USAToday

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings continued to stump against Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable in an appearance at the Code Conference. Hastings accused Comcast of wanting to become the post office, a big national monopoly.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts took his own shots when he took the stage at the Code Conference, saying Netflix just does not want to bear the costs of the massive volume of Internet traffic that its subscribers generate. Netflix paid for postage to ship DVDs to subscribers, it should pay for traffic, Roberts said. "They used to spend three-quarters of a billion dollars for postage," Roberts said.

“It’s a general way of taxing the internet,” Hastings said. “They want the whole internet to pay them for when their subscribers use the internet.” Netflix felt it had no choice to sign a paid peering deal with Comcast earlier this year, holding its nose as it did so in order to ensure that Netflix performance wouldn’t get even worse for Comcast subscribers. Not a lot of money is changing hands right now, but now that the threshold has been crossed, Hastings thinks that the fees will grow over time. “The fundamental question is who’s going to pay for the network? And the answer is the ISP,” Hastings said. Netflix makes up roughly 30 percent of US internet traffic on a given evening, which has led Comcast to suggest that Netflix should bear 30 percent of its costs, he said. And when he suggested that if that’s the case, maybe Netflix should get 30 percent of Comcast’s broadband revenue, Comcast demurred.

In an increasingly dicey web environment, consumers need take a more active role in protecting themselves. Maintaining good password hygiene is a good example.

Too many consumers have easy-to-crack passwords and far too many use the same passwords over and over again on different sites. If you know you're not going to do this, get a password management program to do it for you.

Most importantly, users need to realize that the web isn't the leafy green suburb it once was. Gangs have moved in and there are a lot more dangerous streets. It's not a war zone, but you've got to keep your wits about you and take responsibility for your own safety.

"Hackers today are not just two guys in a dorm room who are trying to goof on you. They're well-funded, well-organized criminal organizations whose intent is financial gain," said Michael Malloy, vice president for products and strategy at Webroot, an antivirus and security company in Broomfield (CO). And avoid dubious websites like porn and gaming. Out on the web, "there are good neighborhoods and there are bad neighborhoods," said Malloy.

[Commentary] AT&T's $67 billion debt-and-equity offer for DirectTV, along with Comcast's pending $45 billion deal for TimeWarner Cable, make clear that the market for digital entertainment delivered over the Web has moved from a high growth to a growth-and-consolidation phase.

With telecomunications networks in Dallas and New York squaring off against cable companies in Philadelphia and the Big Apple for control of the pipes that deliver Web video and music, the pricing power in digital entertainment is shifting decidedly east. That unfortunately may introduce a broader swath of online subscribers to the concept of service bundling, which has been no friend to consumers in the past. The ranks of network operators -- and consumer choices -- will be winnowed again, now that AT&T has loaded up with satellite services for its battle against Comcast, Verizon and other large network owners.

The companies in control of the delivery of digital music, shows, movies, sports and news delivery are now in a consolidation phase. Those tend to lead to more pricing power for industry survivors. As consumers face fewer choices, Google, Facebook and Amazon have been variously buying or building their own Internet server farms, attempting to get around the problem. Their need to do so looks likely to increase.

With the roar of 1,400 people ringing in its ears, the Federal Communications Commission can now decide whether to allow cellular service on planes.

The deadline was May 16 for comments about lifting a 1991 ban on airborne cellular service. Opposition was nearly unanimous, with messages ranging from hand-scrawled diatribes to multipage rants.

"This is the worst idea ever," wrote John Simpson of San Francisco. "It is already bad enough with people talking on their phones everywhere but most of the time one can move away from the idiot; on a plane you are stuck." Frank Wake of Anchorage told the commission, "This is a very bad idea."

If the ban is lifted, Wake said, it will become "cruel and unusual torture for those of us trapped." The process now is for commission staffers to review all of the comments and determine whether to draft an order for the commission to vote on.

[Commentary]Less medical privacy may be good for your health. A growing body of research has found that information Americans share on social media websites about their health and lifestyle is more up to date and accurate than what they share with doctors, employers, insurance companies and government agencies.

In other words, we're more honest with our friends than we are with those who control our access to medical care. While that may simply reflect human nature, it has huge implications for health care as patients and providers look to the analysis of so-called big data to improve diagnosis and treatment. The findings suggest that improvement in medical services may depend as much on widespread availability of accurate patient data as it does on advances in technologies and procedures.

"The little secret of big data is that a lot of it isn't clean," says Eva Ho, a partner with the early-stage venture capital firm Susa Ventures and a former executive at both Google and Factual, an upstart Internet-search company. In health care, that means a patient's medical records can be filled with outdated or conflicting information that makes an accurate diagnosis more difficult.

[Commentary] Bundling is at the heart of AT&T's desire to acquire DirecTV's satellite service.

By folding the 20 million-strong pay-TV service into its broad telecom portfolio -- wireless, phone and fiber-optic broadband and TV -- AT&T hopes to actually create better bundled packages that, in turn, will lead to increased revenue from customers.

