netBlazr

Feel Free to Put that Antenna on Your Rooftop

Justin — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:44:11 +0000

Do you want to put up an antenna but your landlord is giving you trouble? Then you should tell them to check out the “Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule.” This rule has been around since 1996 and “bans restrictions that impair the installation, maintenance or use of antennas used to receive video programming.” It has further been modified to state that renters have to place the antennas on areas they control, such as porches, rooftops, and balconies. The rule also covers wireless broadband receivers, like those used by netBlazr customers. netBlazr’s equipment is small, non intrusive and hasn’t resulted in any landlord issues. Check out our offering and let us help you improve your broadband.

BlockCross Holdings Joins netBlazr

Justin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:55:35 +0000

BlockCross Holdings has recently joined the growing netBlazr broadband co-op network. Founded in 2005, BlockCross Holdings is a Boston-based financial technology boutique that specializes in systems to support advanced electronic trading. BlockCross Holdings has a portfolio of advanced trading solutions, which includes block trading dark pools, intelligent dashboards for algorithmic trading, and sophisticated real-time feedback on trading strategies and venues. BlockCross Holdings has industry leading insights into the challenges facing today’s traders and its development team moves quickly and reliably. The firm partners with creative, fast moving sell- and buy-side firms to deliver systems that improve trading performance. After joining the cooperative, netBlazr is proud to offer BlockCross Holdings a fast and reliable shared broadband service.

Delphi Properties Joins netBlazr

Justin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:30:26 +0000

Delphi Properties is the newest member to join the netBlazr broadband cooperative. Located on Boylston Street, Delphi Properties is a hands-on property company, which offers a wide range of services to their clients. Delphi Properties offers property management, leasing and maintenance services for all their properties. Delphi Properties’ management philosophy is to focus on the customer. The company’s current portfolio includes properties in Boston, Cambridge and Brighton. Delphi Properties’ responsiveness helps build solid relationships with their residents, which in turn increases occupancy and real estate values. After connecting Delphi Properties to the growing co-op, netBlazr is now one of their valued broadband providers for their office network.

Office Bandwidth: How it’s Really Being Used?

Justin — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:29:07 +0000

Many businesses view Internet bandwidth as a commodity with little perceived differentiation from one provider to the next. At the same time, they are increasingly feeling pressure to maintain network performance while adjusting to new devices on the network such as Smart Phones and Tablets, which drive usage. Another issue are the bandwidth intensive applications in the workspace - cloud-based, video, collaboration, YouTube and streaming services like Pandora. The conflict between recreational traffic and business traffic is unlikely to go away. A recent study showed that 55% of online traffic in the office setting is recreational!

Companies are devoting more time and money to manage available bandwidth and ensure that critical applications have access to the bandwidth they need. Companies are working to prioritize traffic on their networks and are monitoring how employees are really using the Internet. This is important because any individual’s use of bandwidth can affect the entire office’s Internet connection speed. After mapping usage across applications and users, the next task it to try and decide who should get more bandwidth. These efforts to achieve positive results mean that the commodity pipe provided by the telephone or cable company is only part of the total expense. More bandwidth alleviates much of the pressure and can enable a company to minimize the costs of monitoring actual usage.

Reliability of a company’s Internet connection is also a growing concern. Most providers are quite reliable, but none are perfect. Combine this reality with the need for more bandwidth and companies are now beginning to realize the importance of having multiple internet providers. Having a second provider will enable you to get increased bandwidth, which may help solve the slow Internet connection issue at the office. Overall, a company can be more efficient if they are spending less time monitoring who is listening to their favorite 80′s music on Pandora while they work or who is attending a Webinar on the merits of cloud back-up.

LocalHint Joins netBlazr

Justin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:27:09 +0000

netBlazr is pleased to welcome LocalHint as its newest member to the broadband cooperative in Boston’s Back Bay. LocalHint is a recent Boston based start up company that considers themselves to be a virtual, searchable, sandwich board of local deals. LocalHint gives people the opportunity to rediscover their neighborhood and save money, while supporting local businesses. After joining the co-op, netBlazr will provide them with a dependable and fast broadband service.

Verizon Forcing Us to Take a Big Leap Backwards

Luis — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:27:30 +0000

In a move that has the Internet yelling a collective “you suck!” at Verizon, the major ISP announced late last week that effective May 6, 2012, all new subscribers to its “high speed Internet service” will be required to bundle their broadband with local voice service.

