Congress should let cities provide their own Internet
PRESIDENT OBAMA made it a point to highlight the importance of providing high-speed Internet access to all Americans in his State of the Union address last week. No one disagrees with the sentiment. The method he proposed, however — removing legislative barriers that prevent some cities and towns from creating their own Internet networks — […]
Google Fiber, Comcast’s nightmare come to life
What’s every incumbent ISP’s worst nightmare? If we had to guess, it looks something like the filing that Google just made with the Federal Communications Commission. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Google this week told the FCC that reclassifying broadband providers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act would have a big side benefit […]
Cablevision’s OMGFAST broadband service bites the dust
Cablevision’s short-lived OMGFAST foray into fixed wireless broadband service–which relied upon licenses the company sold to, and then leased back from, Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH)–is coming to an end next month. Our sister publication FierceCable reported that an outgoing message on the OMGFAST customer line indicates the wireless Internet and telephone service will be discontinued […]
Pay-per-use bandwidth? Not without some ground rules
Molly Wood faces the hard reality that the days of unlimited bandwidth are over, but she’s not going to get taken to the cleaners by greedy providers. Here’s how to make pay-per-use a fair deal for everyone. Do I get results, or what? Less than a day after this column posted, Comcast announced it would […]
LightSquared Files For Chapter 11
Wireless Internet provider LightSquared has filed for Chapter 11 protection. LightSquared, the ambitious 4G wireless venture recently poised to bring lightning-fast Internet to the masses, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier today. Government tests found that LightSquared’s signals interfered with GPS reception, a setback LightSquared was never able to recover from. In an official […]
Sling Broadband Postpones Cooperative Venture with LightSquared
Sling Broadband has announced a postponement of a planned cooperative venture with the technology company LightSquared after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) halted licensing for LightSquared’s innovative satellite-enhanced broadband network due to possible broadcast spectrum interference with GPS devices. In 2005, after extensive discussions with the GPS Council, the company that became LightSquared obtained […]
FCC Grudgingly Hangs Up On LightSquared Over GPS Concerns
LightSquared suffered a potentially fatal blow today after the Federal Communications Commission said it would indefinitely suspend the company’s license to turn on a combined satellite/terrestrial communications network because it would interfere with GPS systems operating on neighboring radio bands. The FCC had little choice after the National Telecommunications and Information Administration concluded there was no […]
Microsoft Reinvents Wi-Fi for White Spaces
Microsoft has developed a new kind of Wi-Fi network that performs at its top speed even in the face of interference. It takes advantage of a new Wi-Fi standard that uses more of the electromagnetic spectrum, but also hops between the narrow bands of unused spectrum within television broadcast frequencies. In 2008, the us Federal […]
Mobile carriers: Five predictions for 2012
The biggest news for 2011 in this sector was AT&T’s $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile. And when the deal was announced in March, AT&T seemed confident it could make it happen. So confident in fact, that it agreed to one of the biggest break-up fees ever. But as we all now know, regulators didn’t […]