Let's Talk Tech
Verizon 5G Fixed Wireless Home Broadband Review!
This was WAY better than I was expecting it to be. Test driving Verizon’s 5G fixed wireless broadband out in the suburbs, it’s not the right fit for OUR needs, but it MIGHT rock YOUR socks!
Here are some thoughts on using it for a month! Continue reading “Verizon 5G Fixed Wireless Home Broadband: Sending it back…”
TCL 30V review!
Using this phone for a month, it’s been an interesting exercise in balancing cost against performance. It gets crazy fast 5G data (in some areas), but it’s not the most powerful phone I’ve ever used.
Where does this fit for someone shopping a good deal on the Verizon network?
More info on the TCL 30V https://www.tcl.com/us/en/products/mobile/tcl-30-series/tcl-30-v-5g
Continue reading “TCL 30V: One Month with Verizon’s Cheapest 5G Phone”
Get your tech week started off right!
Yahoo sells Flickr to SmugMug. Google walking away from Allo? Asus intros a new brand for AMD GPUs. Apple cutting HomePod production. New Surface Phone Rumors surface as Windows Phone disappears. AT&T and Verizon allegedly colluded to prevent eSIM. California voting on state Net Neutrality bill. Huawei is leaving the USA? Whew… That’s a lot…
Download this week’s podcast – SGGQA 036 (RSS subscription links below)
The fight over net neutrality is going to get uglier. President Obama recently voiced support for classifying the Internet as a common utility and ending 19 states laws preventing broadband competition, and FCC chairman Tom Wheeler might join the President after voicing support for Title II at this year’s CES.
On the other side, Conservatives are pushing another bill in the House which would completely strip the FCC of regulating Internet activity by classifying it as an “Information Service”. You can thank Congressman Bob Latta out of Ohio for that, who received around $80,000 in donations from the telecoms during the 2013-14 election year cycle.
Google is backing Title II, as the reclassification would mean they would have more access to public utility lines and infrastructure as opposed to always digging their own trenches. There’s been growing support for more publicly funded broadband at the local level, while traditional ISP’s have been lobbying to maintain their non-competitive status quo.
Funnily enough we arrive at this point on the one year anniversary of an appellate court ruling in favor of Verizon in a lawsuit against the FCC and their Open Internet Order. The OIO would have enforced Net Neutrality rules on home internet and cabled broadband, but would have been pretty loose on wireless carriers.
Verizon alone sued the FCC over some fairly basic protections for keeping a level playing field, claiming it was their First Amendment right to degrade the quality of connection for competing services on their network. Other carriers have tried to circumvent Net Neutrality with “value add” benefits for consumers. People were up in arms about AT&T’s proposed Sponsored Data initiative, which would let third party companies pay to reduce the amount of data AT&T subscribers would be billed for, and T-Mobile found some success in cutting streaming music services off of customer’s bills.
Verizon’s actions a year ago in squashing the OIO means the worst possible option for carriers and ISP’s is the one gaining the most traction. It seems more likely now that in the wake of vocal opposition to the FCC’s “Fastlane” proposal, we might see an about face and a new proposal presented in favor of classifying the internet as a common utility.
The truly unlimited party is almost over.
Via a press release, Verizon Wireless announced they will expand their “Network Optimization Policies” to include people on 4G LTE networks. Previously, only 3G “subscribers with unlimited data plans whose data usage is in the top 5 percent of all data users” were targeted. As more consumers are moving to LTE, now any heavy user will be affected.
Starting in October 2014, Verizon Wireless will extend its network optimization policy to the data users who: fall within the top 5 percent of data users on our network, have fulfilled their minimum contractual commitment, and are on unlimited plans using a 4G LTE device. They may experience slower data speeds when using certain high bandwidth applications, such as streaming high-definition video or during real-time, online gaming, and only when connecting to a cell site when it is experiencing heavy demand. (Note: Does not currently apply to government or business accounts that have signed a major account agreement.)
