Taking a tour of the new AT&T Experience Store in Coral Gables

Today I got a tour of AT&T's first Experience Store in Florida, which showcases all of AT&T's wireless, broadband, video and land-line services under one roof.

The store encourages customer interactivity with multiple "information stations" with touch screens to help customers learn more about products and services.

Customers can use the stations to get suggestions on what service plan or phone is best after answering a few questions. Still other screens offer access to customer account and contract information.

The store at 215 Miracle Mile, which opened last week, is one of three bilingual AT&T Experience stores in the country. Signs are in English and Spanish, and 26 of the 29 store employees are bilingual.

The store is about 5,400 square feet in size -- larger than a typical wireless store -- and is designed with the AT&T blue globe logo in mind, which is reflected in the ceiling architecture and lighting.

AT&T spokeswoman Kelly Starling said it's part of the company's goal to move away from
wireless-focused stores and be a one-stop retail store for communications and entertainment services.

As part of the store's nearly paperless experience, two television monitors display the customer service queue so employees on the floor know who is next to be helped (on of the monitors is pictured here ... although there were no customers waiting to be helped when I arrived at 10 a.m.).

Customers can get demonstrations of the DISH Network service.  They store will provide details on AT&T U-verse TV once it becomes available in the area. They can also test home services like the Remote Monitor through an in-store camera.

Store manager Diane Marim said one in three customers that have walked in the store the past week said they were surprised that the store deals with all aspects of AT&T communication and entertainment services, not just wireless.

This is AT&T's 20th Experience Store. Another is scheduled to open in West Palm Beach in the fall, Starling said. AT&T has about 330 retail locations throughout South Florida.

Comcast improves Video on Demand, ups Internet speed for Business Class

Comcast has made improvements to it's Channel 1 Video On Demand for South Florida, adding more content for customers to choose from.

Comcast spokesman Spero Canton said customers could notice more local and high-definition On Demand choices on the menu in the coming days. The upgrade to Comcast's equipment was designed to have expanded capacity for additions in the future. Currently, Comcast offers more than 4,000 hours of separate Channel 1 On demand programming for anyone who has signed up for digital cable.

Also, Comcast announced Wednesday that it is increasing the basic and advanced Internet speeds for its Comcast Business Class customers. The basic package was increased from 4Mbps downstream to 6Mbps downstream. The enhanced package doubled it's downstream speed from 8Mbps to 16Mbps, and upstream went from 1Mbps to 2Mbps.

The higher speeds will automatically be added for existing customers. To activate the new speed tiers, customers need to power off their modem for a minute, then power it back on.

AT&T offers Dish Network service, adds cell site to Pembroke Pines

This week, AT&T Wireless activated a new cell site in southwestern Pembroke Pines on Pembroke Road, which is "an area in great need of the expanded coverage," spokeswoman Kelly Starling said via e-mail. The site is part of a $220 million investment in AT&T's Florida wireless network this year.

The new site provides added coverage to southwestern Pembroke Pines and northwestern Miramar, from S.W. 172nd Ave. to S.W. 196th Ave and from Pines Boulevard south to Miramar Parkway.

The company reports they plan to activate another new cell site on N.W. 184th Ave. later this year.

In addition, AT&T is allowing customers in the Southeastern states to order the DISH Network service, which offers more than 250 channels.  Go here to read the press release from AT&T. For more information on prices and bundles, visit www.att.com/dish.

The late tech adopters: Upgrades? Pisssh. They don't need no stinkin' upgrades!

There was a great story in the New York Times today about tech laggards... you know, the people who still use dial-up AOL and Netscape.

I had to have multiple conversations with my parents into getting rid of the dial-up AOL and switching to high speed. My mom would say, "But why? I get my e-mail, it works, I don't need to change." And I would give lectures showing her how her life would be better with high speed, or if a banking website timed out I'd tell her that it wouldn't be a problem if she had high-speed Internet. Or I would explain that many websites are designed with heavy graphics and Flash and they expect you to have high-speed to use the site.

But if it wasn't for me pushing, I bet they still would have dial-up... or worse... do something like pay monthly for AOL and a broadband service. I was pretty much the last kid on the block to switch from dial-up to high speed. I would come home from college and have to explain to friends, no, I can't watch the movie trailer online... I have dial up.

Do you know tech laggards who won't change just for the sake of upgrading? It's the attitude of: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The story says about 1 million people still use Netscape, ignoring messages to change browsers.

Read the full story here.

