Roy Mark

Just two days after the U.S. House passed an economic stimulus package that includes $6 billion for broadband build outs to rural and underserved areas, the sniping has begun that lawmakers are short-changing the country’s broadband future. The Wall Street Journal notes, “The funding that Congress is likely to set aside for build-outs of high-speed […]

Most of the last year’s big winners of the Federal Communications Commission’s 700MHz auction are reluctant-perhaps understandably-to push Congress to stay the course on a Feb. 17 deadline for television stations to make the switch from analog to digital broadcasting.Even though they paid billions to secure the analog spectrum being vacated by broadcasters and much […]

Should the government postpone the digital television transition currently scheduled for Feb. 17? The Senate says yes, the House says no. Let the legislative hijinks ensue.Since the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced Jan. 5 that funding for the $1.34 billion digital converter box coupon program was temporarily exhausted and then President-elect Barack Obama said […]

Federal officials have agreed to postpone the start of the controversial E-Verify program until May 21 at the earliest. E-Verify would require federal contractors and subcontractors to use an Internet-based electronic verification system to confirm that prospective employees are legally eligible to work.The Jan. 28 announcement by the Department of Homeland Security of the delay […]

Hoping to avoid the network neutrality woes of its cable rival Comcast, Cox Communications plans to begin Feb. 9 testing new bandwidth management practices designed to slow traffic that isn’t “time-sensitive” during periods of peak network usage.“During the occasional times the network is congested, this new technology automatically ensures that all time-sensitive Internet traffic-such as […]

The U.S. House is scheduled to vote Jan. 28 on an $825 billion stimulus package attaching network neutrality and open access strings for $6 billion in grants and loans to build out broadband networks in unserved and underserved areas of the country. If-as widely expected-the American Recovery and Reinvestment passes the House, it will represent […]

The good news: A new survey shows retailers are beefing up their wireless security. The bad news: The same survey shows 44 percent of the wireless devices used by retailers are sitting targets for data thieves, suffering from weak encryption, data leakage, misconfigured access points and outdated access point firmware.While that 44 percent number may […]

The U.S. House approved an $819 billion emergency stimulus bill Jan. 28 that pumps more than $40 billion into areas that have been on the technology sector’s wish list, including $6 billion for broadband build-outs and $20 billion for health IT initiatives. The legislation also includes $11 billion to modernize the United States’ electrical grid […]

House Republicans Jan. 28 managed to stave off another attempt to delay the digital television transition from the looming Feb. 17 deadline to June 12. Taking a brief break from their daylong debate over the stimulus package, lawmakers voted 258-168 to move the digital TV deadline by four months, but a two-thirds majority was required […]

The U.S. Senate voted Jan. 26 to delay the transition to digital television to June 12, setting in motion what is expected to be swift action by the U.S. House to endorse the same Senate legislation that that dumps the original Feb. 17 deadline for television stations to switch from analog to digital broadcasting.If, as […]