dsl

Verizon Communications said Wednesday that it's extending its agreement with Yahoo to provide Verizon Internet users with Yahoo's Web portal.

The companies' multiyear agreement replaces a similar arrangement the companies had in place since 2005. Verizon didn't offer details about the duration or financial terms of the new deal. But it did say Yahoo's portal will be the first choice offered to subscribers of its DSL and Fios high-speed Internet service. Verizon will also offer its own branded portal and the MSN portal from Microsoft.

The deal between Verizon and Yahoo appears to only cover Verizon'… Read more

Verizon Communications and AT&T have thrown the first blows in an impending broadband pricing war.

Last week, Verizon Communications said it will offer six months of free DSL service to new customers who sign up for a one-year contract and also use the company's traditional landline voice service. The promotion is available until the end of October.

Verizon's DSL service typically costs between $19.99 per month for 768Kbps downloads and $42.99 a month for 7.1Mbps downloads. Add traditional telephone service, and subscribers can get high-speed DSL and phone service for as little as $… Read more

As is so often the case with networking problems, the firewall was source of the Verizon DSL problem I wrote about recently.

I had experienced problems making outbound connections at two Verizon DSL business customers and was told by another Verizon DSL customer that they too had a similar problem.

The problem first came up when trying to use NetMeeting from a Verizon DSL customer to remotely control a computer. Despite there being no firewall on the receiving computer NetMeeting still couldn't make a connection. Even a simple ping of the target computer failed.

I suspected Verizon was the … Read more

Recently, someone at a small business with a Verizon DSL Internet connection couldn't connect to my computer with NetMeeting. I've done this often enough to know that NetMeeting wasn't the problem, so I asked them to ping my computer - and it failed (timed out).

The TCP/IP ping command is a network debugging tool available on any operating system with TCP/IP (which is just about every operating system). It sends a simple command to the target computer which answers with a small amount of data. As the name implies, ping is just a tap on … Read more

Verizon Communications' wireless business continues to boost the company's profits as its landline business sputters, according to second-quarter earnings reports.

On Monday, Verizon reported a 12 percent increase in second quarter net income. The company reported that profits jumped to $1.88 billion in the second quarter from $1.68 billion during the same quarter a year ago. This increase came as the company only slightly grew its revenue, which was $24.12 billion for the quarter up from $23.27 billion a year ago.

Wireless once again proved to be the big growth engine for Verizon, which jointly … Read more

Verizon's 7-megabits-per-second DSL service is now available to over 3 million of its customers, the company said Thursday.

The service, which was announced in January, was initially only available to about 400,000 homes, in roughly 400 communities. But the company has been upgrading service and ramping up speeds in parts of 20 states and the District of Columbia. Customers interested in getting the higher-speed service should check the Verizon Web site to see if the faster speed service is available in their area. In many places the fastest DSL speeds available are still only 3Mbps.

The new service … Read more

AT&T has increased the price of its DSL service by $5 a month as the company faces slowing broadband growth, the company confirmed Tuesday.

The pricing change will apply to existing and new customers in AT&T's original 13-state territory who subscribe to one of AT&T's three lower-speed tiers of service.

Customers subscribing to AT&T's new U-verse service will not see a change in their bill, nor will customers who have service in the old BellSouth region. The company is not changing pricing on the $10 and $19.95 standalone … Read more

Over the past month, AT&T has quietly started to offer reasonably priced unbundled "naked" DSL Internet service to customers around the country. The company's website makes no mention of the service, nor do its Internet phone sales representatives offer or even discuss the service. Customers wishing to sign up will need to call a specific department at AT&T to request the secret plan. Two tiers are offered, a 3Mbit down/1.5 Mbit up plan for $28.99 per month, and a 1.5Mbit down/768k up for $23.99. Those who opt … Read more

Customers paying for AT&T and Yahoo's co-branded DSL service are outraged about ads that started showing up over the last few weeks that take up quite a bit of real estate on the page. A chunky "skyscraper" ad now runs up and down the right side of the page. There have always been ads on Yahoo's free Web-based e-mail service, but paying customers say the monthly fees they pay should be enough to spare them the advertising.

"AT&T Yahoo has inserted advertising into every corner and crevice of the AT&… Read more