March 29, 2024

Media Decoder Blog: Online Piracy Alert System to Begin This Week

The Copyright Alert System, a program of escalating warnings and prods against people suspected of online copyright infringement, is finally going into effect this week, more than a year and a half after the plan was announced as part of an agreement between the entertainment industry and five major Internet service providers.

The Center for Copyright Information, the organization created to administer the system, announced on Monday that the Internet providers would begin putting it in place “over the course of the next several days,” though it gave no specifics. The Internet companies are ATT, Cablevision, Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner Cable.

In the alert system, media companies monitor online traffic through a third party and can complain to Internet providers if a file is downloaded illegally. The suspected violator is then given the first of six warnings, some of which carry “educational” messages and must be acknowledged. After the fifth and sixth warnings, the customer’s Internet speed can be slowed to a crawl.

The Center for Copyright Information says it will not ask for repeat offenders’ Internet access to be blocked, but most service providers have the right to do that if a customer violates its terms of service. The findings can be contested for a $35 fee, to be refunded if an appeal is successful.

The introduction of the alert system has been notably slow. Nearly a year passed before the group had a leader in place, and its own prediction failed when it said in October that the system would be coming in two months. Part of the reason for that might be the relationships between media companies and Internet service providers, which in the past have often been adversarial over issues of piracy and control.

So-called graduated response programs like the Copyright Alert System have been tried in other countries, with mixed results. France’s Hadopi law, passed in 2009, set up a system of three “strikes,” culminating in a fine. More than a million warnings have been issued through that plan, but a recent government report said that its effects were “hard to evaluate precisely.”

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/online-piracy-alert-system-to-begin-this-week/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Sprint Nextel’s Losses Narrow as It Gains Subscribers

Sprint also provided important updates on the iPhone, its financing needs and planned network upgrades, undoing some of the damage caused by an investor day presentation three weeks ago that had investors fuming and sent its stock plunging.

Its shares still edged lower on Wednesday as investors continued to focus on finances that look precarious for the next two years.

Sprint’s net loss was $301 million, or 10 cents a share, for the third quarter. That is down from $911 million, or 30 cents a share, a year ago. It was the best performance by Sprint since it reported a profit of $64 million in the third quarter of 2007.

Revenue rose 2.2 percent to $8.3 billion.

Sprint, the country’s third-largest wireless carrier behind ATT and Verizon Wireless, said it added a net 1.3 million subscribers in the July-to-September period, the best result since 2006. Sprint continued to lose subscribers from its lucrative contract-based plans, but at a relatively low rate: 44,000 in the quarter. Sprint’s total customer count, 53.4 million, is now back at where it was in 2007, before the exodus of Nextel customers turned into a torrent.

The company, based in Overland Park, Kan., has made steady gains in the last year and a half. Unfortunately for the company, most of the new customers are low-paying ones. They buy service from Sprint’s low-cost Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile or Assurance Wireless brands, or from non-Sprint brands that use the company’s network.

The latest subscriber results do not include the effect of the iPhone, which Sprint started selling Oct. 14. The phone is expected to further improve the company’s ability to keep customers, at a high price. Apple charges about $600 for a phone that Sprint sells for $200.

Sprint’s chief financial officer, Joseph J. Euteneuer, said each iPhone would cost the company about $200 more than another smartphone. All the same, the company expects its four-year purchasing agreement with Apple to add $7 billion to $8 billion to its own bottom line.

The problem for Sprint is that the cost of selling the iPhone comes upfront, while benefits like higher service fees and lower service costs accrue over time. Sprint does not expect the iPhone to be a moneymaker until 2014.

The added cost of the iPhone comes as Sprint is also starting to revamp its network for higher speeds. That adds up to financing needs of $5 billion to $7 billion in the next few years, Mr. Euteneuer said.

Shares of Sprint fell 19 cents, or 7 percent, to $2.51.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=1ff1e6f83cb31fb12cd81f939da49b60

Bucks Blog: Friday Reading: How Bill Clinton Became a Vegan

August 19

Friday Reading: How Bill Clinton Became a Vegan

How Bill Clinton became a vegan, customers feel ripples from a Verizon strike, Medicare premiums for drug benefit to fall slightly and other consumer-focused news from The New York Times.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=2adfd96489afb0badb010d2e3c03b34b

As Networks Speed Up, Data Hits a Wall

But there’s a catch, of course.

Cellphone plans that let people gobble up data as if they were at an all-you-can eat buffet are disappearing, just as a new crop of data-gobbling Internet services from Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, Apple and the like are hitting the market or catching on with wide audiences.

These services use far more data than simply checking e-mail or browsing the Web, so their heaviest users may find themselves running over their plan’s monthly allotment and paying extra.

The wireless carriers say their tighter limits will affect only a small percentage of customers. And they say they are simply trying to get ahead of an exploding appetite for data and avoid problems with overburdened networks.

Mark Siegel, a spokesman for ATT, said that if current trends continued, the company’s network would carry more data in the first two months of 2015 than in all of 2010. He described the pricing issue as a “balancing act,” adding: “The tiered data plans will meet the needs of the overwhelming majority of consumers. A lot of people think they’re heavy users, but they’re not.”

