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FCC to probe Comcast for blocking Net traffic

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comcast.gifAs announced during the the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 in Las Vegas, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be probing US cable provider Comcast for allegedly restricting traffic to file-sharing services such as BitTorrent.

The bone of contention is net neutrality or equal treatment of all data regardless of its content, source or destination.

As expected, the company has denied the allegations and claimed that its bandwidth management technology might have slowed down the transfer of files. Moreover, it promised to cooperate with the regulator to straighten matters out.

“We believe our practices are in accordance with the FCC’s policy statement on the Internet, where the Commission clearly recognized that reasonable network management is necessary for the good of all customers,” said David Cohen, a Comcast executive vice president, in a news article.

Originally posted on January 10, 2008 @ 9:28 am

Comcast Launches Secure Backup and Share Service

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Comcast has just launched it new Secure Backup and Share service with the aim of helping you reduce the risk of losing important files that are saved on your computers. In short, it’s a cloud storage service with a facility for sharing some of the files you store easily.

While there maybe free services of this kind available online, Comcast however will offer the service for a fee. If you’re an existing Comcast subscriber you automatically gets 2GB of file storage for free, or should I say as an incentive for subscribing to its Internet service.

But of course, 2GB of storage won’t be enough for you, so you can always upgrade to a paid account. A 50GB storage plan will cost you $4.99 monthly or $49.99 annually. While a 200GB storage plan will set you back for $9.99 monthly or $99.99 annually. Those two options give you enough storage for all your photos, videos, files and other digital documents.

And since you are paying for the service, Comcast assures that all your files are in good hands. They’ve got a secure and reliable protection system plus a file restoration facility in case disaster strikes and your files are destroyed.

For file sharing and access to files, Comcast gives you a site which you can share with your family and friends.  You and your friends and family can access the said site from any Internet connection as well as on your mobile phone.

So, if you’d rather store and back up your files on a highly secured server, you might want to give Comcast Secure Backup and Share service a try.

Originally posted on February 18, 2010 @ 5:20 pm

Comcast Rebrands its Technology Products to Xfinity, and Beyond

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Comcast is about to give its products and services a huge boosts – from visual improvement, speed enhancement and more control for consumers who partake of what they offer.  The company has just announced a new branding for their technology platforms and products called XFINITY.

According to a post on the Comcast Voices blog, XFINITY will provide their customers with more than 100+HD channels, 50 to 70 foreign-language channels, almost 20,000 Video-One-Demand choices, 50mbps to 100+mbps internet speeds and of course thousands of shows and movies online.

Once it is is officially launched, all of Comcast’s products will now be called XFINITY TV, XFINITY Voice and XFINITY Internet. Comcast’s new branding will be rolled out in 11 markets - Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Hartford, Augusta, Chattanooga, parts of the Bay Area and San Francisco, plus more to come next year.

The decision to rebrand their products and services was brought about by the sudden explosion in Comcast’s service delivery since the day they have launched their VOD service sometime in 2003. Since then, the company has served 14 billion views comprising of movies, TV shows, music videos, and more. Even its Internet service has grown so fast that they can now provide up to 50mbps speed and will continue to increase some more.

And as technology continues to improve, Comcast and its XFINITY products and services will also grow and keep up with the changing demands of consumers in terms of partaking various media content. Hence, XFINITY seems to be a very appropriate branding.

Originally posted on February 4, 2010 @ 6:25 am