We’re going to have to wait a little longer before we know if the network neutrality rules the FCC implemented in 2010 are hear to stay. The courts aren’t likely to hear the case until fall. Read more »
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he was stepping down from the role today. Let’s take a look back and see how he did against our hopes for him back in 2009. Read more »
After users complained about bad online video experiences, France’s telecom regulator launched an investigation trying to figure out if a local ISP was blocking YouTube or if it was just underinvesting in its network. A decision is expected soon, and could have worldwide repercussions. Read more »
The presidential election will have big impacts on our nation’s tax policies and spending plans over the next four years, but who wins or loses will also play a role in telecommunications policies that will affect every individual on their cell phone and their land lines. Read more »
In blocking Apple’s FaceTime application from its cellular network for certain customers, AT&T is trying to drive customers to new plans and change the debate when it comes to network neutrality. If Ma Bell succeeds it looks like consumers and maybe app developers could lose. Read more »
Swedish operator TeliaSonera won’t ban Skype’s voice service on handsets using its network but it will charge customers for it. The operator is piloting plans that will cost customers extra for using an over-the-top voice service. Ring ring! It’s network neutrality calling. Read more »
Network neutrality, the idea that ISPs can’t discriminate against traffic on its network, is an enshrined right in some areas and a hotly contested regulatory fight in others. But it may become moot if the ITU succeeds in take over the management of the Internet. Read more »
AT&T’s shareholders today didn’t require the telecommunications giant to implement network neutrality on its wireline and wireless networks. The proposal lost with a mere 5.9 percent of the vote. But here’s why one fund manager thinks net neutrality won — and should continue to win. Read more »
Like some hideous policy monster that won’t go away, network neutrality will hit headlines again. Verizon and Metro PCS, the two operators that sued the FCC last year over its rules forbidding ISPs from discriminating against traffic on their networks, won a victory on Thursday. Read more »
AT&T doesn’t give up on trying to monetize its pipes, and thanks to a lack of network neutrality on wireless networks, limited data plans, and a hunger for bandwidth-consuming mobile apps, it may have found a way to charge developers to use its pipes. Read more »
The Netflix streaming app is now available on over 800 different devices, which is nearly double the number of devices that the app was on only six months ago. Yet for all that growth, Netflix is suddenly looking vulnerable in mobile video as new competitors with ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Korea Telecom in South Korea has taken an interesting twist on network neutrality, and is blocking Samsung’s Smart TVs from access the Internet, according to a large S. Korean daily. That’s right, net neutrality isn’t just for applications like Netflix anymore. Read more »
What if delivering bandwidth worked like an auction, where business bid for the right to transfer their traffic depending on how crowded the network is? Using Open Flow to create software defined networks makes such a scenario possible. Is that a good thing? Read more »
In 2012, a “turbo” button will appear on mobile phones, making it the first of many new options that allow customers to customize their data plans by quality of connection, rather than megabytes consumed. We may even see the resurgence of the unlimited plan, with a catch. Read more »
Sending a bit over a wireless network is 200 times more expensive than sending a bit over wireline, which explains some of the high costs and limits of wireless data plans. How can operators drive down these prices so wireless doesn’t lose its luster? Read more »
The Senate failed to stop the network neutrality rules enacted by the FCC. But for anyone who watched the hearings or sees how the vote split completely along partisan lines, the vote is a reminder of how easily the folks in D.C. can stymie innovation. Read more »
Even as the FCC moves to dimiss Verizon’s lawsuit against its network neutrality rules, Big Red gained a victory as the the courts consolidated the lawsuits at the same court that gutted the FCC’s authority in the Comcast P2P case. Read more »
Verizon filed its second suit against the network neutrality laws today, sparking more debate over who can determine how content traverses the Internet. Meanwhile, a paper suggests that the Internet delivers up to $5,686 in economic value, and says that value is at risk. Read more »
Carriers are preparing ways to change their pricing to charge by applications or services. And as they do, consumers will lose — namely because carriers will offer a variety of their own services that could strangle the quality of anything one might consider over-the-top. Read more »
As the EU looks at delivering faster broadband across its member states, a report by the chief executives of Alcatel-Lucent, Deutsche Telekom and Vivendi are asking that the EU allow ISPs to charge content providers for pushing bits across their pipes. Read more »
