A "serious defect" in Netgear cable modems is resulting in high spikes in network latency, alleges a class-action lawsuit filed April 14 against Netgear in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. The suit claims consumers who bought Netgear’s CM700 modem, designed for the fastest speed internet service plans, “suffer from severe network latency spikes.” The complaint says hundreds of users have complained in online forums and Netgear acknowledged the issue but failed to fix the problems. The suit blames the latency on Netgear's decision to swap out a Broadcom chipset for the Puma 6 chipset from Intel, a problem Intel acknowledged causes cable modems to suffer from significant jitter and latency on their network connections, the suit claims. The plaintiff’s law firm, Schubert Jonckheer, is investigating whether other cable modems containing the Puma 6 chipset -- including modems from Linksys, Cisco, Hitron, and Arris -- suffer from the same severe network latency defect, it said. "Netgear and other cable modem manufacturers shipping modems with the defect should recall the affected models and issue refunds,” said partner Noah Schubert. In response, Netgear emailed us: “It is Netgear’s policy to not provide any public comment on pending litigation, but for the sake of our customers, we would like them to know that we have full confidence in the CM700 cable modem." A class-action suit filed in the same court March 31 against Arris for its SB6190 modem sought the right for plaintiffs to cancel and recover the purchase price of the modem, also based on Intel’s Puma chipset. The complaint cited an article from The Register entitled “Why Your Gigabit Broadband Lags Like Hell – Blame Intel’s Chipset.”

"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).

Iridium wants to keep up to 10 of its first-generation broadband constellation satellites in storage orbit while it begins installing its second-generation Next constellation. An FCC International Bureau filing Thursday said Iridium needs 30 days of special temporary authority starting Tuesday for the storage orbit at roughly 763 kilometers, 15 kilometers below mission altitude. It said the first-generation satellites will stay there as spares and eventually be deorbited on a rolling basis. The company said the first-generation satellites won't operate as part of its mission constellation while they're in storage orbit.