Managing traffic on broadband networks is essential to avoid overloads and degraded service, network providers and several think tanks told the FCC in comments filed Wednesday. Responding to petitions seeking more FCC oversight of network management (CD Jan 15 p2), Comcast said “network management is best left to the sound, good-faith judgment of the engineers and proprietors who run and own the networks and who are best able to remedy customer service issues promptly, rather than to regulation.”
Managing traffic on broadband networks is essential to avoid overloads and degraded service, network providers and several think tanks told the FCC in comments filed Wednesday. Responding to petitions seeking more FCC oversight of network management (WID Jan 15 p2), Comcast said “network management is best left to the sound, good-faith judgment of the engineers and proprietors who run and own the networks and who are best able to remedy customer service issues promptly, rather than to regulation.”
FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein accused the FCC of acting in haste, without doing the required competitive analysis, in approving AT&T’s acquisition of 700 MHz spectrum from Aloha Partners. Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the acquisition Jan. 25 (CD Jan 28 p1), but the order was not released until late Monday. Copps dissented, while Adelstein issued a concurrence. The FCC’s three Republican members didn’t issue statements.
The NTIA said Tuesday it seeks participants for its long-awaited spectrum testbed to test the effectiveness of dynamic spectrum access technology. Companies that want to take part must notify the agency by Feb. 28.
A global standard to help manufacturers design mobile phones, TVs, laptops and other audio and video products meet energy efficiency and reuse and recycling requirements has been released by the IEC in Geneva. The standard comes as regulators in Europe and the U.S. spotlight the energy use of electronics and ways to ensure safe disposal of discarded products.
A global standard to help manufacturers design mobile phones, TVs, laptops and other audio and video products meet energy efficiency and reuse and recycling requirements has been released by the International Electrotechnical Commission in Geneva. The standard comes as regulators in Europe and the U.S. spotlight the energy use of electronics and ways to ensure safe disposal of discarded products.
U.S. Electronics is trying to heat up two issues in FCC review of the proposed XM-Sirius merger. In a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the company demanded that the agency release documents U.S. Electronics says may show what happened to interoperable radio and unlawful emissions issues raised but not addressed. “These records are urgently required to fill in glaring gaps in the FCC’s record in the proposed merger,” said Charles Helein, U.S. Electronics counsel.
Mobile phone betting, until now a backwater of the remote gambling market, is set to lift off, bringing huge revenue -- and potential social problems -- with it, according to a variety of industry observers. Four factors are driving growth, they said: better handsets and the Apple iPhone; the maturing of traditional online and offline gambling businesses; more user-friendly software; and the convenience of being able to bet anywhere, anytime. But the boom must be tempered with social responsibility to prevent addiction and underage gambling, they said.
Mobile phone betting, until now a backwater of the remote gambling market, is set to lift off, bringing huge revenue -- and potential social problems -- with it, according to a variety of industry observers. Four factors are driving growth, they said: better handsets and the Apple iPhone; the maturing of traditional online and offline gambling businesses; more user-friendly software; and the convenience of being able to bet anywhere, anytime. But the boom must be tempered with social responsibility to prevent addiction and underage gambling, they said.
Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., took a swipe at net neutrality advocates who have said expanding bandwidth would be cheaper for service providers than adding filtering technology, as AT&T is working on, to reduce the drain of peer-to-peer traffic. A member of the House Telecom Subcommittee and founding co-chairman of the Intellectual Property Promotion and Piracy Prevention Caucus, Bono Mack told the State of the Net conference Wednesday that ISPs are heavily investing in expanding network capacity, but “simply adding more bandwidth does not solve this dilemma.” She said P2P protocols are designed to consume as much bandwidth as possible, so adding capacity simply encourages additional P2P consumption.