Google must be pretty happy this morning. Not only because its preferred candidate is now president-elect, but because the Federal Communications Commission green-lighted the opening of the so-called white space spectrum. In short, when television stations move to digital next year a whole swath of spectrum is freed up—what to do with it? If you’re Google (or Motorola or any number of other companies) this means you now have a whole new swath of spectrum for which to develop new technologies. Wi-Fi “on steroids” is one of the ideas being thrown around.

Who’s not happy with this? The traditional mobile carriers, for one.

Read More

It’s been nearly five months since Verizon announced their plans to buy out Alltel, but they’ve finally leaped the last hurdle. Just minutes ago, the FCC signed off on the $28.1 billion dollar deal (Verizon is paying $5.9 billion, and assuming $22.2 billion of Alltel’s debt.), clearing the way for its finalization.

The FCC’s stamp of approval doesn’t come without strings attached, however. Amongst other conditions, Verizon will be required to maintain any roaming agreements Alltel has with other carriers for at least four years.

Read more at MobileCrunch >>

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin

Here’s the story so far. There’s a company called M2Z Networks that wants to lease the band of wireless spectrum between 2155-2175 MHz known as AWS-3 (Advanced Wireless Service). M2Z then wants to turn around and use that band to provide free wireless internet access “for 95 percent of the population within 10 years,” according to the AFP. Well guess who made a big stink about the whole thing? That’s right, the big wireless companies.

Read More

The TomTom ONE XL II (that’s a mouthful) launch is one step closer with the FCC stamp of approval. Details are still up in the air, but it seems this guy simply updates the previous model with Bluetooth hands-free calling. Even the available users guide doesn’t reveal any juicy details as it seems as if the guide is just repurposed from the current generation. All the docs are up on the FCC’s website if you need more info. 

[Thanks for the tip, Rich!]

Now that the Ocean 2 has slipped back until January of ‘09 at the earliest, we’ve cruised right by the September confidentiality date of the original FCC filing back in March. As a result, a handful of hardware photos and a pack of details have made their way out.

Check’em out over at MobileCrunch >>

Read more

All the specs were leaked earlier in the month and it was just a matter of time before the FCC divulged the rumored tablet from Lenovo. Well, the wait is no more as the X200T is now in the FCC database. The FCC filing shows that the X200T will come with UWB, so I wonder if those supposed specs from earlier are real? It shouldn’t be too long before Lenovo officially announces it.

Update: An in the wild shot after the jump.
Read More

To combat network congestion, Comcast will slow the Internet connection of its heaviest users for as long as 20 minutes. It used to be that Comcast would block altogether certain traffic, including BitTorrent. The FCC said a few days ago that doing such a thing—blocking traffic it doesn’t like—is a big no-no. So now you’ll have to deal with a bit of slowdown.

Even though it may seem just as annoying, slowing Internet service, now Comcast isn’t allowed to pick and choose what it blocks from its network. Now, if you’re found to be using “too much” bandwidth (Comcast says it has the tools to monitor traffic in real time), Comcast will slow you down a bit. A Comcast rep said the slowed speed would be comparable to a “really good” DSL connection.

Somehow, I don’t think people are shelling out X-Amount per month for unlimited Internet access just to have a “really good” DSL connection. That’s a fight for another day, though.

That said, is this enough to calm down the boo boys, merely slowing down speeds for a few minutes rather than blocking traffic altogether? For some light BitTorrent users I’d have to say yeah, it ought to be. You’ll never satisfy the guys hanging around TorrentLeech and Bit-HDTV all day, though.

Americans are now less than six months away from the analog to digital transition. Barring any legislative roadblocks, February 17th, 2009 should be the last day of analog broadcasts. Some stations might have an extra two weeks due to the NAB quite period but don’t count on your station staying lit. We just don’t want to see anyone lose their television signals because of procrastination, so here’s a quick check-up to see if you and your family is prepare. Keep in mind, cable and satellite subscribers do not need to do anything.