AT&T's DSL went down Monday night

If you are an AT&T DSL customer and wondering why you couldn't get online for a few hours last night, it was because the company experienced an outage that caused problems with much of the southeast. My dad actually told me he couldn't get online last night, but I ignored him because I was watching Heroes and I figured he was just doing something wrong (sorry Dad). Here's the Associated Press story that explains it:

SAN ANTONIO -- AT&T Inc. customers in the Southeast United States were unable to connect to the Internet through their DSL service for several hours Monday night because of an equipment problem, a company spokesman said.

Michael Coe, a spokesman for the San Antonio-based telecommunications company, said the digital subscriber line service was restored about 10 p.m. CST. He said the outage affected customers in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee.

"The root cause of the disruption is still being investigated but appears to be an equipment impairment," Coe said in a statement.

Dave Burstein, editor of the industry newsletter DSL Prime, said broadband outages are not unusual.

"Broadband goes down much more often than telephone lines because they didn't build the system for the same level of reliability," Burstein said. "We do not know how often it happens, however, because they're not obligated to report it."

[Click here to read the rest of the story.]

AT&T expands 3G network in Dade and Broward

AT&T has announced today that it activated 35 of its 3G cellphone service sites in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The new 3G sites are part of AT&T's 2007 $133 million investment in its Florida wireless network. The company said it has invested more than $800 million in the state's wireless network since 2005 to improve coverage.

Only AT&T's 3G capable phones can take advantage of the service, which gives phones the ability to download data at speeds between 600 to 1,400 Kb per second. Here are the locations of the new 3G cell sites:

• Along Southwest 8th Street and 97th Avenue in Miami.
• In the southern tip of Key Biscayne, near Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.
• On the University of Miami Coral Cables campus.
• At the Miami Shores Golf and Country Club.
• From Northeast 117th Street to Northeast 96th Street in Miami Shores.
• In the Goulds area of Miami.
• Along Card Sound Road and U.S. Highway 1 from Southwest 376th Street to Southwest 420th Street in Homestead.
• At the Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport and the Country Walk community in Miami.
• At the Palmetto Golf Course and Jackson South Hospital in Miami.
• For the Dolphin Expressway to the north, Northwest 99th Avenue to the east, and Northwest 112th Avenue to the west.
• In the area of Northwest 54th Street and 79th Avenue and along the Palmetto Expressway in the Doral area of Miami.
• In the residential and commercial area near Sunset Drive and 117th Avenue in Miami.
• In western Kendall, from Southwest 52nd Street to the north, Southwest 72nd Street to the south and Southwest 162nd Avenue to the east.
• In Miami at Southwest 84th Street to the north, Southwest 112th Street to the south, Southwest 154th Avenue to the east and Southwest 167th Avenue to the west.
• In the Redlands and on the Redlands Golf Course.
• Along Southwest 200th Street, Southwest 240th Street, Southwest 147th Avenue and Southwest 167th Avenue in Miami.
• Along U.S. Highway 1 to the north, Bayshore Drive to the south, 17th Avenue to the east and 27th Avenue to the west in Miami.
• At the Publix distribution center on Miami Gardens Drive and from Northeast 191st Street to Northwest 177th Street in Miami.
• From Northwest 17th Street to the north, Northwest 14th Avenue to the west, Northwest 8th Court to the east and along Northwest 12th Avenue near Jackson Hospital in Miami.
• On South Beach near the Miami Beach Convention Center and along the western side of Lincoln Road.
• Along Collins Avenue, from 56th Street to 67th Street, in Miami Beach.
• From Southwest 172nd Street to the north, Southwest 200th Street to the south, Southwest 132nd Avenue to the east and Southwest 160th Avenue to the west in Miami.
• Along A-1-A from Beach Place in Fort Lauderdale north to Sunrise Boulevard and south to Yankee Clipper.
• North of Dolphin Stadium, along University Dr. and Northwest 27th Avenue.
• Between University Drive and Southwest 65th Avenue and Broward Boulevard to Clearly Boulevard in Plantation.
• In the community of Pembroke Pines, from Griffin Road to Sheridan Street and from U.S. Highway 27 to 172nd Avenue.
• At the Galleria Mall and along Sunrise Boulevard and U.S. Highway 1 in Fort Lauderdale.
• At the Sawgrass Mills Mall and the adjacent area in Sunrise.
• Along Stirling Road between Park Road and North 45th Avenue in Hollywood.
• In Pompano Beach along Atlantic Avenue and U.S. Highway 1 east to A-1-A, west to Dixie Highway, north to Northeast 10th Street and south to Southeast 9th Street.
• In Opa-Locka, from Ely Road to Gratigny Expressway.
• In downtown Fort Lauderdale along U.S. Highway 1 from Southeast 6th Street to Davie Boulevard.
• In central Coral Springs, along Coral Springs Drive from Royal Palm Boulevard to Riverside Drive and east and west along Coral Ridge Road to University Drive.
• Along Hillsboro Boulevard and Dixie Highway, north to Palm Way, east to A-1-A, west to
• I-95 and south to Southwest 10th Street in Deerfield Beach.
• Inside and outside the Panther Arena in Sunrise.
• Inside and outside the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood.

