Is Your Internet Too Fast?

About three years ago, the Federal Communications Commission raised the definition of broadband from 4 Mbps to 25 Mbps. This meant for an area to be considered to have high-speed Internet, it actually had to have high-speed Internet available in the area. Makes sense because 4 Mbps just isn't fast enough to much of anything.

Fast forward to 2017. Now the Republican controlled FCC under Verizon's minion Ajit Pai is saying that actually 25 Mbps is too fast and it needs to be lowered back down to 10 Mbps. I guess too many consumers were complaining about their Internet being just too darn fast. One of the FCC Commissioners, Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel thinks the re-defining is just to make it easier for the FCC to say they did their job of ensuring that all American have access to high-speed Internet in their zip codes. Kind of like saying if water is just kind of dirty it can be called clean so that you can say you have clean water.

Since the FCC under Trump is stacked in the Republican's favor Pai, and therefore big telecoms, will probably get his/their way.

Or could it be that Ajit Pai's corporate overlords didn't want to have to actually provide high-speed Internet in some areas? The FCC under Pai has just been slashing consumer protections right and left. It is no wonder that many people think that he is working for someone other than the consumers of the United States.

Pai has also maintained that if someone can get cell service then they might not need fast Internet service in their area. Of course Verizon, Ajit Pai's former employer (and possible future employer) just happens to be the number one mobile provider in the country.

By the way, at Ajit Pai’s house near DC he gets both Verizon and Comcast Xfinity, with Verizon Fios speeds of up to 500Mbps and Comcast download speeds up to 200Mbps. But the rest of America only needs 10 Mbps.

Koch Brothers Fight Municipal Broadband

Internet Service in your zip code?

Sometimes the big Internet providers don't think it will be profitable enough to build high-speed internet connections in an area so they leave some areas underserved. As a result high speed Internet service in zip codes can be spotty. Some areas have great high speed Internet while others not so much.

In an attempt to solve this some communities have banded together and sought to create community or municipal broadband services. This is broadband service provided to an area by local city or county governments. This can be a great solution for residents of the underserved community. Unfortunately some companies don't want the competition. Even if they are refusing to provide the service they don't want to allow governments or sometimes even other companies to provide the service.

Some of these big Internet service providers even lobbied state governments to outlaw municipal broadband providers. This happened in North Carolina. When a local government in Wilson, NC solved their lack of broadband Internet themselves, the same big Internet service providers who refused to provide the service themselves, lobbied the state's legislature and now it is against the law for local governments to try to provide high speed Internet for their residents in North Carolina. This was done in the name of protecting businesses. What about protecting the citizens?

A Comcast backed fight against municipal broadband in Fort Collins Colorado, ended with the municipal broadband service winning despite being out spent to the tune of almost a million dollars.

To get high-speed Internet in the area, the town of Louisville, KY had to fight, not only the big corporate Internet providers but the infamous Koch brothers. The oil billionaire's funded Taxpayer Protection Alliance attacked the municipal initiative on social media with misleading tweets. Fortunately for the underserved residents the plan backfired when word of the Koch funding came out.

Is There Such a Thing as Privacy Online?

With all of the recent attention on net neutrality, people might have missed this gem. The Internet Service providers like Comcast and Charter are not the only ones taking liberties with Internet users. Many popular websites are using keyloggers to see everything you type while you are on their website.

A new study by Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy finds that hundreds of sites (including Godaddy, Microsoft, Walgreens, and Adobe) use what they call "session replay scripts" on their websites that record everything visitors type, where they move their mouse, and their scrolling behavior while they do it, even if the user deletes what they just typed and never hit submit it can be recorded. These sessions can then be replayed.

It doesn't matter whether you get Internet service in your area from Comcast, Charter or Cox, it is the websites that are eavesdropping on you in this case.
This "service" is provided by third party software vendors like SessionCam, FullStory, Smartlook, UserReplay, and HotJar and can record unencrypted information like social security numbers, security codes, health conditions and other sensitive data without the user even being aware. “Do not track” settings on browsers and even ad-blocking software didn't do a lot to prevent the sessions from being recorded and replayed.

This just goes to show it is not just the local Internet service providers like Comcast and Charter we need to worry about.

Windstream Partners with Pittsburgh Steelers

Windstream, a provider of triple play with Internet, voice and cable TV bundles, today announced that they would be continuing their partnership with the Pittsburgh Steelers to provide communications services that will meet the team's demands for communications and coordination during events and for various media groups that broadcast Steelers games.

"In a 24x7 world of information, fans demand access to the latest information about the team—from replays to in-depth analysis—allowing no room for failure," said vice president of technology, Pittsburgh Steelers, Scott Phelps. "To ensure this type of reliability, we entrust Windstream with the unique challenge of keeping an accurate inventory of lines to be assigned on demand and for games during the football season in various areas of Heinz Field, including technicians scheduled to be on site during events and games. We couldn't be more pleased with Windstream's continuous communication and technical support."

