Regulation

The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday finally released the text of its 3-2 ruling saying Comcast violated the law when throttling BitTorrent transfers, marking the first time any broadband provider has been found to violate Net neutrality rules.

Comcast will be required to take these steps in the next 30 days: disclose "the precise contours" of its current and future network management practices, and submit a "nondiscriminatory network management" compliance plan so government regulators can decide whether they approve. The company will not be fined.

If Comcast fails to comply, it will be automatically required to &… Read more

WASHINGTON--The Federal Trade Commission essentially banned robocalls Tuesday--creating new rules that telemarketers may only send the prerecorded sales pitches to people who actually want to receive them.

The FTC amended its Telemarketing Sales Rule after reviewing more than 14,000 comments made since October 2006, when proposed amendments were published for public consideration.

There are two stages to the change: By December 2008, robocalls will be required to include an automated key-press or voice-activated opt-out. Beginning September 2009, telemarketers won't be able to send out any robocalls without "the prior express written agreement of the recipient to receive … Read more

ASPEN, Colo.--Verizon's chief technologist took a swipe at Net neutrality advocates on Tuesday, saying the concept has become overly politicized and important engineering details have been overlooked in Washington debates.

"We need to guard against turning technical and business decisions into political decisions," Verizon's Richard Lynch said at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's technology policy conference here.

Lynch gave the example of a customer placing a call using a voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, service that relies on time-sensitive packets. Unless a continuous stream of VoIP packets arrives, the call quality can suffer … Read more

Fliers are asked to dump out their beverages, take off their shoes, and go through a number of other time-eating security procedures at the airport--but at least some travelers may not have to unpack their laptops, the Transportation Security Administration announced Friday.

Starting August 16, travelers will not have to remove laptops from bags that are deemed "checkpoint-friendly." This category includes "butterfly style," "sleeve style," and "trifold style" bags. These styles were chosen after the TSA asked bag manufacturers to design bags that would not obstruct the image of a laptop when … Read more

Mel King is a Boston-area community organizer locally famous for a housing sit-in, an almost-successful mayoral campaign, and the South End Technology Center, which provides low-cost computer training.

King, born in 1928, has long been a critic of telecommunications companies and an advocate of strict Net neutrality laws. He participated in an activists' "technology convening" in 2006 that fretted "companies who own the 'pipes' will control who gets on and what they can say." He joined a pro-Net neutrality coalition that opposed federal legislation backed by broadband providers.

Yet King placed his name on an opinion article … Read more

Verizon Wireless is beefing up its infrastructure in Denver to prepare for the influx of as many as 50,000 people expected to enter the city later this month for the Democratic National Convention.

The company said on Wednesday that it has added three permanent cell sites to downtown Denver and also plans to install a mobile "cell-on-wheels." Upgrades at specific cell sites have doubled voice capacity in the city and increased data-handling capacity four-fold.

In-building coverage has also been enhanced with signal boosters and repeaters in a number of hotels, parking garages, and other convention sites. The … Read more

Thanks to tech and multimedia companies like Yahoo and the Politico, the traditional grandstanding of the Democratic and Republican conventions will no longer be limited to audiences of political insiders.

The two organizations announced Monday they will be partnering with traditional newspapers to host public forums at both the Democratic National Convention in Colorado and Republican National Convention in Minnesota. Both Yahoo News and Politico will make the forums available online.

There will be eight public breakfast panels, which according to a press release, "will set the tone for each day of the convention." The panels will be … Read more

Mobile devices today are far more capable, and capacious, than the analog bricks of decades past. That also creates new security risks, which the feds are asking the public to address in comments due Friday.

"Mobile devices are expected to continue to become more powerful and communicate at higher speeds, eventually giving people the power and functionality of a full desktop," the National Institute of Standards and Technology says in its draft of Guidelines on Cell Phone and PDA Security. "Besides increasing productivity, such improvements are rapidly turning cell phones into extensive data reservoirs capable of holding … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Transitions between presidential administrations are typically influence-peddling, power-consolidating, appointee-vetting exercises run by Washington insiders. Perhaps that's why the quintessential Washington think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is trying to insert itself into the process.

The private organization, which has close ties to the U.S. military and counts Henry Kissinger on its payroll, has gathered about 35 people and awarded them the official-sounding title of "Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency." Adding to the formality are some closed-to-the-public meetings and ex-officio members from federal agencies, congressional offices, and the nebulous "… Read more