FCC green lights new wireless broadband spectrum

FCC Approves Rules Allowing White-space Devices
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted Tuesday to approve rules that would allow new broadband devices to operate in unused television spectrum.
The FCC voted on the rules governing the operation of new devices in the so-called spectrum white spaces over the objections of television broadcasters, wireless microphone makers, several sports leagues, and dozens of performing artists and U.S. lawmakers. The vote will allow more broadband competition in the U.S., with wireless devices competing with providers of cable broadband and DSL/fiber-based broadband, said Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.
"Today's decision is consequential to our nation's future because wireless broadband has the potential to improve our economy and quality of life in even the remotest areas," Adelstein said. "One of the best options for promoting broadband and competition across the country, particularly in rural areas, is maximizing the potential of spectrum-based services."


Concerns Over FCC 'White Spaces' Decision
The Federal Communications Commission today voted to allow technology companies like Google, Microsoft, Dell, and Motorola to produce "white spaces" devices that will use the same radio frequency (RF) spectrum now being used by wireless microphone systems. Final text of the rules is not yet available, but the order is purported to greatly reduce the amount of clear spectrum available for use by professional audio and communications equipment.

Netflix to stream some titles in high-def
Netflix will soon make a limited number of its high-definition titles available for video-streaming through both the Roku set-top box and Microsoft's Xbox 360 videogame console.
About 300 of Netflix's 12,000 video-streaming titles will be available for owners of the Netflix Player by Roku box to send directly to their HDTV sets by the end of next month, wrote Tim Twerdahl, VP of consumer products at closely held Roku, in a Nov. 1 blog entry. Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey confirmed that the company would do a "soft launch" of about 300 titles for Roku and Xbox, though declined to give a specific deadline.


Adobe criticises Microsoft for trying to muscle into web video
Adobe's chief executive has attacked Microsoft for "opening its chequebook" in an attempt to muscle its way into the web video market.
Just weeks after the release of a new version of Silverlight – Microsoft's competitor to the hugely popular Flash Player – Adobe boss Shantanu Narayen said that the Seattle-based software giant was failing to get a foothold on the web, despite heavy spending.
"Either you have full penetration or you don't," he told a group of journalists at Adobe's headquarters in San Jose, California.


Two Year's Later, Google Still Can't Deliver YouTube Without Stuttering & Buffering
It's been just over two year's now since Google acquired YouTube and while the debate rages on in the industry about how YouTube will make money, few people are discussing the quality problem Google continues to have with delivering YouTube

CNN Profiting From User-Generated Content
CNN president Jonathan Klein attributes the network's success in reaching next-generation viewers to relying on more user-generated content and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter

Yahoo! Ends Live Streaming Video Experiment
When Yahoo! launched its live video streaming service, Y! Live, to the world earlier this year, it was admittedly an "experiment in live video" designed to elicit feedback from the market. Today, Yahoo! has decided that the experiment has received enough feedback - or perhaps too little. They're going to be closing the service down on December 3.
Here at ReadWriteWeb, we've remained proponents of live streaming video, claiming more than once that it is "going to be huge." If that's the case, why is Yahoo! pulling the plug on Y! Live so quickly?


AT&T To Test Usage Caps In Reno
AT&T,  blaming a few bandwidth hogs for clogging its high-speed Internet network, is launching a trial in Reno, Nev. that would impose new fees on customers for exceeding monthly usage caps.
AT&T officials disclosed the plan, which was vague in some key respects, during an Oct. 31 meeting with an aide to Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin, agency records show.
AT&T officials said the trial was a response to "a small minority of our broadband Internet access customers consum[ing] a disproportionately large amount of the total bandwidth available to all the customers on a network”—practically the same words Comcast Corp. used to justify management of BitTorrent traffic that a 3-2 FCC majority found unacceptable in August.


NBC Universal digital chief Kliavkoff exits
NBC Universal chief digital officer George Kliavkoff is ankling the Peacock. Kliavkoff told staffers on Monday that he is exercising an option in his contract that allows him to leave NBC U at the end of this year. The exec, the first in the digital job, helped spearhead the launch of Hulu, the conglom's online video joint venture with News Corp., and served as its interim CEO before Jason Kilar took the post.


Comcast 'P4P' Tests Boost P2P By 80% - Though there's still more questions than answers about
The P4P Research Group (pdf), a coalition of most major ISPs, researchers and Pando networks, is working on a more efficient P2P protocol that saves transit time by only serving file parts from local peers to reduce hops. Pando and the new coalition believe they can speed up P2P transfers by as much as 235% across US cable networks and up to 898% across international broadband networks. In Verizon tests, Pando increased the percentage of data routed internally across their networks from 2.2% to 43.4%, which they claim reduced inter-ISP data transfers by an average of 34% (up to 43.8 % in the US and 75.1% internationally).


Netflix, TiVo start streaming agreement
Last week, Netflix and Samsung reached an agreement allowing owners of Samsung's Blu-ray Disc players to stream Netflix's online video, following a similar agreement with LG Electronics in July.

Campaigns in a Web 2.0 World
Many of the media outlets influencing the 2008 election simply were not around in 2004. YouTube did not exist, and Facebook barely reached beyond the Ivy League. There was no Huffington Post to encourage citizen reporters, so Mr. Obama’s comment about voters clinging to guns or religion may have passed unnoticed. These sites and countless others have redefined how many Americans get their political news.

Akamai CEO: We'll Avoid Web 2.0 Disaster
On yesterday's third-quarter earnings call, Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM) CEO Paul Sagan said his company was well positioned to weather the current financial environment, in part because the company has limited exposure to "newfangled sites" that haven't yet figured out their business models.
During the conference call, Sagan talked extensively about the financial issues facing a number of Web 2.0 Websites, particularly those that are venture funded and not yet profitable.
Sagan noted that Akamai had "picked up on some of those businesses running into trouble," and made clear that while those businesses were not Akamai customers (fortunately), they were probably affecting others in the content delivery network (CDN) market. 


Revver Site Having Problems
The lack of dependability magnifies the fact that Revver is no longer providing the service it did in its heyday, when many major video stars — such as Ze Frank, Ask a Ninja, Lonelygirl15, and Invisible Engine — depended on the site as their main host and as a source of income. Revver does seem to have a few people left working on the site since it was acquired by LiveUniverse for about $5 million in February — however it does seem to be fading away.