Caron Carlson

Frustrated with what it considers ongoing difficulty in working with incumbent telephone companies to deliver competing broadband service, a group of Internet Service Providers and user advocates plans to ask the Federal Communications Commission to examine alleged anti-competitive behavior. The group, called the TeleTruth alliance, charges that incumbent telcos, namely the Bell Operating Companies, are […]

As corporate America tries to work more closely with the federal government to improve network security, a primary goal among CEOs is avoiding new federal regulations. However, executives who are directly responsible for network security do not necessarily share that goal. CIOs and chief security officers across the country are quietly advocating regulation to spur […]

As conventional notions for promoting high-speed Internet access—tax cuts and regulatory breaks for providers or subsidies for start-ups or users—wallow in legislative logjams or litigation, the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday began looking at a novel avenue for broadband connectivity: The electrical outlet. Broadband over Power Line, as the technology is known in regulatory circles, has […]

By the end of the year, if you want to switch cell phone companies you will no longer have to give up the number youre using, but not surprisingly the companies are fighting the rule that says you can take your number with you. On Tuesday the wireless industry tried to convince a three-judge panel […]

Momentum is building in Washington to require all public companies to annually report the performance of their IT security initiatives, not just the financial services and health care industries that face scrutiny now. The Bush administration considered requiring companies to report on network security during the crafting of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. But […]

Trying to tap into the enterprise need to tie a far-flung work force into a uniform communications system, Avaya Communications Inc. has rebundled a number of its network infrastructure and application technologies under a new brand name, Enterprise Connect Solutions. The packaging illustrates Avayas push toward expanding IP communications and converged voice/data networking throughout enterprises […]

In the latest effort to distance itself from the accounting scandal that upended it last summer, WorldCom Inc. changed its name to MCI and relocated its headquarters to Ashburn, Va. from Clinton, Miss. The company, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York last July, […]

Congress is taking another stab this year at controlling the growing volume of spam that is clogging the nations e-mail boxes. Thursday, Sens. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., reintroduced the CAN-SPAM bill, which won the support of the Senate Commerce Committee last year but did not make it to a vote on the […]

Efforts to spur the transfer of spectrum from government agencies to commercial wireless carriers advanced Wednesday when a House subcommittee approved a bill backed by the Department of Defense and the Administration. The Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act would hasten the migration of government users—particularly Department of Defense users—out of commercially desirable frequencies to alternative bands […]

Former presidential cyber-security advisor Richard Clarke warned lawmakers Tuesday that there is no top-level Administration official dedicated full-time to the safety of the nations information infrastructure. Clarke and other IT experts cautioned that the newly created Department of Homeland Security is not yet prepared to handle the challenges, and they called on Congress to act […]

A federal moratorium on Internet access taxes expires in November, and advocates of a permanent ban say Internet service providers await a myriad of state and local taxes—and Internet users await rising access costs—if Congress doesnt take action before the expiration. At a time when states and cities are struggling to balance their budgets, the […]

The war in Iraq has spawned a glut of blogs, journals, forums and Web images, but the sites delivering this real-time combat coverage are often at the mercy of the ISPs that host them. While most ISPs shun an editorial role—viewing themselves as conduits, rather than guardians, of content—the hosts do have the right to […]