Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

First we dove into the Net Neutrality debate. It looks as if three of five FCC  commissioners will vote to sanction Comcast this Friday for throttling bit-torrent  traffic. Dissenter Bob McDowell wrote an op-ed for yesterday’s Washington Post arguing that engineers should figure a way out of this mess, not politicians.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that Comcast was throttling traffic. We talked about McDowell’s argument for a hands-off approach by the FCC, the issues around bandwidth shortages, and what’s happening outside North America.

We also talked about Vonage.  It’s been a while since they’ve really  been in the news, but they’ve been quietly cranking out announcements. They’ve announced a partial refinancing of their debt.  Up to  $215 million of their $253 million can be refinanced under an agreement they’ve  just struck, and $125 million has been committed. They have to do this because the  existing convertible notes expire Dec 12.

They’ve also announced their first patent — on virtual phone numbers.

Revenues are growing.  Losses are narrowing — last quarter they lost just $8  million.

And, they’re set to announce a new CEO.

We talked about what it would take to make Vonage a success and whether or not they might really make it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Comcast Keeps Neck, Loses Pride, Over ‘Net Throttling
• FCC censures Comcast for doing its job
• FCC probably can’t police Comcast’s BitTorrent throttling
• Comcast Says FCC and Internet Access Principles Don’t Apply To Them

{ 0 comments }