The Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted in favor of trials, in which telecommunications companies would test switching telephone services from existing circuit-switch technology to an alternative Internet protocol-based one to see how the change may affect consumers.
via U.S. seeks trials to test transition to digital phone networks | Reuters.
In other words, the FCC didn’t have the authority to impose its rules because it defined broadband internet as an information service rather than a common carrier service, like telephones.
via Federal Court Strikes Down Net Neutrality Rules, Sides with Big Telecom.
Only one day after Dulles-based telecommunications company OpenBand filed a second lawsuit against two supervisors and the board’s of two of the Loudoun homeowners’ associations it serves in response to denial of its franchise agreement application, the Federal Communications Commission issued a statement claiming the company’s telecommunication contracts should not be upheld.
We’ve written about White Spaces on numerous occasions. The FCC gave its thumbs up in 2008. We wrote about test networks in 2010, and by December 2011 the FCC had approved the first White Spaces broadband device.
via No, free Wi-Fi isn’t coming to every US city | Ars Technica.
LOL. I read the free Wifi story in the Chicago Tribune and even on slashdot.
Verizon is in the middle of a legal fight against the open Internet rules the Federal Communications Commission adopted in 2010. In addition to arguing that Congress never gave the FCC authority to regulate network neutrality, Verizon also claimed that forcing Verizon to abide by network neutrality rules violated the firm’s First Amendment right to free speech.
via Verizon called hypocritical for equating net neutrality to censorship | Ars Technica.
But CDT says Verizon can’t have it both ways. If Verizon is going to claim ISPs are “passive conduits” for copyright purposes, then in CDT’s view that implies that its routing decisions cannot be “active” enough to deserve protection under the First Amendment.
I’ve also read that the House bill bars the FCC from paying for spectrum and then opening it up for unlicensed use. Can you comment on that?
I was the guy who created the idea of unlicensed spectrum. Several technologists and economists came to me and said that we need spectrum for short hops between computers and cable connections. That technology became known as Wi-Fi and it completely transformed the Internet experience, as everybody who has a computer knows.
via Why the House spectrum bill should be ditched: Q&A with Reed Hundt.