The business of Internet, wireless, and telecom law.
Starting in 1996, the FCC began the work of moving TV broadcasters from analog to digital TV. At the time it was anticipated that TV stations would use their spectrum to deliver additional, unspecified non-broadcast- type services. In 1998, the FCC prescribed a rule (47 CFR 73.624(g )), following the 1996 Telecom Act, allowing TV [...]
Last month, Carl Ford of 4GWE fame, hosted a White Spaces session at his popular 4GWE LA West Coast conference. The panel followed the release of the FCC’s September 23, 2010 white spaces order. There was great conversation on white spaces spectrum and regulatory issues. I moderated the session. Panelists included Brough Turner, CTO Netblazr [...]
Universal Service Reform has been in the FCC “reform hopper” for more than 10 years. Commissioner McDowell correctly labeled the USF program “antiquated, arcane, inefficient and just downright broken.” Fixing USF is anything but easy because while you can move USF money from one bucket to another, lowering the fee will take away government subsidies [...]
Technorati Tags: NTIA,ARRA,Recovery Act,National Broadband Plan,Recovery.gov On May 18, 2009, NTIA submitted the first required quarterly progress report to Congress on getting the Recovery Act funding out the door. Without a press release or press conference, NTIA “quietly” (a word GigaOm’s Stacey Higginbotham used) explained to Congress that the first tranche of broadband funding would [...]
Technorati Tags: FCC,National Broadband Plan,ARRA The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act ("ARRA”) appropriated $7.2 billion for various broadband projects. The primary goals of the ARRA broadband provisions are 1) to increase broadband penetration for the unserved, both rural and urban, 2) to increase broadband adoption for the “underserved,” and 3) to deliver new jobs. The [...]
In its first order after the resignation of Chairman Martin and departure of Commissioner Tate, the three remaining commissioners at the FCC, Copps, Adelstein, and McDowell, denied on January 21, 2009, a Petition for Forbearance filed by Feature Group IP. Feature Group IP requested in its October 23, 2007 Petition that the FCC forbear from [...]
On July 23, 2008, a new 911 statute was entered into law. The “New and Emerging Technologies (NET) 911 Improvement Act of 2008” (the NET 911 Act) requires the FCC to enact rules implementing the Act’s provisions within 90 days of the effective date of the legislation, or October 21, 2008. The legislation was designed [...]
Femtocells could revolutionize cellular service in terms of diverting cell traffic off the network, providing great service in buildings and homes, increasing bandwidth speed, and, most significantly, increasing the service providers’ footprints outside their licensed areas. Cell phone service providers, like Sprint or T-Mobile, would be able use femtocells to off-load traffic to their customer’s provided [...]
Femtocells could have a dramatic change on the cell phone service environment. ABI research predicts there will be 150 million femtocell users by 2012. That is from zero users today, as reported by GigaOm. On the other side of the race, In-Sat, as quoted in PDAStreet, projects there will be 200 million dual mode WiFi [...]
UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) is driving FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence). UMA is really WiFi and cell phones combined. ABI Research, as reported by InformationWeek, currently projects that there will be 65 million UMA users by 2012. The growth in UMA is happening without strategic thinking by the wireless providers. Almost like a small sound that will [...]
