• AT&T's Donovan defends network, touts connected devices [fiercewireless.com]
• NTIA awards another approximately $13.5 million to seven more states [multichannel.com]
• Lessons From the War Over Skype [nytimes.com]
• Voice Is Cable’s Secret Weapon for Growth [gigaom.com]
• UK provider takes cue from AT&T debacle, throttles iPhone users [theinquirer.net]
• Court Says Telenor Doesn't Need To Block The Pirate Bay [techdirt.com]
• Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End [cio-today.com]
• Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence, Implements Widespread Ban [techdirt.com]

The weekend has finally arrived. Chat among yourselves in the comment section below.

Part of the problem with the FCC's current rules governing network neutrality is that they're so incredibly vague, they're useless when trying to crack down on anti-competitive behavior by ISPs. Were you the dubious sort, you might argue they were intentionally made that way to give the illusion that the FCC was engaged in a pro-consumer action when really just pandering to major carriers.

Somewhat lost in the news coverage of Clearwire's accelerating launch of Mobile WiMax markets is a simple question: does the service actually work well? As we noted a few weeks ago, there's a significant number of new Clearwire customers in our forums who haven't been exactly thrilled with the new Mobile WiMax service's speed, range or availability. Those complaints continue, with one user e-mailing us to note his experience as a new Clearwire customer has been, for lack of a more scientific term, sucky.

We've certainly levied more than our fair share of criticism at Comcast over the years, but late yesterday the cable giant took one hell of a beating for doing, well, absolutely nothing. It began when Slashdot posted a story saying that Comcast had imposed a new throttling system.

In 2007, UK telco British Telecom called running fiber to the home "premature," instead opting to milk copper for a little longer. In 2008, they announced a widely lauded plan to invest in "fiber" (to the node), though the specifics weren't particularly impressive when you looked a little closer, and the "fiber to the press release" announcement was more about getting a regulatory back rub from the British Government.

Cox Communications is informing Louisiana customers that they'll be raising both TV and broadband prices this fall. According to The Advocate, basic cable customers will be seeing a price hike of $2.58 per month, and those who subscribe to expanded basic will pay another $3 per month. Premium services like HBO and Showtime will also be seeing $1 hikes. Cox customers on starter, value, preferred or premier broadband tiers can also expect rate hikes of between $2 and $3 a month. The hikes are occurring in Lafayette, despite the added competition in the market from the local municipal fiber deployment Cox tried so very hard to derail.

Regulators in both Washington and Oregon see Verizon's sale of their networks in the states to Frontier as a deal that carries "lots of risk, but very little upside," according to The Oregonian. Staffers in both states are recommending that utility commissioners reject the massive deal, which would triple Frontier’s size and impose $3 billion in debt. Frontier tells the paper that they're being "too pessimistic" about the deal, saying they hope to create "a very stable, moderately (indebted) company." Frontier executives have been on a country-wide tour trying to convince state regulators that they won't be another Fairpoint Communications.

• Comcast Exec: We Need To Change Customer Behavior, Not Our Business Model [techdirt.com]
• NCTA Outlines Ways For FCC To Free Up Funds For Broadband Deployment [multichannel.com]
• Infonetics Research discusses broadband congestion [broadband-finder.co.uk]
• Netflix Ships PS3 Streaming Discs As Survey Shows ‘Watch Instantly’ Is Hugely Popular [webtvwire.com]
• Backdoor in top iPhone games stole user data, suit claims [theregister.co.uk]
• UK mobile consolidation looms as Orange, T-Mobile ink merger [totaltele.com]
• Symbian phones to support NFC in 2010 [nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com]
• Midnight Droid madness in Manhattan [cnet.com]

• NCTA Chief argues broadband stimulus program neglects demand side [internetnews.com]
• Verizon, AT&T, others rally on IMS approach to voice over LTE [fiercewireless.com]
• Spain won't disconnect illegal file sharers [theregister.co.uk]
• China says there's no such thing as net addiction - then warns on 'inappropriate use of internet' [theregister.co.uk]
• Cablevision Mobilizes DVR App [multichannel.com]
• AT&T Drops Price Of FLO TV from $15/month to $9.99/month [moconews.net]
• Verizon Wireless To Increase Termination Fees to $350 [cellular-news.com]
• Sun and RIM release critical patches [security-watchdog.co.uk]

The entertainment industry would really like ISPs to play content police, booting P2P users from their networks. But given ISPs don't want to take on the added expense and liability for an effort that might not work anyway, the entertainment industry will try to pass laws forcing them to.

