With the company"s focus now primarily on wireless and slinging ads to Millennials, Verizon"s long-neglected DSL customers were already feeling unwanted in the wake of frozen FiOS fiber upgrades. In many areas, Verizon has simply refused to upgrade or repair lines, and frequently hits these users with annoying price hikes on slow DSL speeds that cost Verizon very little to actually deliver. The goal quite literally is to drive these unwanted customers to cable competitors or the company"s own wireless service (often sold by those same cable competitors).

Now these unwanted Verizon DSL customers may have another reason to leave: potential usage caps.

Users in our forums recently discovered that Verizon has begun conducting a new "trial" in Virginia. As part of this trial, customers on DSL lines at speeds of 500 kbps to 1.5 Mbps are now informed "usage" is limited to 150 gigabytes. Users on DSL speeds between 1.5 Mbps and 3 Mbps are now told those lines only feature 250 GB of "usage."

This new trial doesn"t appear to have been formally announced anywhere, and the company"s website doesn"t tell these users what happens when users consume their new monthly allotments. As we"ve long noted, there"s no economic or technical reason to impose usage caps on well-managed fixed-line networks. The limits don"t actually help manage congestion, and flat-rate broadband (thanks largely to limited competition) is perfectly profitable.

In many instances, caps and overage fees are only applied as another way to raise rates on captive customers, while also allowing ISPs to cash in (or punish) customers that are fleeing from an ISP"s cable TV services to streaming video.

When approached for comment by DSLReports, Verizon tried to claim these stated usage limits aren"t really caps because they"re not being enforced (yet), and the company has no plan to impose overage fees (for now).

"We"re not applying data caps, overage fees or any sort of restrictions on DSL customers," -Verizon, after its website informed users of "usage" limits

The cord cutting phenomenon saw a slight slowdown during the first quarter, with the nation"s biggest pay TV providers losing "just" 305,000 subscribers during the first quarter. According to the latest study from Leichtman Research, that"s a notable improvement from the half a million subscribers the industry lost one year earlier. That said, Leichtman"s numbers tend to be notably lower than many Wall Street analyst estimates, and the cord cutting phenomenon is expected to heat back up during the second quarter, when many college students go home for the summer.

And Leichtman makes it very clear that the trend of cord cutting isn"t going anywhere, as users continue to express fatigue at high prices and poor customer service by shifting to streaming alternatives.

"The number of pay-TV subscribers for the top providers peaked six years ago. Since 1Q 2012, top providers have lost about 3.4 million total pay-TV subscribers," analyst Bruce Leichtman stated. "Since the industry s peak, traditional services have lost about 7.2 million subscribers, while the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered services gained about 3.8 million subscribers."

Satellite TV providers continued to be the hardest hit during the quarter, with DirecTV losing 188,000 traditional satellite customers, and Dish losing 185,000 traditional satellite customers. And while both AT&T and Dish managed to recoup some of those losses via their streaming video services (DirecTV Now and Sling TV, respectively), customers of those services pay significantly less money per month, a trend that continues to worry Wall Street investors all too comfortable with the traditional cable TV cash cow.

More details on losses broken down by delivery type:

• The top six cable companies lost about 285,000 video subscribers in 1Q 2018 -- compared to a loss about 115,000 subscribers in 1Q 2017

• Satellite TV services lost about 375,000 subscribers in 1Q 2018 -- compared to a loss of about 340,000 subscribers in 1Q 2017

• The top telephone providers lost about 50,000 video subscribers in 1Q 2018 -- compared to a loss of 325,000 subscribers in 1Q 2017
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While T-Mobile and Sprint executives have been busy claiming their $23 billion merger will somehow create jobs, that"s neither in line with history nor analyst estimates. In fact, analysts predict that the deal will result in anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 employees losing their jobs as redundant positions in retail, middle management, and support get inevitably eliminated. That 30,000 estimate (New Street Research) is more people that Sprint currently employs in total, to help give you a sense of scale.

Despite what it"s saying publicly, Sprint knows these layoffs will predominantly hit Sprint"s current employee base, and many of these employees may already be looking for the exits.

