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Whew! Google Saved by the Highest Bidder

Search giant OK with not winning FCC spectrum auction

(Newser) - Google nearly became the unenthused owner of a $4.71 billion slice of wireless airwaves in a recent Federal Communications Commission auction, the New York Times reports. Its bid was part of a deal with the FCC to open some spectrum to third-party services, but for much of the bidding,...

FCC Boss Nixes Bid to Open Up Wireless Networks

Systems already 'open enough,' he says

(Newser) - The head of the FCC has rejected a request from Skype to open up wireless networks to outside devices, AP reports. The Internet phone provider wanted wireless operations included in a 1968 FCC decision that required AT&T to open up its network beyond its own devices that paved the...

TV Newbie Verizon to FCC: Help Cable Users Switch

Move highlights telecom turf war

(Newser) - As Verizon rolls out its subscription-TV service, the company has asked the FCC to make the switch from cable easier for consumers, the Washington Post reports. In its petition, Verizon asked for the authority to shut off its customers’ cable services on their behalf, arguing that the switchover process is...

AT&T, Verizon Will Dominate New Airwaves

Wireless spectrum auction saw no major first-time entrant

(Newser) - AT&T and Verizon were the two top bidders in the airwaves auction that ended this week, representing 80% of the FCC’s record $19.6 billion haul and positioning themselves to offer advanced wireless Internet services, reports the Wall Street Journal. Google, sans licenses, was another winner, gaining open...

Verizon Opens Its Network to Outside Phones

Provider answers calls for more open industry

(Newser) - Verizon will open its cell-phone service to any phone builder willing to meet its technical specs, the Wall Street Journal reports. The provider has so far restricted access to its own retailer, but hopes to stave off pressure from regulators, consumers, and tech companies pushing for a more universal industry.

In Surprise Turn, Verizon Embraces File Sharing

'The problem is not peer-to-peer technology, the problem is how you deploy it.'

(Newser) - Verizon announced today that it plans to use peer-to-peer software to speed the deployment of legitimate content over its networks, in a break from the industry’s usually negative stance towards file sharing, the AP reports. Working with a P2P company named Pando Networks, Verizon found that when an ISP...

Coming Soon to Your Cell: Spam
Coming Soon
to Your
Cell: Spam

Coming Soon to Your Cell: Spam

Users pay for unwanted text messages; 'smishers' fish for info

(Newser) - To the dismay of customers and cellphone providers, spammers and even phishers have gone mobile. Researchers predict US consumers will get a record 1.5 billion spam text messages this year, while “smishing” texts try to con recipients into giving up sensitive financial information, reports the Washington Post. Most...

Liberty Looks to Leverage DirecTV Deal

In for a tough battle with better positioned telcos, cable companies

(Newser) - Closing Liberty Media’s $12 billion deal for a 41% share of DirecTV took more than a year, but positioning the satellite-TV service to rival telcos and cable companies offering triple-play packages of TV, phone, and broadband could be a bigger test, reports the Wall Street Journal today. The deal...

T-Mobile Launching Net Phone Price War

New plan follows hard on news of wireless price war

(Newser) - T-Mobile is giving an extra push to the millions contemplating ditching their landlines. The low-cost wireless carrier is launching a new dirt-cheap VoIP service, which lets T-Mobile customers hook up traditional phones to an Internet router and make unlimited local and long distance calls for $10 a month, the Wall ...

Sprint May Go Lower Than $99.99
Sprint May
Go Lower
Than $99.99

Sprint May Go Lower Than $99.99

Mobile provider expected to undercut flat-rate calling plans

(Newser) - With both AT&T and Verizon unveiling $99.99 flat-rate unlimited calling plans this week, Sprint's is expected to undercut its rivals by up to 40%, plunging the wireless industry headlong into a price war. Sprint isn't telling yet, but analysts predict it will offer unlimited calling for roughly $60...

Cell Carriers Roll Out Unlimited Calls for $100/Month

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile get with the program

(Newser) - Cell phone users tired of rationing their minutes have a new alternative—unlimited calling plans for $99.99 a month. Verizon Wireless yesterday introduced a nationwide plan with no domestic roaming or long-distance fees, AP reports. AT&T quickly announced a matching plan, and T-Mobile execs say they’ll unveil...

Web Connects Mourning NIU Students
Web Connects Mourning NIU Students

Web Connects Mourning NIU Students

With cellphones down, many use Facebook to communicate

(Newser) - With cellphone lines on much of the campus jammed, Northern Illinois University students turned to the Internet to let friends and loved ones know they had survived yesterday’s shooting and to console each other, the Chicago Tribune reports. Most logged on to Facebook, where 10,000 joined a prayer...

Company Yanks Online Cell Directory

90 million numbers taken offline after consumers freaked out

(Newser) - Data company Intelius scoured business records and other sources and managed to compile around half the cellphone numbers in America, MSNBC reports. When it put those 90 million numbers online, available to anybody paying a $15 fee, people were outraged. Consumers were shocked to find their private cellphone numbers were...

Sea Cable Damage Cuts Internet Service to Mideast

Egypt goes offline; India hit with severe delays

(Newser) - Damage to two underwater cables has huge swaths of the Mideast and South Asia offline and repair ships scrambling to restore internet service to millions. One of the cables has been completely severed, the Financial Times reports. Some 70% of Egypt's service was disrupted, including all of Cairo, and bandwidth...

Verizon Q4 Profits Ride Wireless Gains

Cell phones, Internet continue to shine as landlines decline

(Newser) - Verizon Communications, riding a wave of wireless and Internet growth, yesterday announced net income rose to $1.07 billion for the fourth quarter, up nearly 4% from $1.03 billion a year ago, reports the New York Times. Verizon Wireless, second to AT&T in the US, added some 2...

Bids Top $2.8B for Wireless Spectrum

FCC's airwave auction opens with $1.24B offer

(Newser) - The Federal Communication Commission’s much-anticipated auction of five “blocks” of airwaves kicked off yesterday with first-round bids of nearly $2.8 billion, including a $1.24 billion offer for the “C” block, considered the most valuable commercially, reports Reuters. Bidders could use the 700-MHz spectrum to offer...

Analog Service Hanging Up on Customers

Digital networks soon only option, but service has its kinks

(Newser) - Phone customers still dialing up using old analog networks will be out of luck—and service—beginning Feb. 18 when the nation’s wireless companies shut down the outdated technology and switch to digital. Of the quarter-billion American cell phone users, the vast majority use digital networks, but some 1...

FCC: Economy Could Dampen Wireless Sale

In credit crunch, smaller bidders face capital shortage

(Newser) - FCC head Kevin Martin registered concern this week about the impact of the credit crunch on the government auction of wireless airwaves scheduled to begin Jan. 24, Reuters reports. The auction, which Congress has ordered to go forward, comes at a time when the meltdown of housing and subprime mortgage...

Verizon Sues Alltel Over Guinea Pig Ad

Wireless giant says claims made in commercial are untrue

(Newser) - Verizon Wireless is suing rival Alltel for false advertising over a television commercial featuring a vicious guinea pig, the Register reports. In the ad, a caged rodent named Alice is compared to Verizon customers who lack the freedom to change calling plans without extending their contracts. Released from her cage,...

NSA Deepens Tense Alliance with Telecoms

Both sides await word on possible immunity for carriers

(Newser) - The telecom industry will be all ears to proceedings beginning tomorrow on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers will decide if companies helping the government’s warrantless surveillance program should receive immunity. President Bush personally lobbied Congress to further the NSA’s tenuous alliance with the industry, whose members are increasingly resistant...

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