Of course, VZW would appreciate you not hammering their 4G network with HD Netflix streaming, but chances are pretty good they’re already throttling that anyway…
As we push more data intensive services to our phones and tablets, will a move like this change your usage or behavior? Will this make you more likely to consider changing providers when it comes time to sign a new contract? Leave us a comment, and you can read the full press release below.
Continue reading “Verizon Wireless to Start Throttling Legacy Unlimited Data Plans”
Colin Nederkoorn pays for a 75Mbps Verizon FiOS connection. That should be screamingly fast for streaming HD video, yet he often finds his video buffering and the quality regularly scales back to a mess of 8-Bit impressionism.
Connecting to Netflix directly, even a 320 x 240 resolution video at a meager bitrate of 235Kbps will often stutter. It’s an insanely frustrating situation to pay for that level of service and not be able to watch even the bare minimum quality video without interruption.
The funny thing is, when Colin connects to Netflix through a VPN, his video SCREAMS, chewing through 720p streams at 3Mbps without issue.
To over-simplify, the VPN masks the final destination for Colin’s web traffic, which means Verizon can’t see that he’s pulling info from Netflix. Suddenly that “Network Congestion” evaporates.
This is of course one person’s experience, so we shouldn’t extrapolate this as a company-wide business practice without more evidence, but it certainly doesn’t paint Verizon in a positive light, especially after their recent feuds with Netflix over who is to blame for streaming interruptions.
No company has been working harder to illustrate streaming performance on different ISP’s networks than Netflix, and they’ve collected years worth of data on which companies are actually living up to their “high speed” claims.
This month’s speed report from the video service is chock full of all kinds of inside baseball info on what the relationship is like between companies like Netflix and ISP’s like Verizon. Following a controversial deal in which Netflix agreed to pay Verizon for more stable streaming service, we’ve actually seen speeds on Verizon’s networks dip, with their FiOS service now slotting in behind two DSL carriers. What exactly is Netflix getting here for their “Fastlane” money?
Starting out as a test platform, Netflix started broadcasting “congestion” warnings, alerting customers that Verizon’s network was having difficulty streaming high quality video. This prompted a cease and desist from Verizon, and Netflix countered with this letter.
To ensure that these customers get the level of service they pay you for, it is your responsibility to make sure your network, including your interconnection points, have sufficient capacity to accommodate the data requests made by those customers. To try to shift the blame to us for performance issues arising from interconnection congestion is like blaming drivers on a bridge for traffic jams when you’re the one who decided to leave three lanes closed during rush hour.
Continue reading “Netflix to End “Network Congestion” Warnings Following Verizon Cease and Desist”
Our political process is still struggling with technology’s rapid march, but a few Democrats are at least trying to repair the damage dealt to the Open Internet Oder by an Appeals court last month.
The saga so far: The FCC backs the OIO which would’ve put in place the authority to manage data networks almost like they do phone networks. It would’ve been a huge win for Net Neutrality advocates. Verizon sued them, claiming this would’ve infringed their First Amendment rights and that the FCC lacked the authority to handle broadband this way. The Appeals court sided with Verizon, stating that data networks are not “Common Carriers”, so the FCC can not regulate them. The court however left intact one element of the OIO in that if Verizon decides to unfairly degrade a competitor’s service or charge a competitor more for the same service, they at least have to disclose they are doing it.
Introduced by House Rep Henry Waxman, the Open Internet Preservation Act would restore the FCC’s ability to enforce regulation. Basically it’s a bill designed to puzzle piece back in the sections which the Appeals court cut out. It’s completely not surprising that Waxman is backing this bill, as he has a pretty solid record on consumer protection legislation. I used to live in his district here in California, and his staff is incredible at fielding concerns from his constituents.
While this bill is a very nice gesture, we’re just not seeing a lot of movement in the House at them moment, and it seems highly unlikely that enough Republicans will cross the aisle to support legislation granting more regulatory authority to a government commission. We also have to ask if we should start having conversations about declaring broadband networks common carriers to avoid future legal showdowns.
House Bill: The Open Internet Preservation Act
(Capitol Building pic Courtesy of Martin Falbisoner via Wiki)
