What do Cliff Stearns, John Shimkus and Fred Upton have in common? They’re all members of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, and they’ve each publicly accused Google of having “duped” the Federal Communications Commission by “gaming” a recent multibillion-dollar auction of wireless frequencies, shortchanging federal coffers. They also have this in common: Each has received more than $100,000 in campaign contributions over their careers from telephone and cable interests locked in a battle with Google over the use of those frequencies.
Here’s the telecom geek quiz of the day: What’s a megahertz pop?
A) What a Federal Communications Commission lawyer eats to cool off on a hot day
B) An ultrasonic explosive device used for pranks at MIT
C) A shiny prize horded by large phone companies
Comcast, the second largest Internet service provider in the country, is making the controversial and aggressive case that Internet service providers should be allowed to serve as traffic cops on the Internet. In an 80-page filing with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, the company says it has a right to clamp down on the use of peer-to-peer file-sharing programs on its network to preserve the smooth flow of bits to and from all its customers. The filing was in response to an FCC complaint from network neutrality groups in November after the Associated Press revealed that Comcast was stopping some customers from using BitTorrent, a file-sharing program often used to swap copyrighted copies of songs and movies over the Internet.
by Robert X. Cringely, Contributor, Popular Mechanics
When analog television broadcasting goes dark in the United States on Feb. 17, 2009, and the huge analog transmitters of more than 1,600 broadcast stations are turned off, what will happen to those radio frequencies formerly used for analog TV? Well, for UHF channels 60 to 69, the future will be decided starting this week, as the Federal Communications Commission begins to auction that reclaimed bandwidth, bringing at least $10 billion into the treasury from auction winners and possibly allowing a dramatic expansion of wireless spectrum for cellular voice and data communication.
Remember the eighties, the decade when pop killed off punk, and when Jerry Bruckheimer got rich making loud and lame movies? OK, so some things never change. Another loud and lame idea from the eighties has come back to haunt us. The Federal Communications Commission has loosened the rules preventing companies from owning television stations and newspapers in the same market.
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