The powers granted to the FCC by Congress do not include the power to regulate provision of Internet service, according to a federal appeals court.… Continue Reading
In a public notice released APRIL 1, the FCC has announced that it has eliminated the term "broadband" from the agency's regulatory lexicon.… Continue Reading
For several months now the question on many TV broadcasters' minds has been: will they or won't they take away my spectrum. Chairman Genachowski signaled the answer in a speech on February 24.… Continue Reading
Senator Olympia Snowe has sent a letter to the Commission which may encourage TV broadcasters fearful that their spectrum is doomed to be sacrificed to the seemingly bottomless Broadband Maw.… Continue Reading
Maybe now the FCC will look at requests for extensions of deadlines more sympathetically. The FCC has requested, and been granted, a four-week extension of the delivery date for the National Broadband Plan.… Continue Reading
If you've got a TV license, you've got a problem. The Commission has issued a formal request for comments focusing on the possible repurposing of TV spectrum for wireless broadband services.… Continue Reading
Network neutrality rules may deter some of the worst abuses. But they will not bring back the anything-goes character of the early Internet.… Continue Reading
The Commission needs to come up with a way to free up spectrum from Federal sources, re-farm spectrum currently allocated to non-broadband uses, or require more effective use of existing spectrum by incumbent licensees. It's looking for input from the public.… Continue Reading
In a speech this morning, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced his intention to initiate a proceeding looking to the adoption of new rules designed to preserve and enhance the "openness" of the Internet, in accordance with the principles of "network neutrality."… Continue Reading
The deadlines for comments on the Commission's latest inquiry in its efforts to finalize rules for Access Broadband-over-Power-Line (Access BPL) have now been set… Continue Reading
Once fired up, a regulatory dispute can stay active long after the underlying issues have ceased to matter. The BPL proceeding, even after six years, still has lots of life in it.… Continue Reading
Christmas has come early for late-filing EBS/BRS applicants. After sitting on a host of late-filed renewal applications for more than two years, the Wireless Bureau's Broadband Division has finally decided to accept the filings and process the applications.… Continue Reading
Comcast has both obeyed and appealed an FCC rule relating to its Internet access management. A month ago, the FCC cracked down on Comcast for selectively interfering with the communications of customers using BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer (P2P) application. Comcast said it was entitled to take action because BitTorrent users were hogging bandwidth. The FCC disagreed. … Continue Reading
Today the FCC determined that Comcast deliberately interfered with its customers’ Internet usage by selectively blocking peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, particularly BitTorrent. "In essence," said the FCC, "Comcast opens its customers’ mail because it wants to deliver mail not based on the address on the envelope but on the type of letter contained therein." The FCC … Continue Reading
The day the D.C. Circuit decided ARRL v. FCC (the broadband-over-power-line case), I posted a brief summary of the decision.
The following is a more complete account, including background on past disagreements between the unlicensed-device industries and the amateur radio community.
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On April 25, an appeals court sent parts of the Broadband-over-Power-Line (BPL) rules back to the FCC for a second look. The challenged rules remain in force in the meantime.
So-called Access BPL, the form at issue here, is a technology for delivering broadband, including high-speed Internet, to homes and businesses over the electrical power lines. (Another kind,
...… Continue Reading
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, responding to an appeal brought by the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), today sent parts of the Broadband-over-Power-Line (BPL) Rules back to
the FCC for a second look. The challenged rules remain in force in the meantime.
The court was unhappy with two aspects of the FCC's decision-making process.
First: Among the many technical studies that played a part in the proceeding were five performed by the FCC itself. The FCC placed these in the public docket, but redacted some passages
that it said were "preliminary or partial results ...… Continue Reading
