Items tagged with FCC
Give Marriott International a half-hearted gold star for finally committing to leaving Wi-Fi hotspots alone. Bruce Hoffmeister, Global Chief Information Office for Marriott, issued a statement saying the hotel chain has decided to withdraw its petition seeking "direction" from the Federal Communications Commission...
Read more...
In what's been described as "by far the highest-earning spectrum auction the United States has ever seen" by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler, AT&T led the way by spending a whopping $18.2 billion on wireless licenses. Combined with its acquisition of DirecTV last year, some are wondering...
Read more...
The broadband situation in America right now isn't ideal, and in fact, some might call it appalling. While it doesn't take much effort to find people with high-speed connections, there remain many out there who don't have one. And even worse, in some cases they might only have access to one ISP.
Well, with even...
Read more...
After being hit with a $600,000 fine by the Federal Communications Commission over its Wi-Fi blocking efforts, the Marriott International thought better of its ill-advised policy and vowed to no longer block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of its managed hotels. Score a point for consumers, and...
Read more...
It seems as though cooler heads have prevailed over at Marriott International. The hotel chain has decided to drop plans that would block customers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hotspots -- Internet services that they have already paid for -- and push them to use overpriced Marriott Internet...
Read more...
President Obama traveled to Cedar Falls, Iowa today to make an early announcement ahead of his State of The Union address. The president is setting out to highlight what he views as a need for some U.S. cities to have better choices when it comes to high speed Internet. He will be encouraging the Federal...
Read more...
After far-too-many years of waiting, it looks like the Federal Communications Commission is set to both propose and vote on net neutrality rules next month. According to a Washington Post source, FCC chief Tom Wheeler plans to circulate a draft internally sometime this month, hoping to iron out the last kinks to make sure that there are no
Read more...
We’ve all encountered this issue. You check into your hotel room and attempt to connect to the complementary Wi-Fi network only to find that it’s slow as molasses, transporting you back to a time when a 56K modem was considered hot stuff. And even when you are forced to pay a daily “Resort Fee” to access Wi-Fi...
Read more...
It's always a good idea to comb through your wireless phone bill each and every month to make sure you aren't being hit with any unauthorized charges, such as ringtones, screensavers, and other third-party items that you never agreed to purchase. It's a practice known as bill cramming, and it's something the Federal Communications Commission
Read more...
U.S. schools and libraries are about to receive $1.5 billion in additional funding for broadband Internet, thanks to the FCC. The money will bolster the Universal Service Fund (also known as E-Rate), which helps schools across the country obtain affordable high-speed Internet access and wireless networking equipment...
Read more...
Out of all the things you carry on your person, a smartphone is likely to be the most valuable item, or at least one of them (a concealed weapon or a Rolex watch could trump your handheld). The high dollar value of any given smartphone is part of what makes them so attractive to thieves, hence why it's not all that shocking to discover that
Read more...
Every hardware maker has constraints -- be it battery life, heat, size, or available materials. On the design front, one challenge that has thus far been impossible to overcome is the FCC stamp that has to be imprinted on the exterior of any device certified for use amongst the United States' airwaves. Now, that's...
Read more...
T-Mobile has been the target of much consumer ire in the past due to the way it throttles user bandwidth and tries to keep it a secret. If you regularly use the Internet on your phone, it's going to be obvious when the performance is less than what you're used to getting. For many, at the first sign of poor network...
Read more...
The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of auctioning off 65 megahertz of the electromagnetic spectrum and it is going very well. As of Friday, bidding for six blocks of airwaves has reached an unprecedented amount sailing north of $34 billion.
This particular auction, which started November 13, is...
Read more...
Everyone is waiting to see what the Federal Communications Commission will rule when it comes to net neutrality. However, the FCC is preparing itself for a lawsuit from cable companies in response to when it finally votes net neutrality regulations into place. At least that is what FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said...
Read more...
If Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler gets his way, phone bills will go up by 16 cents a month, or $2 per year, as part of a plan to fund faster Internet access in schools. This would apply to the E-Rate fee that appears on phone bills, which is a program to fund Internet access to schools...
Read more...
AT&T will be pausing its current investments regarding plans to bring fiber connections to 100 cities. The reason for the halt is that the company is waiting for U.S. regulators to make a decision on how the issue of how internet service providers will be able to manage their web traffic.
"We can't go out and...
Read more...
While the US Senate doesn’t seem to have a clue about net neutrality and the issues brought up in regards to the FCC, its “Fast Lanes” plan, and the issue of what the internet should be classified as, President Barack Obama seems to get it. The President announced his support that the internet be...
Read more...
The concept of net neutrality has been a hot-button topic over the past few years, particularly as evidence by fundamental ISP misconduct that has grown more prevalent. In addition, an increasing number of customers have found themselves caught in the crossfire between two huge corporations (ISPs and content providers...
Read more...
The concept of net neutrality has been a hot-button topic over the past few years, particularly as evidence by fundamental ISP misconduct that has grown more prevalent. In addition, an increasing number of customers have found themselves caught in the crossfire between two huge corporations (ISPs and content providers especially) with little...
Read more...
We've covered the battles between ISPs and various large-scale content providers multiple times before. From deliberately throttling Netflix users to older spats that prevented Time Warner customers from watching cable channels they'd legally paid for, these kinds of disagreements are common in America these days. A...
Read more...
On April 9, 911 services were interrupted for six hours which affected areas in California, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina while the entire state of Washington was affected. A 911 call-routing facility, located in Englewood, Colorado, had stopped directing emergency calls to 911...
Read more...
