communication

A spectrum bill has passed through a subcommittee in the House of Representatives that authorizes FCC incentive auctions and also allocates spectrum to public safety.

On Thursday, the communications and technology subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum Act (JOBS Act).

The legislation authorizes the Federal Communications Commission to create an auction for selling wireless spectrum voluntarily released by TV broadcasters. And it also includes provisions for allocating spectrum and funding a nationwide public safety mobile broadband network.

Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.), who sponsored the bill, said it would help create 100,… Read more

Google is no longer the only employer that wants to recruit via tough-to-crack math questions.

Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intelligence agency has launched a Web site challenging visitors to crack a code, according to the BBC. The purpose is to find potential candidates to fill its posts dealing with cyberthreats, which the U.K.'s spy chief recently identified as a disturbing threat.

The competition started November 3 via an unbranded Web site at canyoucrackit.co.uk that displays a visual code resembling a grid of random numbers and letters. Visitors have to first crack that code before getting redirected to GCHQ's Web site, which further directs them on the types of jobs that they can apply for. … Read more

According to reports from tech industry site DigiTimes, smartphone makers are convinced that Apple will be adding near field communications, or NFC, to the next-generation iPhone, widely expected to be released in 2012.

The current smartphone market only has about 10 percent adoption of NFC technology, but according to Taiwan-based phone manufacturers, that number could rise to 50 percent by 2013.

Samsung, HTC, Nokia, and RIM all have NFC-enabled phones currently on the market. Rumors last spring had Apple adding the e-wallet technology to iOS and what is now the iPhone 4S. That, of course, did not come to fruition.… Read more

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission doesn't believe that AT&T's proposed $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile USA is in the public interest. And he's asking the other four commissioners to approve an administrative hearing, in which AT&T would have to prove otherwise.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Tuesday that Chairman Julius Genachowski was considering such action.

The move by the chairman would put yet another hurdle in the way of the merger, which is already being challenged by the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ has filed a … Read more

Cox Communications is shutting down its wireless phone service, the company announced late Tuesday.

The cable provider said that it will stop selling its wireless service to new customers starting Wednesday, November 16. But it will continue offering the service to current customers until March 30, 2012. The company is offering current customers a $150 credit for every line that is being disconnected. And it is also waiving early termination fees.

Cox uses Sprint Nextel's 3G wireless network to deliver its mobile phone service. The company said that it was discontinuing the service because it was unable to compete … Read more

An effort on Capitol Hill to overturn the federal government's controversial Net neutrality regulations failed today.

By a 46-52 vote, the U.S. Senate rejected a Republican-backed proposal that would have lifted the regulations before they take effect on November 20.

This morning's vote was an anticlimactic affair. A veto threat two days earlier from President Obama, coupled with evidence that there was nowhere near a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers, meant that the repeal effort would fail.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted the regulations by a 3-2 party line vote last December. Once they take effect, broadband … Read more

VeriFone, the world's largest electronic payment provider, announced today it had acquired privately held Global Bay Mobile Technologies, which makes apps that help mobile devices conduct financial transactions.

South Plainfield, N. J.-based Global Bay's infrastructure and software support are expected to strengthen VeriFone as it competes for a piece of the emerging mobile payments market.

By storing credit card and bank account information, cell phones equipped with the necessary near field communication technology can exchange information with other equipped phones as well NFC-based registers and terminals as a way of paying for goods and services wirelessly.

This … Read more

President Obama nominated two new commissioners to the Federal Communications Commission late Monday.

Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Varadaraj Pai, who each have experience working at the FCC and on Capitol Hill, have been nominated to fill vacancies left by Michael Copps, a Democrat, and Meredith Attwell Baker, a Republican who left earlier this year to take a job with Comcast.

Rosenworcel currently works as an adviser to Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Previously, she worked for Copps as an adviser at the FCC. If confirmed, she will replace him on the commission. … Read more

WASHINGTON--For a few hours on Capitol Hill yesterday evening, it was October 1986 again, complete with legwarmers, an Apple IIc, pop rocks, Duran Duran, and cell phones the size of a cat.

The companies sponsoring this night of nostalgia include Google and Facebook, which are hoping to visibly highlight how out-of-date a law enacted 25 years ago today has become in an age of cloud computing, gigabit networks, and terabyte storage.

The law in question is the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a statute written in the pre-Internet era of telephone modems and the black-and-white Macintosh Plus. A coalition of … Read more