While Sprint and T-Mobile say they"ll operate two headquarters initially (nothing"s going to change guys, we promise!) Sprint"s Kansas City headquarters is likely to be particularly hard hit over time. As a result, Sprint has started offering some employees retention bonuses to stick around. It"s not clear which employees are getting the bonuses, but Sprint is most likely focused on retaining key executive talent.

Of course this all depends on regulators approving a deal that eliminates countless jobs and reduces the number of total competitors from four to three, dramatically reducing the remaining companies" incentive to truly compete on price. But T-Mobile CEO John Legere insists "that regulatory approval prospects have never been better" under the Trump administration, whose FCC is likely to rubber stamp the deal, but whose DOJ under antitrust boss Makan Delrahim remains a wild card.
read comment(s)

Much like Verizon, AT&T executives say they"re not particularly worried about the Sprint and T-Mobile merger. AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan told attendees of a conference this week that the company won"t be contesting or opposing the union. To hear Donovan tell it, AT&T doesn"t really care about the merger because the company has its own strategy to execute and can"t be bothered with what other competitors are up to:

quote:

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We certainly won t contest it, said AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan at the MoffettNathanson Media & Communications Summit, which was webcast. If you look at where we are as an industry in wireless, each of the competitors out there is embarking on a very different strategy."

---

Report: UK broadband speeds 51% lower than advertised techradar.com
ISPs and Ajit Pai are really sad about Senate s vote for net neutrality arstechnica.com
New York, Others Added for Sprint 5G Rollout telecompetitor.com
From LTE-U/LAA to 5G Spectrum Sharing lightreading.com
NTIA chief Affirms broadband, spectrum support; cites federal actions in cybersecurity, wireless expansion, resolving digital divide multichannel.com
How AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint are overcoming slow user growth amid a fierce price war businessinsider.com
AT&T is making streaming as complicated as cable bgr.com
How and when Rogers, Telus and Bell sell your location to third-party companies cbc.ca
Comcast Connects on New Internet Essentials Campaign multichannel.com
read comment(s)

みなさまごきげんよう。

グッとくるセリフに出会うと、いつか自分も・・・！とストックしておきつつ、なかなか言う機会に恵まれないカホタン（ @gsc_kahotan ）です。

さてさて本日ご紹介するのは

「ねんどろいど カミナ」です！

俺を誰だと思っていやがる！

2017年に10周年を迎え、世界中のファンを魅了してやまない『天元突破グレンラガン』より、漢気溢れる情熱的な頼れる兄貴分:カミナがちっちゃ可愛いねんどろいどになりました◎

赤いサングラスにさらしを巻いた鍛え抜かれた身体・・・

そして真紅のマント、大きな刀っ！ディフォルメながら細部まで丁寧に表現しています♪

また立ち姿がより格好良くヒーロー的に決まるように、腰と足首にボールジョイントが入っているのも特徴です(∩・∀・)∩

サングラスは冒頭のクリアパーツ製のほか、透けない素材のものも合わせ2種ご用意しております★ 

▲サングラスの有無と合わせれば、表情差分のバリエーションアップ♪

また上半身は筋肉のラインを意識して造形しているので ねんどろいどサイズながらも鍛え抜かれた身体をご堪能いただけますよー！

▲ねんどろいどサイズでも堪能できるこのたくましい腕・・・！ありがたし・・・！

ということで、マントは着脱可能です(*´꒳`*)

ポージングやシチュエーションに合わせてお好みでお使い分けください♪

▲背中のタトゥー(イレズミ)もばっちり・・・！

表情パーツはカミナらしい勝ち気な笑みを浮かべた「通常顔」のほか

真似したくなるあの口上が聞こえてきそうな「叫び顔」もご用意いたしましたヽ(ﾟ∀ﾟヽ 三 ﾉﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉ

