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New Zealand ISPs block websites hosting Christchurch shooting video
Internet providers in New Zealand aren't relying solely on companies like Facebook and YouTube to get rid of the Christchurch mass shooter's video. Major ISPs in the country, including Vodafone, Spark and Vocus, are working together to block access at the DNS level to websites that don't quickly respond to video takedown requests. The move quickly cut off access to multiple sites, including 4chan, 8chan (where the shooter was a member), LiveLeak and file transfer site Mega. The block goes away the moment a site complies, and Vodafone told Bleeping Computer that a "number of sites" were unblocked that way.
Utah ISP's internet filtering ad knocks customers offline
Internet providers are no stranger to targeting and inserting ads, but CenturyLink is being a little more... direct. Utah-based customers have discovered that CenturyLink is blocking their internet connections until they acknowledge an ad for the ISP's parental control software. That's annoying by itself, but it's doubly so when users need to fire up a web browser to even know the ad is there. Customer Rich Snapp, for instance, had his Fire TV stream interrupted and didn't realize the ad was present until he started troubleshooting.
Small internet providers face a fight for their lives
A couple of weeks ago, a group of CEOs from seven small regional ISPs gathered in Washington to meet with the FCC. In a closed-door conversation with Chairman Ajit Pai and his colleagues, the CEOs made a case against a recent petition filed by USTelecom -- a trade association that claims AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink and Frontier Communications as members. The petition, if granted, would threaten their very existence and, they argue, the future of competitive high-speed internet across the nation.
SpaceX to launch its satellite internet prototypes this weekend (update: delay)
For years, Elon Musk has been talking about his plans to launch thousands of low-orbiting satellites that will be able to provide high speed internet to people around the globe. While the details of those satellites have been kept largely under wraps, we've known that the first round of prototypes were nearing a launch date, and according to a letter posted on the FCC's website yesterday (and spotted by CNET), the first two test satellites will be placed into orbit this weekend.
New York governor signs executive order to protect net neutrality
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order today requiring any internet service provider with a state contract to honor the principles of net neutrality. In a statement the governor said, "With this executive order, we reaffirm our commitment to freedom and democracy and help ensure that the internet remains free and open to all."
What to expect from the FCC's net neutrality proposal
Today, senior FCC officials outlined the net neutrality draft proposal that will be released by the commission tomorrow. As has been discussed for months, if the new proposal is accepted by the FCC, broadband internet service will cease being subjected to Title II regulations and will return to an information service classification rather than a telecommunications one. Additionally, the order would fully repeal the FCC regulations allowed by the internet conduct standard put in place in 2015, which let the commission investigate practices like zero-rating schemes -- AT&T's Sponsored Data and Verizon's FreeBee Data 360 setups, for example -- and would get rid of the bright-line rules that prevented internet service providers (ISP) from blocking, throttling or fast-laning certain content.
California shelves law barring internet providers from sharing data
If you were hoping a state legislature would effectively override the federal bill rolling back internet privacy rules, you'll have to keep waiting. California's legislature has ended its session without voting on a bill that would have prevented internet providers from collecting and selling data without permission, or charging you extra unless you gave up that data. The bill isn't dead (it was only introduced late in the legislative session), but it's shelved until 2018 at the earliest -- you'll have to hope your ISP prefers opt-in data sharing until at least then.
China orders telecoms to block personal VPNs by February
China declared that virtual private networks were illegal back at the start of the year, and now it's giving telecoms no choice but to fall in line. Bloomberg sources understand that the government has told carriers to block individual access to VPNs by February 1st. Companies can still use VPNs internally, and will reportedly be allowed to use leased lines (registered with officials, of course) to access the full internet, but everyone else appears to be out of luck.
Local ISP claims Comcast sabotaged it into shutting down
Comcast, everyone's favorite internet service provider, is embroiled in a lawsuit for allegedly destroying a local business. According to the complaint, as the telecom giant encroached on the turf of a small ISP in Texas, Comcast cut the business's cables in the process of setting up its own, which the local internet company claims was no accident. The subsequent service interruption caused customers to jump ship to Comcast and ran the local ISP out of business, and its owners are suing for damages.
US internet providers stop sending piracy warnings
Remember the media industry's vaunted Copyright Alert System? It was supposed to spook pirates by having their internet providers send violation notices, with the threat of penalties like throttling. However, it hasn't exactly panned out. ISPs and media groups have dropped the alert system with an admission that it isn't up to the job. While the program was supposedly successful in "educating" the public on legal music and video options, the MPAA states that it just couldn't handle the "hard-core repeat infringer problem" -- there wasn't much to deter bootleggers.
Comcast sues Nashville over law that helps Google Fiber
The Google Fiber team isn't having a good week. Comcast has filed a lawsuit against Nashville in a bid to overturn a city law, One Touch Make Ready, that was primarily designed to help speed Google's fiber optic rollout. Much as with an AT&T lawsuit filed in September, Comcast maintains that AT&T-owned poles fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC, not the city -- Nashville can't let internet providers add their own wires without having AT&T move wires first, the cable giant says. The suit also claims that the city's Metro Council isn't allowed to regulate poles owned by Nashville Electric Service, and that the law violates Comcast's contracts with both pole owners.
