Posts from May 2012

Verizon Dishes Up a Mobile Nightmare
Josh Levy
May 17, 2012

It’s been just about two years since Verizon announced it was planning to end unlimited data plans for smartphone users. And in 2011, Verizon made good on its promise, getting rid of unlimited plans for new customers and forcing them to pay at least $30 a month for limited plans.

Meanwhile, existing users with unlimited data have been able to “grandfather” in their special plans, carrying them over when they upgrade to new devices. But this week Verizon is dreaming again, this time of a future in which everyone must surrender their grandfathered plans.

Community Broadband Kicks Comcast to the Curb
Josh Levy
May 17, 2012

True or false: The fastest broadband connections in the country come from Comcast, Time Warner Cable and other big telecom companies.

The answer: A big, fat FALSE. A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) shows that local governments build the fastest, most innovative broadband networks in the country.

AT&T to Louisiana: No More Phone Books for You
amalia deloney
May 11, 2012

Recently AT&T requested that the Louisiana Public Service Commission stop the delivery of residential white pages to every home. Highlighting the growth of cellphones and the Internet, the company told the commission that “the traditional residential white page telephone directory no longer provides the same utility it once did as customers are now turning less and less to the residential white pages directory and are looking to online and other resources for listing information.”

Free Press Joins Other Groups in Opposing Senate Cybersecurity Legislation
Josh Levy
May 11, 2012

This week, Free Press joined a wide-ranging array of groups in signing a letter opposing a cybersecurity bill under consideration in the Senate. 

The bill — the Cyber Security Act of 2012 (S. 2105) — is co-sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins. Like the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which passed last month in the House, this bill would make it easier for companies like Facebook and Google to share our personal information with federal authorities. 

AT&T Whines; Reader Rebuts
Josh Levy
May 8, 2012

Last week, tech site Gizmodo wrote about AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson's comment that he regrets introducing unlimited data plans for iPhone users — because they actually used them.

Dear Hulu: You're Doing It Wrong
Candace Clement
May 4, 2012

This is a love story about television. My love story about television.

I cut the cable cord a long time ago. The cost was too high and the majority of channels offered were, well, mediocre at best. I got by for years on my new favorite format: TV on DVD. I bought box sets and spent hours soaking up the plotlines from Six Feet Under and the West Wing. I became a series binger — that is, I would complete what took those poor regular cable subscribers years in the course of a few weeks (OK, sometimes it was a few days).

I was feeling pretty proud of myself.

Then streaming television started.

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