Verizon said it launched "the nation's largest deployment of gigabit" internet service -- Fios Gigabit Connection -- providing data speeds as fast as 940/880 Mbps (down/up). The service is priced at $69.99 per month on a standalone basis and starts at $79.99 per month for a triple-play bundle when ordered online, said a Verizon release Monday. "No cable provider comes close to offering the speeds and power of Fios Gigabit connection on this kind of scale. And we've priced it so that millions can enjoy it," said Ken Dixon, president of Verizon's consumer wireline business. Verizon said it fine-tuned the Fios Instant Internet service it launched in January, which gave customers actual speeds well above advertised 750/750 Mbps; the result is Fios Gigabit Connection, which is available to more than 8 million homes in parts of the New York; New Jersey; Philadelphia; Richmond and Hampton Roads, Virginia; Boston; Providence and Washington, D.C., areas. "[T]hat's a more than one million home increase from the Instant Internet footprint with the Washington, D.C. and Providence markets getting access to Verizon's top Internet speeds for the first time," said the release.

"A vaguely worded statement buried" in the last paragraph of terms and conditions and not part of the uniform service contract isn't adequate disclosure of public Wi-Fi hot spots being broadcast from customers' homes, said a response (in PACER) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York, in opposition to a motion to dismiss a suit against the cable ISP and parent Altice. Plaintiff Paul Jensen of Brooklyn said Cablevision/Altice claims the Wi-Fi policy is divulged in the general terms and conditions of service, but the link provided in the motion to dismiss redirects people to another page with another set of links to 22 different terms of service, with the fourth one down directing people to yet another web page giving details about Optimum Online Service operating as a wireless hot spot. Jensen said parent companies aren't automatically liable for subsidiaries' actions, but the parents can be found liable where the actions were done at the parent's direction, and Altice controls Cablevision decision-making. Jensen said Cablevision/Altice is wrong when it argues that each use of a customer's Optimum router is a distinct alleged offense and none of those individually reaches the $5,000 damages threshold, since courts have found that damages to a class as a whole can be aggregated to meet that $5,000 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act threshold. Altice didn't comment Tuesday.

Qantas is offering "free, gate-to-gate in-flight Wi-Fi" on one ViaSat-equipped Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and plans to install ViaSat equipment on all its Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 aircraft starting later this year, it said in a news release Friday. Qantas said it, ViaSat and broadband network service provider nbn have been doing in-flight Wi-Fi tests on the aircraft for some weeks.

USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter touted a "broadband first" agenda and bipartisan backing for including measures in infrastructure legislation to boost high-speed communications networks. He said any infrastructure bill must go beyond funding "asphalt and airports" because "the ones and zeros of broadband" are increasingly "essential" to connecting Americans. "We are going to be working very closely with the administration and with Congress to advance a national infrastructure plan that does prioritize broadband, that does allow the digital infrastructure of our nation to be more carefully coupled with our brick-and-mortar infrastructure," he said in an interview for C-SPAN's The Communicators being televised April 1 and April 3. He said there's "no daylight between Republicans and Democrats" on broadband's importance: "Those ones and zeros are not red and blue; they're red, white and blue." Spalter said USTelecom is focused on achieving provider "parity" and regulatory "clarity." Broadband providers invested more than $1 trillion over 20 years under "light-touch regulation" until the FCC in 2015 reclassified broadband under Communications Act Title II, an "artifact" of the 1930s with "regressive" rules, he said. “We support net neutrality. We understand that the ability to transact our online lives in an open and free environment is indispensable not only to our democracy but to the future of our economy, and to the health and safety and productivity and education, increasingly, of our families and communities." There should be "no throttling, no blocking -- we all agree on those types of principles," he said. "Where we disagree is how to get there." He predicted policymakers will move away from Title II regulation. He rejected the premise that competition is lacking: "The numbers really are off the chart: American consumers enjoy more broadband choice than any other consumer on the globe." He said next-generation networks will usher in innovations in "contextually aware environments, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, connected vehicles." Spalter called recent legislation to repeal FCC privacy rules a "win, win" for consumers that would lead to "harmonized" FCC and FTC protections for sensitive online data while allowing the benefits of innovation. He said a presidential executive order is expected soon to elaborate a clearer cybersecurity framework: "The threats are increasingly real." He said his association is working with other industry players and the Department of Homeland Security on an "action plan" to "ensure the integrity of our networks, their resiliency and security."

