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Comcast tries to capitalize on Qwest selling out.

Five years ago, Denver-based Qwest and Comcast were engaged in a sizzling marketing battle that, for a few months, rivaled Coke Vs. Pepsi, or in today’s world, Google Vs. Microsoft.

Comcast slammed Qwest’s slower Internet speeds. Qwest, in turn, hammered away at the cable company’s annual price hikes.

With Qwest selling out to CenturyLink, Comcast launched a direct-mail campaign earlier this year that tells Qwest customers that they’re being passed off.

The letter states that “if you are a Qwest customer, you should ask yourself, are you really satisfied with Qwest? And how much do you know about CenturyLink?”

Score one for Comcast. CenturyLink, formerly CenturyTel, Read more…

Andy Vuong

The Tailgater is lightweight and portable at just 10 pounds.

Dish Network unveiled the Tailgater today, a portable satellite dish aimed at, well, tailgaters, campers and others who want to access their service away from home.

The dish, which weighs about 10 pounds and is enclosed in a cooler-type case, costs $350.

A set-top box is still required for access to the satellite-TV service. Existing subscribers can take their home set-top box with them and access the service on the go without any additional fees, while others can receive a box by subscribing to a month-by-month plan.

Douglas County-based Dish showed off the Tailgater, and other new products and services, at its annual retailer summit, held at the Colorado Convention Center this year.

Specifically, Dish will soon launch a promotion that gives new subscribers three free months of Blockbuster by Mail.

Dish acquired Blockbuster out of bankruptcy last week.

The retailer summit attracted an estimated 3,000 attendees.

Andy Vuong

The Tailgater will cost $350.

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CenturyLink CEO Glen Post said the company will decide in a few months whether to introduce IPTV in any of Qwest's legacy markets.

Reading between the lines during today’s first-quarter earnings call, the next market to receive CenturyLink’s IPTV service will probably be in Qwest’s local-phone service territory. And the roll out could come as early as this year.

CenturyLink chief executive Glen Post said the company expanded the service, called Prism TV, in the first quarter to three new markets: Tallahassee, Orlando and Raleigh, N.C.

Prism TV, which offers video content over a dedicated Internet network, is now available in eight legacy CenturyLink/Embarq markets. CenturyLink purchased Embarq in 2009 and completed its acquisition of Denver-based Qwest on April 1.

Post said the company will continue to expand Prism TV  in 2011, ultimately reaching 1 million homes with the service.

However, in response to a question from an analyst, Post said the company does not expect “any additional rollouts in the CenturyLink market” this year.

“We’ll be evaluating the Qwest markets in the coming months,” Post said. “We do think there could be some opportunity there… We’ll be making those decisions around midyear as far as any additional rollouts of IPTV in any of those markets.”

He noted that the company is working through cost estimates and a “shortening of (fiber) loops.”

CenturyLink is also dealing with burdensome video franchise laws in Colorado and other states that require companies to secure agreements with individual municipalities before offering a service that competes with existing cable-TV offerings.

Qwest revisited efforts for video franchise reform in Colorado this legislative session, but a bill wasn’t introduced. A measure in Idaho failed this year.

Note:  This post was updated at 4:10 p.m. on May 5, 2011, to clarify Post’s comments about loops.

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Dish Network will stream the title fight.

Douglas County-based Dish Network said today that the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley fight on Saturday will be available online, which will make it the first pay-per-view boxing event to be streamed.

The stream will cost $54.99. Standard definition broadcast of the event to your TV will also cost $54.99, while the HD TV version will cost $64.99.

The WBO Welterweight Championship fight is slated for Saturday at 7 p.m. mountain time.

It’s nice to see Dish offer the stream, but a discount should be offered to make it worthwhile to watch the fight online rather than the standard def TV broadcast. Internet-connected TVs aren’t the norm just yet, so people ordering the stream will likely be watching it on a smaller screen.

Visit www.dish.com/boxing or www.dishonline.com for more information.

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An unauthorized person has obtained data about PlayStation Network users.

The PlayStation Network outage, which hit about a week ago, just took a turn for the worse.

Sony disclosed today that “an unauthorized person” has obtained information about PlayStation Network/Qriocity users, including their address, birthdates and login and password information.

While there is no evidence credit card information has been accessed, the company said it couldn’t “rule out the possibility.”

Here’s a rundown of the user information that has been compromised:

name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained.

The company didn’t indicate when the network would come back online, only stating that Read more…

Foursquare

The Mile High Epic Swarm will take place May 14.

Do you want to unlock the hard-to-get Epic Swarm badge?

The Denver Flash Mob crew is organizing a Mile High Epic Swarm gathering on Saturday, May 14, at noon at Civic Center Park.

Unlocking the badge requires 1,000 Foursquare check-ins at the same location and at roughly the same time. Organizers say if the event attracts 1,000 people, they’ll give away an 32 GB iPad 2.

DJ Yofi, a member of the Denver Flash Mob, is said to be working on an “exclusive mix” for the event.

In the meantime, organizers are still working with the city on permit issues.

“In order to issue a permit, it is required that a liability insurance policy be purchased,” said Rick Gold, self-described VP of Flash Mobbery. “I am asserting this is not an event in the traditional sense, Read more…

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Your iPhone is recording your every move, according to researchers.

Data scientists have discovered that Apple’s iPhone is purposely logging a user’s location in a secret file on the device. The file is then copied to the owner’s computer when the iPhone is synced.

Researchers say the recording of the data may have started with the iOS 4 software update, which was released in June 2010.

“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer Read more…

The Denver Post

The FBI may have just dealt a deathblow to online poker in the U.S.

Federal authorities announced today an indictment charging the founders of the three largest Internet poker companies doing business in the United States – PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker – with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses.

Of those sites, Poker Stars and Full Tilt are by far the most popular among U.S. gamblers. One-time U.S. giant Party Poker shuttered operations here in 2006 following the passage of a federal law that prohibited U.S.  banks and credit-card companies from processing transactions for gambling websites.

While Fulltiltpoker.com and Pokerstars.com are still in Read more…

Verizon has added cell sites in Aurora and Ramah.

Service coverage from the nation’s No. 1 wireless carrier just got a little better in Colorado.

Verizon Wireless said it has added cell sites to expand 3G coverage and capacity at the following locations:

• Aurora – along I-70, west of Gun Club Road and East of Pena Blvd.
• Ramah – along Hwy 24, east of Calhan and west of Simla.

Verizon said it has invested more than $1 billion in its Colorado network since 2000, including $111 million in 2010.

Last week, AT&T, the nation’s No. 2 wireless carrier, announced plans for major upgrades to its network in Colorado and specifically metro Denver.

The Denver Post

Level 3 CEO Jim Crowe said he has not yet decided whether the combined company will go with the Level 3 or Global Crossing brand name.

Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications announced Monday that it will acquire Global Crossing for $3 billion in stock and assumed debt.

In an interview with The Denver Post, Level 3 chief executive Jim Crowe addressed concerns over possible integration problems, whether the Global Crossing name will survive and other merger-related questions.

Q: For at least a year, analysts have speculated that the companies were in merger talks. What took so long to reach a deal?

A: There will be a full explanation in our regulatory filings… But as you might guess, Global Crossing has a good group of negotiators who did the best for their shareholders and we tried to do the same for ours, and that can some times slow things down. In addition, anytime there’s a foreign entity like STT – they have a national security agreement with the U.S. – those things all take some time.

Q: What are the key reasons for doing this deal?

A: All you have to do is watch your coverage of international events or anyone else’s to know that business is global these days. Read more…