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Comcast's Xfinity TV app for Roku starts beta testing
It's been nearly a year since Comcast announced work on its "Xfinity TV partner app" for Roku and Samsung, and now the Roku version is ready for testing. The Xfinity TV beta app is now available in the channel store, with access to "live and on demand programming, including local broadcast and Public Educational and Governmental channels, as well as their cloud DVR recordings." According to Comcast, this test is so it can check out the performance and add features, before the official launch happens later this year.
Comcast brings its gigabit internet service to Nashville
Comcast announced that it's beginning an "advanced consumer trial" of gigabit service in Nashville. It's the second area to roll out the DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem powered speeds after Atlanta, and it doesn't look like the policies have changed. Customers living in areas where it's available can get the 1Gb down / 35Mb up speeds for $70 with no bandwidth cap... if they're willing to agree to a 36 month service contract. Otherwise, a 1TB capped offering is available with no contract for $140 per month. As DSL Reports points out, the contract offering should keep customers tied up until whenever Google Fiber properly rolls out... almost as if it were planned that way.
HBO, Sony reportedly look for special streaming deals with ISPs
According to the Wall Street Journal, as TV services shift from the traditional outlets (antenna, cable, satellite) to the internet big names like HBO, Showtime and Sony are worried about their services running into congestion and bandwidth caps. A possible way around that, is negotiating with ISPs to have their content delivered as a "managed service", like cable-provided phone service and video on-demand. If you're thinking "isn't that what net neutrality was supposed to stop?" you're not alone -- Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch is quoted calling the potential setup a "mockery" of the rules that will go into effect soon. Even Comcast is reportedly leery of running afoul of the regulations, and it's the one that already got into a dust-up with Netflix a couple of years ago by doing exactly this with its TV app on the Xbox 360.
FCC wants to know if it's too modest about broadband, gives chance to fight caps and slow speeds
A common complaint with the FCC's National Broadband Plan is its conservative definition of the broadband in question: many would argue that the 4Mbps baseline is an anachronism in an era of 4G, FiOS and Google Fiber. If you've ever wanted the FCC to up the ante, now's your chance. The regulator wants comments on its definitions of fixed and mobile broadband to gauge whether real-world trends like multi-user streaming video should lead to raised expectations for internet providers. Ever been burnt by a too-low bandwidth cap? It's open season on that area as well, with the FCC asking if it should define a minimum acceptable cap and possibly call for better limits than we see today. We just share GigaOM's wish that we could ask if every cap is even necessary, although the Department of Justice might be answering that for us. Americans have up until September 20th to make their voices heard, so get cracking if you'd like to set a higher bar.
Verizon's Viewdini for Android hunts streaming video on Comcast Xfinity, Hulu and Netflix, strains our 4G
Verizon is clearly looking to make itself the front door for Internet video this year. Bolstering its tie-ins with Color and Redbox, it's now kicking off Viewdini, a carrier-specific Android app that will help you find video across multiple services: along with Internet-only providers like Hulu Plus, mSpot and Netflix, it will sift through the online component of Comcast's Xfinity brand, taking a little bit more advantage of that cross-sales deal coming out of the proposed spectrum handover. Even Verizon's own FiOS video will be late to its own party, coming "soon." Viewdini will only be available for 4G LTE-equipped Android phones and tablets later this month, with "other operating systems" and services due in the future -- given the currently very short list of non-Android 4G devices, we have a few ideas as to where the app might go next. Either way, get ready to collide with bandwidth caps faster than usual if you love what Verizon plans to offer. [Image credit: AllThingsD]
Netflix is in talks to partner with cable providers for bundles, could mean higher quality streaming
After CEO Reed Hastings recently hinted at the possibility of Netflix's Watch Instantly service coming bundled with cable services, Reuters is reporting the company has met with "some of the largest US cable companies" to discuss partnerships. The report goes on to mention it could stream through cable set-top boxes and appear as another line item on customer's bills, however for that, Netflix would have to rework content licensing agreements that bar its service from cable boxes, which has kept it off of TiVo Premieres offered by companies like Suddenlink and RCN. We've also spoken to the infamous people with knowledge of the discussions and are hearing that while deals are being discussed, what's initiated the talks is the increasing bandwidth load that Watch Instantly is placing on networks -- see the Comcast vs. Level 3 dustup from 2010.What the deals being discussed could bring is a setup where your cable company offers bundled services (TV, internet, etc.) that include premium access to Netflix -- higher quality audio and video streams that don't count against bandwidth caps, and maybe even a discount from the standard rate. Cable companies could obtain revenue from Netflix under the deal, and also keep customers around thanks to the advantages of the bundled offerings, while Netflix could have more reliable distribution for its video, and a leg up on competition from Amazon and Redbox / Verizon FiOS. We'll wait and see what happens, but in an interesting twist, Netflix could quickly join sports as a tool for providers to keep customers from cutting the cord, instead of a reason for it.
