communication

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has taken a big step in freeing up more wireless spectrum for wireless broadband service providers.

The agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, announced on Monday that it has determined that it can repurpose 95MHz of wireless spectrum used by the government for commercial use. Specifics of how and when this spectrum will be cleared, and how much it will cost, are still being developed. But the agency said its preliminary report shows that it is possible.

The addition of this 95MHz of spectrum, which lies in the 1755MHz-to-1850MHz … Read more

The FCC kicked off a process that should eventually allow Dish Network to use its satellite spectrum to build a 4G LTE wireless broadband network.

At its March opening meeting, the FCC voted unanimously to begin a rulemaking process aimed at letting Dish use spectrum designated for satellite use to provide a land-based wireless broadband service. Draft regulations described the service and technical rules for implementing the flexible use of the spectrum.

Dish had asked the FCC to grant it a waiver so that it could use 40 MHz of spectrum in the 2 GHz band for 4G. But earlier … Read more

All eyes will be on the Federal Communications Commission in the coming months as it deals with a series of spectrum-related issues that will help determine who is a player in the mobile broadband market and who isn't.

The FCC is under pressure to get as much new spectrum on the market as soon as possible. Wireless operators say they face a crisis if they can't get additional wireless spectrum to fuel the growth of mobile data usage. But as wireless spectrum is increasingly viewed as a limited resource, regulators are faced with politically charged debates surrounding topics associated with spectrum. … Read more

LightSquared says it's not yet giving up its fight to build a nationwide 4G LTE network.

The company, which is backed by Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital, has invested more than $4 billion into the network, which it hoped would be a wholesale alternative to wireless broadband networks run by AT&T and Verizon wireless. For the past year, the company has been fighting an uphill battle in Washington, D.C., where the GPS industry has rallied political support around its claims that LightSquared's network interferes with its receivers and therefore cannot be built.

So far, the … Read more

Amazon's Prime Instant Videos has added 3,000 new titles from Discovery Communications, bringing the total number of videos available to subscribers to 17,000.

The new programs, announced today, include series and specials from Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, among other Discovery networks, as well as shows from its 25-year programming library. Among the new titles available to Prime members: "Deadliest Catch," "Mythbusters," "Man vs. Wild," "Dirty Jobs," "Shark Week," "Cake Boss," and "Whale Wars."

In a note on Amazon's home page today, … Read more

Harman International, in looking for a way to personalize the in-car experience, found that the most unique thing everyone carries is a phone. In its demonstration of a new dashboard electronics system, Harman pointed out that people are more likely to loan someone else their car keys than their phones.

At the 2012 Geneva auto show, Harman used Rinspeed's Dock+Go concept car to show off the new system. In the car we had a number of smartphones, each equipped with near field communications, belonging to a variety of different people (set up for the purposes of the demonstration). … Read more

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski wants Internet service providers to work with government and security experts to adopt voluntary standards to protect consumers from cyber attacks.

On Wednesday, the chairman gave a speech in Washington, D.C., in which he discussed voluntary measures that ISPs and other technology companies could take to help protect the public from three major cyber threats: botnets, domain name fraud, and IP hijacking.

"Cyber attacks pose a critical threat to our economic future and national security," he said in his speech. "If you shut down the Internet, you'd shut down … Read more

Things are not looking good for LightSquared, the wireless startup that had planned to build a nationwide wireless broadband network.

Today, Reuters reported that the company said it plans to cut 45 percent of its workforce to conserve cash.

"This and other cost savings measures will allow LightSquared to continue to navigate the regulatory process as it works with the appropriate government agencies to find solutions to the GPS interference issue and bring its $14 billion privately funded wireless broadband network to more than 260 million Americans," according to the statement.

And yesterday, several news outlets reported that … Read more

It looks like Congress will finally authorize incentive spectrum auctions.

Today, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate agreed on legislation that will authorize the extension of the payroll tax cuts and the unemployment benefits. And they also authorized the Federal Communications Commission to auction off wireless spectrum as part of the package. Revenue from the incentive auctions will be used to help pay for the tax cuts and unemployment benefits.

The spectrum auction was proposed as part of the 2010 National Broadband Plan. It calls for TV broadcasters who have wireless spectrum they aren'… Read more