Online advocacy groups Public Knowledge and Free Press are taking Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to task for comments he made earlier this week that seemed to indicate an "endorsement" of data caps, by calling them a legitimate business practice.

"There was a point of view a couple of years ago that there was only one permissible pricing model for broadband. I didn’t agree," Genachowski said during a question and answer session with National Cable and Telecommunications Association CEO Michael Powell.

Comcast says that it will soon raise the monthly cap of 250GB that customers currently suffer under to 300GB as part of a new tiered pricing plan, according to a CNET report. While it will beta test this new tired pricing model in some areas, the good news is that in areas where it is not testing it the data caps will be temporarily lifted.

In a post on the official Comcast blog, Tony Werner (Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, in Network and Operations) says that his company's video-on-demand service on Xbox Live, Xfinity, in no way violates net neutrality rules. In fact, he claims, the service is not an Internet service at all but a cable service served up using cable resources and not internet bandwidth.

According to a new survey from NetAmerica Alliance that polled 800 rural residents, three out of four respondents said that having access to high speed internet is important to maintaining their quality of life. The contents of the survey was revealed to Telecompetitor.

Not long ago AT&T U-verse TV customers could order a "hardware kit" for their Xbox 360 that allowed them to use Microsoft's console as a set-top box. But according to a report from Multichannel.com, AT&T has suspended the program so that it can improve the service. In a statement on its website for the service AT&T wrote:

The Netherlands is the first country in Europe to pass a net neutrality law (thanks to Michael Chandra for multiple tips on this story). The Dutch Senate adopted the net neutrality provisions in a new Telecom Law that was approved on Tuesday night. Those changes to the law were approved unanimously, according to the Senate.

Minnesota Senator Al Franken (D) says that Comcast is thumbing its nose at net neutrality rules by offering an exemption to data caps when it comes to its Xfinity video services on Xbox Live. He feels so strongly about it that he has sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) asking both agencies to investigate the company. At the heart of Franken's complaint is that the content that is streamed directly to the Xbox console will not be counted against subscribers' 250GB monthly data cap.

Sony said earlier this week that it is holding off on launching a video service online because of Comcast's data capping policies and its preferential treatment to its own video services. Sony executive Michael Aragon told Variety on Monday that Comcast's discriminatory data caps are giving the company concerns about launching an Internet video service that would compete with cable and satellite TV services.

Internet advocacy group Public Knowledge is taking aim at data caps and the companies that love them with the release of a new white paper and letters to several companies asking them to release information about their data capping processes. In a white paper released earlier this week the group called for government oversight of mobile and wired broadband providers who use data caps, noting that these companies should disclose detailed information about data caps. Public Knowledge wants U.S.

Cory Doctorow, who you may know best as the gentleman behind the wonderful Boing Boing web site, has a brand new column in The Guardian examining why a former defender of SOPA would suddenly decide to switch sides.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has publicly come out swinging against Comcast, saying that its version of net neutrality and its data caps are horrible. Hastings takes issue with the fact that services such as Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Go on Xbox count against Comcast customers' broadband data caps, but Comcast's own video service on Xbox Live - Xfinity - doesn’t.

US Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) asked the Federal Communications Commission on Friday to slow down its plans to make changes to the National Broadband Plan, claiming that it would reduce the amount of resources available to broadband internet investment in rural telecommunications. His specific objections to the plan are related to the Universal Service Fund, which was originally established to fund the growth of telecommunications services in rural and underserved areas.

Comcast has dropped the term "Private Network" from the Xfinity On Demand on Xbox Live FAQ. The company did this after several sites - including VentureBeat (the source of this story) - called the company out on it. Comcast claimed that it used Xbox Live (which it described as "private network") to deliver its video content, but critics pointed out that the public internet and private networks are delivered over the same broadband infrastructure.

With the launch of its Xfinity entertainment services on Xbox Live this week, Comcast finds itself having to defend the way it is handling its data capping policy. Comcast's new video services require users have an Xbox Live Gold subscription as well as subscriptions to Xfinity TV and Xfinity broadband services. Using these services won't count against customers' 250GB usage cap. Some groups see this as a violation of network neutrality -because it gives preferential treatment to traffic and to an in-house Internet video service.

According to VOX Games, Comcast's Xfinity On Demand service for Xbox 360 won't count against subscribers' bandwidth caps. That's good news for Comcast customers who were concerned about running afoul of the data cap because they decided to view some video content "over the internet." Of course, it would probably better news if Comcast was announcing that it had decided to eliminate data caps altogether, but we'll take what we can get.

