Apr 28
Apr 27
Vermont Telephone Company’s gigabit internet service is live, half the price of Google Fiber
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Remember how Google Fiber‘s recent announcement for planned service in Austin by 2014 spurred immediate competition from AT&T? It’s safe to say telcos in other areas have taken note about the gigabit speeds, not to mention the $70 montly pricing. According to the Wall Street Journal, Vermont Telephone Company is now offering gigabit service to some of its customers for the crazy-low price of $35 bucks a month. To keep things in perspective, WSJ notes that roughly 600 folks are subscribed (out of VTel’s total base of about 17.5K) and that the company is essentially going to be analyzing whether the current pricing will remain for the long-term. With Google Fiber to continuing to expand, it’s certainly promising to see how superspeed internet is trickling across the US — and how easy it’s been looking on the wallet.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Wall Street Journal Digits
Source: VTel
Apr 27
Time Warner Cable is attempting to combat Google Fiber, or at least suppress the damage Google Fiber will bring to its business, by offering free WiFi hotspots throughout the city of Austin, Texas. The catch is that in order for you to take advantage of TWC’s “free” public WiFi hotspot, you have to already be a TWC internet subscriber. Those that aren’t yet subscribers will be charged a fee.
The free WiFi hotspot is available to Time Warner customers who have a standard internet subscription, or a Business Class subscription. Those who do not have either will be offered a free trial period to test out the hotspots, and will later be required to pay an access fee with packages starting at $2.95 an hour. The hotspots have become available starting today, and customers will be able to find their nearest hotspot using the TWC WiFi app available in both Google Play and the iOS App Store.
Google recently confirmed that it will be deploying its Google Fiber network in the city of Austin, Texas. Its internet service offers customers free internet with speeds of up to 5Mbps as long as the customer is willing to pay the installation fee. Customers can also opt for 1Gbps data speeds for $70 a month, or get both 1Gbps data speeds and the Google Fiber TV service for $120 a month.
TWC stated that due to Google’s announcement, the company has to be more aggressive in deploying its free WiFi networks. Not only that, but AT&T also plans on bringing its own 1Gbps fiber service to Austin, Texas as well. The competition is growing dangerously in the city, and in order to keep its subscribers, TWC knows that it needs to step up its game. But we know that its going to take more than free WiFi hotspots to keep customers from switching over to Google Fiber or AT&T, because contrary to what TWC’s CFO might think, customers do want 1Gbps data speeds.
[via Time Warner Cable]
Time Warner Cable combats Google Fiber with free WiFi hotspots is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apr 27
Competition is a good thing in any market. The more businesses you have working for the consumer’s dollar, it tends to lead to better prices and service. Google announced not long ago that it would be rolling out its Google Fiber Internet service in Austin, Texas.
The announcement from Google has existing Internet providers within Austin scrambling to try and keep customers on their service.
For starters, Internet provider Time Warner Cable has announced that it will be offering all of its subscribers free access to Wi-Fi hotspots within the city. Time Warner says that its existing customers with standard cable packages or above can now get free access to the citywide Wi-Fi network that the company is building.
Time Warner went so far as to specifically point out Google Fiber as the reason it is speeding up the deployment of its Wi-Fi network. Still, I suspect that Time Warner will be unable to compete on pure performance and a lot of its customers will still defect to Google Fiber when it’s available.
[via Gigaom]
Apr 27
Many are drooling over Google Fiber, dreaming of ultra-fast downloads and uploads that are zipped off into cyberspace in the blink of an eye. While Google’s fiber network is certainly nice, every now and again a new player emerges to remind us that it could be better. Such is the case the Vermont Telephone Company, which is offering state residents gigabit Internet for $35 a month.
Vermont Telephone Company is a rural business that serves about 17,500 homes, of which 600 so far have subscribed to the ISP’s gigabit Internet offering. The service went live this month, and has one very notable feature over other offerings: it only cost $35 per month. That is half the monthly fee charged by Google for its Google Fiber network.
How does a small company manage to afford the installation of a fiber network, especially in light of the svelte monthly charge? Primarily via federal stimulus awards to the tune of $94 million. The funds were used to set up 1,200 miles of fiber to multiple rural counties in the state, a process that took about a year. Those who aren’t currently in the locations being serviced by the fiber network should be by the end of this year.
Vermont Telephone Company’s CEO Michel Guite has given a nod to Google Fiber, saying that the stimulus money was denied until after Google had announced its project, after which point VTel was granted the funds. He says that the provider has been holding public educational meetings at libraries in the state to help educate consumers about gigabit Internet.