▲口元もよいのですがこの眉の動きがとても好き・・・！

それではここで３種目の表情パーツをご紹介する前に

本アイテムの企画担当と原型師に聞いた、それぞれの推しポイントをご紹介したいと思いますっ٩( ᐛ )و

【推しポイント(企画担当:鳥バード) 】

「天を衝く腕パーツ」

カミナは上半身半裸で結構今回筋肉質に作っています。そのため、上に向かって腕を伸ばした時の、肩口の三角筋や上腕二頭筋とかの逞しさもちゃんと表現したかった！かつ、専用腕として用意することで、腕から脇腹への綺麗なラインもみせたくて…他との兼用腕パーツだと、ここまではできなかったかなと思います。

そしてカミナ単体だとわかりにくいのですが、少しサイズ（全高等）を大きめに作っています。

溢れる漢気を表現したい気持ちと、もしあの相棒と並べることができたら・・・カミナだけで終わらせたくない！！という気持ちでやりました！　

鳥バード先輩の心意気、しかと受け取りました！！届いてほしいその気持ち・・・！

【推しポイント(原型師:しゃしゃき) 】

「マントと彩色」

劇中設定を元にしながら、カミナのフィギュアといえばの「天元突破グレンラガンシリーズ カミナ」(株式会社アイアップ)リスペクトで造形しました。 そしてここが本当に嬉しいところなのですが、そのアイテムを彩色した方がなんと今回のねんどろの彩色も担当されています！

なんだろう…こう…繋がっている感…！これは嬉しいですね！

それでは最後に３種目の表情パーツをご紹介したいと思います(/ω＼)

こちら「あばよ顔」です！！！

専用の腰パーツ＆足パーツと組み合わせ、「コクピット」に座らせると、

あのカミナの最期をイメージ再現することができます・・・(´□｀｡)

身体造形・彩色へのこだわりはもちろんのこと、小物パーツと組み合わせることで

作品世界、そしてカミナの魅力を余すことなくご堪能いただける、とっておきアイテムとなりました！

ちっちゃ可愛くなったアニキを是非お手元にお迎えください◎

「ねんどろいど カミナ」

5月22日（火）案内開始です◎

商品詳細は当日のお昼頃、グッドスマイルカンパニーの公式サイトにてご確認ください(｡･ω･)ﾉﾞ

さ　ら　に　！

本アイテムをグッスマオンラインショップにてご予約いただくと、 特典として「特別仕様台座」をプレゼントいたします★ 

ご予約の際は是非ご参考ください～ヾ(o´∀｀o)ﾉ

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◆展示会情報◆

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ワンホビギャラリー 2018 SPRING

▼開催日時

2018年5月26日（土）、27日（日）

26日（土）11:00～18:00（展示・販売）     ※最終入場17:30   

27日（日）10:00～15:00（展示・販売）     ※最終入場14:30   

　　　　　　16:00～（トークショー）     ※都合により時間が多少前後する可能性があります

▼開催場所

アキバCOギャラリー

▼チケット

入場無料

▼イベント詳細

http://event.goodsmile.info/…/

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グッドスマイルカンパニー、マックスファクトリーをはじめとする、各社の新作フィギュアが集う展示会が秋葉原で開催決定！

「ねんどろいど」、「figma」、「スケールフィギュア」などの発売前・ご予約開始前の新作フィギュアを多数展示します◎物販ほか、27日にはトークショーも★

当日アキバにお越しのフィギュアファンの方、ご興味のある方は、 アキバCOギャラリーへも是非ご来場ください♪

⇒詳細はこちら

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◆受注締め情報◆

グッスマオンラインショップでの
ご予約〆切が迫っておりますよ～！

「お迎えしたい！」という方はご予約がオススメです◎

なぜならば、グッスマのフィギュアは基本的に、みなさまからご予約いただいた数をもとに製造数を決める【受注生産方式】をとっているからなのです。

ご予約いただいた方には、ちゃんと商品が届くシステムなのですが「とりあえず予約はしないで、発売したら買う、で良いかなぁ・・・」という方が多すぎる場合、【予約数が集まらない＝全体の製造数もおさえめ】ということになり、発売日に品薄／売切れがおこる可能性があります。

（フィギュアは生産に時間がかかるため、再販を行うにもお時間を頂く場合が多く・・・！）

その為にご予約を推奨させていただきたい！です！

どうぞこの機会をお見逃しなく～(∩・∀・)∩

⇒各商品詳細はこちら

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