WASHINGTON, June 30, 2010 – AT&T’s special access lines are set for price hikes, and the NoChokePoints Coalition says FCC regulation of this “is essential to the health of our information economy.” AT&T had a different opinion. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 30, 2010 – In a statement released today, Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) Co-Chief Executive Mike Quigley called recent estimates of the network’s startup cost “nonsense.” While most mainstream estimates of the cost to build Australia’s new network range from $43 billion to $60 billion, Quigley insisted that the actual cost of the network would run closer to $30 billion. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON June 30, 2010 – The National Congress of American Indians released resolution supporting network neutrality. The resolution said in part: “An engaged democracy, relies on our ability as citizens to freely access information online,” reads the resolution, “to use that information to determine our own decisions in politics, health, education, environment and other important matters” Keep Reading
WASHINGTON June 30, 2010- In a show of support for President Obama’s memorandum ordering the release of 500 MHz of spectrum, Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass) will author a bill to give additional guidance in the release of the spectrum. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON June 30, 2010- Minneapolis will soon offer free Wi-Fi to its residents. The city has announced the deployment of 117 hotspots around the city for a project they are calling “Wireless Minneapolis”. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 30, 2010 –Best Buy will soon offer a mobile broadband service running on the Sprint 3g network. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON June 30, 2010-The Pew Center on the States has just released a report on the importance of state government involvement in broadband. In essence the report aims to show the varied efforts that the states are making to expand broadband. Additionally they give a brief explanation of why the national purposes set out by the National Broadband Plan are important. Keep Reading
A copyright holder can't just randomly rummage around an internet service provider's logs of its customers' online activities in pursuit of those too cheap to pay for their entertainment a group of public interest lawyers are scheduled to argue Wednesday in a D.C. court. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON June 29, 2010-AT&T’s mobile broadband network will work will CURRENT Smart Grid Distribution Solutions to increase grid efficiency and system capacity. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 29, 2010 – The best way to avoid cyber bullying is not to be a teenage girl, said an expert on Tuesday at a panel discussion hosted by the Progress and Freedom Foundation. The remarks, made by Michael McKeehan, Verizon’s executive director of internet and technology policy, were in response to a question on “high risk behaviors” that lead children to become targets of online bullies. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 29, 2010 - The Federal Communications Commission today launched the Data Innovation Initiative, a plan to modernize and streamline how the agency collects, uses and disseminates data, and it named the agency’s first-ever chief data officer. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 29, 2010- In a speech to the American Library Association, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn reviewed the top recommendations to expand broadband service and adoption found in the National Broadband Plan. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 29, 2010 - For the first time, the Federal Communications Commission has released information about Voice over Internet Protocol in its Local Telephone Competition Report. Interconnected VoIP service makes it possible for voice communication through broadband connections, including sending and receiving calls. The service uses the public switched phone network, just like traditional phone service. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 29, 2010On Monday the President announced that he has instructed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) to make 500 MHz of spectrum available over the next 10 years. This release of spectrum is one of the first direct implementations of recommendations made by the National Broadband Plan. “America's future competitiveness and global technology leadership depend, in part, upon the availability of additional spectrum” said President Obama. Keep Reading
SAN FRANCISCO, June 28, 2010 - Apple fired another volley against HTC, the the Taiwainese smart phone hardware makers last week when it accused the firm of infringing four of its patents covering the iPhone. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 28, 2010 – Cuba is still lagging significantly in broadband availability and adoption. According to the CIA World Factbook, Cuba has 11.5 million inhabitants, and Reuters found that there are only 700,000 computers in Cuba. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 28, 2010 - The board of the internet’s governing body has granted several Chinese organizations the ability to register domain names written entirely in characters, including the last characters to the right of the dot found in internet addresses. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 28, 2010- On Friday Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Federal Communication Commission Chairmen Julius Genachowski held a community forum on broadband in Troy, Missouri. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 28, 2010 – In an effort to support the goals of the National Broadband Plan, President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum directing the auction of 500megahertz of spectrum which is currently owned by the federal government and some private firms. Keep Reading
SAN FRANCISCO, June 28, 2010 - The office of the United States Trade Representative is standing firm as its negotiators head into a set of week-long negotiations over the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Lucerne, Switzerland. Keep Reading
