• Google analyst: U.S. Internet needs to get faster [cnn.com]
• 72% Worldwide Growth in Mobile Data Bandwidth [cellular-news.com]
• NTIA May Dole Out More Broadband Stimulus Funds [multichannel.com]
• Mass. city becomes testing ground for boosting broadband adoption [networkworld.com]
• BelAir Weaves DOCSIS 3.0 Into Wi-Fi Access Point [multichannel.com]
• Acer: Android sales exceeding expectations [fiercewireless.com]
• FBI calls for two year retention for ISP data [theregister.co.uk]
• Symantec sued over subscription charge> [theinquirer.net]

(Updated with response from Verizon at bottom.) Last summer you might recall that 4Chan users collectively cried out that they'd been blocked by AT&T, and began firing their trademark digital barbs at the carrier's direction. As it turned out, the website had only been temporarily blocked as AT&T worked to resolve a distributed denial of service attack.

Back in the summer of 2008 Italian government officials demanded that broadband ISPs in the country begin blocking users from accessing popular BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay. Many ISPs obliged, but oddly decided instead to direct users to the website of the IFPI (the overseas equivalent of the RIAA). In the end the Pirate Bay managed to defeat the order with an appeal, and the end result was that all the publicity simply drove more user traffic to the website. However, the Italian Supreme Court has now ruled that forcing Italian ISPs to block BitTorrent websites is perfectly legal, so the government appears poised to try again. Of course Italian broadband users will find a way around the blockade, and the game of P2P cat and mouse will continue...

In what appears to be a promotion gone wrong, Cox Communications has accidentally offered free Playstation 3's to every Cox customer in Arizona that signs up for service or upgrades existing service. The deal was supposedly intended only to lure in new Cox customers, but Cox's marketing team accidentally sent the flyers out to all customers. Judging from posts in our forums, Cox did try pretty hard to honor the deal, which requires users sign a 12 month contract (and Cox's ETF is roughly equivalent to the cost of a PS3). Some users who tried to get in on the deal late (and via word of mouth from customers who got flyers) aren't getting PS3's, and have complained to the Consumerist about Cox shutting down the promotion.

Last week Comcast unveiled their plans to rebrand their Internet, VoIP and TV services all under the "Xfinity" monicker. While Comcast was hoping to create a modern brand that could do battle with AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS, the decision to misspell infinity with "extreme" and painfully cliche 90's brand stylings wasn't a particularly inspired or creative choice.

After announcing their bankruptcy plan last October, Fairpoint Communications has filed their bankruptcy plan. The company has issued a statement saying the plan "protects the commitments FairPoint made in 2008 when it assumed operations from Verizon," including expanding broadband penetration into under-served regions of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Fairpoint failed to meet these commitments after purchasing these networks for $2.3 billion in 2007, and ultimately collapsed under $2.7 billion in debt. Once again, the real winner in this whole exchange? Verizon, who got to offload unwanted networks, debt and union workers, and will just wind up winning many New England customers back with wireless LTE 4G service down the road anyway.

The wireless industry has a few bad habits. One, they like to advertise one thing, then go and do another -- including advertising services as "unlimited," when they have very clear monthly usage caps. They also like to bury clauses in user contracts that attempt to ban consumers from participating in class action lawsuits to settle complaints -- instead forcing them into binding arbitration, a faux-legal process governed by a company hired by your carrier that the majority of the time winds up with your carrier winning the dispute.

You might recall that last fall there were a flurry of rumors involving Deutsche Telekom either selling T-Mobile outright, or merging the company with a U.S. partner (Sprint was mentioned) in order to improve T-Mobile's fortunes in their battle against Verizon and AT&T. Now Business Week suggests that Deutsche Telekom is still looking at a number of options, including a T-Mobile IPO (which analysts in the piece say comes too late), or an acquisition or merger of a smaller prepaid operator like MetroPCS or Leap Wireless (which analysts believe is unlikely). The latest rumors originated in the Wall Street Journal.

• Just like "unlimited" broadband = "really, quite limited broadband"; Metro PCS: "No contract" = "Heck yes, there's a contract" [techdirt.com]
• BT to open up broadband tunnel network to rivals [Reuters UK]
• Google doppelgänger casts riddle over interwebs [theregister.co.uk]
• Apple's Bans Go Way Too Far [pcworld.com]
• Appeals Court Says Internet Content Should Be Held To Standards Of Strictest Jurisdiction [techdirt.com]
• Xbox Live tops $100 million in 2009 [gamepro.com]
• BlackBerry has spyware risk, too [cnet.com]
• Cox Accidentally Offers Everyone In Arizona A Free PlayStation 3 [consumerist.com]

