Hasta La Gadget!

Comcast may be looking to establish itself as a wireless carrier, if word on the street is to be believed. Apparently the company is in early stages of building a wireless service that would mainly use Wi-Fi network to function. In this case the service would be quite similar to Republic Wireless, which already offers a Wi-Fi / cellular hybrid service in the U.S.

A report from The Information claims that Comcast is going to use Wi-Fi from public hotspots and wireless routes to hands most of its services. In areas where Wi-Fi coverage is available, the service would tap into it. But if Wi-Fi coverage is unavailable, the service will automatically switch to spectrum that may be leased from large carriers such as Verizon or AT&T.

Republic Wireless already uses this method, which allows it to price plans as low as $5 per month, plus it has been around long enough to work out the kinks in Wi-Fi to cell handoff. Comcast will need to battle with these challenges initially should it launch a wireless phone service. Comcast doesn’t necessarily have to pit itself against major U.S. carriers to make it in this business.

Its retail locations and customer service centers already provide it with a nationwide presence, the company can lean on these resources if it launches a wireless phone service. Though it may be a tricky time for Comcast to pursue this, given that it has its hands full with the Time Warner Cable acquisition bid.

Comcast Wi-Fi Phone Service Rumored , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Cellphones, comcast,

Monopoly? What monopoly? At least that’s one of the pillars of the 180-page document Comcast just filed with regulators in defense of its pending $45 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable . It is a big fat load of bull.

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Chatter of an Apple deal with Comcast that would secure priority access for Apple TV streamed content has renewed speculation about a new set-top box and given stock prices a … Continue reading

The WSJ reports that Apple is currently negotiating a streaming TV deal with Comcast that would use an Apple set-top-box—ahem, Apple TV refresh —and Comcast’s position as the company that controls a ton of the United States’ broadband infrastructure.

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This article was written on October 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

Comcast is quickly gaining enemies from the BitTorrent crowd by using new technology to throttle torrent downloads.  The Associated Press was able to confirm that they are in fact doing this through tests all over the nation.  In their report they say that this move is “the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider.” Luckily, there are some workarounds available that TorretFreak writes about which we’ll be taking a look at in just a minute.

This isn’t the first time that Comcast was accused of decreasing speeds or even cutting off BitTorrent transfers. They previously denied these accusations back in August, but this time around once the AP investigated, they admitted they were using an application to break every seed connection to “ensure all our customers have the best broadband experience possible.” Comcast’s spokesman Charlie Douglas said, “This means we use the latest technologies to mange our network to provide a quality experience for all Comcast subscribers.” And of course, because it is their network, they can do what they want and what they feel is necessary.

For those you who subscribe to Comcast’s Internet service and use BitTorrent networks, you really have two options: switch to a different ISP, or find a workaround. As mentioned, TorrentFreak has put together a list of what’s working to get around this and what’s not working so that you know what’s worth trying. One such suggestion is to run BitTorrent over encrypted tunnels like SSH or VPN, or even forcing protocol header encryption. They also advise to play around with the different options mentioned because while one solution may work for you, it may not work for someone else. What they say is not working is to “grab a hammer, visit the Comcast office, smash a keyboard and knock over a monitor” as one 75 year old woman recently did in Chicago. 🙂

There’s some good news and some bad to come from this is. The good is that  Comcast is the only known ISP throttling downloads.  The bad news is that others may follow in Comcast’s steps and try to implement technology to do the same. Fortunately there’s some more good news though, and that is that Comcast is paying big bucks for this technology. Given that they’re the largest Cable TV and Internet provider in the U.S. with 12.4 million subscribers, they’ve got the money to do this. Other companies, well, they just won’t have the money to spend trying to stop subscribers from using Torrent networks. From the sounds of it, instead of trying a workaround, you’re just better off ditching Comcast and moving on to a new provider.

Thanks for the tip Cory!

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