Some 740 billion text messages were sent in the first half of 2009 in the U.S. This according to the CTIA’s semiannual wireless industry survey, which helpfully breaks down that astonishing figure to an even more astonishing 4.1 billion texts per day. That’s about double the number sent during the same period last year.
AT&T has beaten out some 30 telecommunications carriers and private equity groups to buy the wireless spectrum and other assets that rival Verizon Communications was required to divest as a condition of its recent acquisition of Alltel Wireless. The company said this weekend that it will pay $2.35 billion in cash to buy licenses, network assets and some 1.5 million wireless subscribers across 18 states, mostly in rural areas.
Looks like the transition to digital TV will happen on Feb. 17 whether you like it or not. The U.S. House of Representatives today defeated a bill that would have delayed the nation’s switch to all-digital television by four months.
The Federal Communications Commission imposes decency standards on publicly broadcast radio and television signals. No surprise, then, to hear it’s looking to do the same to the free wireless Internet service it envisions in the AWS III spectrum. At its December meeting, the FCC is expected to push forward with another major spectrum auction, one that would require the winning bidder to use a portion of those airwaves to offer a free, and smut-free, broadband service.
The Federal Communications Commission has concluded that a free national broadband network established in the so-called “white spaces” of the AWS-3 band would not cause major interference with other services, paving the way for a sale of those airwaves at a federal auction. An unfortunate turn of events for T-Mobile, which has been aggressively lobbying against the idea.
Google (GOOG) won the recent wireless spectrum auction by not winning. That’s the claim of Richard Whitt, Google’s Washington telecom and media counsel, and Joseph Faber, its corporate counsel. In a post to Google’s Public Policy Blog Thursday, the two attorneys explained that the company’s main goal in bidding in the auction was, as many [...]
The Federal Communications Commission’s highly anticipated 700-MHz spectrum auction kicked off last week, and after almost three days of bidding, the tally stands at just over $4.4 billion.
The hottest bidding action continues to be around the highly prized “C” block spectrum, which could be used to build a new national wireless broadband network. As of [...]
If Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, then Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s is to do the same to its tech-policy issues.
Obama made the now obligatory pilgrimage yesterday to Google headquarters, where he unveiled a high-tech agenda that might just as easily have been written by [...]
It might sound far-fetched, but Apple is reportedly considering bidding in the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming auction of the 700 MHz wireless spectrum. Citing two anonymous sources, BusinessWeek reports that Cupertino has “studied the implications of joining the spectrum auction,” which is expected to fetch a high bid of $9 billion.
It’s an intriguing idea. [...]
Now that the Federal Communications Commission has voted to adopt only two of the ” ‘Four Opens’ of Successful Open Access,” the question on many minds is “Will Google bid in the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction?”
In his July 20 letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Google CEO Eric Schmidt wrote, “should the Commission expressly adopt [...]
The Federal Communications Commission will lay down the ground rules for the auction of the 700 megahertz wireless spectrum tomorrow, determine whether next generation wireless services will be controlled by an existing telco monopoly, an existing cable monopoly or a diversity of new network operators.
Should the FCC agree to the open-access requirements proposed by Google [...]
In August 2005, Google acquired a two-year-old start-up called Android. Founded by Andy Rubin, the guy behind mobile-device maker Danger, Android was rumored to have been developing a mobile phone OS. Google never said much about the acquisition or its plans for Rubin, but he’s been on the company’s payroll ever since…
Oh, it’s on now. Google yesterday dismissed AT&T’s criticism of its conditional pledge to drop at least $4.6 billion on the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming 700-megahertz spectrum auction, characterizing it as the rhetoric of an oligopolist more interested in monopoly profits than openness and innovation.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
Spectacular in the bellowing Russian sailor sense of the word …
“If you spell something wrong on your insurance claim, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so …”
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