A rumored potential merger of the nation’s number three and number four wireless carriers appears unlikely to pass regulatory scrutiny based on an informal poll that included three former FCC chairmen and other former FCC officials. Financial research firm Moffett Nathanson Research conducted the survey...
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FCC officials said at the commission’s monthly meeting today that they will enlist the help of other agencies for TDM-to-IP transition trials. Officials also provided a few more specifics about other elements of the TDM-to-IP transition trials, about which they pledged to provide detailed recommendations...
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December 11, 2013 — Washington, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission has proposed nearly $44 million in fines against three companies that appear to have violated FCC rules protecting its Lifeline program against waste, fraud and abuse. Added to the eight Lifeline enforcement actions brought...
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Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives this week aims to encourage government agencies to give up or share their spectrum holdings in exchange for receiving some of the proceeds from an auction of the spectrum to wireless service providers. It’s the same idea that...
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The FCC said yesterday that AT&T will not be allowed to eliminate long-term discounts on special access circuits for at least five months while the commission investigates the matter further. “We find that there are substantial questions regarding the lawfulness of AT&T’s tariff revisions that...
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The fate of as much as 30% of money earmarked for five price cap carriers in this year’s Connect America Fund program is in question, the FCC revealed in a press release yesterday. Back in August, the FCC announced that the telcos had asked for...
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A spot check conducted by Telecompetitor suggests that a significant number of the nation’s local exchange carriers (LECs) will need to re-submit information about their study area boundaries to the FCC by January 13. Earlier this year the FCC asked the LECs and some state...
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NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) today announced that it has received the approvals needed from the Federal Communications Commission to acquire Vodafone’s U.S. group with the principal asset of 45 percent of Verizon Wireless. Specifically, the FCC...
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An initiative to update the 1996 Telecommunications Act, announced yesterday, drew praise from a diverse group of stakeholders even though the announcement offered no hint of what form the update might take. The announcement came from House Republicans Fred Upton and Greg Walden, who head...
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FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said yesterday that he is an “unabashed supporter of competition,” vowing that competition will be one of two key guiding principles for the commission, along with what he called the “network compact.” “Competition is our fundamental national economic policy,” said Wheeler...
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There’s been a lot of public debate about whether limits should be placed on Verizon and AT&T as the government makes plans to auction TV broadcast spectrum in the 600 MHz band. But considerably less attention has been paid to some other equally important decisions...
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A blog post about the TDM-to-IP transition from the new FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has a tone of urgency, noting that “The impacts on networks have already begun and will be profound.” In the post Wheeler pledges that in January the commission will adopt an...
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