a 1680 x 1050 resolution panel (1920 x 1080 still available as an upgrade). Finally, the 13″ and 15″ MBPs will ship with 4GB of RAM standard with the 17″ getting a nice boost to 8GB out the door.
Even better than the above goodies comes by way of a claimed 12 hour battery life for the 13″ MBP and still plenty respectable 11-hour battery life for the 15 incher.
But the one rumor that has most people in an uproar currently is that these latest MBPs will feature Intel’s new LightPeak technology (rebranded “ThunderBolt”), which offers 10Gb/s transfers rates — double that of USB 3.0. Further adding fuel to the fire, an image leaked showing a new mysterious port on a MBP. Whether it is Light Peak (or even a MBP) are still unconfirmed.
Of course, it will take a bit of time for hardware manufacturers to build peripherals and accessories for the new technology. But having it standard on Apple hardware moving forward could provide very fruitful for adoption. Intel is holding a Light Peak even on Thursday, with Apple’s unveiling supposedly happening later the same day.
Stay tuned as we’ll be all over it!
Update
German Apple site fscklog has what they claim to be a snapshot of the 13″ MBP spec sheet. Looks like these “rumors” are getting more real as the morning goes on.
In other news, I have a MBP for sale…
- February 12, 2011 7:07 pm
We often report about gadgets and electronics here at Gadgetsteria. But another love of ours is looking out for the little guy — Yes, you! — when it comes to tech-based laws. With the rise of data consumption over the last few years, we’ve seen ISPs and cellular providers go out of their way to limit customers instead of providing a useful service. And no one knows the frustration and disappointment of this new ideology more than customers of Ontario-based TekSavvy. Under a new ruling this past January 25th, large ISPs were given the privilege of monitoring and capping traffic accordingly. The worst part of it all was that the previous 200GB and Unlimited tiers were both being reduced to 25GB…total. Public outcry was far and wide, with some 460,000+ people signing a petition to stop the change. In fact, the negative reaction was so strong, Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered a review of the highly controversial ruling.
Thankfully, that perseverance paid off, as customers of TekSavvy began receiving emails late last night — Friday, February 11th — telling them that the upcoming March 1st deadline and lower caps was effectively canceled indefinitely. The unlimited tier is now reinstated. And the 200GB tier — now 300GB. Score one for determined and engaged consumers. It just goes to show you what the power of many can do.
- December 21, 2010 2:28 pm
A couple of days back, we highlighted a webinar being conducted by technology firms OpenNet and Allot Communications. In that webinar was a slide showing off a network management service that would allow carriers to charge based on service — you could be charged more for using Facebook or other popular websites over your standard website. It would effectively destroy the internet and hand over all control to carriers.
One of the companies which developed the presented technology, OpenNet, has come forward today with a post on the company’s blog, explaining exactly their position in the whole charge-per-service hysteria that’s exploded over the last couple of days. Jump inside for the full rundown…
- December 11, 2010 7:48 pm
In news that should make the technologically proficient being in all of us weep, the latest news from the FCC regarding home broadband speeds is quite disheartening. It appears that our national broadband infrastructure isn’t as robust as we think it is. Specifically, out of the 90,963,000 U.S. broadband connections tracked by the FCC, a full 68% fail to meet the revised 4Mbps down/1Mbps up requirements recently put into effect. Breaking it down further, of those 90,963,000, 58% failed to even reach 3Mbps down and 786Kbps up. Finally, 49% of the total tracked connections featured upload speeds slower than 786KKbps.
What the FCC’s data shows is that the U.S. still has a long, long way to go before we start to consider our nation a leading broadband provider. Countries such as Japan, South Korea, and many other European countries offer average speeds many times faster, and for far less. Part of it is because the leading countries are geographically smaller, which in turn means network upgrades and maintenance is much cheaper. Another aspect to consider is that competition in foreign countries is also much higher, with the average consumer facing 3, 4, or more capable broadband providers.
With that said, the FCC’s testing methodologies aren’t the most scientific, and have their own fair share of holes. Even still, there’s no denying the U.S. could offer much better. Hopefully U.S. companies with fiber rollouts in progress or even planned pick up the pace. The rest of the world is passing us by, and quick.
Coming from several years of BlackBerry use and knowing full well how frugal the devices are when data is concerned, it’s pretty intriguing to see the latest news regarding mobile data usage. Specifically, according to StatCounter and some 15 billion monitored web pages, BlackBerry OS actually consumed more mobile data than Apple’s iOS. In reality, it’s both surprising and unsurprising.
On one hand, many people (including myself at times) discount the BlackBerry platform for it’s aged appearance and implementation of consumer-oriented features. At the same time, BlackBerries can be found from $300+ all the way down to free, even finding their way into a BOGO here and there. With such great deals on the hardware, it’s not really all that surprising that they’re being snapped up. The global economy still isn’t the greatest. As such, people are looking at more affordable options — options that BlackBerry provides (and Apple doesn’t).
It will be interesting to see how things fair for December and in the coming months. Can BlackBerry maintain their lead or will Apple reclaim theirs?
- November 17, 2010 9:07 pm
Up until 2010, mobile data was a great uncharted land of adventure. Those precious bits were fed to you in unlimited quantities. Times were good. And then carriers started feeling the burden of a growing smartphone user base. The caps came and the prices rose. As we look towards even faster technologies such as WiMax and LTE, such things as data caps become even more of an issue. With that said, Verizon Wireless CEO Ivan Seidenberg made some recent statements highlighting that the upcoming LTE network would allow VZW to bill customers not only by usage as is quickly becoming the norm, but by speed as well…
USB 3 and eSATA may be the king and queen when it comes to external speed, but no technology is more promising than Intel’s Light Peak. While USB 3.0 was a marginal, linear progression from USB 2.0 and 1.0 before it, Light Peak is exponentially faster. For example, USB 3.0 has a theoretical top speed of 5.0Gbps. Though real-world speeds tend to hover around 100-130MB/s. Still, that’s a helluva lot better than their previous technologies. Light Peak on the other hand has a theoretical top speed of 10Gbps, which will obviously offer at least double the real-world transfer speeds. But what’s slightly surprising is that Intel showed off the successor to Light Peak — mind you, Light Peak still has 3-5 years before we actually see it in mainstream products.
If Light Peak is all the rage in geek world currently, the successor has to be something special, right? Right! Light Peak tops out at 10Gbps. Ok, awesome. But Intel’s even faster laser-based technology will allow data transmissions of up to 12.5Gbps across (4) laser beams, netting nearly ~50Gbps of total bandwidth. That’s inane! But that’s just the beginning…