But analysts say that inevitably more people will find themselves in the “heavy user” category, particularly as more of them trade in their lower-end phones for smartphones and move to 4G networks.

For most people who use their phones to check e-mail, surf the Web and watch an occasional video, the move toward tiered pricing will not immediately raise their phone bills. Verizon’s monthly plan offering two gigabytes of data for $30, announced last month, costs the same as its old unlimited plan, for example. But even now it doesn’t take much for a media-hungry smartphone user to chew through two gigabytes; watching Netflix video for more than roughly 20 minutes a day will do the trick. And an extra gigabyte will cost Verizon customers an additional $10.

“Over time, as you give people faster devices with faster speeds, it’s going to be a lot easier to hit that two-gig mark,” said Philip Cusick, an analyst with JPMorgan Chase who follows the telecommunications industry.

In addition to worrying about overtaxing their networks, wireless carriers are looking for new ways to make money from mobile data and applications, rather than voice minutes.

Over the last three years, the amount of money consumers spent a month on mobile calling declined to $30 from $40, according to Recon Analytics. During the same period, the average amount spent on data nearly doubled, jumping to $13 from $7.

“We’ve fallen in love with data and the utility that we get from it,” said Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon. “The usage pattern has changed dramatically.”

ATT and Verizon have both phased out their unlimited data plans in favor of tiered plans. Verizon offers 75-megabyte plans for basic phones, as well as two-, five- and 10-gigabyte plans for smartphones, topping out at $80 a month. Those in the more expensive plans who go over their limit are charged $10 for another gigabyte, as are ATT customers who exceed the limit on that company’s two-gigabyte plan, which costs $25.

T-Mobile, which ATT is hoping to acquire, offers tiers from 200 megabytes up to 10 gigabytes. Those on the 200-megabyte plan are charged 10 cents for an extra megabyte. And if those with the upper-tier plans exceed their limits, the company slows their data connections until the next billing period.

Sprint is the last carrier to hold onto its unlimited data plan, but analysts and industry experts say it is unlikely to last.

All of the carriers let customers track their data use through their Web sites and on their phones, and they send alerts when customers are in danger of going over.

Of course, those who want to avoid paying more can simply wait until they are connected to a Wi-Fi network to, say, download high-definition videos, since this will not count against the monthly limit. But that doesn’t help someone who wants to stream movies or music on a long evening commute.

Terry Hartup, 34, who works as a technology consultant in Clearwater, Fla., said he was frustrated that his connection might be slowed if T-Mobile decided he was using too much data.

“These new services are coming out that let us do more, but the pipe is getting smaller and smaller,” he said. “And costing us more.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=18be777271be81637cebaed5dfc83800

IPhone Bolsters Verizon Results

Verizon Communications reported a profitable second-quarter on Friday, beating Wall Street’s expectations as the iPhone, which Verizon began selling in February, attracted new customers.

The company reported a net income of $1.61 billion, or 57 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.19 billion during the same period a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected the company to report a profit of 55 cents a share, compared with earnings of 58 cents a share in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose 2.8 percent to $27.54 billion, up from $26.77 billion a year ago. Analysts had expected revenue of $27.4 billion.

Ivan Seidenberg, the chief executive of the company, described the company’s results as some of the best since the rocky economic climate in 2008.

“In the second half of the year we expect Verizon to build on this strong, positive momentum to continue to drive profitable, sustainable growth,” he said in a statement.

Verizon’s results were lifted by strong growth in the company’s wireless arm, which is 45 percent owned by Vodaphone. The company reported a sharp increase — 1.3 million — in net new subscribers in the quarter. Smartphones accounted for 36 percent of Verizon Wireless’s post-paid subscriber phone base, up from 32 percent in the first quarter of the year. Verizon recently began rolling out its fourth-generation wireless network, which uses a fast wireless technology called LTE, and is heavily marketing tablets and smartphones that are compatible with that new technology.

Analysts expected that the introduction of Apple’s iPhone 4 and the company’s portfolio of 4G devices would help buoy the company’s subscriber numbers, although they did not expect so many. The company activated 2.3 million iPhones during the quarter, bringing to 4.5 million the total number of iPhones Verizon has activated since February, and it continued to see sales from its catalog of Android and 4G devices.

The company also announced that Lowell McAdam, the president and chief operating officer of Verizon, would replace Mr. Seidenberg as chief executive of the parent company on Aug. 1. The move completes a succession plan that has been under way since last year.

In a release, Mr. Seidenberg, who will retain his position as chairman of Verizon Communications, said that Mr. McAdams’s appointment is “testimony to his extraordinary record of achievement.”

“His stellar leadership of Verizon Wireless and his outstanding 28-year career in the telecommunications industry have positioned Lowell to understand the potential of our company and the actions that need to be taken every day to attain that potential.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0a638d7ed5829650be6581cc24fe8411

Bucks: Wednesday Reading: Cyclist-Friendly Cities Allow Bikes on Trains

July 06

Wednesday Reading: Cyclist-Friendly Cities Allow Bikes on Trains

Cyclist-friendly cities that allow bikes on trains, Verizon to drop unlimited mobile-data plan, what not to say to a daughter-in-law and other consumer-focused news from The New York Times.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=461665b49cd3e7fef26fad879b905d54