comcast

Report: Verizon Fios steals cable subscribers

Verizon's Fios TV service is stealing business from cable operators, according to a report published by OneTrak this week.

The report focused on 34 cities and towns in Massachusetts where Fios TV is offered. The report said that some incumbent cable operators could experience subscriber losses of 10 percent or more because of Fios competition. Traditional cable overbuilders, like RCN, will likely feel the brunt of the defections, the report said. (Overbuilders are companies that use or build on existing operators' networks to offer service.)

According to the report, Comcast lost about 2.6 percent of its subscribers, or … Read more

Making the case for CableCard

As with any first-generation product, CableCard has received its fair share of criticism. The cards are one-way devices, which means no pay-per-view or video on demand. The cards are also single-tuner devices, which means no recording one show while watching another unless you double up. There's no option for a DIY installation, and a visit from technician doesn't guarantee you'll be left with a signal.

I've been using Comcast's CableCard for a couple weeks now, however, and I've been pleasantly surprised. So much so, that I may turn in my cable box at the … Read more

CableCard with Comcast: So far, so good...

After repeated attempts to get CableCard up and running with Time Warner in Brooklyn failed to produce a signal, we decided to shift our CableCard operations to CNET's northern outpost in Concord, NH. We sent back Velocity Micro its CineMagix Grand Theater for some fine-tuning, and it then turned around and sent the system up here.

New Hampshire is Comcast territory. I called Comcast and scheduled an installation last week. The technician had done a handful of installations on CableCard-equipped TVs and DVRs, but this was the first time he had seen a CableCard-equipped PC. After complimenting me on … Read more

Intel's making friends with the cable industry

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," apparently still has legs as a business strategy.

Intel has been trying for years to get PCs with its chips inside living rooms, trying to offset the slowing growth of the PC market by creating a new way to use PCs. That hasn't worked, as Media Center PCs and their Viiv successors have sold fairly well but few consumers are actually using them in place of their digital cable or satellite boxes at the center of their entertainment systems.

So Intel announced Monday that it will incorporate the OpenCable … Read more

A cable modem hits hyper speed

Cable industry executives on Wednesday showed off a superfast cable-modem technology called "channel bonding," and wowed the crowd at The Cable Show convention in Las Vegas.

According to an Associated Press report on the demonstration, the CEO of communications technology specialist ARRIS Group, Robert Stanzione, downloaded a 30-second, 300-megabyte television commercial in a few seconds and watched it well before a standard modem worked through a download time of about 16 minutes.

Known as DOCSIS 3.0 among the engineers at Cable Television Laboratories, the cable industry's research arm, the technology can offer download speeds as quick … Read more

News Roundup: CBS, MySpace, Microsoft, AOL

Brightcove and CBS News parner up. CBS' News division has teamed up with Brightcove to play popular news content like CBS Evening News on Brightcove.com. This is one of the many sites and services CBS is partnering with as part of their " Interactive Audience Network," which is marketing speak for taking their shows off the television and putting them online. They've also been working with YouTube and AOL to expand online offerings of CBS programming. ( CNET News.com)

MySpace sexual preference bug causes stir. A small bug on MySpace that removed the option for users to … Read more

Will Comcast cut you off?

Digg was abuzz over the weekend on the topic of monthly download caps at Comcast and other ISPs. Apparently, a few users have run into trouble when they went over an undisclosed 200GB per month limit on their connections. See the transcript from TechBasic.net.

I called customer service at Comcast, my ISP, and asked if there was a limit. "No, sir," came the answer. "You mean I could leave the connection on and constantly downloading all the time and it'd be OK?" I asked. "Yes," he answered.

I also hit up the … Read more

Skype set to launch Skype Pro service

Skype is set to launch a new version of its VoIP phone service for international customers in 24 countries. The new service, named Skype Pro, won't charge by the minute for its SkypeOut service, which lets computers call landlines. Instead, it will charge users a €2-per-month subscription fee and €3.9 cents-per-call connection fee.

There are some benefits to the new system over the old one: specifically, free Skype voicemail (which used to cost about $20 a year) and a large discount on a SkypeIn number at which regular phones can call you. All in all, it's a … Read more

Get TiVo without a TiVo box

The moment many have long awaited has arrived: Comcast cable customers can get TiVo on the cable company's own DVR set-top boxes.

TiVo is now available as a software download, which means no new piece of hardware for current customers and no waiting around for hours on a technician.

It's the first time TiVo's been available on non-TiVo hardware. Motorola says its DCT6412 set-top box is one such model. Technical trials began in December 2006, and market trials will begin this spring, the companies said. What they're not saying is how much the service will cost. … Read more