Creation of gigabit opportunity zones got tentative bipartisan support from some lawmakers, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said at American Cable Association event Thursday, adding he hopes to see such zones incorporated into any national infrastructure spending plan or as a stand-alone. He has pushed the idea for these zones -- featuring tax breaks to encourage private-sector gigabit broadband deployment -- for months (see 1609130061). Pai said that with infrastructure investment being a top national priority, the agency is particularly focused on looking at rules to see what can be eliminated or revised so as to encourage infrastructure-related investments. He said the agency is reviewing options for how to revisit Communications Act Title II classification of broadband. "We want every consumer … to have that open internet experience," Pai said. "But networks need incentive to invest and innovate." He said he had no idea of the status of the draft order on circulation removing the network overbuild condition on Charter Communications (see 1702240029). Pai said he hasn't talked with other commissioners about it, though he supports the revamping because the overbuild requirement "accentuates the digital divide." The cable industry crowd repeatedly applauded Pai, a marked contrast from the frost between the industry and previous Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1605200037). "We don't view you as an enemy," Pai said, because Washington “recognizes this is the challenge of our time -- building a digital infrastructure across this country" -- and cable ISPs need incentives to make those investments. The FCC now has more focus on cable industry economic freedom, Macquarie analyst Amy Yong wrote investors Thursday. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, speaking before the ACA this week, was clear that some previous FCC rulings could be reopened and amended, such as the Title II ban on paid prioritization by ISPs (see 1703290026), Macquarie said. With net neutrality rules likely to be rolled back, providers will have more options for favoring or prioritizing content, but removing such barriers benefits consumers by letting providers enhance their services, Macquarie said. Asked about future video regulation issues, Pai said the current independent programming NPRM has keyed up some of these issues and will "hopefully ... give us a better sense of what's going on in the marketplace." He said the commission is "trying to figure out the appropriate role for the FCC ... in this space."

Comcast's Xfinity Prepaid Internet Service is now available across the company's footprint, the company said in a news release Thursday. The pay-as-you-go broadband service started in 2016 in a partnership with Boost Mobile, it said. Comcast said it also expects to restart its Xfinity Prepaid Video Service across its footprint later this year.

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE), and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance put out an SCTE/ISBE Standards operational practice aimed at ensuring interoperability between MoCA 2.0 and the DOCSIS 3.1 specification for advanced broadband services, SCTE 235, the groups said in a news release Tuesday. SCTE 235 lays out best use of frequencies and filters in environments where both DOCSIS 3.1 and MoCA 2.0 are being employed, they said. SCTE 235 is based on a MoCA/CableLabs technical study and was created by the Special Working Group on HFC (hybrid fiber coax) Readiness for DOCSIS 3.1 in the SCTE/ISBE Standards Program's network operations subcommittee, they said.

Satellite data capacity prices, declining in recent years, will continue to drop due to ultra-high-throughput satellites coming soon, opening the door to verticals like cellular backhaul and consumer broadband, leading to new industry growth, Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm-Serra said in an NSR blog post Tuesday. The price levels are making satellite a viable option for 3G and 4G backhaul, while consumer broadband "continues to present a massive opportunity if the right price points and business models are hit," NSR said. Industry needs to develop the ground system that can meet IP needs, service offerings tailored to mobile operators and a retail presence targeting consumers, the firm said.

After it extends the life of the Intelsat 901 satellite while in orbit, Orbital ATK's Space Logistics' mission extension vehicle MEV-1 will move on and provide similar such services to another geostationary orbit (GSO) satellite, the company said. Orbital ATK Friday filed an application with the FCC International Bureau for authority to launch and operate its MEV-1, which will have a 15-year lifespan, during which it will be able to service multiple GSO satellites with inclination reduction, station keeping and attitude control, orbit relocation and inspections. MEV-1 will have telemetry, tracking and command communications capabilities in the C-band or Ku-band. It will be deployed to Intelsat 901 and raise it to a graveyard orbit 300 km above the GSO arc, with the two satellites operating jointly for at least five years. Orbital ATK said last year it expected to put its first satellite life extension robot into service in late 2018 (see 1604120044).

Anticipating a new broadband mobility offering for some vehicular and maritime applications, Kymeta is asking the FCC International Bureau for a license allowing it to operate up to 5,000 Ku-band vehicle-mounted earth stations and 1,000 Ku-band earth stations on vessels. In a license application Thursday, Kymeta said its KyWay 1 terminal uses its flat panel antenna technology and would be mounted atop vehicles like trains or commercial trucks or on flat surfaces near the highest point of maritime vessels. It said the antennas would work in the 14-14.5 GHz transmit band and the 10.95-11.2 GHz, 11.45-12.2 GHz receive bands.