• Cable Broadband Subs Top 105 Million Worldwide: Study [multichannel.com]
• Microsoft Exec Calls For 'Driver's License For The Internet' [techdirt.com]
• CTIA, Verizon, U.S. Cellular File Against Signal Boosters [wirelessweek.com]
• 3G networks cracking under strain - iPhone's fault? Nope. Facebook! [broadbandgenie.co.uk]
• Time Warner Cable To Increase in WiMax Investment [wirelessweek.com]
• Copyright Industry Responds To iiNet Ruling By Asking For Gov't Bailout; Aussie Gov't 'Studying' It [techdirt.com]
• 3D HDMI specification is set free [theinquirer.net]
• Mozilla overlooked malware-laced Firefox add-ons [theregister.co.uk]
• Nexus One on way to official faildom? [theinquirer.net]

The weekend is here, we're heading out to help DC-area residents shovel snow. Empty your thoughts into the comment section below. Just clean up after yourselves, you troublemakers.

As the broadband stimulus bill was being hashed out, you'll recall it was stripped of some very lucrative, carrier-lobbied-for tax credits that would have given companies like Verizon billions for doing absolutely nothing differently -- after the credits were exposed by the NY Times. With no cash giveaways, fears that taking funds could lead to additional regulations, and restrictions requiring that ISPs use the money on under-served areas, last summer found the biggest ISPs saying no thanks to $7.2 billion in stimulus funds.

It's clear to us there's a great number of highly skilled and fantastic employees who work directly for Comcast, and we speak to many of them every day (we like them even more when they provide scoops). But the quality of Comcast's subcontracted installers has always been a bone of contention, given their tendency toward winding up in the news for falling asleep, murder, digging in the wrong yard, blowing up laptops, dishwashers or homes, torturing kittens, robbery or running into children with vans.

Yesterday AT&T received a significant amount of media attention for a announcing that they would be unblocking the Sling player for the iPhone so it worked over AT&T's 3G network. In their press release, AT&T proclaimed that Sling "was willing to work with us to revise the app so it was more bandwidth sensitive," adding that Sling "made important changes to more efficiently use 3G network bandwidth and conserve wireless spectrum so that we were able to support the app on our 3G mobile broadband network." Except, to hear Sling tell it, they didn't change a damn thing: story continues..

According to Billboard Magazine, the average broadband ISP loses about 1.4% of their customers per month (aka churn), 14.5% annually, or over 2.1 million customers each year. Comcast for example, with their average customer paying $43 per month, stands to lose $1.1 billion lost from churn every year.

Apple recently went to bat for AT&T, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook defending AT&T repeatedly against complaints of poor 3G network performance and in the process ignoring a huge chunk of the year 2009. "iPhone customers are having a great experience from the research we've done," stated Cook on a recent conference call.

• Apple Says No Location-Based Ads or Android References in App Store [maclife.com]
• Ericsson: World's first with 84Mbps [msn.com]
• T-Mobile USA could be sold off to the public [gomonews.com]
• Facebook could sell own brand phones by 2011 [v3.co.uk]
• Feds Worry iPad Could Clog Wireless Networks [yahoo.com]
• VC money still flowing to wireless [fiercewireless.com]
• Microsoft planning major security update [v3.co.uk]

Comcast yesterday spent yesterday tauting the supposed benefits of their merger with NBC, while lawmakers worried about the competitive impact of an increasingly massive Comcast. Representative Edward Markey, D-Mass., a senior member of the House Commerce subcommittee on communications and technology, made a bit of a funny, stating that issue "really boils down to the seven C's." "Will this combination of communications colossi curtail competition and cost consumers?," he asked.

On Monday we were the first to report how Bell Canada was launching a new VDSL-based service named "Fibe"; the name chosen to apparently try to make you think the technology was fiber to the home, not copper based. Yesterday Bell's official Fibe announcement arrived, noting that in addition to non-fiber Fibe, the company is actually deploying some fiber to the home service at speeds up to 100 Mbps.

• LTE: Don’t Expect to Roam Soon [lightreading.com]
• Sony 'actively thinking' about PSN access fee [reghardware.co.uk]
• Usage-Based pricing inevitable and necessary consequence of the rise of mobile data [fiercewireless.com]
• Survey: Alvarion Top-Ranked WiMAX Vendor [wirelessweek.com]
• Another setback for UK Digital Economy Bill as MP in charge of leading Bill through parliament to step down [broadbandgenie.co.uk]
• Could cable lose its grip on TV business? [cnet.com]
• AT&T expected to keep iPhone for 2010, analyst says [marketwatch.com]
• Comcast CEO: We Won’t Block Rivals [lightreading.com]