FCC

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.