How Comcast’s Partnership is Helping to Close the Digital Divide in Connecticut
These days, it’s hard to imagine life without the Internet. If you need to know how far away Pluto is from Earth, you “Google” it. If you’re at the hot new restaurant in town, you Instagram a photo of your dinner. If you need to deposit a birthday check from Grandma, you use your bank’s mobile app. But there are still millions of people not online. According to the Pew Research Center, a third of those non-internet users (34 percent) do not go online because they think the internet is not relevant to their lives. They are either not interested, do not want to use it, or have no need for it
New Set-Top Boxes Delivering Energy Savings and Reducing Tons of CO2 Emissions
In today’s hyper competitive pay TV marketplace, cable, satellite and telco TV providers are in a constant state of innovation, working hard for their spot in the connected home. These companies know that consumers are constantly connected and to remain a welcome part of entertainment centers, devices need to be energy efficient. That’s why, in the first two years of the voluntary set-top box energy conservation agreement (VA) among pay-TV industry, consumer electronics manufacturers and energy efficiency advocates, we’re proud to report that the effort has resulted in over $500 million in
Update on Small Internet Equipment Energy Efficiency Commitment
The Steering Committee for the new voluntary agreement announced in June to improve the energy efficiency of Internet modems, routers and other residential broadband equipment has conducted its first meeting and taken important first steps to implement the agreement. The agreement sets rigorous requirements that will improve the energy efficiency of small network equipment (SNE) by 10 to 20 percent compared to typical, recently-deployed devices and cover more than 90 percent of U.S. broadband households – roughly 80 million homes. Signatories to date include service providers AT&T, Bright
Why We Support CISA
Yesterday, along with 46 other trade associations, NCTA signed and submitted a letter to Congress urging support of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S. 754), also known as CISA. As the Protecting America’s Cyber Networks Coalition, our fellow trade associations and we are dedicated to both securing the personal information of individuals and our nation’s critical infrastructure and protecting the privacy and civil liberties of all Americans. That’s why we support CISA, a bill that allows voluntary real-time sharing of cyber threat indicators while ensuring robust privacy protections
Cable in Europe: Where It Is Now, Where It’s Going
I recently chatted with Caroline van Weede, Managing Director of Cable Europe, a trade association that connects leading cable operators and national cable associations within the European Union. Van Weede explained some of the fundamental differences between the cable industries in Europe and the U.S. FD: Can you tell me a little bit about the make-up of Cable Europe? CvW: Cable Europe is an association with around 24 members. Since Europe is made up of individual member states, each country has its own set of cable operators–its own regulators, governments, and national cable associations
Pew Reveals Who Isn't Online and Why
n a blog post last week, Pew Research Center reported on the results of a recent poll on Internet usage. The poll revealed that 15 percent of Americans do not use the Internet, down from 48 percent in 2000. A 2013 poll cited in the blog post offered insight into the most common reason people choose not to adopt the Internet: It doesn’t seem relevant to their lives. You can see more of Pew’s research on broadband adoption here.
Setting the Record Straight on Set Top Boxes
Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) recently repeated a number of claimsabout the state of the marketplace for video devices and the presumed effects of last year’s STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 (STELAR) on retail set-top boxes. Regrettably, however, their claims misread the STELAR statute, the impact of changes that were supported on a bipartisan basis, and the state of the video device marketplace. It’s simply not accurate to say that “cable companies will no longer be required to make their services compatible with outside set-top boxes, like TiVo for example
An Update on Our Appeal of the FCC’s Title II Order
Today, NCTA and other petitioners filed our joint legal brief with the D.C. Circuit highlighting the reasons why the FCC’s February 2015 order to subject broadband Internet to public utility-style regulation under Title II of the Communications Act was unlawful. The filing is a must read for those who have been following net neutrality since the mid 2000’s (or more recently) and strongly rebukes the FCC’s rationale for their unnecessary action. “We are not appealing the FCC action because of net neutrality.” With the FCC’s Title II order now before the Court, it’s important to restate
The Future of Wi-Fi Depends on Unlicensed Spectrum
Today, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is holding a hearing on wireless broadband and the future of spectrum policy. We expect the hearing to shed light on the incredible importance of unlicensed spectrum and how the future of gigabit Wi-Fi depends on good spectrum policy. Today, Wi-Fi is the most used broadband medium, handling more data than any other source – more than 5,500 petabytes of data per month in the United States. Making sure spectrum policy is keeping up with incredible Wi-Fi demand is critical to consumers, innovators, retailers and just about every
How Cable Gives Back
Cable’s reach goes far beyond the majority of industries in America. There are few industries that impact and connect so many people in the wide range of economic, age, and gender demographics than cable does. It only makes sense then for cable to use that influence to give back to the communities that helped it grow. Cable Impacts, the foundation formed by NCTA to underscore cable’s social responsibility, is taking strides to ensure that cable’s resources are leveraged into local communities, especially those that need them the most. One of Cable Impact’s goals is to highlight the many