Comcast blocks uploads from BitTorrent

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK - Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.

The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.

If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content.

The principle of equal treatment of traffic, called "Net Neutrality" by proponents, is not enshrined in law but supported by some regulations. Most of the debate around the issue has centered on tentative plans, now postponed, by large Internet carriers to offer preferential treatment of traffic from certain content providers for a fee.

Comcast's interference, on the other hand, appears to be an aggressive way of managing its network to keep file-sharing traffic from swallowing too much bandwidth and affecting the Internet speeds of other subscribers.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV operator and No. 2 Internet provider, would not specifically address the practice, but spokesman Charlie Douglas confirmed that it uses sophisticated methods to keep Net connections running smoothly.

"Comcast does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent," he said.

Douglas would not specify what the company means by "access" — Comcast subscribers can download BitTorrent files without hindrance. Only uploads of complete files are blocked or delayed by the company, as indicated by AP tests.

But with "peer-to-peer" technology, users exchange files with each other, and one person's upload is another's download. That means Comcast's blocking of certain uploads has repercussions in the global network of file sharers.

Comcast's technology kicks in, though not consistently, when one BitTorrent user attempts to share a complete file with another user.

Each PC gets a message invisible to the user that looks like it comes from the other computer, telling it to stop communicating. But neither message originated from the other computer — it comes from Comcast. If it were a telephone conversation, it would be like the operator breaking into the conversation, telling each talker in the voice of the other: "Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye."

Matthew Elvey, a Comcast subscriber in the San Francisco area who has noticed BitTorrent uploads being stifled, acknowledged that the company has the right to manage its network, but disapproves of the method, saying it appears to be deceptive.

"There's the wrong way of going about that and the right way," said Elvey, who is a computer consultant.

Comcast's interference affects all types of content, meaning that, for instance, an independent movie producer who wanted to distribute his work using BitTorrent and his Comcast connection could find that difficult or impossible — as would someone pirating music.

Internet service providers have long complained about the vast amounts of traffic generated by a small number of subscribers who are avid users of file-sharing programs. Peer-to-peer applications account for between 50 percent and 90 percent of overall Internet traffic, according to a survey this year by ipoque GmbH, a German vendor of traffic-management equipment.

"We have a responsibility to manage our network to ensure all our customers have the best broadband experience possible," Douglas said. "This means we use the latest technologies to manage our network to provide a quality experience for all Comcast subscribers."

The practice of managing the flow of Internet data is known as "traffic shaping," and is already widespread among Internet service providers. It usually involves slowing down some forms of traffic, like file-sharing, while giving others priority. Other ISPs have attempted to block some file-sharing application by so-called "port filtering," but that method is easily circumvented and now largely ineffective.

Comcast's approach to traffic shaping is different because of the drastic effect it has on one type of traffic — in some cases blocking it rather than slowing it down — and the method used, which is difficult to circumvent and involves the company falsifying network traffic.

The "Net Neutrality" debate erupted in 2005, when AT&T Inc. suggested it would like to charge some Web companies more for preferential treatment of their traffic. Consumer advocates and Web heavyweights like Google Inc. and Amazon Inc. cried foul, saying it's a bedrock principle of the Internet that all traffic be treated equally.

To get its acquisition of BellSouth Corp. approved by the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T agreed in late 2006 not to implement such plans or prioritize traffic based on its origin for two and a half years. However, it did not make any commitments not to prioritize traffic based on its type, which is what Comcast is doing.

The FCC's stance on traffic shaping is not clear. A 2005 policy statement says that "consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice," but that principle is "subject to reasonable network management." Spokeswoman Mary Diamond would not elaborate.

Free Press, a Washington-based public interest group that advocates Net Neutrality, opposes the kind of filtering applied by Comcast.

"We don't believe that any Internet provider should be able to discriminate, block or impair their consumers ability to send or receive legal content over the Internet," said Free Press spokeswoman Jen Howard.

