The business of Internet, wireless, and telecom law.
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 [...]
While visiting Denver’s Museum of Nature and Science this week, President Obama signed the historic “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” For the telecom industry, as well as other sectors of the economy, the Recovery Act presents the opportunity for obtaining billions of dollars of grants and loans and delivering jobs and hope to the economy. [...]
On September 17, 2007, only 10 days after the Pulvermedia’s FMC conference in Chicago where Sprint discussed its future femtocell plans, Sprint formerly announced that it would immediately start offering its AIRAVE femtocell solution in Denver and Indianapolis. Sprint included a cool marketing video about AIRAVE and femtocells on the Sprint web site. While two trials [...]
A lot has been happening with MediaFlo mobile video. After considerable study, the European Union’s Executive Commission decided on July 18, 2007, that it would recommend that EU countries use Europe’s home grown DVB-H (“Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds”) standard, and not the MediaFlo standard. The EC decision may well have been driven by the fact [...]
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 [...]
It is important for Americans and for the U.S. regulatory policy that spectrum be purchased and used, not purchased and under used. Under utilization prevents competition and growth of broadband penetration. The problem with the FCC spectrum auctions, reflected in the highly politicized upcoming 700 MHz auction, is that many of the more recent auctions have been [...]
Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt’s company, Frontline Wireless, is proposing that one of the requirements of the 700 Mhz auction is to require that certain spectrum be built out by the winner for public safety. GigaOM had a great blog on Frontline last month. I heard Chairman Hundt speak at the Boston TIECON 2007 conference [...]
The upcoming 700 Mhz auction keeps heating politically. This should be a good sign as in the past the voices of wireless commentators without very large company backing were ignored and politicians left the auctions to the expertise of the FCC. This auction is different from prior auctions because a) television stations are aware of [...]
On April 17, 2007, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial team weighed in against proposals by Cyren Call, led by Nextel founder Morgan O’Brien, and by Frontline Wireless, led by Reed Hunt former FCC Commissioner, relating to the FCC’s up coming rulemaking decision about what to do with the upper 700MHz spectrum that will remain after [...]
