More FCC news for you, this Wednesday morning (and before Droid news consumes us all). The agency is considering taking some of the bandwidth that is currently allocated to digital television, and auctioning it off so that broadband companies can bid on it. The point, of course, is to increase the availability of wireless broadband.

The beauty of the Drudge Report right now is that Mr. Drudge is working against his very interests. He’s got some ridiculous headline right now, JULIUS AT FCC WANTS TO ‘REGULATE’ INTERNET, that’s meant to wile up his easily excitable readership. What’s going on is that the FCC has moved one step closer to bringin Net Neutrality to fruition, and has invited the public to weigh in until January 14.

This past week saw the resurrection of Net Neutrality as a divisive issue. Some folks (people like Google, and, well, us) are in favor of Net Neutrality, while other folks (primarily the ISPs) are against it. Not long after the FCC announced its intentions, six Republican senators, three of which who received quite a lot of money from AT&T, proposed an amendment to a bill to stop the FCC in its tracks. The senators later rescinded their amendment, saying that they were now open to a “dialogue” with the FCC.

A bit of an update to that whole AT&T-linked senators story from the other day. Well, our complaining must have worked because the senators will no longer try to block Net Neutrality. USA!

In what was ostensibly a meeting of the majors last week to advise the FCC on broadband policy, the COO of Paramount was allowed to wax ignorant for 10 minutes on piracy and file-sharing technology. As a major content provider, they should certainly have some input, but this was sheer soap-boxery. Sure, peer to peer and torrent traffic (legal and otherwise) is going to be a major driver of broadband adoption and major consumer of the resource, but Paramount’s contribution to the discussion didn’t limit itself to germane observation and reasonable speculation.

On the upside, we have a fabulous new quote on the level of Ted Stevens’ “series of tubes” that demonstrates how utterly out of touch people like Paramount’s COO are with actual Internet terminology and capabilities. Behold:

“We are uploading it essentially to a ‘cyber locker,’ which is nothing more than electronic locker on the Internet.”

Mr. Huntsberry, we are in your debt for this immortal chestnut of cyber-wisdom. That’s nothing more than electronic wisdom on the Internet, for those of you who don’t know.

Nicholas “Net Neutrality” Deleon here with truly shocking news: six Republican senators have tacked on an amendment to an appropriations bill that would block the FCC’s attempt to make Net Neutrality a reality. So remember, kids: when you think of a free and open Internet, don’t think of the GOP. It’s not your friend here.

My God in Heaven! It’s been about four hours since the FCC announced its intention to add two more pillars to its idea of Net Neutrality: one, ISPs should not be allowed to wily nilly permit/disallow traffic on their networks (non-discrimination); and two, traffic management should be done is as transparent a manner as possible, so you don’t wind up with people discovering that their software is being tampered with, without their knowledge or consent, after the fact. I don’t know about yous guys (not a typo), but that seems pretty reasonable to me. And if you disagree, then you’re probably a high-ranking executive at Comcast.

As expected, the chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski, announced today his agency’s support for Net Neutrality. Odds are if you’re reading us then you have a basic idea of what Net Neutrality is, but if not it can be summed up like this: ISPs will be expected to treat all data equally, and not favor 0s and 1s from Company A or Company B, no matter what sweetheart a deal may be in place. The idea is that, since all data is treated equally, consumers will have better, unfettered access to the sites and services they choose to support.

Here it is, AT&T’s statement on what they sent to the FCC regarding the rejection of the Google Voice app on the iPhone. As you can see, unlike last time where the statement was vague, AT&T is clearly stating here that it had nothing to do with the Google Voice rejection. This wording comes from Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior executive vice president, external and legislative affairs. Updated with the full AT&T response to the FCC

We’re reaching out to Apple on this right now and will update.

AT&T Statement on Letter to the FCC Regarding Apple App Store

Hey, guys, I don’t mean to interrupt your Saturday or anything, but AT&T has something very important to say regarding the letter from the FCC it received.

You would think this is planned, but there is no way that the FCC is efficient enough to release documents detailing the iPhone 3G S on the same day as the announcement. No way. But here they are anyway.

Digital OTA is great, but it can be a tad tricky to pick up sometimes. This Google Map mash-up should help by providing data on where station’s broadcast towers are and how much power is needed to pick up the given station. We only have a few days left before the June 12th shutoff, btw. Is your family ready?

The talented shutterbugs at the FCC recently got their hands on a sexy Nokia N97 ahead of the phones US release. Not only did the government suits photograph a previously unannounced color scheme, but also published all the details about the phone. We kind of already know most about the phone after spying it at Nokia World ‘08 last December. Really, all we wanna know about is Nokia’s upcoming app store, ovi, which isn’t discussed within the government filling.

Just weeks ago, word got out that a fun-sized version of the Instinct was on the way. It looks like it might have just cleared the FCC. How can we assume that its the Instinct Mini and not just any random Samsung? Read on for the clues

The original DTV shutoff date of February 17, 2009 is almost here and some stations still plan on switching off their analog broadcast as originally planned. Thankfully, the FCC has an extensive list detailing what stations will shutoff next week and the ones that already flipped the switch.

As soon as Obama signs the DTV Delay Bill into law, the original DTV switch will become optional until June 12, but that isn’t stopping 681 television stations from making the switch. The FCC is stating that those stations make up 40% of the US’s total broadcasters which probably means a lot of markets will experience partial shut-offs. Hopefully this will get fat and lazy Americans (yeah, I said it) off their couches and down to the local electronic emporium to pick up a DTV box – if any are left.

The transition from analog to digital broadcasts is just over one month away and some peeps on the Internet are getting a little antsy. Some say that the FCC and appropriate agencies have not done enough to prepare Grandma Patsy and Uncle bob. Personally, I don’t know what else can be done. It seems there is a ad spot nearly every commercial break about the subject during primetime.and at least in my lowly market of Flint, MI, every local TV station have conducted call-ins and townhall meetings. Besides door-to-door campaigns with free converter boxes and installation, I don’t know what else can be done.