Roy Mark

AT&T won a partial victory Oct. 11 when the Federal Communications Commission granted the nations largest carrier regulatory relief on some charges to business customers and rivals using AT&Ts broadband lines. The FCC gave similar relief to Verizon last year. The FCCs decision enables AT&T, of San Antonio, Texas, to keep pricing information confidential instead […]

Seeking improved data about the availability and speed of broadband connections in the United States, a House subcommittee Oct. 10 approved legislation to change the Federal Communications Commissions methodology for determining deployment. Currently, the FCC counts a single broadband subscriber in a five-digit zip code as representing high-speed access for the entire zip code. Democrats […]

Having settled its patent litigation with Sprint, Vonage filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 10 seeking to reverse that courts decision upholding two of three infringement verdicts favoring Verizon. “This move represents the next logical step for Vonage in managing this litigation and continuing to move our business forward,” Vonage […]

Rejecting Republican calls for a permanent ban on Internet connection taxes, the House Judiciary Committee Oct. 10 voted to extend the current temporary moratorium—set to expire Nov. 1—for another four years. The nine-year-old Internet Tax Fairness Act of 1998 bars state and local governments from taxing broadband connections and imposing other levies and fees that […]

Despite the Oct. 8 dismissal of CEO Gary Forsee, Sprint Nextel is likely to push full speed ahead with its $5 billion plans to deploy a 4G WiMax network, according to Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at JupiterResearch. “I think [Sprint Nextel] is going to continue pretty strongly with WiMax,” Gartenberg said from […]

With speculation swirling about AT&Ts participation in Januarys 700MHz spectrum auction, the nations largest wireless carrier hedged its bet Oct. 9 by acquiring the 700MHz licenses of Aloha Partners for $2.5 billion. Aloha Partners, a Delaware limited partnership, holds licenses for UHF channels 54 and 59. The all cash deal will give AT&T 12MHz of […]

Officials with Samsung, the worlds second-largest cell-phone maker, said Oct. 7 they are shipping its new 3G handsets with Broadcom chips. The collaboration extends a deal first struck last year between the two companies for Samsung to launch Broadcoms first-generation 3G technology. The Broadcom 3G cellular solutions selected by Samsung, of Seoul, South Korea, for […]

The Federal Communications Commission will not pursue an investigation of telecoms cooperation with the National Security Agencys wiretapping activities. According to Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, in Washington, such a probe would “pose an unnecessary risk of damage to national security.” AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have been singled out in a number of accounts […]

Alltel Wireless launched Wi-Fi services Oct. 8, providing customers with a laptop or a smart phone with Internet connections through hot spots in North and South America. Boingo Wireless powers the new service. Alltel, of Little Rock, Ark., is offering a Wi-Fi and EVDO Wireless Internet bundle, delivering unlimited Wi-Fi access from any supported hot […]

WASHINGTON—Microsoft rolled out a software and services platform Oct. 4 aimed at connecting physicians, patients and their records across a unified platform. Microsofts HealthVault is an online repository where consumers can store medical information for free in an encrypted database, as well as decide what information goes into the record and who sees that information. […]

Google accused Verizon Oct. 3 of fudging Federal Communications Commission rules in its lobbying efforts to convince FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to roll back the open access requirements for the January 700 MHz auction. The FCC ruled July 31 that a prime portion of the spectrum to be auctioned would be conditioned on the winning […]

Although just released in July, the iPhone is already the countrys leading Wi-Fi-enabled device, according to analyst firm M:Metrics. Out of 1.9 million U.S. mobile devices with Wi-Fi, M:Metrics numbers show the 8GB iPhone at the top of the list with 287,198 users. That the wild consumer popularity of Apples iPhone has quickly brought it […]