T-Mobile isn't exactly having a great week. First, they suffered through a national outage that potentially impacted millions of customers.

Verizon today announced that the company is offering three new prepaid wireless broadband price plans, aimed at users who only need occasional access to Verizon's EVDO network while on a trip or vacation, really like to pay an arm and a leg for data, or just really, really hate long-term contracts. To use these new prepackaged bits, you'll of course need to buy the Verizon Wireless USB760 modem for $129.99.

Back in January, bankrupt Charter Communications launched faster DOCSIS 60Mbps/5Mbps service, but only in St. Louis. Given Charter's bankruptcy (which they should be emerging from in a few weeks), it's not too surprising that the year was devoid of any additional launches -- until now. According to Charter, they're now launching the faster service in Victorville, California for $139.99 standalone, or $129.99 when bundled with an additional service. Not too surprisingly -- Charter sees competition from Verizon FiOS in Victorville, and is trying (albeit feebly with the cash on hand) to upgrade FiOS markets first.

Verizon's confirming reports from earlier this week that those who buy the new Motorola Droid this Friday will eventually have the ability to tether the phone and use it as a netbook and laptop modem. While Verizon's still not getting specific on the launch date of the functionality ("sometime in 2010"), they are getting specific on the price.

In discussing yesterday's earnings on a conference call with reporters, Comcast hinted that -- despite being profitable and in hot pursuit an NBC Universal acquisition -- employees should prepare for layoffs. There's no word on where exactly these layoffs will be happening or how many, but early indications are that many of the cuts will be in advertising. According to the Boston Globe, at least 64 positions have already been trimmed at Comcast's Spotlight advertising division, though those cut were informed of the decision back in September.

Update: One user sends in an additional Boston Globe report ranking Comcast as the top place to work. Great news -- assuming you still work there.

The other day we noted how AT&T was suing Verizon over their "There's A Map For That" ad campaign, claiming the ads misrepresented AT&T's wireless network coverage. A leaked memo from AT&T management to employees has surfaced, telling them what to tell consumers should they ask about the lawsuit. In short: "tell customers we're awesome" is the meat of the memo, which not surprisingly omits AT&T's recent struggles with iPhone data capacity and the fact that yeah, Verizon does have better 3G coverage. In short, the suit still seems like it could backfire, given it simply brings greater attention to the fact that Verizon does have better 3G coverage -- no matter what maps you're looking at.

Climbing wireless towers is dangerous enough if you're a trained professional -- it's statistically one of the most dangerous professions around. It's even more dangerous if you're just a guy climbing towers so you can parachute off them -- especially when you're climbing the 1,339 foot tower while it's still on. "It's insane, what he did," the tower owner tells The Hartford Courant, noting that climbing a live tower is "analogous to being inside a microwave." The parachutist has not been found or arrested, though a guy was questioned who was dumb enough to jump from a live tower and leave his car there, but apparently smart enough to hide all his parachuting gear.

• E.U. Leaders Bolster Internet Access Protections [nytimes.com]
• Google Dashboard Lists Account Info to Calm Privacy Critics [eweek.com]
• JBB Research expects mobile web revenue to reach $23.6 billion by 2013 [muniwireless.com]
• Pirate Bay shutdown could be inspiring online militancy [v3.co.uk]
• Industry Self-Regulation Of Online Privacy Has Failed: CDD [multichannel.com]
• Tech titans meet in secret to plug SSL hole [theregister.co.uk]
• Are smart meters “thieves”? [muniwireless.com]

• The end of US Internet freedom looms; the devil is in the details [theinquirer.net]
• Public Knowledge: FCC Poised To Grant MPAA Waiver Request [multichannel.com]
• Congress may require ISPs to block fraud sites [cnet.com]
• AT&T's lawsuit over Verizon ads could backfire, some argue [computerworld.com]
• Australian Radio Program On 'Piracy' What 60 Minutes Should Have Done [techdirt.com]
• 'Full Bars' Are Useless When Networks Lack Capacity [pcworld.com]
• Google Unveils New Weapon in the Mobile-Ad War [gigaom.com]
• Leaked Photos of MS’s Courier Tablet Are Eye-Popping [gigaom.com]