Items tagged with FCC
Verizon this week issued a strong challenge to the U.S. Congress to update the nation's antiquated and anti-competitive telecom rules (Verizon's words, not ours), saying that Congress must act now to address telecommunications policies that are broken. "The grinding you hear are the gears churning as policymakers try to fit fast-changing technologies...
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Have you ever opened up your cell phone bill, only to drop it immediately in shock of the huge numbers you see? You aren't alone. Particularly in a world of smartphones, texting overages, and global roaming, it's not too difficult to spend more than you expected on mobile costs. To date, carrier's aren't required to give consumers a "heads-up"...
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High-speed Internet service is only half as fast as advertised, according to an FCC report released this week. It is already bad enough that the U.S. trails a significant number of countries in terms of broadband speed, despite having invented the Internet. It is possibly because ISPs offer speeds of "up to" X Mbps that this difference...
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Last week, the New York Times showcased a story which implied Google and Verizon were coming to an agreement that would end net neutrality. Both Verizon and Google denied that claim, although indicating they were working on something. On Monday, the two corporations revealed the fruits of their labor: a joint proposal...
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If you've ever tried to set up a wireless router in an apartment building or college campus, you've probably encountered problems when it came to establishing a clear signal. All too often, multiple routers in close proximity will tangle with each other, lowering the quality and range of everyone's signal. With...
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We've all heard the horror stories from people traveling overseas, only to return home to a wireless bill that's more expensive than their mortgage payment. You're probably thinking "that would never happen to me!," but the reality is that it happens a lot more than you may expect. A new inquiry into this matter by...
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Wouldn't it be nice if your wireless operator shot you a free text message or e-mail whenever you were quickly approaching your monthly minute limit or text limit? Wouldn't it be great if you received some sort of alert whenever you touched down in a foreign country and were about to incur roaming charges for making calls or using data in...
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Net Neutrality has always been a hot button topic, just like anything else involving politics. What really pushed the discussion over the edge was Comcast's decision to throttle some users in hopes of providing a "better experience" for others; you can probably imagine why this made some people glad and some people...
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Interest in the iPad is running high on launch day—just in time for photos of a 'naked' iPad to pop up on the FCC's website. The images detail what's underneath the hood of Apple's new tablet and while some of the text was originally grayed out, there are ways to access the original image beneath. The iPad has taken some heat from critics...
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We imagine the suits over at the FCC must be big fans of the movie Top Gun, because a major new Internet policy that's about to be unveiled proves someone in Washington feels the need for speed. We're talking about a policy that would task ISPs with putting 100Mbps speeds in place at 100 million American homes within the next decade.That's...
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Broadband speed tests are nothing new, but the FCC is offering Internet users a chance to weigh in on just how fast connections are across the country. Unlike regular speed tests, the FCC's program records the street address from which the program is run (no other personal information is requested). I'd really prefer a plan that didn't make...
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Earlier this week we covered the news that nearly 80 percent of all Internet users worldwide feel that Internet access is a right. In a week, the FCC will present its specific plan for bringing broadband Internet to the estimated 35 percent of Americans who currently either don't have or can't get such service. A new brief discussing the organizations...
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The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski has been much in the news over the past six months. As we've covered in the past, Genachowski has aggressively stumped for a national broadband policy, traveled the country, and under his direction the FCC has solicited comments from...
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Broadband speeds in the United States have long lagged behind other industrialized nations; the average download speed across the US was 5.1 megabits (mbps) in August of last year. While that's a 45 percent increase over the average download speed in 2007 it's just 25 percent of South Korea (20.4mbps), less than half the speed of Sweden (12.8mbps)...
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As you may recall, last month Verizon Wireless upped the Early Termination Fee (EFT) that it charges customers who cancel their contract early. The fee increase wasn't a small one, either: if you have what Verizon calls an "advanced device," you'll now pay $350 if you want to cancel early compared to the previous fee of $175. Customers certainly...
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According to people familiar with the matter, the Federal Communications Commission plans to open an inquiry into Google's Voice service, looking into how the service works and whether or not the Internet giant is restricting calls. Earlier this week, a group of 20 Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who mostly represent...
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FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has been a busy beaver as of late; we've previously discussed his thoughts on the importance of the Internet and the FCC's request for comments on how its Internet development funds should be allocated and used. The FCC chair spoke at the Brookings Institute in Washington today; his speech emphasized the FCC's...
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While healthcare may be the hottest topic of all right now, it's hard to argue that net neutrality isn't one of the hottest, longest lasting topics as related to the Internet. Ever since this series of tubes was first put into place, pundits and supporters alike have debated about how much regulation was needed. Some argued that ISPs knew...
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The FCC has been particularly concerned about the Internet over the past six weeks, tasked as it is with the job of creating a national broadband policy. The FCC's chairman, Julius Genachowski, has gone on record proclaiming that spreading broadband across the country is a massive, possibly culture-changing event, on par with the creation...
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A few weeks ago, in early August, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski declared that the FCC viewed the creation of a national broadband policy as integral to the future of of the nation. Broadband, according to Genachowski, is "our generation’s infrastructure challenge...It is as important as electricity and highways were...
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FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has been touring California for the past week discussing the national broadband initiative the FCC has been tasked with creating. The FCC has spent months gathering comments from both the public and various corporate interests, but the real challenge may be distilling those comments...
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The FCC has opened an inquiry into the rejection of the official Google Voice app from the App Store, which occurred at the same time that the App Store was "cleansed" of any Google Voice-enabled third-party apps. On Friday, the FCC sent letters to all three parties involved: Google, Apple, and AT&T. While the letters to Apple and AT&T...
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