Broadcasters and cable operators haven't been seeing eye to eye about the cable industry's TV Everywhere initiative, which will offer online users Internet video as a free supplement to their cable subscription. The debate so far is over compensation -- with some eager to impose unskippable ads on consumers, and other even hoping to charge for the added functionality. Comcast for one says they're going to leave the decision over what kind of ads the system imposes on consumers in the hands of broadcasters:Of course should Comcast's deal with NBC go through, they will effectively be broadcasters, which means they should probably have an idea of what kind of ad model they'd like to see the broadband video service employ -- right? The entire idea of TV Everywhere was to keep customers from cutting the cord. However, if TV Everywhere is a clunky, unskippable ad-laden mess with limited selection and bickering content and delivery partners -- the initiative could have the opposite effect of the one intended.

United Airlines has started in flight Wi-Fi service on flights between New York and California, according to the Chicago Tribune. Sort of.

Wireless carriers have recently started subsidizing netbooks in much the same way they've subsidized smart phones -- assuming users are willing to sign long term contracts. Terrestrial operators are now getting into the act as well, with Verizon recently announcing a promotion that gives users a free Compaq Mini Netbook if they sign up for DSL. Qwest has now jumped on that bandwagon as well, their website now advertising that users who sign up for 7Mbps "fiber optic Internet" (Qwest code for DSL) get a Dell Mini Netbook for the subsidized price of $199. To get the discount, you of course need to sign a two year contract.

As it stands, Verizon only offers customers a unified bill if they add wireless phone service on to their broadband bundle -- but that may change soon. "More and more customers are asking for that," Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam said in a recent interview. "A year from now, we’d be describing a very different set of applications and use cases for the phone and bundling and buying buckets of minutes for different devices," says the CEO. As for rumors of an LTE-powered device by Apple, McAdam now says "There’s a very good possibility" of such a union.

Verizon this week unveiled a new deal for NFL fans out of range of Verizon FiOS. Verizon's giving new customers who sign up for select DirecTV bundles NFL Sunday Ticket free for a year.

For years the baby bells have been trying to slow (or ignore) the death of the landline by forcing DSL customers to bundle one, whether they wanted it or not. That's why it's kind of refreshing to see this Verizon ad (pdf), forwarded to us by a reader, that actually encourages customers to drop their landline.

Earlier this week we reported that Verizon appears cooking up a few changes to their FiOS broadband lineup, but the company wasn't ready to comment officially. No, there's no 100Mbps tier (yet), but Verizon does appear prepped to nudge the speeds of select, existing tiers upward.

As you might expect, being the first carrier to launch a phone with the Android OS got T-Mobile lots of attention, though it also drew attention to the fact the carrier's 3G HSDPA network footprint was a little lacking. T-Mobile's been trying to change that quickly, a new leaked launch schedule by TMONews highlighting more than 100 new HSDPA launch markets for 2009 broken down by quarter. T-Mobile faced delays in getting the network up and running, last year blaming Uncle Sam for being slow to vacate the 1700Mhz spectrum they purchased from the old fellow. T-Mo's also bringing back Catherine Zeta Jones as a pitchperson.

AT&T has decided to go full speed ahead into the business of subsidizing netbooks in much the same way they've been subsidizing phones. Losses on the short term are of course recouped by locking customers into long term contracts, the economics of which AT&T execs call "terrific." AT&T recently began offering an Acer Aspire One for $99 if customers signed a two year 3G data contract, though Engadget notes they're now offering the same netbook for $80 through Radio Shack. The gadget blog also notes that Verizon will soon be launching a subsidized HP Mini 1000, though no price has been leaked yet.

As AT&T insiders had told us, AT&T this week began offering DirecTV service to customers out of U-Verse range across their entire 22-state footprint. New customers willing to bundle DirecTV get $5 off for the double play, $10 off for the triple play, and $10 off plus $200 cash back if they bundle phone, DirecTV, DSL and wireless phone. Existing customers can supposedly call up and get the bundle discounts (let us know how that works in the comment section below). While AT&T is still supporting Dish Network and Homezone customers, they're no longer marketing those services to new customers.

