Daniel Frankel

Netflix to Start Billing Florida Subscribers an Additional 5.07 Percent for State Communications Taxes

Netflix confirmed that it has notified its customers in Florida that it will begin on February 15 adding to their monthly bills "the state tax rate" for streaming services, which is 5.07% of their regular fees. Netflix referred to 

Is Comcast Experiencing a Goldilocks Moment in Broadband?

Comcast lost 34,000 broadband customers across consumer and business channels in the fourth quarter and bled 64,000 subscribers for the full 2023, results that might have tanked the cable company's stock in previous quarters. But the company’s shares are up nearly 4 percent. Sure, good news from theme parks and streaming platform Peacock have a lot to do with that.

Altice USA Sets Huge Broadband Price Cuts: 36 Percent Off on 300 Megabits per second Fiber-to-the-Home

After years of operational cuts and consumer price increases, Altice USA, under the direction of recently appointed CEO Dennis Mathew, has instituted fairly massive price decreases across its fiber-to-the-home and cable broadband product lines. According to Analyst Craig Moffett, the cable operator, which touts around 4.6 million broadband customers, is trying to undo the aftereffects of the “Altice Way,” the strategy of increasing EBITDA through cost cuts and price increases, which proliferated amid the aggressive expansion set forth by French-Israeli cable titan Patrick Drahi a decade ago

Charlie Ergen Makes ‘Inscrutable’ Moves, Shields Parts of Dish Spectrum and Pay TV Biz From Existing Creditors

After closing on his re-merger of Dish Network and EchoStar, Chairman Charlie Ergen outlined a series of strategic asset shifts that shield certain spectrum assets, as well as the cash generated by about three million Dish pay-TV subscribers, from existing creditors. The moves “further unlock incremental strategic, financial and operating flexibility for its business following completion of its merger” with Dish Network.

Comcast's Legal Battle With Key ‘10G’ Tech Vendor Gets Even More Interesting

Comcast's complex legal battle with one of the technology vendors behind its current “10G” network upgrade has heated up, with California-based chipmaker MaxLinear countersuing the cable operator. MaxLinear claims in a December 1 New York federal court filing that Comcast stole trade secrets associated with Full Duplex DOCSIS 4.0 technology.

NCTA Chief Michael Powell Kicks Off Cable’s Latest Rhetorical Assault on Net Neutrality: The FCC Is Trying to Solve a ‘Fabricated’ Problem

NCTA: The Internet & Cable Association President and CEO Michael Powell used an opening session at his industry’s annual tech trade show to launch a full-throated, very libertarian-leaning counter-offensive to the Federal Communications Commission's plan to reinstate net neutrality rules.

Trump Threatens to Investigate Comcast For 'Treason' if Reelected

Former President Donald Trump said that if he's reelected, Comcast will be "thoroughly scrutinized" for the "one-side [sic] viscous coverage" of its NBC News unit, "particular [sic] MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee)." Further, Trump said MSNBC should be investigated for "Country-Threatening Treason," and also threatened to pull its broadcast license. 

Comcast Complains FCC Broadband Nutrition Label Shackles It With ‘Unnecessarily Onerous Burden’

Comcast is pushing back on a Federal Communications Commission order that will require internet service providers to provide their customers with “broadband nutrition labels” indicating such things as what kind of speed they're getting and what fees they're paying.

T-Mobile's Neville Ray Says Booming Fixed Wireless Biz Is Built on Extra Network Capacity

T-Mobile has the fastest-growing home internet solution in America right now, with its 5G fixed wireless service taking on 578,000 customers in the third quarter alone and quickly amassing a base of over 2.1 million users in just over a year. According to T-Mobile CEO Neville Ray, the entire enterprise is based on "fallow capacity"—network wherewithal that's not already being tapped by the wireless company's mobile users. “The incremental cost of serving those customers is de minimis," said Ray. "And why would you sit on your hands on all of that capacity that you have no utilization for or

FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel: ‘We’ve Turned the Volume Down and Ramped Up the Activity’

In her first National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show appearance since her designation as Federal Communications Commission Chair, Jessica Rosenworcel conceded that the introduction of a fifth commissioner would solve the agency’s current 2-to-2 political gridlock, but she’s not losing any sleep over it. “We’ve got to figure out how to work together, or we don’t get anything done,” she told NAB president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt.