communicate

The reserve price on a valuable sliver of spectrum was reached in the Federal Communications Commission's 700MHz auction on Thursday, triggering rules that would make the spectrum accessible to any device or software application.

After the 17th round in the auction, a bidder for eight licenses in the "C" block of the 700MHz spectrum auction surpassed the minimum reserve price of $4.64 billion, which had been set by the FCC before the auction began. The current bid is now at $4.71 billion. The minimum bid for round 21 is $5.18 billion, according to the … Read more

Advertisements educating people about the switch in February 2009 from analog-TV to digital-TV signals could soon be airing more often, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.

The Federal Communications Commission, along with some folks in Congress, say more public-service advertisements and announcements are needed to educate people about the switch to digital broadcasts. They fear that people still using old TV sets that get TV signals over the air will be upset when, come February 17, 2009, their TVs don't work. According to the FCC, in January 2007, some 15.5 million U.S. households still … Read more

If you simply must send a YouTube video to every single person you are connected to, Movial says it will make that possible.

The 6-year-old company makes a white label application for a PC, phone, or any device that wireless carriers can brand as their own. Called Social Communicator, it shows all of a user's contacts and their online status. All at once, instant messages, text messages, music files, or videos can be sent to all contacts listed.

The demonstration here at Demo focused on sending YouTube videos to everyone or anyone. Individual contacts can be selected ,and even … Read more

Wireless and the Fios fiber-to-the-home broadband network continue to fuel growth for Verizon Communications.

On Monday, the second-largest phone company in the U.S. reported profits were up 3.9 percent for the fourth quarter of 2007, as it added more wireless subscribers in its joint venture with Vodafone and nearly hit the 1 million subscriber mark for its Fios TV service.

Earnings met analyst expectations with net income coming in at $1.07 billion, or 37 cents a share. That was up from $1.03 billion, or 35 cents, a year ago. Profit, excluding items such as severance pay … Read more

Sprint Nextel and Verizon Communications both see an opportunity to make a buck on their IP telephony patents after successfully suing Vonage Holdings last year.

On Thursday, Sprint Nextel said in a U.S. District Court in Wichita, Kan., that it was suing four small phone companies. Sprint alleges that Nuvox Communication, BroadVOX Holdings, Big River Telephone, and Paetec Communications are infringing on six of its patents.

Those patents, part of a larger portfolio of patents that cover voice over IP technology owned by Sprint, are the same ones used to successfully sue Vonage. The two companies eventually settled the … Read more

Dude, where's my e-mail?

That's what thousands of Charter Communications customers asked on Monday when the company inadvertently deleted 14,000 active e-mail accounts, according to an Associated Press story published on Thursday.

Officials at Charter believe a glitch in software during routine maintenance caused the e-mail accounts to be deleted. The company is offering $50 credits to customers who were affected.

A company representative told the news service that there was no way to retrieve the messages, photos or other attachments that had been sitting in people's in-boxes when they were deleted.

Anita Lamont, the Charter … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission will begin the second phase of lab testing of prototype devices that use the "white space" between TV channels to transmit wireless communication signals.

Phase II of the testing, which is being conducted by the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, begins on January 24.

The testing is part of a proceeding that will determine if the "white space" or unused spectrum between broadcast TV channels can be used for wireless service without interfering with TV broadcasts.

Technology companies say that using the spectrum between the TV channels could unleash a … Read more

Update 10:53 a.m. PST: This blog was updated to add information about a third petition related to antidiscrimination rules for text messaging.

As foreshadowed at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, federal regulators this week took the first formal step into investigating complaints about how Internet service providers, such as Comcast, manage peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic on their networks.

The Federal Communications Commission late on Monday posted requests for public comment about two such petitions, both of which deal with the question of what practices constitute "reasonable network management"--and therefore jibe with the FCC's policies. … Read more

A Verizon Communications executive said Thursday that his company hasn't been hit by a U.S. economic slowdown.

Dennis Strigl, chief operating officer for Verizon, addressed concerns about an economic slowdown impacting the No. 2 phone company's business during a Citigroup investor conference. Earlier this week, AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson spooked Wall Street by blaming a weak economy for a rise in residential broadband and landline customers who couldn't pay their bills during the fourth quarter of 2007.

Strigl said Verizon hasn't been affected in the same way. Specifically he said the company'… Read more