FCC Official Declines to Vote On AT& T Deal
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Federal Communications Commissioner Robert M. McDowell announced yesterday that he would disqualify himself from voting on AT&T's proposed purchase of BellSouth on ethical grounds, depriving the FCC of a potential swing vote that could have broken the stalemate among its Democratic and Republican...
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Blog: A day after a federal agency urged against new rules for broadband operators, Democratic leaders in Congress say they're not giving up on enacting the divisive anti-discrimination laws.
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3Com Corp. on Wednesday said it could not come to an agreement with federal authorities reviewing the national security implications of a proposed buyout by a private-equity firm and Chinese telecommunications company.
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Verizon Communications Inc.'s lead lobbyist said the company is likely to abandon efforts to pursue federal rules to ease the sale of television service if pending legislation fails this year.
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Nortel Networks on Monday declined to comment on a news report that the company is negotiating with Motorola to combine wireless infrastructure units.
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(InfoWorld) - M2Z Networks may sue the U.S. Federal Communications Commission after the agency turned down its request for radio frequencies for a national broadband wireless network. On Aug. 31, the FCC rejected M2Z's plan to roll out free and paid services reaching at least 95 percent of the Americas. For that service, M2Z asked for 20MHz of spectrum for which it would pay the government 5 percent of its annual gross revenue. M2Z proposed the plan in May 2006. The FCC didn't rule on the plan within a year and apparently didn't look at M2Z's supporting documents because it never commented on them, according to M2Z co-founder and CEO John Muleta. Legally it had to do both, Muleta said, so M2Z is considering filing suit in a federal appeals court. The issue of wireless spectrum is heating up as the FCC heads toward its planned JanuaryÂ auction of frequencies in the 700MHz bandÂ being vacated by analog TV stations.Â Google and othersÂ wanted the FCC to require wholesale access to that spectrum so that multiple providers could offer services. It eventually included a provision for some spectrum to be usable for any application on any device. M2Z wants to use spectrum between 2155MHz and 2175MHz, a band previously used for microwave links between carrier facilities, which the FCC set aside for AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) in 2000. The agency has no plan yet for how to assign the spectrum. In its order rejecting M2Z's plan, the FCC said, "the public interest is best served by first seeking public comment on how the band should be used and licensed." The order turned down M2Z's plan "without prejudice," meaning it didn't stop the company from proposing it again, according to Muleta. M2Z plans to participate in the future public comment process but believes FCC's indecision has gone on too long already. "They took 15 months to decide that they really couldn't make a decision," Muleta said. Meanwhile, the country still lacks sufficient broadband competition, he said. M2Z wants to deliver a free service, supported partly by locally targeted search advertising, at 384Kbps downstream and 128Kbps upstream. People would only have to give a valid e-mail address or phone number to use it. Like broadcast TV, the free service would be "family friendly," meaning it would filter out content that wasn't appropriate for children. A paid service on the same network would offer 3Mbps throughput and access to anything on the Internet. Muleta knows who he's up against. He was chief of the FCC's wireless bureau from 2003 to 2005. M2Z, founded in 2005 and based in Menlo Park, Calif., is backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firms. One wireless analyst said the free service wouldn't be fast enough for most consumers. He also questioned its "family friendly" content restrictions. "At that point, you're not really giving Internet service," said Sascha Meinrath, research director for the Wireless Future program at the public policy group New America Foundation. But even if its service never gets turned on, M2Z has done its part to foster broadband competition, Meinrath said. "M2Z has pretty single-handedly shifted the debate," Meinrath said. Its plan to pay for spectrum through royalties rather than up front, as well as to make more efficient use of spectrum and offer a free service, are likely to show up in future spectrum allocation plans, he said. More efficient wireless networks should mean more bandwidth at lower cost --Â a better deal for consumers, Meinrath said.
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Kevin Martin, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is trying to get the ball rolling toward a decision on AT&T Inc.'s proposed acquisition of BellSouth Corp.
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Political opposition to the merger of satellite radio providers XM and Sirius increased on Wednesday, as the chair of the Senate antitrust committee sent a letter to both the FCC and Justice Department opposing the deal.
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Microsoft won't participate in the 700 MHz spectrum auction planned by the FCC for January, CEO Steve Ballmer said.
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A majority of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to conditionally approve Cingular Wireless' proposed acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. , a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
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AT&T Inc. hasn't decided whether it will bid for the highly-desirable 700MHz band because it doesn't know if it can build a profitable business given the open-access rules set for the wireless spectrum by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in July.
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InfoWorld - AT&T hasn't decided whether it will bid for the highly desirable 700MHz band because it doesn't know if it can build a profitable business, given the open-access rules set for the wireless spectrum by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in July.
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A key lawmaker said it was unlikely that a public safety wireless network being auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission will find a buyer before the auction closes.
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The nation's chief communications regulator on Thursday defended a public statement in which he said he wouldn't enforce some conditions imposed on AT&amp;T Corp. as a condition of approving its buyout of BellSouth Corp.
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A White House nominee may lose his  job overseeing U.S.-backed international TV and radio services  after a Senate committee said on Wednesday it would not vote  this year on another term for Kenneth Tomlinson, following a  government report that said he used the office for personal  gain.
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U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has sought a ruling that could permit a recused commissioner to cast a tie-breaking vote allowing AT&T Inc. to acquire BellSouth Corp., an agency official told Reuters on Friday.
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In contrast to AT&T, company says it's not interested in installing filters on its network or inspecting packets for possible piracy, citing concerns about customer privacy.