Tag Archive for: broadband

Charter tries to convince FCC that broadband customers want data caps

/in
Illustration of a water hose with Internet data trickling out of it, represented by 1s and 0s.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)

Charter Communications has claimed to the Federal Communications Commission that broadband users enjoy having Internet plans with data caps, in a filing arguing that Charter should be allowed to impose caps on its Spectrum Internet service starting next year.

Charter isn’t currently allowed to impose data caps because of conditions the FCC placed on its 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable. The data-cap condition is scheduled to expire on May 18, 2023, but Charter in June petitioned the FCC to let the condition expire two years early, in May 2021.

With consumer-advocacy groups and Internet users opposing the petition, Charter filed a response with the FCC last week, saying that plans with data caps are “popular.”

Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Biz & IT – Ars Technica

Pandemic hasn’t crushed broadband networks—even rural areas are doing OK

/in
A US map with lines representing communications networks.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | metamorworks)

The sharp growth in residential-broadband traffic seen during the pandemic is starting to level off, new data shows. While Internet speeds have slowed somewhat in many parts of the United States, it turns out that even rural-broadband networks are holding up pretty well.

Speeds have dropped in rural areas but are stabilizing, BroadbandNow reported today. Median download speeds in rural areas ranged from 16Mbps to 19.9Mbps in each of the first 11 weeks of 2020. Speeds then fell to 15.5Mbps in March 22 to 28, the lowest recorded all year. But rural speeds went back up to 16.2Mbps in the week of March 29 to April 4.

Median upload speeds in rural areas ranged from 5.5Mbps to 6.3Mbps in the first 11 weeks of 2020 but have been just 5.1Mbps the last two weeks, the same report found:

Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Biz & IT – Ars Technica

SpaceX plans likely spinoff and IPO for Starlink broadband division

/in
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching into the sky.

Enlarge / A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on January 29, 2020. (credit: Getty Images | SOPA Images )

SpaceX is likely to spin out its Starlink broadband business, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said today at an investor event.

“Right now, we are a private company, but Starlink is the right kind of business that we can go ahead and take public,” Shotwell said at the event, according to a Bloomberg article. “That particular piece is an element of the business that we are likely to spin out and go public.”

While CEO Elon Musk has kept SpaceX private, a Starlink public offering would “giv[e] investors a chance to buy into one of the most promising operations within the closely held company,” Bloomberg wrote.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Biz & IT – Ars Technica

SpaceX raising $500 million to help build satellite broadband network

/in
A view in outer space of SpaceX's first two broadband satellites.

Enlarge / SpaceX’s first Starlink broadband satellites. (credit: Elon Musk)

SpaceX is raising $ 500 million from investors to help build its worldwide satellite broadband network, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

The company run by Elon Musk has agreed on financing terms with existing shareholders and new investor Baillie Gifford & Co., who will pay $ 186 per share for new stock, valuing the company at $ 30.5 billion, according to Journal sources. SpaceX hasn’t received the money yet but could announce the deal by the end of December, the Journal reported.

The funding round would pay for initial costs but not the entire project, which the Journal report said could cost as much as $ 10 billion. We contacted SpaceX about the funding today but the company declined to comment.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Biz & IT – Ars Technica