This marks an aggressive power play by the Internet giant, aimed exclusively towards profits and not towards customer service or satisfaction.

Instead of loosening its grip on its “loyal Verizon customers” (per their letter’s heading) and providing more choice and affordability, Verizon decided to add restrictions and make it even harder to avoid the higher fees that comes through adding a service one doesn’t even want. “New” customers not only refers to new people adding Verizon Internet, but also includes those who want to change their Internet service, and those who move their service from one address to another. This ensures that sooner or later, every Verizon customer will not only have Verizon Internet service, but also have the required local voice package, a lucrative revenue source.

In addition, studies show that this isn’t even a service most people even need. According to a 2011 study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, the amount of households that ditch landlines and be cell phone exclusive could reach 40 to 50 percent of all U.S. homes by 2013. Verizon is thus forcing a service this is not only old, but is on its way to being extinct.

This is a great move to make a quick buck, but not the way we would have done things. Click here to find out more about our Internet cooperative, which offers a stark contrast to what the big guys are trying to force upon us.

Dan Powdermaker Joins netBlazr

Justin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:06:26 +0000

netBlazr is pleased to announce that Dan Powdermaker has joined the firm as Executive Vice President. Dan will oversee the commercial rollout of the company’s award-winning application of wireless technology, which provides the business community affordable and reliable broadband Internet access.

Dan has a long history with traditional and emerging voice, data and Internet service providers. He was an early employee at MFS Communications, one of the nation’s first competitive access providers and parent of UUNet, an early Tier One Internet backbone now part of Verizon. At AT&T he led teams as they sought to meet the communication needs of Fortune 500 companies.

A founding member of the management team at iBasis Inc., Dan was involved in a broad range of activities as the company grew from start-up to a leader in wholesale international voice communications. iBasis pioneered the use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and grew to become one of the largest carriers of international voice traffic. Over a ten-year period, Mr. Powdermaker developed and managed a sales, marketing and business development organization with personnel in more than 20 countries and organic revenues exceeding $600 million.

Subsequent to iBasis’s 2007 acquisition by Royal KPN, the national carrier of The Netherlands, Dan joined Arbinet as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Arbinet was a leading provider of innovative voice and IP solutions to telecommunications carriers and service providers globally. PTGi acquired it in 2010.

Dan has an AB from Boston College and is a graduate the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Harvard’s Advanced Management Program.

Castle Square Tenants Organization Joins netBlazr

Justin — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:20:33 +0000

Castle Square Tenants Organization has recently joined the growing netBlazr broadband cooperative network. Castle Square is located on Tremont Street in Boston, MA and has been around since 1987. CSTO is known for providing affordable housing for low and moderate income residents. Castle Square is also focused on brokering relationships between the residents and management, which helps make for a peaceful living environment. After joining the co-op, netBlazr is proud to offer CSTO a fast and reliable shared broadband service.

netBlazr Highlighted in Businessweek

Luis — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:37:57 +0000

If you haven’t seen it already, Businessweek recently published a great article about Boston’s growing Innovation District. NetBlazr got a shout out in the article, check it out!

Businessweek Article – Boston’s Innovation District Eagerly Awaits More Innovators

Press Release: Boston’s Power Outage

Luis — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:55:58 +0000

Lessons Learned from Back Bay/South End Power Outage

By last Friday, power was back throughout Boston’s Back Bay and South End. Businesses were hard at work trying to make up for lost productivity. The outage highlighted how dependent business and organizations are on quality Internet connectivity. The cost of an outage is high.

The cost of lost productivity is great. Modern organizations rely on information being stored in the Cloud, fast speeds for uploading and downloading massive amounts of data, and a reliable connection for communicating in real-time. A prolonged Internet outage can shut down an entire business in minutes, resulting in lost business and dollars.

A well-known way to improve Internet reliability is to add an additional service provider. But many businesses and organizations struggle with the cost of securing diverse access from traditional providers. New companies are exploiting new technologies to meet the challenge and augment broadband/Internet connections.

netBlazr is leading the way by providing customers in the Back Bay and South End (and soon in the Financial District, Innovation District and South Station areas) an increase in the reliability and performance of their broadband Internet access. Network members connect via secure and state-of-the-art fixed wireless technology. netBlazr offers free Business DSL or higher bandwidth packages for 90% less than Verizon. Customers gain diversity in suppliers and users get an instant improvement in broadband speed.

For more information:

Visit: http://www.netblazr.com

E-mail: info@netblazr.com