The FCC wants ISPs to get permission before sharing your data
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed new rules on Thursday that would require internet service providers like Time Warner and Comcast to disclose how they use customers' personal data, and ask permission before sharing this information with outside organizations. Wheeler outlined the broad strokes of this plan in March, when the FCC voted to accept public comment on the proposed rules. Six months later, the comments are in and the full Commission will review the new plan at its monthly meeting on October 27th.
TalkTalk scraps line rental to repair hack-damaged brand
TalkTalk's image has suffered since it was hit by a "significant and sustained cyberattack" in June 2015. The hack affected its bottom line too, cutting profits from £32 million to £14 million last May. To aid its recovery, the quad-play provider is attempting a mass reboot today that includes retooled packages, new guarantees and a fresh marketing campaign. The biggest change is an "all-in" pricing model which, similar to Vodafone, bundles in your line rental fee. The company telegraphed this move back in May, and says it'll put "an end to complex, confusing packages."
EU net neutrality guidelines close key 'fast lane' loopholes
When the European Union passed its net neutrality laws in 2015, it left a few big loopholes that many were worried would undermine the rules. Would your internet provider have free rein to exempt its own services from data caps, for example, or slow down competing services? You might not have to worry quite so much. The EU's electronic communications regulators have posted guidelines that, for the most part, rule out the potential abuses that came from the laws' vague wording.
The Pirate Bay won't be blocked on its home turf
Numerous countries order their internet service providers block The Pirate Bay, but its home country of Sweden won't be one of them... at least, for now. A Stockholm court has ruled that Sweden can't make ISPs block the piracy site, since those companies aren't responsible for what their customers do. The networks aren't participating in any crimes, according to the ruling -- they're just the delivery medium.
UK wants internet providers to identify who's using their connections
The British government isn't letting up on its desire to track internet activity in the name of fighting terrorism. UK Home Secretary Theresa May is proposing a bill that would require internet providers to keep tabs on who's using a given internet protocol (IP) address and hand it over to the police, who could theoretically use it to hunt down suspects. Full details aren't available yet, but there would be some accountability involved. Police would have to get permission before collecting IP address info, and there would be documentation showing both when and why they needed that data.
Google takes American ISPs to task over video buffering
You don't like when YouTube videos pause during playback, and neither does Google. More often than not, your internet connection is to blame, shifting the responsibility to provide consistent performance from Google to your ISP. In an effort to increase transparency (and perhaps highlight your own service provider's bandwidth limitations), Google's making its Video Quality Report available in the US. The tool launched in Canada earlier this year, and should be making its way to other countries within the next few months, detailing streaming quality and local consumption trends, graphed by time of day. Google's also endorsing certain providers as "HD Verified," making it clear which ISPs meet YouTube's standards, and which do not.
Comcast has 'no plans' for internet caps despite testing them
Those statements that Comcast's David Cohen made about possible nationwide data caps within the next five years? He'd like you to forget them, please. As he explains in a follow-up statement, the company has "no plans to announce" such a policy. The company doesn't want to implement plans that hurt your internet experience, he says, arguing that reports took what he said "out of context." With that said, it's clear that Cohen has a narrow definition of what a data cap is. He claims that the company has no caps whatsoever despite running trials where customers are charged extra for usage beyond a bandwidth limit -- at last check, that's still a cap.
Comcast may roll out data caps for all customers within five years
So much for Comcast's proposed merger with Time Warner Cable being good for your internet service. The cable giant's David Cohen tells investors that he expects "usage-based billing" (that is, data caps with overage fees) to reach all Comcast customers within five years. While he's not saying exactly when or how this would expand beyond the cap system's limited existing footprint, the company would gradually increase caps as demand goes up to make sure that the "vast majority" of users don't bump into it. Cohen doesn't anticipate having complex plans that force people to worry about their usage, but he warns that it's hard to make long-term predictions. "Five years ago I don't know that I would have heard of something called an iPad," he says.
Netflix speeds soar on Comcast following controversial deal
The past few months have been very active for Netflix, as it's faced new challenges with getting its video streams into homes. It responded to customer complaints and dropping average speeds by making a new connection deal with Comcast, while others like AT&T and Verizon also lined up with their hands out. For Comcast users at least, the recent deal between the cable provider and Netflix does seem to be bearing fruit. Thanks to the agreement -- which allows Netflix to connect its network directly with Comcast's infrastructure to bypass the bottlenecked third parties -- average speeds for streams on the network have surged up to 65 percent, going from 1.51Mbps in January to 2.5Mbps in March. Netflix also notes that it has also seen "early improvements" as a result of its deal with Telenor, an internet service provider in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. "We are dedicated to delivering a great streaming experience and invest in continually improving that experience," states Netflix on its blog. Even if similar deals are on the way with other ISPs, so long as net neutrality only covers traffic over the last mile, Reed Hasting likely has a few more furious Facebook messages in store.