Verizon lost 96,000 DSL customers last quarter for a number of reasons, not least of which are the recession, housing bubble and tight household budgets. Not helping much was the fact that Verizon had been diverting a lot of DSL marketing and support resources for promoting FiOS.

The latest Consumer Reports survey of major telecom providers and bundled services, featured in the February issue, proclaims that AT&T and Verizon perform the best when it comes to offering the triple play (VoIP, data and TV). While the study itself is behind a pay wall, the press release offers tips on getting the best triple play (or double play) deal from carriers.

The VoIP sector suffered an existential crisis this week, with many in the industry debating whether the technology was alive, dead, or on life support. Former Microsoft manager Alec Saunders declared that VoIP was dead.

Facing a cash crunch? Don't like the bi-yearly price hike from your satellite, cable or telco operator? Tired of annoying fees? Only watch three of the three hundred channels you subscribe to? Sure, many of you figured out years ago that voice and video are just data and you had other options (reading books included). Now with a sour economy, and a growing number of video delivery systems that don't suck, it seems that message is finally getting through to the average consumer -- at least according to CNET: story continues..

If you remember, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was never really sold on offering wireless, aka the fourth component on top of TV, data and VOIP in a "quadruple play" offering to consumers. That's despite participating in a group that paid $2.4 billion for broadband wireless spectrum, and now doling out more than a billion to help Clearwire deploy Mobile WiMax.

The past few weeks, we've been following Comcast's efforts to slow Verizon's entry into the cable giant's hometown market of Philadelphia, by warning city council that Verizon would only deploy to areas with the highest ROI -- and FiOSTV's entry into the market won't necessarily mean lower TV prices. Neither is untrue, but Comcast's pretense that they're concerned with either of those things is a bit of a stretch.

For the first time ever, digital music sales via broadband have passed CD sales at Atlantic Records, making up more than 50% of the label's music sales last quarter. The New York Times notes that Warner Music Group, Atlantic’s parent company, saw slightly less robust digital sales of just 27%. Piracy means overall music sales are down (at least according to the RIAA's own numbers quoted by the Times), with $10.1 billion this year compared to $14.6 billion in 1999. As the article notes, the labels are (very) slowly figuring out that the largely unstoppable piracy of their product is turning albums into promotional material for other money makers like concerts and merchandising.

Chatter over at the official AT&T forums (via Engadget HD) indicates that the company is preparing to revamp their HD channel offerings. According to one user, the company is sending out postcards informing users that some HD channels, like Universal HD, will be moving to a new "Premium" U-Verse tier on November 10. Technically that's a price hike, and customers who subscribe to U-Verse bundles (and pay a $10 HD fee) will now need to pay more. It's not clear how much more, since CSRs don't seem sure of the new plan yet, but some users are being told an additional $5.

The 10,000 person town of Monticello, Minnesota wanted to build a fiber network because they weren't being well serviced by regional incumbent, TDS Telecom. As we've explored countless times over the years, that company then did what threatened companies do best: filed a lawsuit. TDS Telecom tried to stop the city from using bonds (not taxpayer dollars) to fund the project, but had their case thrown out of court this week. TDS tells The Register they haven't decided whether they'll appeal yet -- but meanwhile Monticello's fiber funds sit in escrow until the legal fight is over.

We've previously noted that if Verizon FiOS has a weak spot, it's the service's billing, which frequently contains errors that are sometimes impossible to correct. According to the St. Petersburg Times, customers are getting annoyed with multi-page FiOS bills they say they can't understand, and which rarely are the same amount from month to month. Both Time Warner Cable and Bright House networks are taking advantage of the complicated bills and hidden fees, by promising customers a simpler billing experience if they return. "Changes are coming," a Verizon spokesman tells the paper (a promise users have heard before). "And I think it will really be something our customers will really appreciate."