President Obama called for spectrum license fees in a record $3.9 trillion budget, released today, reviving a proposal that has failed to move in the past. But with the new Democratic administration intending to halve the projected $1.7 trillion budget deficit by 2013, the...
A digital TV transition postponement appears increasingly inevitable, with the parent company of top mobile-phone carrier Verizon Wireless shifting course to support a limited extension of the mid-February deadline. Verizon Communication Inc.'s move comes shortly after congressional and Obama transition team officials late last...
Senate Democratic leaders today are scrambling to fast-track passage of a bill that would delay the digital TV transition until June 12, but congressional and industry opposition could make a longer, drawn-out fight more likely.The controversy generated last week by President-elect Barack Obama's request...
The $825 billion economic stimulus package unveiled by congressional Democrats will include $6 billion in grants for broadband and wireless services in underserved areas, a funding level that is lower than anticipated and that could come with controversial strings attached.In a press release, the...
Congressional Republican and industry opposition are mounting over President-elect Barack Obama's call to delay next-month's digital television transition, with the nation's two largest telecom carriers divided over how Congress should proceed." is freeing broadcast spectrum for firefighters, police officers and other life-savers and also...
A top tech member of the Obama transition team today said the broadband component of the increasingly contentious economic stimulus package in Congress is not designed to completely meet the president-elect's overarching goal of increasing the availability of high-speed Internet connections - in part...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace. The unprecedented concentration of spectrum in the hands of Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
Public-safety organizations asked President-elect Barack Obama to exclude spectrum designated for first responders in any plan to delay the transition to digital television next month.The Obama-Biden transition team last week asked congressional leaders to postpone the Feb. 17 DTV cut-over in light of inadequate...
The telecom leadership facelift in Congress continues as lawmakers suddenly find themselves confronted with President-elect Obama's request to postpone next month's digital TV transition, a possible shift that could force wireless providers to wait longer to obtain spectrum they paid nearly $20 billion for...
A cancelled hearing has not slowed down M2Z Networks Inc. John Muleta, CEO of M2Z, insists that the FCC's recent cancellation of a hearing to discuss auction plans for the AWS-3 spectrum has not weakened the company's spirits. Muleta still believes that the free...
Gerald P. (Jerry) Vaughan, 64, a retired veteran of the Federal Communications Commission who helped launch the first spectrum auctions, died Dec. 6 at his summer home in Pennsylvania of an apparent heart attack.The FCC said Vaughan worked at the commission for more than...
Two senior members of the House telecom subcommittee urged the Federal Communications Commission to vote internally on Chairman Kevin Martin's free wireless broadband auction plan, an initiative previously scheduled for agency action today at a meeting subsequently cancelled in response to congressional pressure."We...
Congressional pressure has prompted the Federal Communications Commission to scrap its Dec. 18 meeting, but the action does not necessarily mean the agency will forgo ruling on the free wireless broadband plan and other major items championed by Chairman Kevin Martin before he likely...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin suddenly faces congressional pressure to pare down the Dec. 18 meeting agenda, a development that could blow up a scheduled a vote on a free, family friendly wireless broadband plan.Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.),...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and the Bush administration are on a collision course over a possible Dec. 18 vote on a free, family-friendly wireless auction plan, uncharacteristically bringing into public view a high-stakes policy dispute between the Republican White House and...
After Barack Obama ran for president promising change and openness, and making a point of refusing to accept lobbyists' contributions, the president-elect's transition team secretly held a meeting with broadcasting lobbyists to discuss the digital TV changeover.The unannounced meeting was held Friday in Washington....
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said the agency is considering a Dec. 18 vote on a version of a free, family-friendly wireless broadband auction plan that could make spectrum available for unlicensed use if the winning license bidder fails to meet an interim...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.Conventional wisdom suggests that the spectral efficiency of a wireless technology has a meaningful impact...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, with time dwindling to move top policy priorities as a new administration prepares to assume power in January, is laying the groundwork to win approval by mid-December of final rules for highly controversial public-safety and wireless broadband auction...
Major fundraisers who previously were highly influential in the wireless space have assumed key roles on the Obama-Biden transition team, a move that comes amid efforts by the Democratic president-elect to limit the clout of lobbyists in putting a new government in place.Thomas Wheeler,...
The mobile-phone industry has dropped a legal challenge to the open-access condition imposed on a third of the 700 MHz spectrum auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year. Wireless industry trade association CTIA appealed the agency's C-Block open-access rule last year -...
With Democrats capturing the White House and strengthening their control of Congress on the same day that federal regulators approved two major telecom deals, wireless policy changes could be in store as lawmakers, federal regulators and the incoming Obama administration take measure of an...
The Department of Justice approved Verizon Wireless' $28 billion purchase of Alltel Communications L.L.C., subject to required divestitures of wireless assets in 100 markets encompassing 22 states."The divestitures required are necessary to protect wireless customers and are among the most extensive required by the...
Editor's Note: RCR Wireless News Washington Bureau Chief Jeffrey Silva asked the presidential campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) to respond to e-mailed questions covering a wide range of policy matters confronting the wireless industry and the telecom/high-tech sectors generally.
McCain's...
