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May 15 2008   12:20PM GMT

Comcast to buy Plaxo



Posted by: Tom Nolle
Social networking, Comcast

Comcast is buying social network and photo site Plaxo, and plans to integrate it into Comcast’s offerings, perhaps even creating a set-top box that could be used to “tune” to Plaxo sites and view pictures. The move is one of several recent steps taken by content and network firms to gain access to web properties for exploitation, and it seems to show that the whole sector is now looking for positive symbiosis among a variety of customer-reaching strategies, perhaps to stave off price competition. In Comcast’s case, we believe it is a step to attempt to hold profit and revenue in a market where satellite and RBOC competitors are generating significant pressure

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Apr 3 2008   12:54PM GMT

Comcast to test faster cable speed in Qwest territory



Posted by: Tom Nolle
Comcast, Broadband, Cable

Comcast will be rolling out a DOCSIS 3.0 trial in Minnesota, with the top download speed 50 Mbps (5 Mbps upload). The service will be the first deployment of the faster cable modem standard, and the interest level will be high since DOCSIS 3.0 is the only architecture that can rival FTTH in performance. However, it’s interesting that Comcast is deploying in Qwest’s territory; the operator has only DSL in contrast to its eastern rival Verizon, whose FiOS can also offer 50 Mbps in some areas. We note that DOCSIS 3.0 is still a shared-media technology with less capacity available per user than FTTH can support, and the upload speed for cable is much lower than for FiOS (which now offers 20/20 symmetrical and 30/20 asymmetrical in some areas).

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Mar 28 2008   1:24PM GMT

Comcast zeroes in on Internet “hog” management



Posted by: Tom Nolle
Comcast, Peer2Peer, Verizon

Comcast today announced it would change how it imposes traffic management constraints on Internet usage, discontinuing its focus on P2P applications and focusing instead on traffic management of “hogs” or users who create the largest amount of traffic. As a practical matter, the move will likely have the same impact when the cable spans are congested, since P2P is the most significant source of upload traffic, but the new move might also impact any users who act as servers or who generate significant video traffic. The FCC has asked the company to commit to a date for the change, in what we believe is a simple PR move on the part of the FCC. We do not believe the FCC would have ordered a change, and that the current move by Comcast is a response to a competitive campaign largely by Verizon.

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Mar 27 2008   12:26PM GMT

Comcast and BitTorrent in P2P talks



Posted by: Tom Nolle
Comcast, Peer2Peer, Verizon

Comcast and BitTorrent are in talks over how to make P2P exchange less a traffic management problem for cable networks. There has been little detail released on this but the rumor is that Comcast is seeking a “topology-aware” hashing tree so peer uploads from one user on a cable span would eliminate the span as a source for other uploads, seeking instead alternative systems on other spans or operators. The move is prompted not so much by the FCC’s actions, which are not likely to require Comcast to stop its traffic management, but by the fact that the problem has handed the RBOCs, and especially Verizon, a major competitive advantage.

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Feb 26 2008   1:23PM GMT

FCC chairman advocates spelling out P2P policies



Posted by: Tom Nolle
Comcast, FCC, Peer2Peer

Comcast and its opponents faced off at an FCC hearing, but little of substance was brought into the open. The positions remain largely as filed in the various briefs; Comcast says that network management is essential for overall service quality and net neutralists say that any constraints will be the end of the Internet. Chairman Martin’s comment about the fact that such things should be done with open policies and transparency seem to us to be the signal that the FCC will mandate that these traffic management practices be spelled out in the user agreements. We do not expect any substantive policy announced favoring net neutrality despite the tone of some post-meeting commentary.

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