The Netherlands might be a tiny country, but when it comes to broadband, it is one that likes to make big moves. It had been quick to embrace fiber broadband. And now it is enacting a law that guarantees “net neutrality” for its citizens. Read more »
The U.S. Federal Court of Appeals has dismissed the case that Verizon Communications filed against the FCC over its network neutrality rules. The ruling is a win for the FCC, although Verizon will likely file suit again and Congress is still gunning for the FCC. Read more »
Verizon is thrilled to cover 285 million people, or 97 percent of the U.S. population, with 4G wireless services by 2013, in part because it makes such a dandy fixed broadband access technology says an executive. This must make companies that bought Verizon’s DSL lines scared. Read more »
AT&T’s announcement that it would buy T-Mobile for $39 billion in cash and stock is by no means a forgone conclusion, despite the assurances in the press release that it would close within the next 12 months. Sources are divided on the likelihood of regulatory interference. Read more »
Mobile operators are looking for dollars from the content producers. This time, it appears they want over-the-top providers to help fund the cost of building out their networks. But are Wi-Fi offload, congestion pricing and high-margin, machine-to-machine services enough to maintain healthy margins? Read more »
The five FCC commissioners traveled to the Capitol today for a hearing on the necessity of its network neutrality rules. The hearing was the first step in a process that attempts to repeal the FCC’s efforts and prevent the FCC from trying to implement them again. Read more »
Last week, Canadians got the unwelcome news that their Internet Service Providers could cap their broadband access to as little as 25 GB per month, or the equivalent of about 12 HD movies or 25 hours of Netflix streaming. U.S. ISPs might follow in Canada’s footsteps. Read more »
The U.S. Court of Appeals today denied Verizon’s motion to have the three judges who ruled against the FCC in an earlier network neutrality case hear Verizon’s current attempt to contest the regulatory agency’s network neutrality rules. It’s a small setback for foes of network neutrality. Read more »
MetroPCS followed Verizon in contesting the FCC’s network neutrality order that sets rules around when an ISP can discriminate against traffic flowing across its network. The FCC’s decision to avoid reclassifying broadband has left the fate of web innovation in the courts’ hands. But which court? Read more »
Verizon filed a lawsuit today questioning the FCC’s authority to implement the agency’s network neutrality rules, but while the argument here is important, the underlying goal for this lawsuit and others that will be filed is finding a court sympathetic to each parties’ cause. Read more »
With its rules on network neutrality, the FCC has protected the current state of the Internet, left the future of the web unregulated and punted on most of the challenging issues that lay before it — from requiring wireless networks to be open to allowing managed services. Read more »
The FCC today approved an order that will enshrine the policies of network neutrality — the idea that ISPs can’t hinder or discriminate against lawful content flowing across their pipes — as regulations enforced by the FCC. Here’s how we got here. Read more »
The FCC today said it would vote on rules to prevent ISPs from discriminating against the bits flowing across their networks, but it wouldn’t publish the full text of those rules until a few days after the vote due to a compromise with Democratic commissioners. Read more »
Tomorrow, the FCC will unveil its policy framework around network neutrality (yes, it did this last September but network neutrality is like tech policy’s Groundhog Day) and vote on the proposed rules. But even after the vote, it is an issue that won’t go away. Read more »
The news media wasn’t buying the network neutrality compromise that Google and Verizon shared on Monday, but today the two chief executives of the companies wrote a joint editorial explaining their goals and their proposed framework in the Washington Post. If they can get Congress to […] Read more »
As expected, Google and Verizon have agreed to make network neutrality enforceable on wireline networks, without extending the same to wireless. However, the agreement does ask for transparency in network management on wireline and wireless networks, and leaves a place for operators to offer managed services. Read more »
As regulators dive deep into broadband politics, Ma Bell has turned not only to lobbyists, but also to threats. AT&T today issued a ho-hum press release — except for the last line, when it tied its billions in capital investment to favorable laws and regulations. Read more »
A new paper presented to the FCC argues that the agency can extend network neutrality to wireless networks — and proposes ending the flat-rate pricing plans for mobile broadband as a method for doing so. Read more »
Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, plans to propose a set of rules to define network neutrality in a speech Monday at the Brookings Institution, according to the Wall Street Journal. The proposed rules would require carriers to treat all traffic across both […] Read more »
[qi:105] Hey Comcast, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has two words for you: network neutrality. Actually he has more than two words. In an interview with TheHill.com, Chairman Genachowski said, “One thing I would say so that there is no confusion out there is that […] Read more »
