Roy Mark

Despite a summer-long clamor by Congress and consumer groups over broadband providers collecting information on users’ Web surfing habits, mobile operators and mobile Internet portals want more data on customers. And they not only want more data, they want it more quickly than their current systems allow. According to a survey by Nokia Siemens Networks, […]

Consolidation in the commercial Wi-Fi market continued Nov. 10 with Boingo Wireless acquiring Opti-Fi Networks of Annapolis, Md., which operates 25 airport Wi-Fi networks in the U.S. and Canada. AT&T expanded its Wi-Fi footprint to 20,000 hotspots Nov. 6 with the acquisition of privately held Wayport. Boingo, of Los Angeles, is the largest operator of […]

The tech sector enthusiastically embraces the president-elect’s technology-centric proposals for just about everything that ails America; Barack Obama’s insistence that trade agreements include strong labor, environmental and safety standards, not so much so. So much not so that tech is urging the now lame duck Congress to get the Columbia Free Trade Agreement to President […]

While President-elect Barack Obama meets in Chicago with his transition team, all of tech waits to hear if Obama will name a cabinet-level chief technology officer, as he championed during his campaign for the White House. InterActiveCorp executive Julius Genachowski and Sonal Shah of Google.org are heading up the search. Some of the most prominent […]

AT&T expanded its Wi-Fi footprint Nov. 6 with the acquisition of privately held Wayport. The $275 million cash deal expands AT&T’s domestic Wi-Fi hotspots to more than 20,000 locations. Wayport, of Irving, Texas, operates hotspots at McDonald’s restaurants, select Wyndham, Marriott Vacation Club and Four Seasons hotels and HealthSouth and Sun Healthcare locations. Wayport already […]

President-elect Barack Obama will inherit a Department of Defense increasingly concerned about advance cyber-threats to the nation’s civilian and military information infrastructures, according to a report by the Defense Science Board. The Board, a federal advisory committee established to provide independent advice to the Secretary of Defense, said in its Nov. 4 report, “Defense Imperatives […]

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire cleared the final regulatory hurdle to creating a nationwide WiMax network Nov. 4 as the Federal Communications Commission approved the $14.5 billion merger of Sprint’s Xohm division with Clearwire’s operations. The new company will operate with the Clearwire name. The merger approval capped a long day at the FCC as the […]

Eight years after the Florida presidential election fiasco where failed punch card technology turned into a national punch line and a historic Supreme Court decision, Americans go to the polls Nov. 4 with technology’s ability to accurately record and secure your vote again on trial. When the polls open, almost 90 percent of voters will […]

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin proclaimed the dawn of a new era in wireless innovation Nov. 4 as the agency unanimously approved rules for the unlicensed use of the “white spaces” between digital television signals. The spectrum will become available after the Feb. 17 digital television transition and will be available to both fixed […]

Just who, exactly, is in charge here when it comes to establishing standards and minimum standards for America’s voting machines? In theory, it is the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) but voters casting ballots Nov. 4 will be using voting machines not certified by NIST. NIST only assumed voting machine testing and certification […]

In spite of the mounting evidence that has emerged since 2006 demonstrating that voter fraud committed at the polling place is extremely rare, there are still of plenty of ways to unfairly influence an election. Common Cause and the New Century Foundation list 10 of the most common ways. Most involve the use of low […]

Almost all registered U.S. voters will cast their ballots on one of three types of electronic voting machines: Direct Recording Electronic, DRE with Voter-Verified Paper Trail, and Precinct Counter Optical Scan machines. Each has its vulnerabilities, according to the Brennan Center Task Force on Voting System Security. Click here to read about electronic voting machine […]