June 26 - 3:35pm EDT   Comcast's cable TV network will be all digital in the space of three years, according to claims by an unnamed senior executive at a communications company. The service provider is allegedly buying up as many six million digital-to-analog devices from Motorola and others this year as well as 12 million in 2009, all of which will be handed out to subscribers whose TVs don't support digital tuning. The move will let Comcast shut off analog cable entirely in favor of purely digital networks; the process should have all of Comcast's cable base on digital channels by 2011. [full story]

June 18 - 10:25am EDT   Verizon today it would upgrade all the speeds for its FIOS fiber-optic service nationwide, giving users in all 16 states the same speeds that were previously reserved only for the most competitive areas. All of FIOS' 16 states now have access to up to 50Mbps downloads with 20Mbps uploads at the highest-end, $140 monthly tier ($90 in New York state and Virginia) versus the 30/15 services that were used for most regions; the synchronous 15/15 service is also slightly faster at 20/20 across those areas without changing the $65 monthly rate. [full story]

June 13 - 2:00pm EDT   Verizon will let customers see reduced rates on multiple services for the first time without requiring a landline, the carrier said on Friday. The Flex Double Play bundle will let the company's cellular users drop between $8 and $12 from their monthly rates if they also sign up for specific Internet-based services, including either the 3Mbps DSL connection, a 20Mbps FIOS fiber-optic plan, or FIOS TV. Faster Internet plans aren't qualified for the bundle. [full story]

April 28 - 1:15pm EDT   Verizon is claiming to have had extremely healthy financial results in its first quarter, despite intense competition and a failing American economy. Total revenues increased 5.5 percent to $23.8 billion, while operating income went up 14.1 percent to $4.3 billion. The company notably claims that its Wireless division gained more customers than any of its rivals, at a net increase of 1.5 million; this is despite the threat posed by Sprint's Simply Everything plan, and the iPhone carried by AT&T. [full story]

April 3 - 12:10pm EDT   Comcast today said it would be the first cable Internet provider in the US to offer Internet access based on the new DOCSIS 3.0 standard for cable Internet service. In its early form, the service will bond together multiple cable channels to offer download speeds of 50 megabits per second, or more than six times the 8Mbps ceiling previously set by the company's existing 8Mbps tier. This early implementation isn't set to have full support for the technology on uploads but will still offer 5Mbps upstream. [full story]

March 26 - 4:10pm EDT   Verizon is putting pressure on the Federal Communications Commission to make switching away from cable companies easier, Reuters reports. The company observes while phone companies will often handle the switchover from one carrier to another themselves, cable subscribers must typically get their own cable disconnected. This discourages people from switching, Verizon argues, "entrenching the cable incumbents' dominant market position." [full story]

December 5 - 12:50pm EST   A select number of people now have access to HD video-on-demand through FiOS, Verizon has announced. Customers in Tampa, Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Richmond and Virginia Beach can now download approximately 75 HD videos through FiOS TV, among these free episodes from shows such as Golfweek Magazine, and paid movies like Transformers and The Hoax. An HD set-top box is required, which costs $10 a month in addition to FiOS TV service. Access will expand in 2008 to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC; during the same year, the number of videos should gradually increase to over 1,000, while the total HD channels available will grow past 150. [full story]