49 posts tagged “cable”
The Atlanta-based internet provider Earthlink has announced that it is to cut half of its workforce in a bid to reduce operating costs.
Approximately 900 jobs are to be cut by the company as part of a battle to increase revenues. This includes the closure of offices in San Francisco, Orlando and Knoxville. Earthlink will also repurchase $200 million of its own stock.
The company has reported four consecutive quarters of losses and its stock price has been steadily falling. Internet users are increasingly turning to high-speed broadband networks rather than dial-up, a trend which has impacted badly on Earthlink. The recent poor performance of the company could also affect Earthlink's plans to build city-wide Wi-Fi networks. Chief executive of Earthlink Rolla Huff was quoted by Cnet as saying: "I love the concept of citywide Wi-Fi
"But a business model built around EarthLink fronting all the capital and then paying for subscribers one at a time is not viable." Founded in 1994, Earthlink offers satellite, cable and VoIP services in addition to its dial-up service.
Internet users have been warned of thousands of fake emails purporting to be from various government agencies being disseminated around the internet.
The emails pretend to be from agencies such as the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Those that receive the emails are asked to divulge personal details such as social security numbers and bank account information.
Lois Greisman, associate director of the FTC's division of marketing practices, said: "We are the agency that brought you the Do Not Call Registry and CAN-SPAM. "We're not likely to send out unsolicited emails." CAN-SPAM is a law from 2003 that restricts the sending of commercial spam emails. According to a report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group, the number of phishing websites rose to 37,438 in May of this year, compared to 11,976 during the same month in 2006.
Last month, the Treasury said that it has received thousands of complaints about spam emails claiming to be from the IRS. For more information on digital products and services visit www.dsldance.com
A 75-year-old Swedish woman has become the owner of the fastest residential broadband connection in the world.
Sigbritt Lothberg's 40 gigabits-per-second connection was set up for her by her son, Peter, a networking expert who works for Cisco Systems. Mr. Lothberg said: "We wanted to show that that there are no limitations to Internet speed. "She's a brand new Internet user. She didn't even have a computer before."
A new modulation technique was used in setting up the connection, involving the sending of information between two routers spaced 1,240 miles apart, with no transponders in between. Using her high-speed Internet connection, Ms. Lothberg could download an entire movie in less than two seconds. This is thousands of times faster than a regular residential connection.
Ms Lothberg lives in Karlstad in central Sweden and mainly uses her connection to read online newspapers. The average residential internet connection speed is eight Mbps.
For more information on high-speed Internet connections visit www.dsldance.com
New "thank you" web site launched
As social networking sites become increasingly popular, internet users will soon be able to post messages of gratitude and share their experiences on a new web site.
Unveiled this week, Thanks-o-meter.com provides a total of the number of "thank you" messages posted by visitors, as well as offering statistics showing which categories are the most selected. George Garner, creator of the site, said: "I'd like it to become a catalyst for bringing attention to the positive things happening in our communities."
Visitors are also able to write their own stories and attach private messages to their postings. The growth in popularity of social networking sites was recently illustrated by figures published by comScore which showed that in May the number of people in the U.S. using Facebook.com reached 26.6 million. According to the company, this figure represented an 89 per cent increase on the number of unique visitors recorded during the corresponding month last year.
For information on other digital products and services visit www.dsldance.com
Video content transmitted via PCs is becoming increasingly prevalent in American homes, according to a new survey.
In a yearly study about trends in usage of the internet and technology, called The Face of the Web, it emerged that online video activities are driving growth in the digital media sector. The Ipsos Insight research found that at the end of 2006, 36 percent of Americans have watched video streams or TV programs online.
This is an increase of eight percent from the year before. In addition, three-quarters of adults have used the internet to watch videos in the 30 days before the poll. Video content is a "predominant" part of the daily lives of Americans, according to the executive vice president and managing director of Ipsos Insight's technology and communications practice, Brian Cruikshank.
"Increasing penetration of broadband access and PC ownership globally signals that the PC will begin to really assert itself as a 'second screen' within the household," he added. Research by consultancy Point Topic revealed last month that the US has the highest level of broadband penetration in the world, with more than 60 million subscribers.
