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Google Fiber's two gigabit broadband is almost ready
Google Fiber is about to start testing a new 2 Gbps internet service in two cities with the plan to launch it widely in 2021, the company announced. The plan will cost $100 per month, or $30 more than the current 1 Gbps offering.
Canada launches fund to guarantee faster broadband in rural areas
Canada's CRTC set an aggressive target for the minimum definition of broadband in rural areas, but now appears to have backed off a bit, at least to start. With the launch of the $750 million Broadband Fund, it has set the minimum speed at 25 Mbps download and 5 Mbps uploads, exactly half the speed target of 50/10 Mbps it set earlier. The regulator said that the revised goals would "result in projects covering underserved areas that would deliver a broadband Internet access service that the majority of Canadians use today."
New rules are killing deceptive broadband ads in the UK
Nearly every telecom in the UK has reduced advertised broadband speeds thanks to new rules, according to consumer watchdog Which?. Until recently, telecoms were allowed to brag about peak speeds that were available to only one in ten users. Last year, however, the Advertising Standards Association (ASA) ordered them to show average speeds available to half of all customers at peak hours. As a result, the cheapest packages now show speeds of 10 or 11 Mbps, rather than "up to 17 Mbps" -- a 41 percent drop.
ZTE's 'Gigabit' phone will bridge the LTE and 5G gap
You may think of 5G as the next fast wireless standard, with speeds ranging from 400 Mbps with AT&T all the way up to 5 Gbps and beyond. LTE isn't quite dead yet, though, and ZTE has launched the first device that supports the gigabit LTE standard just ahead of Mobile World Conference (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. Called simply the ZTE Gigabit Phone, the company says it'll make "360 degree panoramic VR video, instant cloud storage ... and fast cache of ultra Hi-Fi music and movies possible."
Google's latest data-squeezing algorithm is coming to Chrome
Google is no Silicon Valley startup, but it's just as intent on creating compression algorithms as the fictional "Pied Piper." The search giant is about to unleash its latest algorithm, called "Brotli," onto the Chrome browser. The software compression team first revealed the algorithm in September, saying that it was 20 to 26 percent more efficient than Zopfli, an algorithm it launched only three years before. Google says that Brotli is a "whole new data format" that squeezes in more data than other compression formats, while decompressing at comparable speeds.
US internet providers fail FCC's annual broadband test
A year after the FCC redefined broadband, 34 million Americans still lack access to the minimum standard, according to the commission's preliminary report. Specifically, 10 percent of the nation can't get internet speeds of 25Mbps for downloads and 3Mbps for uploads. While internet service providers did improve speeds significantly over last year, a lot of that came in urban areas, where only four percent of folks lack broadband connectivity. It's a different story in rural areas, however, where 39 percent of homes can't get a decently fast connection. The situation is the worst on tribal lands, where 41 percent of residents lack broadband.
Verizon FiOS gets a speed boost: now uploads go as fast as downloads
Before Google Fiber, Verizon FiOS was the speedy internet service everyone wanted in their neighborhood. The arrival of 1Gbps connections, a slowed rollout, and an ongoing battle with Netflix that's slowing streams to a crawl has slightly dulled the cachet, but it's still one of the fastest providers out there. Now it's getting even faster, but Verizon isn't boosting download speeds again -- those will stay the same as customers get matching upload speeds on every plan. On the fastest tier (previously 500Mbps down / 100Mbps up), speeds will increase by 5x to 500Mbps, and most customers will see their speeds double. New customers can get the symmetrical speeds right away, and they'll roll out to existing customers throughout the fall. To go immediately to the front of that list FiOS subscribers can sign up for the MyRewards+ customer loyalty program, which is free, and pretty much just requires inputting your birthdate. [Image credit: Mark Von Holden/AP Images for Verizon]
FCC report checks if your internet speed lives up to the ads, and why that's not fast enough
Since 2011 the FCC has collected data on the wired (there's a separate report for wireless) broadband speeds US residents are actually receiving to release in its Measuring Broadband America report, and now the most recent one is here. First, the good news -- based on its data (collected from "Whitebox" devices sent to around 10,000 participants that performed automated tests during September 2013), most ISPs were meeting or exceeding their advertised speeds even during peak hours. Four that couldn't deliver 90 percent or more of their advertised rate during peak hours included Verizon, Frontier, Qwest and Windstream -- all of which can expect a letter from the FCC asking why not, for whatever good that will do. So if ISPs are delivering 101 percent of advertised speeds, why are users still seeing buffering notifications and experiencing slowdowns? [Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Hacker attacks on websites shot up 75 percent last quarter
Akamai Technologies' State of the Internet report for Q4 2013 has just arrived, and one stat stands out like a bad rash: DDoS (denial of service) attacks were up 75 percent over last quarter, and 23 percent from the year before. Most of the targets were enterprises, and Akamai said that the likelihood of a repeat hack is one in three -- a 35 percent bump over last year. Such numbers have no doubt fueled demand for services like Google's Project Shield, which shelter businesses behind massive cloud servers that can easily absorb an onslaught. As for the countries of origin? The dubious winner of that prize (by far) was China with 43 percent of all attacks, followed by the US and Canada. The latter nation saw a not-very-polite 2500 percent bump in DDoS attacks over last year -- hopefully not a trend.
