The 234 Apartment

A group of small ISPs is asking America's broadband watchdog to ban exclusivity deals that lock apartment buildings to a single broadband provider . Incompas, a Washington DC advocacy group for ISPs and telcos, told the FCC in a filing [PDF] that it should end the practice of landlords and building owners making deals with a single internet provider to have exclusive access to multi-tenant environments (MTEs) like apartment buildings and condos. The group argues that such deals, which often include payments or kickbacks to landlords when their tenants sign up for service, harm consumer choice in America, and unfairly let large telcos freeze out smaller ISPs. "The considerable barriers to entry faced by competitive providers seeking access to MTEs imperils the business case for the deployment of next-generation networks and services to the thirty percent of American consumers who live in multi-unit premises," Incompas says in the filing, submitted yesterday. ...

caption Sellers rejoice. source Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Homebuyer demand is surging in many markets across the US, sending home prices skyward . Even though the number of home sales are slightly down this summer, the national median home price rose 6 .5% year-over-year to an all-time high of $263,800 in June, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). “The demand for buying a home is as strong as it has been since before the Great Recession,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun . “Listings in the affordable price range continue to be scooped up rapidly,” he said, “but the severe housing shortages inflicting many markets are keeping a large segment of would-be buyers on the sidelines.” In a new report, GOBankingRates examined home prices for the 100 most populous markets using Zillow data, comparing prices in each market for June 2016 and June 2017. Overall, 19 cities saw a median home price increase of more than 14% in the last year, and an average incr...

Recycle. Reuse. Reduce. Reclaim. Cheryl Oliver is a true believer. Her husband, Jack, is not quite so sure. For Cheryl, there is no choice because she regards recycling as crucial for the survival of the planet. Jack said he gets it, but doesn’t think a few people can make any real difference. The house divided is a microcosm of communities when it comes to recycling. Cheryl believes everyone should do their part, while Jack believes that since not everyone is doing their part, why should he? “The problem with recycling is that most people don’t do it or won’t do it,” Jack said. “I think it’s mostly due to people being plain lazy.” Jack has a point – recycling takes more effort than just throwing everything into the same trash can. There are people who might recycle but don’t because they simply don’t know how. With paper, plastic, aluminum, metal and a myriad of other color-coded options for recyclable material, deciding where each thing should go can be troublesome. ...