Stories about: FCC

The Bush Administration's anti-recession tactics have given rise to an unexpected beneficiary: the Internet porn industry. According to the Adult Internet Market Research Company, adult sites have been engorged with sales during the normally limp US summer months. One popular clothing optional site surveyed its members last month; 32 per cent said the tax rebates influenced their decision to sign up or renew their subscriptions -- thus giving new meaning to the term "stimulus package." (Ba dump-bump.) At least our tax dollars are finally going to something worthwhile.

Normally, in a time of crisis, an "amateur" is not the first person you might call. But when communications networks go down, amateur radio operators -- or hams -- and their gear can get communities connected to the outside world via the radio waves.

The U.S. should aim for 100M bps (bits per second) of broadband available to all U.S. residents by 2012 and 1G bps by 2015 in order to catch up to other countries that are moving forward with broadband rollouts, recommends a study released Monday.

With regard to the free exchange of information over the Internet, we, the people, have mostly managed to hold our ground. We can thank activists, hacktivists, legislators saying "no, thanks" to money from the entertainment lobbies, and forward-thinking artists and content distributors--I'm proud that writers and publishers took the lead on this--who recognise that reach is the currency of the digital age.

Verizon's proposed US$28 billion acquisition of privately held Alltel signals the start of hurricane season for wireless providers. And this season might just include the perfect storm: Technology shifts, consolidation and business-model changes are combining to reconfigure the world of wireless.

When Google launched its web-based e-mail service (Gmail) on April 1, 2004, many people thought it was an April Fool's Day joke, and perhaps with good reason. That same day, the company had posted plans to open a research facility on the moon.

Comcast announced this week that it will no longer target individual protocols for traffic shaping, and will instead slow Web traffic for individual users who consume a "disproportionate" amount of bandwidth.

Largely due to the continued dumb statements and actions of a few apparently PR-challenged carriers, the network neutrality issue is alive and well in the United States. Since any issue like this seems to create a legislative void that must be filled, we now have at least two network neutrality related bills for Congress to consider. If one liked legislation-based solutions, merging these bills and tossing out a bit of Federal Communications Commission make-work would not be too bad, but there would still be some questions left unanswered.

Broadcom this week has unveiled its latest 802.11n chip for wireless LAN access points, with advances that promise lower power demands and lower prices for enterprise-class products that could be available by year-end.

Speakers at the US Wireless Communications Association (WCA) meeting this week threw out a flurry of suggestions to improve both public and private broadband access in the United States, from public investment to holding new spectrum auctions to allowing unlicensed use of TV "white spaces."

Some VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and mobile phone service providers are riding free when connecting to the traditional telephone network in the US, potentially costing carriers billions of dollars, according to testimony at a Senate hearing this week.