FCC

Petition filed with FCC against exclusive cell phone deals

Paul Mah — Wed, 21 May 2008 04:25:45 -0400

The Rural Cellular Association--a group of more than 80 small and rural wireless providers--wants to end exclusive deals between carriers and handset makers. The contention is that such arrangements are unfair and stifles the ability of the consumer the freedom to choose their carrier of choice. In addition, customers living in smaller areas not covered by the big carriers lose out on the ability to acquire phones tied up in such arrangements. The most prominent example of their complaint would probably be Apple's exclusivity deal with AT&T, which gave the U.S. carrier the sole right to sell the iPhone within the United States.

For more on the petition:
- check out this CNET News.com blog

Mobile calls take flight in Europe

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

The FCC may have decided against allowing mobile phone calls on planes in the U.S., but that doesn't mean that mobile calls are grounded elsewhere in the world. Air France recently started testing an in-flight calling system on a few of its planes and the results were...well, a bit turbulent. First off, only six passengers can make a call at a time, to avoid interference with the plane's equipment. Then there's the price of making a call from the air: 3 Euros or almost $5 USD a minute. Finally there's the issue of the call quality. "From Seat 14C, Mr. Germain punched in the number on his cellphone to his assistant in Paris and waited a few moments for the signal to bounce from a satellite in space to a receiver on the ground 39,000 feet below," the New York Times reported. "'I'm not hearing you very well,' the assistant yelled when he got through. 'It sounds like I'm talking to a small robot.'"

For more on in-flight calls:
- see this New York Times article

ALSO NOTED: Dell continues to hint at Eee PC clone; 3G iPhone rumors abound in Italy;

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:59:50 -0400

> Palm's Centro looks like it's headed to Verizon as well. Article
> The OLPC project may abandon Linux. Article
> Alltel My Circle customers get an extra number for free. Article
> HP iPAQ 900 shows up at the FCC. Article
> Dell continues to hint at Eee PC clone. Article
> Further details emerge on Motorola corporate restructuring. Article
> Mamma Mia! 3G iPhone rumors abound in Italy. Article

And Finally... Brazilian criminals use Eee PC in ATM heist. Article

Hands on: WinMo 6.1 and HTC Shift

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:59:56 -0400

We knew that we couldn't leave the CTIA show floor without saying hi to everyone's favorite OEM turned smartphone powerhouse: HTC. On display at their booth were a number of relatively new devices, many of which were running the newly-announced Windows Mobile 6.1 firmware. The Touch Dual--which is coming to the States later this year--was pretty much exactly as we expected, a Touch with a slide-out keypad. It does, however, seem a bit thinner and lighter than the original Touch. It was nice to see a device as powerful as the TyTn II (aka the AT&T Tilt) finally freed from the clutches of the cluttered Windows Mobile 6.0 home screen, though the device seemed to experience the same delay in switching from portrait to landscape that users of the AT&T firmware have complained about. Finally, the Shift was as interesting of a device you could expect to find on the show floor--with its dual operating systems (Windows Mobile 6.1 and Windows Vista), massive touchscreen and bolted-on leather case (which was necessary, apparently, in order to meet an FCC requirement regarding the distance of an antenna from the outside of a device's case). Cool? You bet. Worth $1,500? Not when the highest-end Mini-Note can be had for half the price.

For more on Windows Mobile 6.1 and HTC's newest devices:
- see this photo slideshow

SPOTLIGHT: 700Mhz auction reaches finale

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:59:52 -0400

It's been a long and winding road but the FCC's 700Mhz spectrum auction has finally reached its thrilling conclusion. As expected, Verizon Wireless is the big winner, taking home that highly-coveted chunk of C Block spectrum, open access provisions and all. AT&T and Echostar also won big, with each taking home a number of smaller spectrum slices. And Google? Well, Google might be the biggest winner of them all: the company managed to push its open agenda forward with some success and didn't have to spend a dime. Article

Eight long hours

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:59:57 -0500

Everyone, it seems, noticed that during Hurricane Katrina, the cell phone system was gone with the wind (and the waves). In response to the experience of Katrina and a number of other natural and man-made disasters, the FCC has now mandated that all cell towers come with back-up power for at least eight hours of operation after the electric power distribution grid goes down. It's not as simple as just sticking a diesel generator at the foot of each tower--different towers have generation and storage requirements that range from hydrogen fuel cells to lead-acid batteries to diesel generators. While the requirements are different, the financial burden is estimated to be uniformly high, ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 in additional costs for every cell tower in the U.S. That's a lot of money, whether it's being counted on grid or backup power.

For more on the new FCC requirements:
- Read the regulation analysis at WirelessWeek

Could the 700Mhz auction be a bust?

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:59:56 -0500

The 700Mhz auction hasn't gotten off to an auspicious start: Presumed public-safety bidder Frontline closed up shot before things got off the ground, unable to put together the table stakes for an opening bid. The question on many minds is whether Frontline's collapse is a harbinger of things to come in the newest spectrum allocation battle, or the simple failure of a single company. It's possible that no company will come up with the $4.2 billion minimum bid in the open-access part of the bidding process, in which case the FCC will re-auction to the highest bidder. If the bids stay low, though, it means that the $20 billion windfall for the government coffers could be reduced by a considerable amount.

For more on the possibility of a quiet auction:
- Read the pre-auction analysis at WirelessWeek

What the auction holds for Google

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:59:56 -0500

Google is ready to make its 700 Mhz bid, but what will winning the auction (if a Google win actually happens) do for the search-engine giant? It certainly buys the company an opportunity to develop new platforms and applications, but many analysts say that the win is a slow-motion victory, with years required between auction win and the first usable services and products. Can a company that's made itself in the model of the hyper-fast Internet really win when patience is the key element required? The possibilities of ubiquitous Google availability may provide all the impetus toward patience the company requires.

For more on Google's auction possibilities:
- Read the pre-auction analysis at NetworkWorld

JetBlue's high-altitude WiFi

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

It hasn't been very long since the FCC first said "yes" to the idea of in-flight WiFi (at the same time they were saying "no" to in-flight cell-phone calls). Now, JetBlue is set to begin testing WiFi on a plane, albeit in a very limited way: on a single Airbus airplane on a single route across the country, JetBlue will allow Yahoo email and instant messaging, and activity from certain Blackberry devices. Limited bandwidth (with some market testing thrown in) is the reason for the limits--will this be the first in a long series of WiFi implementations in the air or as far as the WiFi experiment goes? Stay tuned.

For more on the JetBlue WiFi experiment:
- Read the news story at DailyTechRag

QUICKLINKS: Verizon opens up to Android; Silent FCC auction;

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:59:55 -0500

> Verizon opens up to Android. Article

> Quality is king. Article

> Broadband over New York. Article

> Silent FCC auction. Article