SAN FRANCISCO, June 28, 2010 - Patents are deemed by executives at software and internet start-ups as the least important way of boosting competitive advantage, according to a forthcoming survey of more than a thousand companies by the University of California's Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2010 – Britain’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) has begun a request of information about network neutrality. The office specifically citied the Comcast case and the actions being taken by the Federal Communication Commission as a contributing factor as to why they believe they must inquire about the issue. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2010 –The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental affairs has passed the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010; as has been reported before this act has gained a fair bit of controversy for its internet kill switch provision. If signed into law the act would also create a cyber-security center within the Department of Homeland Security. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2010 – Public libraries are key resources for job seekers, researchers and others thanks to their position in the community as an access point to the internet, says a new study from the American Library Association. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commissions announced a new appointment in its office of Native outreach this Tuesday, an office responsible for acting as a liaison between the FCC and tribal nations within the United States. The new administrator, Geoffrey Blackwell, will be responsible for leading the Office of Native Nations to implement the National Broadband Plan’s recommendations for extending broadband access to tribal nations. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2010 - A consumer research study from the Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG), revealed that most Americans are not concerned with broadband speed and availability. They found that 71% of broadband subscribers are very satisfied with their Internet at home, while only 3% of subscribers were not satisfied. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2010 – Universal Service reform is one of the key components of the National Broadband Plan and a principal which many in the telecommunications industry believe needs to happen before the current system collapses. On Thursday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation held hearings to determine the state of the Universal Service Fund and to hear testimony to determine what should be done to reform it. While the hearing was titled “Universal Service: Transforming the High-Cost Fund for the Broadband Era” many of the Republican Senators spent a majority of their questions on reclassification not on universal service. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2010 – Experts this week debated whether the United States is seriously lagging behind other countries on broadband access and if its place on the global stage is related to a failure of telecommunications regulation. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2010 – Broadband adoption in Africa has historically lagged when ranked globally, but its use has been growing steadily in recent years, said Yvon Le Roux, Cisco vice president for Africa and Levant. In an interview conducted by Cisco’s internal news bureau, Le Roux said there’s recently been a significant growth in mobile broadband in Africa. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2010 – Broadband over Powerline (BPL) will finally have an established standard. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has been working on a standard since 2005 but only recently has unable to come to agreement. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commission announced Monday that it would begin a plan to increase spectrum availability by freeing up loose spectrum allotted to satellite companies. The plan will be initiated in July after an FCC proceeding examining how to increase value, utilization and investment in mobile satellite services (MSS). Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2010 –Oklahoma has announced its broadband initiative which will consist of two phases; the first phase will be mapping and data collection with the second phase consisting of broadband expansion. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2010 —Verizon currently maintains one of the few commercial fiber-to-the-home networks in America that achieves a top speed of 25mbps up and 25mbps down; however with increased competition by cable providers who have upgraded to DOCSIS3 which can achieve speeds of 50mbps down and 10mbps, Verizon is starting to feel the pressure. Keep Reading
Since the dust has settled from a stinging defeat in federal court, the FCC has decided to move on its own to settle the broadband regulation dispute. Keep Reading
SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2010 — YouTube scored a major victory in a bitterly-fought, billion dollar copyright infringement lawsuit Wednesday brought by media giant Viacom when a federal district court judge in Manhattan said that a 1998 law shields YouTube from liability. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 23, 2010 – The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau appointed 20 members to its Emergency Response Interoperability Center’s Technical Advisory Committee Monday. The ERIC mission is to establish a technical and operational framework that will ensure nationwide operability and interoperability in deployment and operation of the 700 megahertz public safety broadband wireless network. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 23, 2010 - AT&T has announced major wired and wireless network investment plans following Illinois’ new telecommunications law. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 23, 2010 – An intellectual property expert from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today on Capitol Hill commended the release of the first-ever government-wide national intellectual property enforcement strategy and urged congressional action to implement the plan. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2010 – Beyond the National Broadband Plan lies the problem of hardware; the challenge is that even if broadband is spread to remote parts of the country, there will not be enough computers to take advantage of the benefits. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 23, 2010 – The last panel discussion of the Broadband for America conference discussed the promotion of broadband adoption. Several of the panelists cited the statistic that 37% of the population that has access to the internet does not use it even though approximately 94% of Americans have access of some kind. Keep Reading