Comcast. Time Warner Cable

Verizon's $3.6 billion spectrum deal: Who wins and who loses?

Verizon Wireless' move to buy 20MHz of AWS wireless spectrum from cable operators has caused a seismic shift in the wireless industry.

The deal announced today will give Verizon access to spectrum licenses that cover about 259 million potential customers. The company plans to pay the cable consortium SpectrumCo--which consists of Comcast, Time Warner, and Bright House Networks--$3.6 billion for the spectrum licenses.

In a market where wireless operators are all jockeying for more spectrum resources, Verizon has scored a major win by taking a huge swath of unused spectrum for itself. Spectrum is the lifeblood of the … Read more

CES: Samsung TVs demo Time Warner, Comcast apps for box-free cable

Cable card has long promised, and largely failed to deliver, cable TV programming without the need for a cable box. Now, judging from a demo we saw at the Samsung booth, cable TV providers are willing to work directly with TV makers to deliver content box-free.

The demo consisted of each providers' dedicated apps in the Samsung App menus. Selecting an app brought up a standard program guide grid (pictured), offering the full selection of each provider's lineup. Selecting a show from the grid caused it to begin playing live on the TV, just like you'd expect from … Read more

Time Warner iPad app to offer on-demand shows

Time Warner Cable is developing an iPad app that will let customers watch current programming, among other offerings.

The app, which has yet to be named or given a release date, was demoed in a YouTube video by Time Warner Cable Vice President of Web Services, Jason Gaedtke. When it's opened, the app delivers current programming for users to view in their area. They can see all the shows on now, or flip through the TV listings to see when other shows are on later.

According to Gaedtke, Time Warner Cable wants to achieve two basic goals with the … Read more

Time Warner Cable gains Internet subs

Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 cable operator in the U.S., saw strong broadband subscriber growth in the first quarter, which helped the company boost earnings 30 percent during the three-month period.

Time Warner reported a profit of $214 million, or 60 cents a share. This was up from $164 million, or 48 cents per share, during the same quarter a year ago. The results included 22 cents of restructuring charges. Revenue was up 5.4 percent to $4.6 billion. Analysts expected the company to earn 74 cents a share on $4.56 billion in revenue, according to … Read more

Free Wi-Fi for some cable subscribers in NYC area

Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable are teaming up to allow their subscribers in New York City and the surrounding area to roam onto each other's Wi-Fi networks.

All three companies currently offer free Wi-Fi service to their cable subscribers in areas surrounding the Big Apple, including parts of Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Starting Thursday anyone who subscribes to broadband from any of these providers will get free Wi-Fi access on the two other cable operators' Wi-Fi networks.

The blog Broadband Reports notes this is particularly good news for Time Warner Cable customers. Time Warner has relatively … Read more

Could cable lose its grip on TV business?

Cable companies may be raking in profits as they add more broadband subscribers, but price-sensitive consumers may only be a discount away from ditching them.

On Wednesday Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, announced it had more than doubled its fourth-quarter earnings, due in large part to a promotional push that resulted in 247,000 new high-speed Internet subscribers. Time Warner Cable, which announced fourth-quarter earnings last week, also swung to a profit, buoyed by gains in broadband Internet and phone subscribers.

But even though these companies managed to report profits and a boost in new broadband subscribers, they … Read more

Report: Clearwire gets more cash from investors

Clearwire investors are pumping in another $1.5 billion into the venture to help pay for the company's nationwide 4G wireless network, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The article cites two unnamed sources "familiar with the matter," who said that Sprint Nextel, Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks have all agreed to contribute an additional $500 million to the cause. Google, which had initially invested with these other companies, is not participating in this funding round, the article said.

Sprint and these other partners invested about $3.2 billion in Clearwire about 18 months ago … Read more

Will more competition finally mean better TV?

Instead of a bloody price war between cable operators and phone companies in the TV market, battle lines are now being drawn over who has the most compelling new features.

Digital video recorders, on-demand services, and more recently Web sites such as Hulu.com have taught people that they don't have to be beholden to a TV schedule. But the TV industry is about to be shaken up even more as phone companies and cable operators, which are all vying for your viewing eyeballs, add new features to their services to lure customers.

So what's it mean for … Read more

Whatever happened to making customers happy?

I remember a time in business when we were told that the customer is always right. Sure, they may not have the greatest grip on the reality of the situation and they may misunderstand things every now and then, but when it's all said and done, they're supposed to be happy.

But in today's world of lawsuits and overzealous attorneys, it's quite apparent that ISPs couldn't care less about customer happiness and would rather perform acts that are suspect, to say the least.

Case in point: The FCC said on Wednesday that Comcast illegally interfered with file-sharing activities on its service and by slowing down BitTorrent traffic, failed to act within the auspices of the law and its agreement with customers.

"Our network management practices were reasonable, wholly consistent with industry practices and . . . we did not block access to Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services," Sena Fitzmaurice, a spokeswoman for Comcast told the Washington Post.

But were the company's practices reasonable? That's debatable. But one thing is abundantly clear: ISPs have lost all value in customer relationships and over the past few years, have shown their severe distaste for consumers.… Read more