agency
150,000 take FCC broadband speed test in first week
The FCC has had it with ISPs. For more than a decade, the agency has relied on ISP reports to get a picture of broadband speeds and availability in the US, and the results have been uniformly terrible. The ISPs don’t want to report numbers detailed enough to be useful, so the feds finally dropped a pile of cash on the table last year to do some proper broadband mapping.
Continue reading »feature: Case closed: why most of USA lacks 100Mbps ‘Net connections
Excitement about the approach of the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan, due March 17, is inspiring ever more dramatic calls for greater high-speed Internet connectivity in the United States. This month, FCC Chair Julius Genachowski declared that the agency wants 260 million Americans hooked up to 100 Mbps broadband by 2020. Not to be outdone, the Media and Democracy Coalition says that by that same year consumer access to “world-class networks” should equal the present rate of telephone adoption (90%+).
Continue reading »Court to FCC: You Don’t Have Power to Enforce Net Neutrality
A federal appeals court gave notice Friday it likely would reject the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to sanction Comcast for throttling peer-to-peer applications. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit suggested as much during oral arguments with the FCC and Comcast.
Continue reading »FCC’s underwhelming-looking broadband plan also tardy
Time to reset the game clock on the National Broadband Plan. The plan, due to be presented to Congress next month, now looks to be delayed by a month. Like a tardy student going to a professor, the FCC has written Congress to ask for a four-week extension on its “big paper.” Perhaps the agency can use the extra time to ensure the plan contains some of that “change” we’ve heard so much about.
Continue reading »DOJ: more spectrum for wireless = more competitive Internet
The Department of Justice says the best way to encourage broadband competition is to make many more licenses available for wireless use. “Given the potential of wireless services to reach underserved areas and to provide an alternative to wireline broadband providers in other areas, the Commission’s primary tool for promoting broadband competition should be freeing up spectrum,” the DOJ wrote to the FCC on Monday. Spectrum scarcity is the “fundamental problem” that the agency must tackle in order to help companies like Clearwire, T-Mobile, and Sprint offer high speed Internet comparable to land line Internet.
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