Hughes Makes Satellite Home Phone Service Push Germantown, Md., June 17, 2013—Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite solutions and services, today announced the launch of HughesNet® Voice, its feature-rich home Voice over IP (VoIP) solution. It is already available to subscribers in the U.S. Bundled along with HughesNet—the nation’s largest high-speed...

C Spire Focuses on Wi-Fi RIDGELAND, Miss.- June 18, 2013 — C Spire Wireless, the only U.S. wireless provider that offers consumer and business customers personalized services, announced the launch today of WiFi On, a free app that gives users a fast, easy and automatic connection to the world’s largest Wi-Fi network with over 12 million global hotspots. C Spire is partnering with...

C Spire and Wireline Sister Company Pursue Convergence Opportunities The C Spire name, traditionally associated with wireless service, will soon appear on fiber-based digital broadband services from C Spire’s sister company Telepak, a competitive carrier with a fiber network throughout a large part of the southeastern United States.  The news was part of a (perhaps deliberately) vague but...

EarthLink Acquires Managed IT Provider CenterBeam Continuing with its transformation from a consumer focused ISP to an enterprise IT and managed services provider, EarthLink made another acquisition in the managed IT space by buying CenterBeam. Sunnyvale, Ca.-based CenterBeam offers “…remote managed IT services primarily to multi-location mid-sized businesses, and operates a 140-person IT Support...

Sprint Expands 4G LTE Footprint OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sprint (NYSE:S) today announced the availability of its all-new 4G LTE network in 22 new cities, just in time for the official start of summer. Customers in “hotspots” such as Miami, New Orleans, Raleigh, N.C., and Tampa, Fla., are now able to download videos, access the Internet and send photos with greater speed and...

Obama Issues Spectrum Sharing Directive; Report Notes Broadband Gaps President Obama late last week took several steps aimed at helping to free up more spectrum for mobile broadband usage. In a memorandum released publicly, he directed federal agencies to increase their collaboration and data sharing with the private sector, to increase public-private research and development activities, and to...

CenturyLink Enhances Savvis Cloud Suite With Acquisition of AppFog, Inc. MONROE, La., June 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) today announced it has enhanced its Savvis Cloud suite through the acquisition of AppFog, Inc., a fast-growing Platform-as-a-Service provider used by more than 100,000 developers – with hundreds joining daily – who have deployed more than 150,000...

ACSI: Americans Not Very Satisfied with Telecom Services U.S. households aren’t very satisfied with their telecommunications services, according to the latest American Customers Satisfaction Index (ACSI). A combination of high prices, reliability problems and poor customer service, particularly when it comes to call center operations, leaves “customer satisfaction with various telecom...

4G Americas: LTE Connections Surge 400% Globally Telecompetitors have been ramping up mobile broadband deployment significantly in the past year: 58 million HSPA and LTE connections were added in the U.S. and Canada between 1Q 2012 and 1Q 2013, the result being that 49% of all mobile connections in the region are now mobile broadband connections, according to 4G Americas. Worldwide, LTE...

Is Dish/nTelos Fixed Wireless Demo Aimed at Clearwire/Sprint Shareholders? Dish Network and nTelos are claiming some impressive data rates for the fixed LTE broadband offering they have deployed in a rural Virginia trial. Participants in the trial are seeing data rates from 20 Mbps to more than 50 Mbps, according to the companies. A Dish spokesperson confirmed that the trial is using TD-LTE...

Why Regulators Will Like ViaSat Satellite Voice and Broadband Offering ViaSat next week will add voice service to its Exede high-speed broadband offering, enabling the company to offer a triple play of voice, video and data over satellite.  The addition of voice service to a satellite-based broadband service is likely to be viewed positively by policymakers who have been struggling with how to...

J.D. Power: Cableco Business Services Have Highest Customer Ratings Cable companies had the top ratings in a new survey of wireline business service customers conducted recently by J.D. Power, with the cable companies faring particularly well in the very small business market. Cox had the top rating in both the small/medium and very small business markets, while Time Warner Cable had the highest...

Telecom Advisors Say States May Have to Make Up Shortfall from CAF Reforms States must act – and act promptly—to determine how they will address an impending shortfall in funding for rural broadband and telecom services, according to a new report issued today by telecom advisory firm Balhoff & Williams, LLC. “Our analysis suggests that service will falter in certain regions or significant...

Report: TV Everywhere Increases Value Placed on Paid TV Providing content across multiple platforms and devices – otherwise known as “TV Everywhere,” is a value-adding proposition for pay-TV providers, and now there’s data to back up that proposition. “Consumers who view content on multiple platforms and devices attach more value to service from their pay-TV provider than those who watch a...

Time Warner Cable Brings Content to Smart TVs Without STB NEW YORK – June 11, 2013 –Time Warner Cable today announced the launch of the TWC TV™ application, starting this summer, on compatible Samsung Smart TV™s, furthering the company’s commitment to developing ways to help consumers enjoy the programming they love anytime, anywhere. Time Warner Cable video subscribers will have...

Blue Orbit Ecosystem Targets SDN, Bandwidth on Demand A new industry coalition dubbed the Blue Orbit Ecosystem aims to bring together the various pieces needed to enable bandwidth on demand for data center connectivity coupled with infrastructure on demand by using software defined networking (SDN). Bandwidth on demand is one of the most commonly cited applications for SDN, which aims to...

Farm Bill: Five Rural Communities Could Get Gigabit Networks The farm bill that passed a Senate vote yesterday could bring gigabit networks to as many as five rural communities in a pilot program. The plan came in the form of an amendment to the Senate farm bill proposed by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. A spokesman for Senator Leahy said the gigabit networks would not require new funding but...

Gigabit Squared and Zayo Partner for Chicago Gigabit Network BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zayo Group today announced a partnership with Gigabit Squared, the architects of next-generation networks across the U.S., to deploy gigabit fiber and wireless in Chicago’s Mid-South Side. Zayo’s fiber deployment will serve as the backbone for the Gigabit Chicago project...

Windstream Collaborates With Avaya for Unified Communications LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – June 10, 2013 — Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN), a leading provider of advanced network communications, announced last week at the International Avaya Users Group (IAUG CONVERGE2013) in Orlando, Fla., that it is collaborating with Avaya to expand its managed Unified Communications (UC) service offerings to include...

U.S. Census: Smartphones Help Close Racial/Ethnic Gap in Internet Use More than one quarter (27%) of U.S. residents over the age of 15 are “high-connectivity” individuals, according to a report released yesterday from the U.S. Census Bureau. These individuals connect to the Internet both inside and outside of the home from multiple devices. The report, titled “Computer and Internet Use in the...