Broadband Regulatory News
:: Broadband Regulatory News ::
Forbearance squabble heats up
By: By Carol Wilson
The war of words is heating up between Verizon and a group of competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) determined to prevent the incumbent from getting regulatory freedom in six of its local service markets...
FCC changes MDU rules
By: By Carol Wilson
As expected, the Federal Communications Commission issued new rules today that ban exclusivity clauses in video contracts for multiple dwelling units (MDUs) or other housing developments...
Seismic shift in competition?
By: By Carol Wilson
The net effect of the recent FCC decision granting AT&T the right not to resell packetized and broadband services will be fewer service options for business customers, say competitive service providers...
AT&T says ‘no’ to Conn. cable franchise
By: By Carol Wilson
AT&T is fully prepared to cut off service to more than 7000 U-verse customers in Connecticut and stop all video service in that state rather than file for a statewide cable licens...
AT&T to sue over Conn. video franchise
By: By Carol Wilson
AT&T will file a lawsuit challenging the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control’s decision not to grant the company a statewide video franchise for its U-verse service, a company spokeswoman confirmed today...
Comptel: CLEC vets give FCC an earful
By: By Carol Wilson
DALLAS--The Federal Communications Commission has become a bureaucratic morass, incapable of enforcing the Telecommunications Act of 1996, three competitive industry veterans said yesterday...
Verizon Wireless challenges 700 MHz rules in court
By: By Carol Wilson
In what could be the opening salvo in a long legal battle, Verizon Wireless has asked a federal court to set aside the Federal Communications Commission’s rules requiring open-access rules for one portion of the 700 MHz spectrum being auctioned beginning in January...
Verizon, FairPoint under regulatory scrutiny
By: By Carol Wilson
FairPoint and Verizon officials remain optimistic that the $2.7 billion deal that merges Verizon’s Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont operations into FairPoint will be approved by regulators, despite public complaints and controversy concerned the merger plan announced last January...
Motorola wins Iridium court fight
By: By Ed Gubbins
Motorola prevailed today in a lawsuit filed by creditors of satellite provider Iridium...
Standards body streamlines SOA work
By: By Rich Karpinski
A key standards body defining specs for building service-oriented enterprise applications last week shuffled the deck by creating six new committees to oversee the development of SOA standards...
Google makes $4B pledge to 700 MHz
By: By Carol Wilson
Google said today it has promised to spend a minimum of $4.6 billion in bidding for spectrum in the FCC’s upcoming 700 MHz auction – provided the commission agrees to Google’s version of auction rules...
Comptel: U.S. lagging in promoting competition
By: By Carol Wilson
By European standards, the U.S. is now lagging in promoting competition and consumer choice in the telecom industry, according to a report released yesterday by Comptel, the trade/lobbying organization that represents competitive carriers...
Net neutrality takes two knocks
By: By Carol Wilson
FTC report, IDC study see no need for federal regulation...
Verizon, Comcast caught in FCC flap
By: By Carol Wilson
Verizon today is refuting charges made by Comcast that the telecom giant is getting special treatment by the FCC, regarding an exemption from the agency’s ban on integrated set-top boxes...
IDC: Net neutrality proponents should negotiate
By: By Carol Wilson
A new report from IDC advises Web companies that are pushing for Net neutrality to instead begin to negotiate and partner with the broadband service providers whose facilities they will need for content distribution...
FTC sees no need for Net neutrality
By: By Carol Wilson
Opponents to Net neutrality legislation applauded today’s release of a Federal Trade Commission report which urged the federal government to proceed with caution on any new Internet rules...
Telecom issues going nowhere in Washington
By: By Carol Wilson
Not only is major telecommunications reform completely unlikely in Washington this year, but significant issues that once seemed headed for action now are languishing, overshadowed by larger developments such as the war in Iraq and immigration...
NCTA: Media execs fear government, not Google
By: By Carol Wilson
LAS VEGAS--Major media executives expressed more impassioned concern over unnecessary government regulation than encroachment on their turf by new media companies such as Yahoo! and Google...
FCC to explore Net neutrality
By: By Carol Wilson
In a move being applauded by players on both sides of the Net neutrality debate, the Federal Communications Commission today said it is beginning an inquiry into “market practices” in the broadband services arena...
Deadline pressure drives CALEA compliance
By: By Tim McElligott
With one CALEA deadline having come and gone last week and another looming in three months, procrastinating service providers are scrambling to comply....
FCC OKs extension on ICO satellite program
By: By Mark Donahue
ICO Global Communications announced this week that the FCC had granted its request for a five-month extension on milestones to construct and launch its geostationary satellite ICO G1...
Broadband advocate outlines eight steps to national plan
By: By Ed Gubbins
The Baller-Herbst law firm, a vocal broadband advocate best known as a supporter of municipal broadband, has published an eight-step plan to achieve a national broadband strategy...
Net neutrality back on the table
By: By Carol Wilson
U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) today put the issue of Net neutrality back on the Congressional agenda with a measure they called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act...
FCC video rules likely will be challenged
By: By Carol Wilson
The Federal Communications Commission’s new rules for local video franchises are likely to be challenged on two fronts: in the courts by the cable industry and in Congress by the new Democratic leadership....
McDowell won’t vote on merger
By: By Carol Wilson
Approval of the AT&T-BellSouth merger is once again up in the air, as Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell announced today that he will not vote to break the current 2-2 deadlock...
