Hasta La Gadget!

AT&T today officially confirmed what so many had expected for some time now: the carrier will be throttling select users’ unlimited data plans. The move, which takes effect on October 1st, is a response to a “serious wireless spectrum crunch,” according to a message issued today. The changes will not affect most customers, according to the company, primarily targeting those who fall within the top five percent of heavy users in a given billing cycle. Once the new period begins, speeds will be restored. Even with this new plan in place, however, the company says that the spectrum problems still won’t be resolved — it does have a simple solution, however, explaining that “nothing short of completing the T-Mobile merger will provide additional spectrum capacity to address these near term challenges.” Full text after the break.

Continue reading AT&T announces throttling plans, gently reminds us why the T-Mobile acquisition is so great

AT&T announces throttling plans, gently reminds us why the T-Mobile acquisition is so great originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every day the world generates massive amounts of information. Whether it’s a Monday  in July or New Years Eve, book are being written, photographs are being taken, and measurements are being made. Much of that data is stored, be it at home on our hard drives, on smartphones, or on a server somewhere far away […]

Rogers hasn’t exactly made a lot of fans with the rather draconian caps on its cable modem service. But the company wants you to know, it has heard your complaints and doesn’t want to cut you off from your precious, bandwidth-intensive Netflix streams. That’s why it’s raising the limits on its three top tier plans later this month. Extreme subscribers are getting a bump from 80GB to 100GB, Extreme Plus users from 125GB to 150GB, and Ultimate customers from 175GB to 250GB. The company is even boosting speeds, you know, to help you make more efficient use of that newly raised data ceiling — from 15Mbps to 24Mbps for the Extreme and 25Mbps to 32Mbps for Extreme Plus. It’s always nice to see a company listen to its customers, and come on, data caps aren’t all that bad.

Continue reading Rogers listens, bumps data caps, lets you stream a few extra Netflix movies a month

Rogers listens, bumps data caps, lets you stream a few extra Netflix movies a month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Considering all the space nostalgia we’ve been swimming in recently, it’s somewhat appropriate that a Cold War-era telescope is gearing up to make its maiden voyage, after more than three decades of development (and delays). The Russian mission, known as RadioAstron, will finally become a reality on Monday, when a radio telescope launches from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome before soaring into orbit some 350,000 kilometers away from the Earth. At just ten meters in width, the craft’s antenna is small in comparison to other radio ‘scopes, but its reach can be dramatically expanded when combined with signals from those on the ground. This technique, called interferometry, will effectively create the largest telescope ever built, covering an area nearly 30 times the Earth’s diameter and allowing RadioAstron to capture interstellar images in 10,000 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. There remains, however, one major hurdle — because the spacecraft collects data at about 144 megabits per second, it must constantly transfer information to antennas on the ground. Problem is, there’s only one antenna capable of receiving RadioAstron’s signals and, unless others are constructed soon, a healthy chunk of its observations could be lost. How do you say “buzz-kill” in Russian?

Russia’s RadioAstron telescope finally set to launch, blanket space with its radio eye originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 20:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alanis Morrisette couldn’t have possibly thought up something this ironic to put in her hit song. On the same day Sprint launches an ad campaign trashing T-Mobile’s “unlimited” plan for throttling its data speeds, the Now Network announced that it intends to begin throttling Virgin Mobile’s broadband sometime in October. Those who use larger amounts of data on the prepaid brand will experience the briskness of 256kbps as soon as they hit a monthly threshold of 2.5GB. This won’t affect postpaid customers on Sprint for the time being, but it’s hitting a little too close to home. After all, the company — always playing the role of consumer advocate — is now at least experimenting with the idea of employing the same practices it’s currently trashing its competitors for. Those who’re taking full advantage of Dan Hesse’s spoils are safe for now, but the question remains: who’ll throttle the throttlers? Check out the vid and press release in all their irony-dripping glory after the break.

[Thanks, John]

Continue reading Sprint’s Virgin Mobile brand to test throttling while Sprint pokes fun at throttlers (video)

Sprint’s Virgin Mobile brand to test throttling while Sprint pokes fun at throttlers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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