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President Obama included authorization for incentive wireless spectrum auctions and spectrum reallocation for public safety as part of his American Jobs Act.

On Monday, the White House released a fact-sheet detailing President Obama's jobs bill, which he first talked about last week in his address to Congress. As part of this legislation, he is calling for wireless auctions that would help reduce the deficit and would also provide wireless broadband services for at least 98 percent of Americans. These are goals that his administration has also outlined in the National Broadband Plan.

Specifically, the American Jobs Bill would authorize … Read more

AT&T is prepared to offer the government some concessions in an effort to salvage its $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile, according to a story out today from Reuters.

The carrier has been trying to convince federal regulators and other skeptics that a merger with T-Mobile wouldn't be anti-competitive as some claim and would in fact provide benefits to consumers.

But federal agencies scrutinizing the deal are proving a hard sell, with the Federal Communications Commission dragging its heels on a decision and the Department of Justice on Wednesday filing an antitrust lawsuit aiming to block the merger.… Read more

Social-gaming site Zynga may delay its initial public offering until November as a result of the current turmoil in the stock market, according to the New York Post.

Zynga was looking to raise up to $1 billion by going public as early as September. But citing sources "with knowledge of Zynga's plans," the Post said the company has been concerned by the stock market's recent up-and-down ride, prompting it to back off on its IPO for now.

Launched in 2007, Zynga has turned into a force for online social gaming with such popular titles as FarmVille, … Read more

A decision from the U.S. International Trade Commission on whether Apple and Research In Motion are infringing on a patent held by Eastman Kodak could face additional delays and a new outcome following the planned retirement of the judge who was presiding over the case.

The Wall Street Journal reports that ITC Chief Administrative Law Judge Paul Luckern retired from the agency today, and that cases he was presiding over--including this one--have now been reassigned to other administrative law judges.

The Journal notes that Luckern has worked as an administrative law judge with the agency since 1984 and was … Read more

Good news for U.S. broadband customers: On average major Internet service providers are delivering up to 80 percent of advertised broadband speeds, according to a study by the Federal Communications Commission.

This is a big improvement over 2009 when the FCC noted as part of its preparation for the National Broadband Plan that actual download speeds for broadband service were often about half of what broadband providers advertised as their maximum speeds.

"Most major ISPs are providing service close to what they're advertising," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in prepared remarks at a Best Buy store in Washington, D.C., today, … Read more

The proposed debt ceiling bill that Congress is expected to pass in the next day or so will not give the Federal Communications Commission authority to auction additional wireless spectrum. But that doesn't mean that wireless incentive auctions are dead.

Wireless experts in Washington, D.C. say Congress could tack on the authorization for the FCC to conduct spectrum auctions to a package that may emerge later this year from the bipartisan deficit-reduction panel created by this week's debt agreement. President Obama said the "super committee," which will consist of six Democrats and six Republicans, will … Read more

Congressional leaders seem to be throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the debate over the budget and raising the debt ceiling. Now it looks like the incentive wireless spectrum auctions proposed by the Federal Communications Commission may end up as part of a package that is being hashed out by Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid included the sale of wireless spectrum to mobile broadband providers in his proposed package of cuts and revenue-raisers. He said he expects the sale of wireless spectrum to generate $15 billion in revenue for the … Read more

The head of the Senate's committee on antitrust wants regulators to put a kibosh on AT&T's proposed $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile USA.

Today, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), who heads up the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, asked regulators in a letter to block the proposed merger, stating that the merger would be "highly dangerous to competition and consumers."

Separately today, Democratic leaders in the House also wrote their own letter to regulators asking for more scrutiny of the deal.

Kohl and the House Democrats addressed their letters to the U.S. Department of … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission registered its Net neutrality rules with the Office of Management and Budget yesterday, which is the next step in making the new regulations official.

The rules, which were adopted in December, will now be available for comment for the next 30 days. At the end of the comment period and assuming that the OMB issues its approval, the new rules will then be published in the Federal Register and take effect 60 days later.

After years of debate on the topic, the FCC adopted rules codifying specific Net neutrality principles in late December. The new regulation … Read more