Policy

Waz back at Comcast as senior strategic advisor

January 8, 2013 3:28 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

After semi-retiring last year, policy expert Joe Waz has returned to Comcast full-time as its senior strategic advisor. Waz had 17 years of service at Comcast prior to his retirement but remained active as a consultant for the company and the rest of the cable industry.

Can MVNOs help peel the cap off Big Data?

January 7, 2013 2:24 pm | by Ben Munson, Wireless Week | News | Comments

Imaginative minds have sometimes pegged the Internet as the new Wild West, a vast land of opportunity fraught with peril. That’s a bit of a stretch, but if there’s one ideal that should hold as true in this new frontier as it did in the old, it’s Roy Rogers’ plea to never fence him in

Rural proponents come out for LightSquared proposal

January 4, 2013 2:15 pm | by Andrew Berg, Wireless Week | News | Comments

A number of comments were filed with the FCC, encouraging the Commission to approve LightSquared’s most recent proposal to give up 10 MHz of spectrum located closest to the GPS band and instead share spectrum currently used by the NOAA.

CED Person of the Year

January 4, 2013 12:26 pm | by Brian Santo | Articles | Comments

For Cequel Communications Holdings, doing business as Suddenlink, 2012 was the occasion of a remarkably simultaneous culmination of several multi-year efforts. These efforts included both engineering and business aspects, which ultimately amplified each other.

Al-Jazeera buys Current TV from Al Gore

January 3, 2013 2:44 pm | by The Associated Press | News | Comments

Al-Jazeera has long struggled to get carriage in the U.S., and the deal suffered an immediate casualty as Time Warner Cable announced it is dropping Current TV due to the deal. Current TV is carried by Comcast and DirecTV. Neither company announced plans to drop the channel.

LodgeNet to reorganize

January 2, 2013 3:00 pm | by The Associated Press | News | Comments

LodgeNet, which provides Internet and on-demand movies to hotels and hospital rooms, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will be acquired by investment firm Colony Capital. LodgeNet says it will form a strategic partnership with DirecTV.

Sidera Networks merges with Lightower Fiber Networks

January 2, 2013 2:57 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Berkshire Partners announced it was brokering a deal, which is valued at $2 billion, that will merge Lightower Fiber Networks and Sidera Networks once it’s completed. Sidera was formerly RCN Metro Optical Networks until Abry Partners spun it off from RCN.

FCC eases airlines’ path to in-flight broadband

January 2, 2013 2:49 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted rules that will serve to help airlines more expeditiously roll out in-flight broadband. The rules streamline the process for airlines applying for a license to offer Internet service onboard during flights.

In Perspective - Scrying for soup

January 2, 2013 1:33 pm | by Brian Santo | Articles | Comments

Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Last year, I predicted that somebody might finally do something interesting with tru2way. Would studiously ignoring tru2way be considered “something interesting”? Judges? OK then, 2013.

Capital Currents - Emergency information for sight-impaired viewers

January 2, 2013 11:39 am | by Jeffrey Krauss, president of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | Articles | Comments

The Federal Communications Commission has begun a new proceeding on delivery of emergency information to blind and sight-impaired viewers. The FCC seems to be aware of the practical problem noted above, but it’s not making much progress in dealing with it.

ACA Summit - March 12-14, 2013

December 26, 2012 5:04 pm | by CED Magazine | Events

What better way to learn about regulatory and policy developments than directly from these heavy-hitters from Washington? The American Cable Association Summit will be held March 12-14. It's the 20th Annual ACA Summit.

Data cap bill presented in Congress

December 21, 2012 2:04 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

The Data Cap Integrity Act, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), aims to give consumers the tools they need to manage their own data usage. It would institute industry-wide data measurement accuracy standards for ISPs and impose disciplines to ensure that ISP data caps are truly designed to manage network congestion.

Arris to buy Motorola Home for $2B

December 19, 2012 6:36 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Arris announced it will acquire the Motorola Home business from Google for $2.35 billion. Arris will get outright possession of approximately 1,000 patents, and also an open license to about 1,000 more held by Motorola Mobility (which remains with Google).

FCC approves AT&T's bid to buy Comcast spectrum

December 19, 2012 3:13 pm | by Ben Munson, Wireless Week | News | Comments

The FCC approved AT&T's bid to soak up spectrum from Comcast, stating the "proposed transactions would serve the public interest." The deal gives AT&T licenses to AWS-1 and WCS spectrum in 608 markets, covering 82 percent of the U.S. population in 48 states.

FCC limits Dish spectrum, sets 4-year timetable for rollout

December 19, 2012 3:12 pm | by Andrew Berg, Wireless Week | News | Comments

In its order, the FCC said it declined a proposal presented by Dish Network that would have included shifting the AWS-4 uplink spectrum up five MHz to protect the adjacent H-block, a piece of spectrum in which Sprint has expressed an interest.