Virgin Media to double broadband speeds this year, BT smirks
Virgin Media customers are in for a big treat today, because the UK-based ISP has just announced plans to double the average speed of its broadband service. Over the course of the next 18 months, top speeds will increase from 100 Mbps to 120Mbps, as part of a £110 million ($169 million) initiative. Users on 10Mbps, 20Mbps and 50Mbps plans, meanwhile, will see their speeds and bandwidth usage limits doubled, at no extra charge. The upgrade is slated to begin rolling out in February, and should be complete by the middle of next year. Competing company BT, meanwhile, was quick to point out the similarity between Virgin Media's new campaign and its own upgrade. "It is no surprise to see that Virgin are following our lead by doubling speeds," BT said in a statement. "We announced we would do this for our fiber products last autumn and so they are trying to catch up with us."
AT&T 4G LTE now working in parts of New York City
We got a taste of AT&T's 4G LTE action last night in the Big Apple with the introduction of its LG Nitro HD, and today, the company has apparently flipped the 4G "on" switch in the City That Never Sleeps -- confirming its promise from November. According to tipster reports, some speed tests are showing downloads as fast as 27 Mbps and uploads of 15 Mbps, confirming that the LTE network has indeed gone live in parts of New York City. Update: To be clear, this is not an official deployment of LTE in NYC by AT&T. So, if you can't get signal, or if your signal stinks, don't take it out on them. It's still in testing! [Thanks, @SamSavitt]
Sprint struggles to replicate iPhone 4S users' speed concern
Most Sprint customers are happy to finally have the iPhone, but for some users, the experience has been less than stellar. A small, but growing number of Sprint customers are complaining of slow data speeds. So slow that Siri and other network-sensitive features won't work. These complaints started the same day the iPhone 4S was released and continue until today. A thread at Sprint's community forums that chronicles the problem has almost 248,000 views and over 1,300 replies. It's one of the top forum posts on Sprint's public message board. Sprint's head of product development, Fared Adib told CNET that the carrier is aware of the complaints, but has not been able to reproduce the slowed data connections some users are reporting. Sprint is reportedly working with Apple to track down the problem, if there is one, and find out whether it is hardware or software-related. Once they have identified a root cause, the two companies can work on a fix. When an update is available, Adib said Sprint will get it out quickly to users who are affected by this problem.
US lags in broadband adoption and download speeds, still has the best rappers
U, S, A! We're number nine! Wait, nine? At least according to a recent broadband survey by the FCC, yes. The good ol' US of A ranked ninth (out of the 29 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) in fixed broadband penetration on a per capita basis, and 12th in terms of pure percentage -- behind the UK, South Korea, Iceland, the Netherlands, and plenty of others. Though, granted, these nations lack the sprawling amber waves of grain that America must traverse with cables. The US also trailed in wireless broadband adoption, ranking ninth yet again, behind the likes of Ireland, Australia and Sweden. Worse still, even those with broadband reported slower connections than folks in other countries. Olympia, Washington had the highest average download speeds of any US city with 21Mbps (New York and Seattle tied for second with 11.7Mbps), but was easily topped by Helsinki, Paris, Berlin, and Seoul (35.8Mbps). Well, at least we beat Slovenia... if only just barely.
AT&T says 'new devices and updates to existing models' will be HSUPA-ready
Our digging revealed that the Inspire 4G and other devices in AT&T's current stable are more than capable at the hardware level of using HSUPA for high-speed upstream connections, but for whatever reason, the carrier seems to currently require that most handsets handshake with the network using an old protocol stack that doesn't include HSUPA. The result? Glacial uploads, which especially suck when you're trying to tether. Though there's no resolution yet, AT&T's now circulating a mildly hopeful statement: "...we have a number of HSUPA devices today and we will have more HSUPA-enabled devices in the future-new devices and updates to existing models." We're hoping that means we'll see a bunch of firmware updates in the next few months that flip the switch on HSUPA, especially for owners of phones like the Inspire and the Atrix, both of which have a shaky "4G" tacked on to the ends of their names.
Verizon can now throttle top five percent of bandwidth hogs, downres multimedia transfers
Nice timing, Verizon. Just as thousands -- possibly zillions -- of smartphone users are pondering the switch to Big Red for Apple's iPhone 4, the carrier has slipped in two critical policy changes that are apparently effective immediately. Tucked within loads of fine print in a new PDF that surfaced on the company's site, there's this: "Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5 percent of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95 percent of data customers aren't negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users." To our knowledge, this is the first time that VZW has taken a notable position on throttling, and the link to its stance on net neutrality (as it applies to wireless, anyway) is fairly obvious. What's most interesting to us is the five percent of data users figure; the top one or two percent isn't a huge amount, and there's a good chance that bandwidth abusers are up in that echelon. But we're guessing that quite a few business travelers will fall within this particular range, and given that VZW now holds the right to throttle data for your existing billing cycle and the next one... well, good luck gritting your teeth and lasting through that two-year contract. In related news, the company is also implementing optimization and transcoding technologies in its network, which is a politically correct way of explaining that it can downres any multimedia you try to send through Verizon's pipes. Head on past the break for the full quote.