Antenna users, take notes.

If someone was anticipating an amazingly updated PSP, the PSP-3001 isn’t it. The supposed updates of GPS, 802.11n, Bluetooth, and a mic were nowhere to be found in the PSP-3001 FCC report.

So after all the hype, it certainly seems the new PSP-3001 is just a simple hardware refresh. Perhaps meant to keep hackers on their toes and challenge them to crack the new hardware. At least we now know there is an update coming sometime soon and I smell an official announcement right around the corner. (or is my neighbor cooking bacon again)

Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin said yesterday that he expects interoperable radios (that is, radio that can receive both Sirius and XM, full-on) in less than nine months. (The FCC gave the combined company nine months to come out with such radios.) Whether or not that’s in time for the Holiday shopping season…

Now, radios that work with the a la carte service—you have XM but want one or two of Sirius’ music channels—should be here before the Holidays.

The best news is that the new radios, in all their glory, will be at next year’s CES. I may actually head out to Vegas just to see ‘em.

If you were a big fan of the U810 UMPC, then you will likely be a fan of Fujitsu’s update to it, the U820. Right now, the device is in the hands of the FCC, who is putting thought all kinds of tests to keep America safe. If it passes, we should be seeing this in stores soon, but at this time there is no official word on a release date.
Read More

If the MPAA had its way, your DVR would be nothing more than a hunk of useless metal and plastic, unable to record and pause live television. Steps are being taken to ensure that it gets its way.

The fun-loving association is pushing hard for a technology called selectable output control, or SOC, which allows content providers—movie studios and the like—to prevent material from being recorded. It does this by blocking the so-called analog hole, making it impossible for you to, say, plug in standard 3.5mm audio jack and record sound to your computer.

I know that sounds evil and all that, but the idea behind this isn’t exactly unreasonable. Movie studios want to be able to let cable companies get an earlier crack at showing movies on-demand (for example), but are worried that folks will simply exploit the analog hole and record the movie long before the studio ever releases the DVD or Blu-ray version. If consumers could copy and record movies long before their DVD date, why should the movie studios even bother to produce a DVD?

Now, that’s completely not my problem, how the movie studios make money, but at least there’s a proper reason for their policy this time around.

Note that the FCC has so far said no to SOC, so there’s still some legs in this story.

Here’s an update to the story about the FCC versus Comcast that we posted on Wednesday. The FCC has officially ruled today and it turns out that Comcast will not be fined for throttling peer-to-peer network traffic, but it will have to stop discriminating against certain internet traffic until the company comes up with a compliance plan “to fully disclose its practices” to customers.

Bloomberg reports that the five-member FCC panel voted 3-2 against Comcast. Critics of Comcast’s traffic-regulating activities are calling the ruling a “bellwether case”. It’s important to note that although Comcast has been ordered to stop throttling traffic, it appears that the reasoning behind the ruling has more to do with the fact that the throttling wasn’t being disclosed to customers, not that the throttling was actually taken place. So it appears that bandwidth management can and will continue, it’ll just have to be more transparent.

In the wake of the FCC versus Comcast brouhaha, wherein Comcast has been accused of illegally slowing down connections to file sharing services like BitTorrent without informing its cable internet subscribers first, the Federal Communications Commission has ruled that Comcast acted outside of the law.

According to a report in the Washington Post, the five-member panel will formally vote this Friday, although three of the five members have said that they’ll vote against Comcast. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin “is not expected to fine Comcast, according to industry insiders and members of the FCC who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the ruling is still pending.”