Verizon starts 'optimizing' (read: throttling) network for the most data hungry users
We can't say we weren't warned, since Verizon updated its data policy way back in February, but it's still a punch in the gut to hear its "network optimization" plan went into effect yesterday. A new policy page pointed out by Droid-Life explains how the policy will affect only the "top 5 percent of data users with 3G devices on unlimited data plans" (LTE and tiered data users are in the clear) by managing their speeds when connected to towers it has deemed are congested. Those conditions, termed network intelligence by Big Red, are what it feels separates this scheme from mere data throttling since it will only affect a few users (those consuming 2GB or more of data per month) at certain times and places, but it's hard to see it any other way. If you're one of those affected, expect a message on your bill or My Verizon account, although you may go into and out of the affected group depending on your usage. Hit the source link below for all the details -- anyone else think it's not a coincidence this policy popped up just before the iPhone 4 came to Verizon and is being implemented only weeks before the next iThing is expected to arrive?
T-Mobile drops some overage charges in favor of bandwidth throttling
Well, it looks like T-Mobile has some good news and some bad news for customers using its 5GB webConnect data plan. The good news is that the carrier will no longer be charging its $0.20 per megabyte overage fee for any data used beyond the 5GB limit, thereby effectively making the 5GB plan an unlimited plan. The bad news is that in place of an overage charge, it will be implementing bandwidth throttling on any data used on top of the standard 5GB, although it's not saying exactly how much it will slow things down. Customers using T-Mobile's basic 200MB monthly plan aren't left out of the changes either -- while they won't see any bandwidth throttling, they will see their overage charges cut in half from $0.20 to $0.10 per megabyte. Both changes are apparently effective immediately.
Kindle's active content given 100KB free monthly bandwidth allowance
We were wondering how Kindle's impending active content (read: apps) would be harnessing that free Whispernet bandwidth. As it turns out, there's just a smidgen allowed for gratis. According to the terms laid out by Amazon, there's a 70 / 30 revenue split, with that smaller percentage going to Bezos and co. "net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB." The price tiers is a little simpler: apps can be free if their download over 3G is less than 1MB and they use less than 100KB per month, per user. Apps between 1MB and 10MB require a one-time purchase fee that offsets the bandwidth usage, and likewise a subscription fee is needed for those that plan on allowing over 100KB of a monthly data streaming. (To put that in perspective, this post -- just the copy -- is 4KB. That image above is 120KB.) Anything over 10MB requires a download over WiFi, and the maximum file size is 100MB... and if anyone manages to justify a 100MB app that runs on a greyscale E Ink display, color us impressed.
Netflix lays out official response to bandwidth capping allegations
After a small but vocal amount of Netflix users got the world thinking that it was pulling a Comcast and putting caps on computer-based Watch Instantly users, the outfit's Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt has come forward to clear the air. He makes clear that Netflix's aspiration is to "deliver to everyone the best bitrate that their broadband connection can support," also noting that congestion "could affect some users, but not others, at some times, but not always." He also notes that different titles and encodes for different playback device types "may come from different CDNs or different servers at a particular CDN, so they may have different paths and different bottlenecks." We'd encourage you to hit the read link for the full explanation, but we're already seeing enraged Roku users bark back by his dodging of the so-called out-of-sync audio issue that's evidently still present. We'll go ahead and warn you, Netflix -- you can't please 'em all.
Is Netflix putting caps on computer-based Watch Instantly users?
Depending on your choice of computing platform, possession of dedicated streaming hardware, and love of otherwise forgettable '80s films, Netflix's Watch Instantly service is either a godsend or a gimmick. Regardless, nobody likes arbitrary bandwidth caps, and that's what Riyad Kalla at The "Break it Down" Blog claims to have spotted, finding that Watch streams on his Xbox take multiple minutes to buffer, but that those on his PC (using the same connection) can take hours -- if they work at all. Doing a little snooping he found he was being capped to about 50 KB/sec per download thread on his PC, but if he spawned ten such threads he was able to get over 700 KB/sec. Something, it seems, is issuing a per-thread cap, but is it really Netflix? Or, rather, is it his Qwest DSL line doing a ham-fisted job of managing bandwidth? We've seen similar issues intermittently, but nothing consistent, so we're not quite ready to call this an internet-wide conspiracy just yet, but would love to hear about your streaming experiences lately. Update: Based on the volume of "It's working just fine for me" comments both here and elsewhere it seems safe to say that if there is a conspiracy at work here, it's not Netflix's. [Via Slashdot]
AT&T joins the herd, looks to trial bandwidth capping in Reno, NV
During an age where unlimited bandwidth has never been more useful for perfectly legal and entertaining reasons, carriers everywhere are looking to harsh our collective mellow. Following in the frowned-upon footsteps of Comcast, AT&T is gearing up to trial monthly bandwidth caps in Nevada. Starting this month, Reno-area subscribers using the carrier's least expensive DSL service (768k) will be forced to download less than 20GB in a month; the cap amount increases with the speed of the service, topping out at 150GB for the 10Mbps level of service. A USA Today report on the matter even admits that "streaming video services like the one Netflix offers" could indeed push users over the limit without any illegal transfers to speak of. Of note, customers involved in the trial will be able to track their usage via the web, and AT&T will contact them if they surpass 80% of their limit. Should they exceed the threshold even after a grace period, they'll be dinged $1 per gigabyte in overage charges. Awesome.
