Voices

Verizon Wireless Buys Spectrum From Cox

Verizon Wireless will buy airwave rights covering 28 million people from cable-television provider Cox Communications Inc. for $315 million, the companies said, the latest chapter in an unusual tie-up between the cellular giant and cable companies.

Cox Giving Up Completely on Wireless Business

The cable operator, which earlier this year stopped operating its own cellular network and began reselling Sprint service, now plans to exit the cellphone business entirely.
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Cox Abandoning Effort for Own 3G Network; Sticking With Sprint Reseller Deal Instead

The cable company says the move will allow it to offer service faster and reach its goal of offering wireless service to half its customer base this year. Cox declined to comment on what it plans to do with its spectrum or how much it had spent on the effort to build its own network.
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Netflix Hands Out Its ISP Report Cards. Clearwire, Please Get This One Signed by Your Parents.

Time Warner Cable and Comcast appear to do just fine in Reed Hastings’s rankings.

Comcast Unit Finds New Use for the iPhone: Getting Work Done

While plenty of people are using their iPhones and iPads to watch video, a unit of Comcast is betting that the devices can also play a role in helping professional video get onto the Internet. Though a niche product, it is the kind of application that many expect to see more of as businesses find ways of incorporating mobile devices into their office workflow.

Scripps Books Travel Channel in $975 Million Deal

It’s official: Scripps Networks Interactive has won the Travel Channel auction. In a deal that values the channel at $975 million, Scripps will acquire a majority interest in the property while current owner Cox retains a 35 percent stake. News Corp., among others, had been bidding for the channel.

Better Stop Holding Your Breath for a Verizon iPhone

If Verizon is in talks with Apple to become the second U.S. carrier for the iPhone, they evidently aren’t going very well. How else to explain the iPhone-slagging ad campaign for Verizon’s forthcoming Android handset, Droid?
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Voices

Relationship Status of RIAA and ISPs: It’s Complicated

At a digital music panel in Nashville this week, executives from AT&T and Comcast created a furor by saying they were passing along warnings to customers that the RIAA says are illegally uploading music files onto the Internet. Later, the companies tried to calm the outrage erupting in the blogosphere by harrumphing they weren’t cutting off Internet access to those people–or in the case of Cox, hardly ever cutting it off.

Cable Guys Plan Their Own Hulus: Anyone Interested in “Authentication” or “Entitlement”?

Both Comcast and Timer Warner Cable want to give their subscribers Web access to more shows than they can currently get–at least legally. But the two companies have competing plans, based on different technologies and philosophies.
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ABC Announces "Must Flee TV"

Leave it to ABC to devise a service that offers all the convenience of video-on-demand with all the annoyance and vapidity of broadcast TV in one joyless package. This morning the network and its affiliates announced fast-forward-disabled video on demand, which prevents viewers from bypassing commercials.

ABC Announces “Must Flee TV”

The Great 700 MHz Spectrum Grab

TiVo Time-Shifts Company Deathwatch