Talks between AT&T and DirecTV were reported in April, and stepped-up discussions and AT&T's willingness to pay a premium, about $50 billion, to consummate the deal came to light. "This deal is about getting more money from the same customers," says Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics. "We are running out of people who want to buy wireless service."

AT&T wants to build a better bundle of services, wrapping up mobile and data connectivity, TV programming and other services like home security. But the company can only do that in 22 states where it offers its U-verse fiber-optic service, which bundles broadband, phone and TV.

Currently, AT&T has 11 million U-verse customers, but only 5.7 million of them get TV. With DirecTV -- the second-largest pay-TV provider in the US, behind only Comcast -- AT&T instantly becomes a national TV player. New bundling could include AT&T wireless voice and data services with satellite TV, and eventually wireless TV.

[Commentary] Comcast struck a nerve in February with its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, and no wonder. Rightly or wrongly, the cable giant has become the face for rising TV and Internet prices, abrasive customer policies, and a broadband system that many believe to be corrupt and uncompetitive.

Its face-off with Netflix has put Comcast on the wrong side of popular opinion, and a troubled history with net neutrality has raised eyebrows (and blood pressures) in Silicon Valley. But is the Comcast/TWC merger really a bad thing?

• Myth No. 1: The merger is bad for customers because service will inevitably cost more. Comcast is also ahead of the pack when it comes to Internet data caps and overage charges. If a progressive pricing scheme were introduced, it might allow for more affordable contracts, and the majority of Comcast and TWC customers would stand to benefit. Perhaps I'd be able to keep my budget plan after all.
• Myth No. 2: The merger is bad for competition. According to the government, 88% of Americans have access to two or more wireline providers. Ninety percent have access to four or more wireless providers. Cable faces competition from DSL, satellite, and LTE, and while these services aren't as fast as cable, they commonly offer download speeds of 10-15 mbps. That's enough to stream three HD movies simultaneously -- and more than enough for most families. Meanwhile, Google, AT&T, and Verizon are rolling out fiber-optic networks in major cities around the country; a quarter of the population now has access.
• Myth No. 3: The merger is bad for America. A broadband study from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation finds that "of the nations that lead the United States in any of the four key metrics (deployment, adoption, speed, and price), no nation leads in more than two." The ITIF also finds that Americans have a greater variety of options when it comes to broadband, and a more progressive pricing scheme. So let's take it easy with the torches and the pitchforks.

Cortana, Microsoft’s voice assistant that ups the battle against Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Now, is being silenced for kids due to a government regulation.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, tested now by developers and soon to be released by wireless carriers, includes technology that allows users to issue commands by talking to their phone. The system is so unique from rivals’ offerings it’s triggering government rules that limit its use by anyone under the age of 13.

If a user 12 or younger tries to activate Cortana, they’re presented with a screen reading, “I’m sorry, you’ll need to be bit older before I can help you.”

Microsoft’s voice system cannot be used by anyone under the age of 13 since it’s considered an online service, which falls under the coverage of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. COPPA governs how much information a person under 13 years of age can share online without parental consent. And since Cortana takes such a personalized approach, it triggers the rule.

The handheld vision Steve Jobs sold to AT&T in 2007 has come to pass. The problem for Apple investors is that the booming market the company created with the iPhone in 2007 -- and then boosted with the iPad three years later -- is now producing more growth for AT&T than it is for Apple itself.

AT&T reported its strongest growth in long-term wireless subscribers in five years, "with smartphones and tablets leading the way," as AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said. Just as important, a surging number of AT&T customers are switching to so-called usage-based pricing -- paying based on how much wireless data they download from the Web -- rather than paying for the devices up front with the help of subsidies.

While the transition is putting a short-term hit on AT&T's balance sheet (as it has to write down the full price of such device sales immediately), the popularity of those plans also helped generate the company's strongest cash flow from operations in seven years.

"The move away from device subsidies accelerated in Q1," Stephens said, as the number of new and existing customers choosing so-called mobile share data plans tripled from a year earlier

AT&T said its first quarter net income dipped 1.2 % to $3.65 billion as expenses rose but robust demand for its more expensive wireless data plans drove quarterly revenue higher.

Revenue totaled $32.5 billion for the three-month period ending March 31, up 3.6% from in 2013. Customers "are choosing to move off device subsidies to simpler pricing while at the same time, they are continuing to move to smartphones with larger data plans," said AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson.

Revenue for the wireless unit, which runs the nation's second largest wireless carrier, grew 7% year-over-year to $17.9 billion as it added more than 1 million subscribers. About 625,000 new customers signed up for postpaid plans -- contract-based wireless voice-data plans that are considered the most profitable in the industry -- during the quarter.

U-Verse had 11.3 million customers in the first quarter, including 201,000 new TV customers who signed up during the quarter. Its Internet service gained 634,000 subscribers. About two-thirds of U-verse TV subscribers take "three or four services" from AT&T, the company said. The average revenue per U-verse triple-play customer continues to be more than $170.