Speed trap checker Trapster for iPhone updated to 4.0
We've mentioned Trapster once here on the site before, but we haven't really covered it in any depth yet, I believe. It's the official iPhone app [iTunes link] for an online database of speed traps, so that you can get fair warning when the police are checking speeds in a certain part of town. It's a very popular app with over 3 million users already (and if you're constantly looking to dodge speed traps, you've probably already heard of it), but as with all community databases, one of the questions is always confidence: is the information you're getting true, or is it a perception that could be wrong? The company has just released version 4.0 out onto the App Store, and most of the upgrades are designed to help you out with confidence in their listings. There's a new feature called Patrol, which will show you just how recently another Trapster user has driven down the same road you're on, which means the information there is much more recent. Another mode called Caravan will actually let you watch the locations of friends or other users in real-time, so if you're road-tripping with friends, you can track your trip together. There's new Facebook and iPhone connections, and lots of new "trap types," so you can even track accidents, construction zones, or just mark off dangerous intersections. Sounds good, and even better, the app is completely free. The only issue we've heard from users so far is that the app can use battery power like crazy (given that it's tracking GPS and sending information back and forth constantly), but if you've got a car charger going while you're driving around, that shouldn't be an issue. If you do a lot of traveling with your iPhone, it's definitely worth a look.
Australia's iiNet hits 85Mbps in VDSL2 trials, could bring HDTV / internet to apartments
iiNet, which is based in Western Australia, has reportedly achieved download speeds topping out at 85Mbps and upload rates of around 47Mbps in field trials held in Perth. The live VDSL2 trials are being used to determine the feasibility of eventually wiring up multi-dwelling units with an array of services. In theory, the service could bring high-speed internet, digital phone and HDTV to apartment complexes via a single wire, much like AT&T's U-verse and Verizon's FiOS suites in America. Regrettably, there's no mention of when this will move beyond the testing phase and into the for sale stage, but as always, here's hoping for the answer to be sooner rather than later.
Verizon aims to deploy 100G network capabilities in 2009
If you'll recall, the IEEE gave the all important thumbs up to 100G as the next Ethernet speed, and while we've seen such a milestone met on the Internet2, Verizon's looking to bring it to the masses in just twelve short months. According to Fred Briggs, Verizon Business' executive vice president of operations and technology, the firm is aiming to "deploy 100G network capabilities over all its major routes within the United States." Verizon actually tested out its 100Gbps capabilities last year on a video transmission from Tampa to Miami, Florida, and apparently, the results "showed that it could deploy 100G on routes and not disrupt current wavelengths." Granted, we wouldn't expect many consumers to actually be able to take advantage of all this speed right away, but even if you're not down with (or nearby) any of Verizon's forthcoming offerings, there's always DOCSIS 3.0.[Image courtesy of Futurenet]
Verizon ups its FiOS speeds to 50Mbps, sets the internet on fire
Not content with blazing up your local connection at 20Mbps downstream and up, Verizon has once again bumped its already-painfully-fast FiOS broadband service into the realm of ridiculous. According to reports, the company is now offering a 30Mbps / 15 Mbps service at $89.95 a month, and the nerve-shattering 50 Mbps / 20 Mbps speed at $139.95. The telecom has also introduced symmetrical connections in all 16 states where it currently offers FiOS service, with a 20Mbps / 20Mbps on the up and down, starting at $64.99. Of course, it's all bleeps and buzzes in our particularly lonely corner of Brooklyn, where we'll have to suffer the indignation of a lowly 10Mbps connection until the big V blesses us with some real speed... you hearing us, dudes?[Via GigaOM]
Airport Extreme not using Gigabit speeds?
Along with all the other updates in the Apple Store on Tuesday, Airport Extreme got a nice one-- according to the specs on the page, they're now offering Gigabit ethernet speeds. Or are they? ComputerWiz went out and grabbed two of them right away, but no matter what he tried to do, he couldn't get the base station to move past 100Mb speeds.There could be a number of things happening here-- I don't have the knowhow to judge whether they did everything they could or not, but the attempt seems reasonable to me, and if you have to mess with settings that much on an Apple product, something is wrong. They also say that Apple had to go into the back room to get the Airport Extreme, so it's conceivable that they grabbed the wrong one-- except that CW claims the box itself said Gigabit.So something is screwy here-- is it possible that Apple shipped Gigabit Airport Extremes that weren't actually Gigabit?Update: Looks like it was just a faulty unit, as CW updated, and apparently the second unit worked fine. Anyone else having problems with theirs?Thanks, David!