For information on other digital products and services visit www.dsldance.com
The music industry suffered a significant loss in physical music sales in 2006, but the digital music market continued to grow, a new report has revealed.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), physical music shipments, such as CDs, fell by 11 percent to $17.5 billion last year, while digital shipments increased by 85 percent to $2.1 billion. Commenting on the figures, IFPI chairman John Kennedy said that the industry had hoped the loss in physical sales would have been offset by the growth in music downloads. "But while digital sales have grown as expected, physical sales have fallen by more than expected," he remarked.
The IFPI stated that digital music formats, which include those downloaded onto computers and cell phones, accounted for 11 per cent of total shipments last year. In related news, reports earlier this week suggested that Universal did not intend to renew its contract with Apple's iTunes for the online distribution of its music.
For information on other digital products and services visit www.dsldance.com
Yahoo! has announced the launch of a new customized advertising product that tailors promotions to the web users' characteristics.
SmartAds enables marketers to target Internet users by taking their age, gender, location and online use into account, CNET News reports. Yahoo! spokesperson Guade Paez described the new service, which also boasts an advertisement creation tool, as "behavioral targeting". "This makes display advertising more of a direct response vehicle than just branding," she commented.
According to the news provider, the new advertisements are expected to first appear on Yahoo!'s publisher sites before being rolled out across its other partner web sites. Last month, Yahoo! combined its US-based search and display advertising sales teams as part of its continuing effort to meet the requirements of its marketing customers. Sue Decker, president of the firm, said that by joining the two services, Yahoo! could "better serve" its advertisers and build upon its position in the market.
For more information on digital products and services visit www.broadbandnational.com
Broadband National has teamed up with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications in bringing this opportunity to market
Vero Beach, FL, -- Broadband National Inc., the nation’s leading online marketing company that promotes digital services such as broadband, voice, and video has partnered with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications to create a Web site targeting the growing HDTV marketplace.
The website www.hdtvspecialoffer.com provides individuals who are looking to purchase new flat-screen televisions large discounts if they subscribe to Comcast, Time Warner Cable or Charter Communications. The new site offers the best deal on services from the leading cable companies, as well as substantial savings on the most popular HDTV’s.
“In most cases individuals and families that are upgrading to high-definition television are also upgrading their home entertainment services such as video, Internet and voice,” states Mark Weibel EVP of Marketing for Broadband National. “Partnering with these three companies has given us an opportunity to help the consumer with great offers on televisions and services in one location. Users can visit the website and check for “triple play” bundles consisting of video, data and voice services and at the same time purchase the HDTV of their choice at a tremendous discount.”
Broadband National is the leading comparative shopping website for digital related services and products. Residential and business customers can use Broadband National's IBIS (Integrated Broadband Information System) technology to compare services from more than 50 local, regional and national service providers.
Formed in 2003, Broadband National is a private company conceived as a solution to a fragmented and confusing broadband marketplace. Millions have used their Web site to compare services, and purchase broadband, VoIP, and similar telecom services.
For Broadband National press inquiries please contact Mark Ballard at 772-539-0618 or visit www.broadbandnational.com
Search Results Can Be Risky
The results of Internet searches are exposing users to malware, according to a recent report from the software security company McAfee.
At least four percent of all search results could lead users to websites that could download malware, the study found. However, the study also found that the number of such results with malware fell one percent on last year's results.
Most likely to contain websites with malware are the sponsored search results purchased by their owners which appear at the top of a page. The author of the study, Ben Edelman, told vnunet.com: "The search engines could do more. "These advertisers rely completely on search engines, so the search engines are uniquely positioned to kill these businesses."
In the study, Mr. Edelman analyzed the initial 50 results from 2,300 of the most popular keywords on Yahoo! Google, AOL, MSN and Ask.com. Meanwhile, levels of malware have climbed over the last year at a greater rate than in the years before, a recent report has found. In their most recent report, IBM's Internet security systems researchers detected over 7,200 weaknesses, most of which could be exploited by attackers.
Spyware programs are sometimes installed as Trojan horses of one sort or another. They differ in that their creators present themselves openly as businesses, for instance by selling advertising space on the pop-ups created by the malware, states Mark Weibel EVP of Marketing for Broadband National Inc who operates the industries leading comparative shopping website for digital products and services. “Most such programs present the user with an end-user license agreement which purportedly protects the creator from prosecution under computer contaminant laws. However, spyware EULAs have not yet been upheld in court.”
For more information on digital products and services visit www.broadbandnational.com