The Pittsburgh Steelers are the seventh-oldest team in the NFL and one of the most successful. They were founded in the early 1920s. They have made it to the Super Bowl 8 times and are the only team to win six Super Bowl Championships. The Steelers have partnered with Windstream for the last 23 years for communications services.

Windstream is based in Little Rock AZ. It was formed in 2006, from Alltel and Valor Communications and is a leading provider of network communications and technology solutions for consumers and business customers. Windstream offers bundled services, including Internet, security systems, phone and digital television to consumers around the US. Windstream also provides many other Internet and communications services to small and large business clients. The company has a fiber network of approximately 150,000 miles. Earlier this year they merged with Earthlink and announced that they would be buying Broadview Networks.

Windstream's shows their commitment to the Steelers by in-depth quarterly business reviews with the team's tech staff to make sure they are satisfied with Windstream. Windstream also reviews their products and services continually to look for any needed upgrades.

"Windstream values our relationship with the Steelers and being a part of their long history of success," Windstream executive vice president, Joseph Harding said. "By leveraging our robust metro-fiber assets to support the Steelers' data transport needs, they can continue to focus on what they do best—winning games and keeping their loyal fans happy."

Internet of Things in my Area

Internet of Things - The network of physical devices like appliances, vehicles, and other devices that are connected to the Internet, usually wirelessly.

I am telling you right now, you want to find the fastest Internet in your area. With the invasion of Internet connected things in most households, the importance of a strong WiFi connection in your house cannot be overstated. Soon most household appliances and devices will be connected to the Internet. This will be for simple actions like turning things on and off to more complex actions like monitoring temperature to turning on cameras to locking doors and shutting windows. With all of these connected devices using bandwidth, you need the best Internet connection in your area that you can find.

There may be a time that there is Universal WiFi across the planet but until then finding the best Internet will be of the utmost importance. Added to all of the usage that the connected devices will be taking up there will also the normal every day usage like online gaming and video streaming. As long as it is a fast speed it doesn't matter if you find DSL Internet or it you find fiber optic cable Internet, you just need to make sure it is fast enough for your needs.

Once you find the best Internet in town, you know that your connected devices are getting the best connection they can get.

AT&T Helps Restore Internet to Puerto Rico

AT&T is helping to connect people to the Internet in Puerto Rico after the hurricane. Currently a lot of locations don't have high-speed Internet in the area at all.
Much of the High Speed Internet network infrastructure in Puerto Rico took damage from the storms. Project Loon is a Google experiment with balloons equipped to provide wireless Internet access from above. The balloons use antennas mobile users to connect ground stations to provide Internet in hard to get to places. Google decided to offer these balloons, to help Puerto Rico get back connected to the Internet after Hurricane Maria. Google didn't have much going on in Puerto Rico so they partnered with AT&T to get it up and running. AT&T sent almost 40 ships loaded with equipment and five planes to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands recently. Some of the islands have had no cell coverage and Internet service since the hurricane hit the islands earlier this year.
When T-Mobile heard that AT&T was partnering with Google’s Internet providing balloons to connect the hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico to the Internet T-Mobile announced that it is also going to be working with the Loon Project to help the storm ravaged islands. Now it is still an experimental project, but it is helping out. “Since turning on Project Loon service last week, we’ve delivered basic Internet connectivity to tens of thousands of people in Puerto Rico.” according to Google's spokesperson. The Internet-connecting balloons get launched in Nevada and have to travel all the way down to Puerto Rico to go into service.

Internet Service Providers Don't Want to Provide More Information

The Federal Communications Commission is wondering if it should start collecting more accurate data about broadband deployment in the US, but of course cable and telecom lobby groups don't want them too. They like it the way it is. The FCC thinks people might want to know "What Internet can I get in my area?"

The FCC has a thing called "Form 477" that requires Internet service providers identify the areas they provide Internet service. This is broken down by census block. The FCC wants to know whather it is either business or residential, and what the highest speeds they offer in those blocks. Now the ISPs are also supposed to tell the FCC which census blocks are near enough to their networks that they could provide Internet service without too much trouble.

This information is supposed to help the FCC know how good broadband deployment in zip codes or census blocks is going. It is also supposed to identify the geographical areas that might benefit from government money, and what else might be needed to spur deployment and competition. A census block is pretty big and to really know who can actually get service the FCC really needs to know which house or building can get service.
Just because they service one unit in a census block doesn't mean they service all of them. The ISPs don't want to tell them which houses because that might make them actually make them accountable to provide that service. That might make them do more work.
The ISPs, like Verizon, might also get money from the government to provide Internet service to a census block. They don't want to have to provide service to every house in the block before they can consider it served and collect thier money.