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Charter Communication has begun a new customer loyalty rewards program. Reno, Nevada customers will be receiving a credit card type gift card from Charter. The card, which will be recharged each month the customer remains with Charter, is good for products and services from participation Reno merchants. When the customer presents their CharterRewards card, their bill will be reduced from $3 to $25. The current card has over $500 in monthly discounts.

In a recent move, Suddenlink Communications has nearly tripled the number of High Speed Internet subscribers using their services. A purchase of 940,000 Cox Communications customers and an additional 240,000 Charter Communications customers is the reason behind this growth spurt. This will bring their number of residential subscribers to 1,400,000, and make Suddenlink one of the 10 largest Residential Broadband providers in America.

Suddenlink was formerly Cebridge Connections.

Walmart has found another way to shut down small business operators. What makes this story more bitter still is the fact that telecom giant, Verizon, is in bed with Walmart

Broadband Blog reports that Verizon has announced that by the end of June, Verizon Online DSL will be available for subscription at all of the 549 Walmart stores. This will put the squeeze on many small online businesses that depend, in whole or in part, on marketing Broadband High Speed Internet Access. But, let the buyer beware. The price for Verizon 768 Kbps service that is avialable online for $14.95 per month will cost the, oh so savey, Walmart shopper $17.99 per month.

The fact that Walmart would not think twice about hurting the little guy, while soliciting their business, comes as no suprise. Walmart thrives off of the purchases of low wage workers and small business that barely scratch our a living. Take away enough of an operators business, cut into their income, and they can no loger afford to shop at Sears; they have no choice but to become Walmart customers, or even Walmart employees. However, we cannot understand why Verizon would opt to sully their sterling, top of the Baby Bells, image for companionship of such a sleazy bed partner.

Is it just one persons opinion, mine, or is the fact that Verizon has hopped into bed with Walmat, to me an indication of how sleazy big business in America has become, troubling to others also?.

CNET, quoting Nielsen/NetRatings, reports that 72% or 102.55 million American homes have Broadband High Speed Internet Connections. Those numbers are up from 57% and 78.5 million, respectively, from a year ago.

90% of businesses now have a high speed conncection, up from 82% in 2005, while residential dial-up usage has dropped to 28%. A year ago, 43% of US households used dial-up for their internet connection.

...or Speeding on the Internet !

How much download speed do you really need from your Broadband High Speed Internet Providers? Take for example, Verizon FiOS ( Broadband Internet over Fiber Optic Cable); it delivers 30 Mbps downstream speeds. But, does the average residential or small business customer really need the speed?

The short answer: For most customers, not yet.

And it is not only over fiber that the insane speeds are available. Check out what is available over Cable...

16 Mbps on Comcast High Speed Cable Internet

7 Mbps on Time Warner High Speed Internet

16 Mbps on Comcast High Speed Cable Internet


...just to name a few.

And DSL, well, as usual, DSL speeds are lagging behind, but the speeds here are increasing, and quite impressive, also. Verizon offers 768 Kbps for $14.95, while AT&T has a 1.5 Mbps offer for just $12.99 per month.

So, how much speed does the average Broadband custormer need? A recent article on CNET gave us the following examples of how much bandwidth is needed for downloading various files.

A good quality video stream uses between 500 Kbps and 600 Kbps, and streaming audio, even less. Broadband phone ( VoIP ) calling only uses about 56 Kbps or less of bandwidth. And, downloading music would only take 10 to 12 seconds longer using a 768 Kbps connection compared to using a 6 Mbps connection.

For most applications today, Verizons 768 Kbps is sufficient. Some exceptions would be small businesses and residences that are using serveral internet connections at once, Gamers, and HDTV. It is clear that there are more bandwidth intensive applications coming every year, and eventually, we will all feel the need for more speed. Today, however, it seems that 1.5 Mbps for $12.99 per month is where most consumers should shop.

Related Article: Comcast Redefines "High Speed" Internet Access

With bandwidth speeds improving and new pricing and packages, many customers find DSL to be a better bargin than Cable Internet Access. Recent studies cited by CNET and others show a correlation between income and high speed internet preference, with households with $75k+/yr selecting Cable Internet Access, and households with under $75k/yr opting for DSL.

It is not hard to understand why DSL providers have begun to close the subscription gap with Cable Internet providers. For example, AT&T's DSL service for $12.99 per month delivers more than enough bandwith speed, 1,5 Mbps, for all but the most demanding residential Broadband applications. Why would anybody who didn't need the extra bandwidth pay the premium prices for it?

Verizon has announced deep cuts in the rates it is charging some Business DSL customers.

Customers whose service has speeds of up to 7.1 Mbps down ,68 Kbps up, and dynamic IP addressing Verizon has cut the monthly rate from $204.95 to $79.95. That is less than half of what Business Broadband customers were paying a month ago. For those with static ip addresses the rates have been cut from $234.95 to $149.95 per month.

For those looking for Verizon or other Business Broadband Services, including T1 Internet, we suggest T1 Internet Information as a start.

Source

WildBlue Satellite Internet has not been around much more than a couple of years, but last week they had an announcement that should send the company into the wild blue yonder.

WildBlue Satellite announced that they have cut a five year deal to be the exclusive provider of Broadband Satellite High Speed internet Access to both DirecWay Satellite and EchoStar Satellite. EchoStar is the parent company of the Dish Network Satellite TV, while DirecWay is the name DirecTV has been using for its Satellite Internet operations.

Last month DirecWay changed their name to HughesNet, yet it appears by this announcement, that the DirecWay name will still be around.

It's time for a confession. We are paying $12.95 per month for our dial-up internet access.

AT&T Yahoo!� DSL is just $12.99 per month. REALLY! For just 4¢ per month more we could be enjoying all of the features and the eye blinking speeds of At&T's broadband high speed internet access.

Seriously, our dial-up connection is just for back-up, which we have only needed one time in the past couple of years. You wouldn't expect BROADBANDblogs to be using dial-up as our primary internet connection, would you? But, the point should be obvious, broadband internet access prices for residential users has dropped to the point where it is just as cheap as dial-up. We forecasted this in some of our previous posts. This, we believe, is going to be the cheapest prices for dsl service. If you are not already enjoying the speed and benefits of high speed internet access, now is the time to subscribe.

For our friends in rural areas serviced by AT&T, and where DSL or Cable Internet is not yet available, AT&T is offering fast and affordable satellite internet access. We have been very impressed with this provider since they merged with SBC. You owe it to yourself to give them a look.

Comcast High Speed Cable Internet has introduced a new product that will redefine broadband services for residential and small business customers. Aptly named, PowerBoost™, Comcast's enhanced service is offered at no additional charge, does not require any additional steps or software downloads, and will work with the customers existing harware. Comcast customers will automatically receive the service as it is rolled out in their area.

According to the official comcast press release,

PowerBoost technology utilizes additional capacity already built into Comcast’s advanced fiber network to provide customers with extra bursts of download speed – up to 12Mbps and16Mbps, respectively, on Comcast’s 6 and 8Meg services.

PowerBoost™ will enable users to download 3 mp3 files in about 6.5 seconds, or a game file of 686MB to be downloaded in only 12 minutes as compared to 61 minutes on a 1.5Mbps DSL internet connection. The time savings are huge when considered many broadband subscribers are still operating at 256kps.