Paul "Tony" Watson, a network security engineer at Google Inc. who has previously studied ways hackers could disrupt Internet traffic in manner similar to the method Comcast is using, said the cable company was probably acting within its legal rights.

"It's their network and they can do what they want," said Watson. "My concern is the precedent. In the past, when people got an ISP connection, they were getting a connection to the Internet. The only determination was price and bandwidth. Now they're going to have to make much more complicated decisions such as price, bandwidth, and what services I can get over the Internet."

Several companies have sprung up that rely on peer-to-peer technology, including BitTorrent Inc., founded by the creator of the BitTorrent software (which exists in several versions freely distributed by different groups and companies).

Ashwin Navin, the company's president and co-founder, confirmed that it has noticed interference from Comcast, in addition to some Canadian Internet service providers.

"They're using sophisticated technology to degrade service, which probably costs them a lot of money. It would be better to see them use that money to improve service," Navin said, noting that BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer applications are a major reason consumers sign up for broadband.

BitTorrent Inc. announced Oct. 9 that it was teaming up with online video companies to use its technology to distribute legal content.

Other companies that rely on peer-to-peer technology, and could be affected if Comcast decides to expand the range of applications it filters, include Internet TV service Joost, eBay Inc.'s Skype video-conferencing program and movie download appliance Vudu. There is no sign that Comcast is hampering those services.

Comcast subscriber Robb Topolski, a former software quality engineer at Intel Corp., started noticing the interference when trying to upload with file-sharing programs Gnutella and eDonkey early this year.

In August, Topolski began to see reports on Internet forum DSLreports.com from other Comcast users with the same problem. He now believes that his home town of Hillsboro, Ore., was a test market for the technology that was later widely applied in other Comcast service areas.

Topolski agrees that Comcast has a right to manage its network and slow down traffic that affects other subscribers, but disapproves of their method.

"By Comcast not acknowledging that they do this at all, there's no way to report any problems with it," Topolski said.

___

Associated Press Writers Ron Harris, Brian Bergstein, Deborah Yao and Kathy Matheson contributed to this story.

New flexibility for AT&T Wireless customers

AT&T has announced that starting in November, customers who want to change a calling plan don't have to extend their current contract or enter into a new contract.

And if customers want to exit their contract early, there will be no constant flat termination fee -- rather, that fee gets smaller and smaller during the length of the contract. That means you'll pay a larger termination fee in the beginning of a two year contract, and you would pay less if say there were only two months left in the contract. This "early-termination policy" will start in early 2008 for new and renewing wireless customers who sign one- or two-year service agreements.

Click here to read AT&T's press release.

AT&T not saying where in Florida new television services will launch

Well, the big news of the day is that AT&T is preparing to be a competitor to Comcast by offering broadband and digital television to Florida, as you may have read in my previous post. But as an update to that, I spoke with AT&T spokesman Don Sadler and "for competitive reasons," he said AT&T is not saying exactly where they will launch the new services or how long it will be until we know more. "In the future" is the only time frame they've given us reporters, so until there is another announcement (could be tomorrow, could be 10 years from now) we'll know more.

But of course it won't be in 10 years from now. Judging from news in other areas, the company is working fast to implement these new services. AT&T says it is expecting to deploy it's U-verse service (the Internet protocol-based television) to 18 million households by the end of 2008. As of Sept. 5, there were 100,000 U-verse TV and Internet customers in the country. You can check out other news releases of where AT&T has launched U-verse here.

$750 million investment to AT&T services in Fla.

At 1:30 p.m. today, Governor Charlie Crist and the president of AT&T-Florida will be making an announcement in Tallahassee about a multi-million-dollar investment to the AT&T infrastructure in the state. Details are not released yet, but what that means is enhanced Broadband and video services for customers. I'll post more after the press conference.

UPDATE 1:50 p.m.: Press conference has been pushed back to 2:30 p.m. But the news has been broken early on the wires, which reports that AT&T will be putting in $750 million to improve its Internet and television services. Although it's not clear just yet which cities will benefit, AT&T will be offering its television service called AT&T U-verse to some parts of Florida (which is a package of Internet access and digital television). It's an IP-based television service that launched in Texas in June 2006. AT&T rolled this out in San Diego in June.

Parental controls on AT&T wireless

Today AT&T announced the launch of its web-based parental control feature for wireless, called AT&T Smart Limits for Wireless.

