News

WASHINGTON — Late Monday, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it would combine its reviews of AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile and AT&T’s acquisition of spectrum licenses from Qualcomm.

WASHINGTON — On Monday, Verizon Wireless submitted its response to Free Press’ complaint about the carrier’s decision to block subscribers from accessing “tethering” applications on their 4G phones.

WASHINGTON — The FCC Tuesday published the results of a study measuring the real-world performance of most major U.S. Internet service providers. While the study indicates some providers are consistently delivering their customers the promised network speeds, it reveals that many providers are falling well short of their advertised claims.

WASHINGTON — On Friday, several major telecom companies sent a proposal to revamp the Universal Service Fund (USF) to the Federal Communications Commission. The proposal, authored by Verizon, AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream and Fairpoint, lays out industry’s plan to redirect funding to support broadband access rather than legacy telephone networks.

WASHINGTON — SavetheNews.org has uncovered 22 more covert consolidation deals in its “Change the Channels” campaign. So far, more than 100 cases have been documented of local TV newsrooms combining operations to circumvent the Federal Communications Commission’s media ownership limits at the expense of independent, local journalism.

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, House Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Communications Subcommittee Chair Greg Walden (R-Ore.), and Oversight Subcommittee Chair Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission seeking information about the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules passed in December.

WASHINGTON — Late Wednesday, 11 state attorneys general asked the Department of Justice and the FCC to approve AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile USA with conditions necessary to protect competition and safeguard the public interest.

WASHINGTON — On Monday, AT&T submitted “new models,” requested by the Federal Communications Commission, intended to bolster arguments for its acquisition of T-Mobile. The deal would eliminate one of four remaining nationwide carriers and further squeeze an already highly concentrated market.

WASHINGTON — After Newport TV threatened legal action against an educational video created by Free Press that criticized the company for covertly consolidating its newsrooms, Newport has rescinded its YouTube take-down notice, and the video has been restored.

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, Free Press launched four new videos that show viewers the impacts of the AT&T-T-Mobile merger on consumers, competition and jobs. These spoofs, which have nearly 50,000 views in 24 hours, feature legwarmers, baby phones and insulted T-Mobile customers, too. Free Press is urging viewers to vote for their favorite and spread the word.