The ruling is expected to set precedent for future complaints. Roger Entner of IAG Research says, "This is a slap on the wrist for Comcast, but it will be a cutting off of the hand for the next provider who violates rules." It’s important to note that the throttling BitTorrent connections isn’t the issue at hand, it’s that throttling connections without making it clear to your customers is the problem. So the practice can, and likely will, continue. It’ll just need to be much more transparent in the future.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the XM-Sirius merger has been given the tentative OK by the FCC. Deborah Taylor Tate, the final FCC commissioner to cast a vote, is expected to vote in favor of the merger, thus clearing the way for the merger.

There are, of course, a few restrictions to be placed on the newly combined company.

• Price freeze. They have agreed not to raise prices for at least the next three years.

• Fines. The companies have to pay some $20 million in fines for all sorts of transgressions, including building satellite repeaters in unapproved locations, and creating FM transmitters that were more powerful than the FCC allows.

• Minority programming. The companies will have to set aside a percentage of their bandwidth, currently thought to be about 8 percent (24 channels) for educational and minority programming.

Be sure to watch the National Association of Broadcasters’ Web site, since the merged companies are not being forced to include regular radio or HD Radio in their new receivers, something the NAB lobbied for.

Expect to hear from both XM and Sirius soon.

Today was a big day vis-à-vis the XM-Sirius merger, as Johnathan Adelstein, the FCC commissioner who wanted to place all those restrictions on the merger in exchange for his support, has officially withdrawn his proposal, voting against the merger in the process. That leaves us all tied up for votes for and against the merger with one single, solitary vote pending.

Deborah Taylor Tate (right), a Republican, is now the final deciding vote. If she votes for the merger then it goes through. If she votes against it, all of this merger talk has been a giant waste of time, even more so than it already has been.

Tate is thought to be in favor of the merger.

Adelstein’s statement reads as if he expects the merger to go through:

… it appears they’re going to get a monopoly with window dressing. We really missed a great opportunity to reach a bipartisan agreement that would have benefited the American people.

Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure more Americans are concerned with things like high gas prices than whether or not a couple of subscription radio services merge.

Bottom line, this merger thing should be wrapping up sooner rather than later. Imagine that!

I was just thinking about Velocity Mobile this last week and was wondering when they might actually launch one of their Windows Mobile devices. We first saw them at CTIA in April, but haven’t heard a peep out of them until now. The 103 is now in the FCC database, which leads us to believe an official launch date may be announced in the coming weeks. I’m still a bit skeptical as to how the company will make the Windows Mobile experience less painful than it is now, but I won’t rain on VM’s parade until a final version of their re-skinned WinMo OS is available to the masses. Read all about the 103 here or here.

Oh for the love of God, now what?

Surely by now you’ve heard about the long-delayed (to put it mildly) XM-Sirius merger, which is really more of a Sirius buyout of XM, but let’s not nuance ourselves to death. So yeah, now it looks like the merger won’t be allowed to take place unless the combined company agrees to set aside 25 percent of its bandwidth for minority and non-commercial broadcasts. If you’re a satellite radio fan like me, it’s easy to get annoyed at that, but life’s too short to freak out over the demands of our Precious Regulators.

The 25 percent threshold was put forward by Jonathan Adelstein, a commissioner at the FCC, the same FCC whose boss already gave the merger the go-ahead some time ago. While that request sounds a little silly&mdsh;why should the companies be told what to broadcast?—as a consumer I do like his idea of preventing price increases for the next six years. (I said as a consumer: I know that price restrictions hurt the company’s ability to do business, but if I can save a few dollars, why not?)

You do know that this merger will never happen, right?

Comcast Center aka The Citadel. Flickr’d

The FCC wants to punish Comcast for blocking its customers’ access to the Internet. That, of course, in part refers to the company’s practice of blocking BitTorrent.

Kevin Martin—yes, that Kevin Martin—had this to say:

We found that Comcast’s actions in this instance violated our principles [of open access to the Internet]

As you might expect, Comcast has denied all wrongdoing, arguing that it’s merely trying to manage its network for the benefit of everyone. You, protect you from yourself, that line of logic.

Give this story some time, and it’s bound to hot up.