At $4.99 a month for each line, parents can restrict features on a phone. That includes:

• Limiting the number of minutes a child can use a wireless phone, and what hours of the day/week they can use it.
• Limiting text and instant messages.
• Establish a limit on how much they can spend on downloaded purchases, such as ringtones and games.
• Block calls and texts to and from numbers parents don't approve of (it will always allow a child to call 911).
• Filter Internet access to sites that are labeled as inappropriate.

When children come close to the limit for any of the following, a warning notice pops up. And the settings can be changed anytime via a website. It works on any phone with AT&T, so you don't need to buy a special phone for your child.

AT&T released a survey showing that 84 percent of consumers believe parental controls are important in today's communication technologies (which isn't a surprising statistic)... BUT 31 percent said they don't know how to use parental controls to protect children.

If you don't have AT&T, you can ask your wireless provider what sort of parental control services they offer. Sometimes the controls can be set using the phone, sometimes you need to buy a particular phone. Sprint and Verizon also offer location-based services (using GPS) that let parents keep track of where their children are and notify parents if the child has left a certain area. For example, if a child leaves the school grounds, the parents get a text message.

There's a trick to getting $10 DSL from AT&T

AT&T says they offer $10 DSL to new customers, but you have to be careful in how you sign up to make sure they give it to you at that rate. You have to sign up online and click a specific link on the page. The Consumerist points to where it is on the page, after a St. Louis Post-Dispatch column points out how getting the offer isn't so easy.

Qwest expands broadband capacity

An announcement just came out from Qwest about its service. It's not on the company's Web site yet, but it announced it deployed new optical technology in it's nationwide network, which includes parts of South Florida. It'll expand broadband capacity and availability of it's "ultra-high-speed" services. Here's the announcement from Qwest:

DENVER, July 16, 2007 — Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q) today announced its deployment of upgrades to its nationwide fiber optic network that quadruple broadband capacity for customers, and triple geographic availability of ultra-high-speed services. When combined with Qwest’s Metro Ethernet or Private Line services, the upgrade provides an end-to-end, cost-efficient, high-bandwidth connection delivering speeds scalable from 1 to 40 Gigabits per second.

Qwest’s upgrade of its national network to ultra-long-haul (ULH) technology, which is software configurable, is already benefiting businesses, government agencies and wholesale customers by providing:

A dedicated broadband transport network without the capital investment and expense of owning and operating network infrastructure.

Full availability of ultra-high-speed services with access points in all major U.S. business centers and extensive global connectivity.

Faster service provisioning and increased agility with the ability to deploy, activate, reconfigure and manage traffic remotely.

The ability to aggregate and transport traffic over standard communications interfaces including Ethernet and SONET.

"The spike in demand for bandwidth-intensive applications makes high-capacity, easily scalable connections vital for customers," said Tom Richards, executive vice president of the Qwest business markets group. "This upgrade ensures Qwest will continue to provide customers the bandwidth and capabilities they need now, and in the future, over one of the most extensive, state-of-the-art networks in the world."

Qwest QWave™ services provided via the high-capacity ULH network offer customers a great alternative to purchasing or leasing dark fiber. Today businesses, including U.S. Bancorp and Telefonica, have chosen the enhanced QWave services enabled by the upgrade.

"Because Qwest’s existing national network is a newer, high-performance, high-capacity network, the move to ULH has been fast, efficient and relatively surgical from a capital investment standpoint," said Pieter Poll, Qwest’s chief technology officer. "We are simply upgrading existing fiber routes and expanding our nationwide points of presence."

The ULH upgrade also supports continued scalability of Qwest IP services nationwide, and further augments ultra-high-bandwidth connectivity for customers to Qwest hosting centers.

The Slowskys would not approve.

PC Magazine named the best ISPs in America in its upcoming issue (in stores June 26). It determined that the fastest in Florida is Earthlink's cable connection, with an average speed of 140.4 kbps.

The overall fastest in the nation for fiber optic was Verizon FiOS, at 307.0 kbps. For cable it was Optimum Online at 283.2. Top DSL was Speakeasy at 277.7, and fastest dial-up was NetZero over AOL and Earthlink.

Comcast ranked 5th overall in the cable category. Guess Comcast isn't as fast as The Slowskys say.

Sign of the times

Anyone passing by Fort Lauderdale these past two days might have noticed the Bellsouth signs came down off the 11-story-high Florida headquarters at 6451 N. Federal Highway, and two new 6-foot AT&T signs are going up today and Monday.

But for those of you with Bellsouth e-mail accounts, you don't have to do any changing of your e-mail address... for now. AT&T spokeswoman Kelly Layne Starling tells me the company hasn't announced a time frame around a possible transition for the bellsouth.net domain name to att.com. We shall wait and see.