[via WSJ]
Vermont’s ultra-cheap gigabit Internet rivals Google Fiber is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apr 27
As you may recall, Wolfram Research signed a deal with Microsoft a few years back that saw some Wolfram Alpha functionality integrated into Bing. As it turns out, it very nearly found its way into a certain other search engine as well. In an interview at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam today, Stephen Wolfram revealed that his company had tried to work with Google and “almost had a deal,” but it “blew up.” Unfortunately, he didn’t provide any further details about when those talks took place or exactly what the potential deal entailed, and it doesn’t sound like we can expect that deal to be revived anytime soon — especially considering Google’s own efforts that are increasingly overlapping with Wolfram Alpha. As Wolfram himself notes, though, the two companies do have something of a longstanding connection: Google co-founder Sergey Brin was actually an intern at Wolfram way back in 1993.
Filed under: Internet
Source: The Next Web
Apr 26
North Korea’s relationship with the world wide web has been mostly non-existent, with most of those who reside in the nation being forbade from accessing the Internet. Slowly, however, connectivity has leaked into the northern Korean nation, which now has nearly 2 million 3G subscribers, according to service provider Koryolink’s CEO Ezz Heikal.
This represents a fairly drastic rise in numbers, with subscribers hitting a million a tad over a year ago. Of course, just because an individual subscribes to 3G in North Korea does not mean they have access to the Internet – quite the contrary. Subscribers are able to make voice calls and send text messages, and cannot access the world wide web and cannot communication internationally.
Long-term visitors have different access that is a bit more free, but still regulates international access. And both of these are different than the 3G regulations that visitors were briefly under earlier this year, which allowed for access to the Internet in addition to texting and voice calls. The network availability spurred a flood of photos from within the closed-off nation on Instagram, one of which is featured above.
Sadly, the Internet access wasn’t available for even a solid month before it was cut-off from visitors, leaving them with just voice connectivity and nothing else. No official reason was given for why the Internet access was pulled, with some speculating that the amount of content from within the nation being published online fueled the decision.
[via North Korea Tech]
Image via Joseph Ferris III
North Korea has millions of 3G subscribers, says Koryolink CEO is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apr 26
All good things come to an end, or so the saying goes. As is the nature of things, product design changes over time see new features added and some old ones eliminated or changed, often without too much hassle or outcry. Occasionally some features prove to have been so beloved by users that they’re brought back, however, reintegrated into the newer design to see the light of day again with new abilities its original iteration never had. Such is the case with the latest Pinterest update.
Pinterest users who were around in its early days will recognize the “new” features that have been added (aka, brought back) in the latest update, including the “See it now” feature that takes a user directly to their pin after pinning it. Another feature the company said users wanted back was “Pinned from”, which showed who a pin was from, making it particularly easy to find others with like-minded tastes. The feature has been brought back.
Simple mentions have been re-introduced in this new update, allowing users to mention friends in a pin description via an “@” tag, which pulls up a list of individuals from which the user can select. Speaking of friends, users can now also see who among their Twitter followers and Facebook friends are using the social network, making it easier to connect and share.
Lest the entire update center around old features, the update also features some improvements, including more notifications thanks to a Recent Activity upgrade. The feature has been moved to the top right corner, and shows notifications for repins, likes, comments, follows, and mentions, as well as access to older notifications. There’s also an improved search that suggests keywords while a query is typed.
[via Pinterest]
Pinterest design update brings back most beloved days-gone-by features is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apr 26
Although LG jumped into the deep end of the online services pool when it launched LG Cloud last year, it didn’t have much to brag about when access was limited to South Korea, Russia and the US. The company is about to broaden its horizons considerably — it now plans to deploy LG Cloud to more than 40 additional countries before the end of May. While the electronics giant hasn’t outlined its plans on a nation-by-nation basis, it’s planning a truly worldwide expansion that should include Asia, Europe and Latin America. If your Optimus G Pro and brand new TV aren’t already syncing their media in perfect harmony, there’s a good chance that they will within a month’s time.
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, LG
Source: LG
Apr 26
When Pinterest unveiled its big redesign last month, it took the sort of gamble on feature trade-offs that we’ve seen before: some big leaps forward at the expense of a few leaps back. Much to the relief of many, the company is already doing what it can to restore what was lost while still forging ahead. Veteran users can once again see pins they’ve just posted, mention friends and find would-be contacts on Facebook on Twitter. As for the less nostalgic among us? The progress isn’t as dramatic, but it’s there: Pinterest has reworked notifications to show their history, and searches now include as-you-type keyword suggestions. More updates are on the way, including notifications for new pins, so we wouldn’t worry that Pinterest is spending most of its time mending broken fences.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Pinterest Blog
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