Roy Mark

Measuring Lawmakers’ Twitter Clout: A Top 10 List by Roy Mark No Title Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC): 79.0 No Title Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): 75.4 No Title Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): 72.9 No Title Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): 72.3 No Title Rep. John Boehner (R-OH): 67.9 No Title Rep. John Culberson (R-TX): 62.8 No Title […]

Four U.S. senators led by Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd plan to introduce the Retroactive Immunity Repeal Act, which would repeal the law that Congress passed in July 2008 granting immunity to telephone companies that allegedly assisted in domestic spying by U.S. intelligence agencies. The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy, Russ Feingold and Jeff […]

France Telecom’s Orange said Sept. 8 it will begin selling the Apple iPhone in the U.K. later this year when Telefonica’s O2 exclusive deal with Apple expires. O2 will continue to sell the iPhone, leaving T-Mobile Germany as the last exclusive European distributor of the iPhone.Orange did not announce an actual launch date but said […]

Joseph Hirko, former co-CEO of Enron Broadband Services, was sentenced Sept. 28 to 16 months in prison, according to the Department of Justice. “In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa Gilmore ordered Hirko … to forfeit approximately $7 million in restitution to victims through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enron […]

Nokia on Sept. 28 officially acquired Dopplr, which it described in a news release as “a privately held mobile service provider for international travelers.” The deal comes a week after rumors surfaced that Nokia was buying Dopplr for $15 million to $20 million, although the official announcement did not disclose the purchase price.Dopplr bills itself […]

Space, it turns out, is a wetter place than scientists originally imagined or theorized. NASA this week revealed water molecules in the polar regions of the moon have been discovered and that Mars has much more water than scientists previously thought. While the amount of ice spotted on Mars is surprising, it was the discovery […]

The other shoe fell this week for mobile carriers when Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said his agency would consider extending network neutrality rules to the mobile Internet. The first shoe fell when Barack Obama won the presidency.Obama championed network neutrality during his campaign for the White House as part of his telecommunications policy […]

Rep. Doris O. Matsui introduced legislation Sept. 24 to expand the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline Assistance program to low-income broadband adoption. The Federal Communications Commission’s current Lifeline Assistance program provides discounted telephone service for low-income Americans living in rural and urban areas.The Broadband Affordability Act of 2009 would expand the USF Lifeline Assistance program to […]

A move by Republican senators to block funding to the Federal Communications Commission for developing or implementing new network neutrality regulations is apparently over almost as quickly as it began.Unhappy with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s Sept. 21 proposal to extend and codify the agency’s network neutrality principles, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) moved on the […]

A U.S. House subcommittee Sept. 23 approved legislation requiring federal agencies to develop, update and implement strategic plans for cyber-security R&D. The Cybersecurity Research and Development Amendments Act of 2009 calls for agencies to create a road map detailing each agency’s cyber-security role and the level of funding required to fulfill the research objectives.In addition, […]