Left leaning internet advocacy group Public Knowledge sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday asking the agency to investigate data capped broadband plans, particularly as they related to iOS devices.

Last year Public Knowledge asked the FCC to investigate wireless data caps from AT&T and Verizon, and wired caps from Comcast twice last year.

Following last month's ruling by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that wireless carriers must give their shareholders an opportunity to vote on net neutrality rules, Verizon has brought the issue to shareholders in a new resolution. At the same time, the company’s board of directors is strongly urging its shareholders to reject the resolution.

It seems like state legislators are lining up to pass legislation designed to protect the interests of corporations in the business of providing broadband services. Minnesota is the latest state to offer legislation meant to forbid community broadband projects, joining states like Georgia and North Carolina. The bill before lawmakers in Minnesota, "HF 2695," specifically bars any community from building a broadband network within the state.

While the Digital Economy Act was passed in the UK last year, the UK government can't force ISP's in the region to do anything beyond a letter writing campaign against those accused of infringement. The problem lies in the fact that the government needs to make certain changes to the law before it goes into full affect.

Verizon Wireless announced the launch of a new wireless home broadband service geared towards rural areas that want something a little more powerful than DSL. The service is called HomeFusion, and offers wireless broadband via a $200 cylindrical antenna (the labor is free) that is mounted on the outside of your house. While the speeds sounds decent enough - 5 to 12 megabits per second for downloads and 2 to 5 megabits for uploads - Verizon's biggest barrier might be the data caps it puts on the service. 

Verizon and Metro PCS sued the Federal Communications Commission last year over its net neutrality rules. At the time a judge dismissed their lawsuits because the rules had yet to be finalized. After the new net neutrality rules went to effect, the two companies reasserted themselves and re-filed lawsuits. Last Thursday the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that their cases can now move forward.

If you are an AT&T mobile customer with an unlimited data plan, then you know the painful truth about throttling. AT&T has been throttling - or slowing down - customers who have an unlimited plan and have hit a certain milestone amount of data usage. Customers using as little as 2 - 3 GB have had their connections slowed down to a point they considered unusable despite what AT&T has claimed.

Internet advocacy group Public Knowledge has launched a new web site called The Internet Blueprint. The goal of this new hub is to develop bills that will strengthen internet laws and ultimately make the internet a better place. The site is the group's response to lawmakers in Washington who asked Public Knowledge for input on how to improve the Internet.

AT&T has concocted a new way to deal with the rise of data usage among subscribers: charge app makers and bandwidth-eating services a fee. Those who supported the FCC's net neutrality rules (but publicly demanded stricter legislation on mobile carriers) are saying "I told you so" over this news. In a recent conversation with the Wall Street Journal, AT&T’s senior executive vice president of network and technology John Donovan, said that app makers might choose to pay for data in hopes of bringing in new customers.

If you are a municipality and you want to offer your citizens broadband, you'll have to fight against the lobbyist representing the major service providers in your state. That's the reality laid out in this SavetheInternet.com article detailing what happened in North Carolina recently.

An amendment that was added to the payroll tax holiday legislation was removed today, much to the delight of net neutrality principle supporters. The amendment was adopted during the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee markup session in December. The amendment was put forth by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and would have stopped the FCC from forcing net neutrality requirements when issuing new licenses to wireless carriers who won incentive auctions authorized by the spectrum bill.

While criticizing the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) seems to be a frequent activity for many Canadians unhappy with the way it deals with problems related to broadcast media and the Internet, Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa Michael Geist recently penned an editorial praising the commission.

In 2011 AT&T warned its heavy data using mobile customers that it would reduce their connection speed if said usage inched in to the "top five percent." AT&T is defining that metric as anyone who uses more that 2.1 GB of data a month. As chronicled in this NYT blog post, one of AT&T's customers hit the 2.1 GB mark and had his connection throttled. The problem, that customer says, is that he has a data limit of 3GB a month because a legacy unlimited plan.

Canadian Internet Service Provider Rogers has agreed to stop throttling its customers' connections, after pro-Internet group OpenMedia.ca and the Canadian Gamers Organization filed multiple complaints with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

It's a time-out for everyone when it comes to the drama over the AT&T and T-Mobile merger, as AT&T and the Justice Department have agreed that they will delay indefinitely the antitrust trial over the company’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA while the wireless carriers involved determine if it will ever even happen.