Roy Mark

A three-judge federal panel appeared Jan. 8 to question the Federal Communications Commission’s legal authority in the 2008 decision that found Comcast guilty of violating the FCC’s network neutrality principles. Comcast complied with the FCC’s order to stop throttling peer-to-peer Internet traffic from BitTorrent but in September 2008 appealed the decision.The U.S. Court of Appeals […]

Two U.S. Congressmen joined Jan. 7 in opposing the proposed deal between Verizon and Frontier Communications in which Verizon would sell 4.8 million rural phone lines in 14 states to Frontier. Reps. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire and Alan Mollohan of West Virginia said the $8.6 million all-stock deal would saddle Frontier with more than […]

Sprint and LG Mobile Phones announced Jan. 7 a line of LG phones updated to offer users a more advanced handset with the additions of touch-screen technology and other new features. The LG Lotus Elite and the LG Rumor Touch are designed to be “successors to the popular LG Lotus and LG Rumor,” Sprint said […]

The Federal Communications Commission said Jan. 6 the agency will miss the Feb. 17 deadline by which it was required to present a national broadband plan to Congress. In asking lawmakers for a one-month delay, the FCC said it needed more time to prepare the report that is supposed to be a blueprint for bringing […]

AdvancedMD Software announced the acquisition Jan. 6 of PracticeOne, a privately held provider of electronic health records software to independent physician practices of all major specialties. The deal allows AdvancedMD, a SAAS (software-as-a-service) provider of medical practice and revenue cycle management automation solutions, to expand its portfolio to include a SAAS-based EHR. Terms of the […]

Amid all the glitter of the high tech products being shown at CES this week, TabSafe is quietly promoting its new health IT product: a medication management system. The device is programmed to monitor and distribute needed medications, reducing the chance of an overdose. The device is Web-accessible so family, caregivers and medical personnel have […]

AT&T announced Jan. 6 that it plans to launch five new Android devices from Dell, HTC and Motorola in the first half of 2010. While T-Mobile and Verizon have made Android-based phones an intrinsic part of their product lineups, AT&T’s announcement marks the carrier’s first foray into Android devices.AT&T, which is the exclusive U.S. distributor […]

Google reversed course Jan. 4, petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to be considered as one of potentially several administrators of a white spaces geolocation database. Google, one of the prime movers promoting the unlicensed use of white spaces — the interference buffer zones between broadcast channels — had previously said it wasn’t interested in the […]

Launched in March of last year, NASA’s Kepler telescope has discovered its first five new planets beyond Earth’s solar system. Known as exoplanets, the Kepler discoveries are also called “hot Jupiters” because of their high masses and extreme temperatures.The new exoplanets range in size from similar to Neptune to larger than Jupiter and have orbits […]

The Department of Justice told the Federal Communications Commission Jan. 4 that the FCC should make more spectrum available to wireless broadband providers to promote competition in high-speed Internet services, which is currently dominated by the telephone and cable industries. The DOJ comments are in reply to the FCC’s ongoing proceedings on a national broadband […]

Despite a paucity of hard scientific evidence, both the state of Maine and the city of San Francisco are considering legislation requiring cell phone makers to affix labels on their devices warning consumers of possible brain cancer risks due to electromagnetic radiation.In Maine, State Rep. Andrea Boland has won approval for the state legislature to […]

Nuance Communications said Dec. 30 it has acquired SpinVox for $66 million in cash and 2.3 million shares of Nuance common shares for a deal worth $102.5 million. SpinVox, a voice-to-text services provider, has been rumored in play for several weeks after struggling to repay a $48.8 million loan, although the original rumored selling price […]