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    Perhaps the most important event of the past few months was the decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take an aggressive line on net neutrality.

    A talking point of those who favored lighter regulation was that tight control would discourage capital investment. This week, however, Comcast announced a significant expansion of its Giga Power product and AT&T said that it would continue its capex program, despite the adoption of rules it doesn’t like and the uncertainty stemming from multiple legal challenges.

    So much for a capex slowdown.

    Here are some highlights of other news this week:

    IDC: Internet of Things Led by Digital Signage

    IDC reported this week that the worldwide Internet of Things (IoT) market will grow 19 percent this year. It will be led, the firm said, by digital signage.

    The firm also found that the IoT manufacturing market is in the process of growing from $42.2 billion in 2013 to $98.8 billion in 2018, which is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.6 percent. Digital signage for the same period will move from $6 billion to $27.5 billion, a 35.7 CAGR.

    Is Judge Judy Available?

    Cablevision is suing Verizon, according to The Consumerist. The site says that Verizon claims its New York City FiOS platform is all fiber. Cablevision says that it uses some coaxial cable and, thus, the claim is false, and it has run ads saying as much. Verizon took the matter up with the National Advertising Board. Instead of responding through that body, Cablevision filed a lawsuit.

    The company is litigious, according to The Consumerist:

    Not only is this not Cablevision’s first lawsuit against Verizon, but it’s not even their first one this year. At the end of January, Cablevision sued Verizon over their Wi-Fi ads. In that suit, Cablevision claimed that Verizon’s “fastest Wi-Fi” ads were misleading, as the two companies offer basically the same service through the same routers.

    Comcast Expands Gigabit Pro

    Comcast this week announced that it is bringing its Gigabit Pro broadband service to six areas. LightReading reports that the targets are Minneapolis/St. Paul, the states of Oregon and Utah, the Houston metro area, and parts of Washington State and Colorado. Its Extreme 250 service, which offers 250 Megabits per second service, will be available in all of those areas.

    Earlier announced sites for the service, which features 2 Gigabit per second (Gbps) symmetrical service, are Atlanta, the Chicago area and parts of Florida, California and Tennessee.

    Bots on the Rise

    Distil Networks this week released The 2015 Bad Bot Landscape Report. It shows that network traffic is mostly bots, according to a report at InformationWeek:

    In 2013, human beings were responsible for roughly 55% of all network traffic monitored by Distil. By 2014, that had fallen to 41%. In the same time period, traffic from “bad” bots (those that are involved in espionage, fraud, theft, or cyber-vandalism) declined slightly, from 24% to 23%. What makes up the rest? Good bots.

    Good bots “are those that perform benign or essential network tasks,” according to a Distil spokesperson explanation to the writer, Curt Franklin. The report also notes a trend to mobile bots and increased bot sophistication.

    This Sounds Familiar

    And, finally, comes a story that shows just how unintentionally ironic some things are. ExtremeTech posted a story about the Light Phone, an initiative of Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang. The two aim to produce a device that eschews text messaging, email and constant alerts.

    The phone would be limited to voice functions and a digital clock. The GSM-based phone would use a prepaid model and come with 500 free minutes.

    The industry had the same basic idea a while back. It was called a cell phone.

    Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at cweinsch@optonline.net and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.

    Carl Weinschenk
    Carl Weinschenk
    Carl Weinschenk Carl Weinschenk Carl Weinschenk is a long-time IT and telecom journalist. His coverage areas include the IoT, artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence, drones, 3D printing LTE and 5G, SDN, NFV, net neutrality, municipal broadband, unified communications and business continuity/disaster recovery. Weinschenk has written about wireless and phone companies, cable operators and their vendor ecosystems. He also has written about alternative energy and runs a website, The Daily Music Break, as a hobby.

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