Posts tagged FCC

Verizon's Deal with Big Cable Spells the Demise of the Telecom Act
Joel Kelsey
January 5, 2012

We all remember the 1980's and its awesome fashion and music. While some may want to revisit those aspects of the past, I don't think anyone wants to return to the era of the cable and Ma Bell monopolies.

Opening up communications markets was the purpose of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The Act was designed to help phone companies get into the pay-TV business, and cable companies get into the phone business. Yet after a series of regulatory blunders, this promise of increased competition and lower prices has become a distant memory, like 7-Up Gold. And the situation is only getting worse.

Big Win! AT&T Drops Its T-Mobile Takeover Bid
Craig Aaron
December 19, 2011

This is huge: AT&T just announced it’s finally abandoning its doomed merger with T-Mobile.

For nearly a year, we've been showing that this deal would have only meant higher prices, fewer choices and tens of thousands of lost American jobs. Free Press knew it; the Department of Justice agreed; so did the FCC.

Stanford Law Prof Condemns Verizon App Blocking
Anonymous
December 19, 2011

Earlier this month, when Verizon announced it was restricting Google Wallet from being used on the new Galaxy Nexus phone, Free Press cried foul and urged the FCC to investigate. Since Verizon has signed on to conditions that require it to keep part of its wireless network open to competitors’ applications and devices, it may be breaking the law by blocking access to applications on its phones.

Stanford Law School Professor Barbara van Schewick, author of Internet Architecture and Innovation, has also written a letter to the FCC. Below is her blog post on the issue, which she gave us permission to re-post.

Two Important Victories
Josh Levy
December 15, 2011

We just scored two important victories.

The Top 10 Ways the Carriers Tried to Screw Us in 2011
Josh Levy
December 15, 2011

Another year, another 12 months in which the mobile carriers did their best to screw us.

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon do so many bad, annoying and anti-consumer things that it’s almost impossible to document it all. So below is a catalog of simply the most egregious acts the carriers perpetrated this year.

Verizon Blocks Again
Josh Levy
December 13, 2011

Last week Verizon announced it was blocking Google’s new Galaxy Nexus phone from using Google Wallet, the mobile payment app.

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