News

WASHINGTON — On Thursday the Federal Communications Commission voted on several items pertaining to next year’s Mobile Broadband Incentive Auction. Pursuant to the auction, the FCC will allow broadcasters to sell valuable spectrum, which will then be repurposed for mobile use. Today’s rules will also make more spectrum available for unlicensed uses, like Wi-Fi, in the post-auction TV band.

WASHINGTON — Phone and cable companies and their lobbying groups filed an initial series of legal briefs on Thursday as part of their legal challenge against the Federal Communications Commission’s Feb. 26 Net Neutrality order.

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FCC is poised to grant AT&T’s proposed acquisition of DIRECTV. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler subsequently issued a statement confirming that he would circulate for a full Commission vote an order proposing approval of the deal.

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, more than 60 organizations sent a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Appropriations urging them to “remove from the Financial Services appropriations bill Sections 628-630 of that legislation, which threaten implementation of the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order.”

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, the D.C. Circuit denied a motion for stay of the Federal Communications Commission’s historic decision to reclassify broadband Internet access as a telecommunications service.

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) introduced riders to an appropriations bill that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from using its budget to implement the Open Internet rules and protect Net Neutrality.

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a proposal to reform the $1.7 billion Lifeline program to ensure that Americans in low-income communities can afford access to high-speed Internet services.

WASHINGTON — Charter Communications on Tuesday announced plans to acquire Time Warner Cable in a deal valued at $56.7 billion. Charter also confirmed that it would acquire Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company, for $10.4 billion.

WASHINGTON — As the sun set on Thursday, activists and Internet users of varying political stripes gathered outside Senate offices across the country and in Washington, D.C., to urge Congress to oppose any reauthorization of the Patriot Act and instead let key provisions that enable NSA spying to sunset on June 1st.

WASHINGTON — Free Press on Friday joined nearly two-dozen advocacy groups and tech-industry leaders to intervene in defense of the Federal Communications Commission’s Net Neutrality order.