Network passes 9.3 million homes and businesses Verizon says that as of the end of December 2007, they've passed 9.3 million homes and businesses in parts of 17 states with their FiOS FTTH service. In a post to their policy blog, the company says they hope to pass three million more homes a year  

Yahoo deal rekindles AOL sale talk... Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo last week has rekindled debate over whether AOL is for sale, and whether anyone is interested. Still in the midst of a painful transformation from industry-dominant ISP to advertising engine, AOL lost 851,000 subscribers last quarter 

Popular service causes supply drain... Verizon is facing a shortage of HD boxes, according to a company spokesperson and technician posts to our FiOS forums. According to one user, customers who want an HD Motorola settop from the company will have to wait until March 10 to get one. Install technicians say they're being told to keep HD DVRs and receivers (the shortage impacts both, the techs say) for repairs where possible and, for the moment, avoid "upselling" new customers from SD to HD while on location. 

Four bonded DSL or cable lines... A British start-up by the name of Sharedband has launched their new service in select portions of Seattle, after initially only offering the idea in the UK. As the name suggests, the company bonds both DSL & cable lines from major providers to offer faster speeds to both residential and business-class customers. The provider uses off the shelf routers and their own custom firmware, though the service requires the customer be within range of Sharedband servers.  

Of course, it wouldn't matter if their customer service department was open There has been discussion in our forums this weekend about Bell Canada’s customer service. An issue arose for Member Spartacus who wanted to reach customer service yesterday; the site’s website said that they are open on Saturdays but their phone number turned up a “closed” message 

Just because it can Coming on the heels of an outage in AT&T's 3G and Edge network that affected many Midwestern states, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that the telco will be tacking on an additional $5 a month for its DSL service: Most customers with AT&T's high-speed DSL Internet service will be charged an additional $5 a month, the company said Friday. The increase affects DSL plans, each with a different connection speed, that now have monthly charges of about $15, $20 and $25. 

But 10Mbps U-verse starts today AT&T is irking people all around with problems in different areas of its service. Yesterday’s outage was one source of irritation for 3G and EDGE customers who weren’t able to get online for much of the day. A more ongoing problem for some customers is the inexplicable reduction in size of pictures sent by MMS; some of those messages aren’t going through at all.  

The city is prepared to take over if need be Terry Phillis, Chief Information Officer for Philadelphia’s Mayor’s Office, has stated that the city expects EarthLink to bail on its construction of a citywide wireless system. He says that more will be known within the next sixty days but the city is making back-up plans for municipal Wi-Fi based on the belief that EarthLink will sell 

Those early termination fees will get you every time As a result of its early termination fees, Verizon Wireless is facing what is being called “the largest class action lawsuit ever”. The case has been building for four years but reached a milestone victory recently when it appeared in front of the American Arbitration Association 

Assuming you enjoy having your legal rights... AT&T, Comcast and T-Mobile were recently slapped down by the courts for trying to bury language in your terms of service that would limit your legal rights. The companies have tried to force consumers to take place in mandatory arbitration instead of having their grievances heard in a court of law. Not surprisingly, arbitration almost always rules against you.