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FCC wants to know: Is degrading P2P traffic 'reasonable'?
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
FCC approves much-needed increased China-U.S. bandwidth
As it stands, there's almost twice as much bandwidth across the Atlantic as there is across the Pacific. But with new U.S. FCC approval for the first ever China-U.S. fiber link, this is all about to change.
The score right now: 5,547 to 2,726. That's the current Atlantic vs. Pacific bandwidth score in gigabits per second, according to TeleGeography. The Trans-Pacific Express "will initially provide capacity of up to 1.28 terabits per second, and the system will have a design capacity of up to 5.12Tbps to support future Internet growth and … Read more
FCC: We'll investigate Comcast-BitTorrent flap
Federal regulators plan to investigate whether Comcast improperly interferes with BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic on its network.
The announcement by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin arrived in a panel discussion at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, according to an Associated Press report Tuesday.
Since at least last summer, reports had been circulating that the cable company was throttling BitTorrent traffic, which Comcast promptly denied. But in October, the AP released the results of tests, based on attempts to download the King James Bible, which it said confirmed that Comcast was actively interfering with the practice. … Read more
FCC auction bidders named
Google may be grabbing the spotlight in the upcoming auction of 700MHz wireless spectrum, but it's not the only nontraditional player that wants a valuable piece of the airwaves.
The Federal Communications late Tuesday released the names of applicants that plan to bid in the much-anticipated January auction, and Google competitors may include cable operator Cablevision, mobile chipmaker Qualcomm, and satellite TV provider EchoStar.
That Google was among the 266 companies filing an application by the December 3 deadline was no surprise. Google said earlier this year that it was willing to put up at least $4.6 billion for licenses … Read more
This week in cell phones at the FCC
Only the most passionate cell phone geeks know that the Federal Communications Commission holds a treasure trove of information on upcoming handsets. Because the FCC has to certify every phone sold in the United States, not to mention test its SAR rating, the agency's online database offers a lot of sneak peeks to those who dig. And to save you the trouble, Crave has combed through the database for you. Here are a selection of filings from the past week on new and upcoming cell phones. Click through to read the full report.
This week in cell phones at the FCC
Only the most passionate cell phone geeks know that the Federal Communications Commission holds a treasure trove of information on upcoming handsets. Because the FCC has to certify every phone sold in the United States, not to mention test its SAR rating, the agency's online database offers a lot of sneak peeks to those who dig. And to save you the trouble, Crave has combed through the database for you. Here are a selection of filings from the past week on new and upcoming cell phones. Click through to read the full report.
Cable escapes stricter FCC rules, for now
Cable's fierce lobbying over the threat of expanded government control paid off late Tuesday night, as federal regulators approved a watered-down proposal that does not immediately open up the possibility of new regulations.
After a rocky day of closed-door negotiations, which delayed the scheduled 9:30 a.m. EST start time of the Federal Communications Commission's meeting by nearly 12 hours, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin caved to pressure from fellow commissioners over how to handle a contentious cable competition report.
That outcome could derail any future efforts by Martin to push through controversial new rules for cable operators--most … Read more
