More cable news from across the web:
> According to the World Bank, half of the world's population isn't connected to the Internet, despite the fact that 9 billion devices around the globe are. VOA story
> Roku devices remain the most popular for OTT usage in the U.S., accounting for 30 percent of sales from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of this year, according to Parks Associations. CED Magazine story
> Mediacom said it will add more foreign-language channels to its programming lineup. Press release
> Alaska's GCI has selected Nutcracker Technology to run its customer, revenue and operations management systems. Press release
> Comcast plans to staff a new call center in Ft. Collins, Colo. with 600 employees. Denver Business Journal story
> Comcast Ventures has made an $11 million Series B round investment into Silicon Valley-based business intelligence platform AtScale. Philadelphia Business Journal story
> Verizon and the wireline workers represented by the CWA and IBEW unions that came back to the negotiating table yesterday have sought the assistance of a federal mediator to sort out issues. Article
> CenturyLink is concerned that the FCC's new two-day reporting period requirement for simplex events on its next-gen services like VoIP and other advanced services is too short. Article
> Verizon is taking Capitola, California to court over an ordinance it says is so restrictive it effectively bars the carrier from installing new wireless facilities. Article
> Consolidated Communications isn't afraid to make a deal to purchase another company, especially if that service provider can help it bolster its network footprint. Steve Childers, CFO of Consolidated, told investors during the recent Jefferies Communications Conference that it is looking at deals that will it can quickly integrate, particularly those that have fiber assets. Article
> Periscope, the Twitter-owned live streaming mobile app, is continuing to add features such as GoPro compatibility and default archiving. But correctly curating live streams as they're in progress is still a challenge, making it tough sometimes for users to find content through a text or tag search. So Periscope is working with Cortex, Twitter's machine learning R&D unit, on a livestream scanning system. Article
> Mobile devices may be an increasingly popular way to consume online video, but it's not necessarily the device that is driving popularity of certain video apps. That's the consensus of two major broadcast networks, Turner and ESPN, at a panel session on mobile video strategy here at the INTX tradeshow. Article
> Comcast said it is seeing dramatic increases in network traffic on its Xfinity-branded Wi-Fi network. Specifically, Comcast's Cole Reinwand said that the operator recorded fully 445.8 million GB (or 445.8 Petabytes) of traffic on its Xfinity Wi-Fi network last year. Article
> A top executive for Cox Communications said that the company continues to evaluate whether it will launch an MVNO service, but that it hasn't made a decision either way yet. "Never say never," said Kelly Williams, VP of Cox's strategic video platforms, here at an event at the INTX trade show for the cable industry. "We're keeping our options open." Article
And finally… Netflix is launching a new tool to keep broadband providers honest. Netflix's Fast.com is a free, cleanly designed website that simply does one thing: measures how fast your Internet download speeds are. Variety article