“Federal Communications Commission” on The Daily Caller

Numerous Freedom of Information Act requests made by conservative groups pertaining to the influence of lobbyists on net neutrality policy were continually rebuffed by the FCC throughout 2011, The Daily Caller has learned. (more)

Imagine the growth and consumer benefit that could result if communications companies could efficiently transform their businesses and buy the resources they need to keep pace with rapid changes in technology and consumer demand — as quickly and easily as other industries can? Only communications companies must endure the FCC’s public interest test (the PIT), an amorphous FCC approval standard that only applies to communications-related mergers and spectrum acquisitions.
Companies subjected to the FCC’s PIT face a big multi-faceted problem, because the process is arbitrary, unpredictable, obsolete, discriminatory, and extortionate. It’s an unnecessary impediment holding broadband communications back from fulfilling customers’ rapidly changing needs, demands and expectations. (more)

The Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to require broadcasters to make information about political ad buying available online to the public. (more)

A bill to reform the FCC, which would increase transparency and accountability regarding the agency’s merger process and it’s handling of FOIA requests, passed the House by a 247-174 vote Tuesday. (more)

Pardon my French, but it’s de rigueur these days to talk about “repurposing” spectrum to address what Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski calls the coming “spectrum crunch” for wireless operators. (more)

In the follow-up to Thursday’s announcement from T-Mobile USA that it would be laying off 1,900 people from its call centers, senior AT&T executive Jim Cicconi took the chance to return fire on the Federal Communications Commission. Pegging the layoffs on what could be viewed as the agency’s obstruction of last year’s proposed merger with T-Mobile USA, Cicconi alleged that the lost jobs could have been saved had the merger been approved. (more)

Within minutes of LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja’s unexpected resignation, House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to several of President Barack Obama’s agencies requesting documents related to the emerging scandal. (more)

Broadband company LightSquared‘s CEO made a maximum-allowable political donation to the Democratic Party on the same day his lawyers were trying to arrange a meeting between him and top White House technology officials, records and emails obtained by The Daily Caller show. Those same records also show a questionable inconsistency, listing the CEO’s employer as a company he hadn’t worked for in a decade. (more)

The Daily Caller has obtained documents, emails and communications showing how President Barack Obama’s Federal Communications Commission demolished wireless broadband company LightSquared’s competition through a pattern of regulatory decisions apparently aimed at establishing an “open-access” Internet in the United States. (more)

In the months leading up to the Federal Communications Commission’s December 21, 2010 “net neutrality” vote, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s appointment book contained two key meetings not listed in Commission’s legal filings, The Daily Caller has learned. (more)

Documents and copies of communications obtained by The Daily Caller indicate that the Federal Communications Commission propped up broadband company LightSquared with favorable regulatory decisions and other special treatment, while driving its competition out of business. (more)

Sprint’s latest “cost-cutting” decision to roam on rural networks in Kansas and Oklahoma gave conservative critics of the Federal Communications Commission a sense of vindication.  The FCC’s 2011 data roaming rule, critics argued at the time, would drive down investment and slow wireless network development. (more)

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Mild-mannered community activist Albert Knighten found himself in handcuffs last month when police and federal agents raided his home and shut down a pirate radio station he operated out of a spare bedroom. Supporters say his bare-bones operation filled an important niche in a predominantly black section of Fort Myers, a community whose residents often feel overlooked and underserved by commercial radio. (more)

“Internet access is not a human right,” wrote Vinton Cerf in an OpEd in the New York Times on Thursday. Cerf is a prominent computer scientist who worked on the DARPA project that gave rise to the Internet, and is revered as the “Father of the Internet.” (more)

The FCC yesterday approved AT&T’s acquisition of spectrum from Qualcomm. The positive outcome is bittersweet for the wireless carrier, coming only a few days after the company was forced to throw in the towel on its acquisition of spectrum from T-Mobile USA. (more)

AT&T announced late Monday afternoon plans to drop its $39 billion bid to purchase T-Mobile, citing federal government intervention by the Federal Communications Commission and the Obama Justice Department as reasons for ending the deal. (more)

The technology industry is upset over a bill that would muck up the whole Internet just to keep people from illegally downloading copyrighted stuff like movies. But the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) is not the only dumb idea politicians have had about technology. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — AT&T Inc. is hanging up on its $39 billion bid to buy smaller wireless provider T-Mobile USA, nearly four months after the U.S. government raised concerns that it would raise prices, reduce innovation and give customers fewer choices. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — Call it the Great Channel Squeeze. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shush, already. That’s the message the Federal Communications Commission is sending with new rules that force broadcast, cable and satellite companies to turn down the volume on blaring TV commercials. (more)