Last week, the FCC paused its 180-day merger review clock for both Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable and the merger of AT&T and DirecTV. But a look at the number of comments and filings for these two deals shows that one is getting much more attention than the other. [More]
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Review Of Comcast/TWC, AT&T/DirecTV Mergers On Hold Again Over Confidentiality Issues
By 3.13.15
Once again, the FCC has paused the 180-day clocks to review the two pending mega-mergers on its to-do list: Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable, and the marriage of AT&T to DirecTV. This time, the FCC is saying it can’t go forward with the review of these deals until a court determines whether interested parties should be granted limited access to confidential information about the involved companies. [More]
Congresswoman Backed By AT&T, Comcast Introduces Bill To Kill Net Neutrality
By 3.5.15
While some members of Congress have argued that the best way to deal with net neutrality is to create a law that guides what broadband providers can and can’t do with regard to data, one legislator from Tennessee — who has received significant money from neutrality’s biggest opponents — has introduced a bill that would kill neutrality and strip the FCC of its authority to regulate broadband as a necessary piece of telecommunications infrastructure. [More]
What We Know About AT&T/DirecTV’s Proposed Wireless Broadband Service
By 3.3.15
Last fall, an AT&T exec claimed that if his company was allowed to merge with DirecTV it could deploy some sort of wireless data service that delivered around 15Mbps to rural customers, but since then there has been very little talk of what this service would actually look like or how and where it would be deployed. But a dig through regulatory filings on the merger turns up a little more info. [More]
From Applause To Lawsuits And Legislation: What Key Players Are Saying About Net Neutrality
By 2.26.15
Over the summer, we rounded up what all the key players in broadband and online were saying about the potential for the FCC to write a clear net neutrality rule. Earlier today, the FCC actually went and made that rule; here’s what everyone has to say about it now. [More]
Google Wallet To Come Pre-Installed On AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile Android Phones
By 2.23.15
Even though Google Wallet has been around for several years, the mobile payment system hasn’t been the industry leader the company had hoped for, mostly because AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile created a competing app, Softcard. But Google has now reached a deal with those three providers that will result in Google Wallet being pre-installed on new devices later this year. [More]
Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting For A Streaming Option From DirecTV
By 2.20.15
The future may be online, but satellite pay-TV company DirecTV isn’t exactly rushing to embrace that future with open arms. The CEO of DirecTV this week admitted that the company is investigating the option of starting their own streaming service, but he was less than enthusiastic about the idea, seeing it as unlikely to be profitable. [More]
DirecTV Benefits From Dish’s Blackouts, Gains 149K Subscribers
By 2.19.15
After six months of losing subscribers, DirecTV bounced back in the last quarter, adding a net 149,000 customers for its satellite TV service. Why the sudden change in fortunes? It has a little something to do with Dish Network’s very public carriage disputes in recent months. [More]
New Comcast Customer Loses Old Phone Number
By 2.18.15
When people switch from one phone provider to another, even for landline service, they’re supposed to be able to port their phone number from their old phone company to their new one. That didn’t happen for one new Comcast customer, who lost her phone number of 15 years when she switched from AT&T. [More]
AT&T Chasing Google, Offering $70 Fiber Broadband To Kansas City Residents
By 2.17.15
A handful of Americans are getting one step closer to actual 21st century, competitive broadband this week, as AT&T has announced that effective immediately, it’s competing to bring fast fiber internet to the greater Kansas City area, where Google Fiber has been dominating all the attention for the last few years. [More]
Sprint Says Net Neutrality Won’t Stop Verizon, AT&T From Investing
By 2.12.15
Mouthpieces for the wireless industry would have you believe that the FCC’s pending net neutrality rules — which would reclassify both terrestrial and wireless broadband as a utility — will cripple investment and plunge us into an era where we carry around mammoth brick cellphones like Zack Morris. So why is Sprint telling everyone a completely different story? [More]
Everyone Except Sprint Customers, Rejoice: You Can Start Unlocking Your Mobile Phone This Week
By 2.9.15
It’s been in years of back-and-forth legal limbo, but late last year cell phone unlocking in the U.S. became well and truly legal. Likewise, the wireless industry’s voluntary plan for phone locking, adopted last February, finally goes into full effect this week. [More]
FCC Not Scared Of AT&T’s Plan To Sue Over New Neutrality Rules
By 2.6.15
Earlier this week, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler confirmed his intention to ask his fellow commissioners to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service, which would give the FCC more authority to regulate it and prohibit anti-consumer practices like throttling and blocking of data. AT&T is already gearing up for a suit to stop this change, but the FCC is apparently not terribly worried. [More]
Wireless & Cable Industries Fight Net Neutrality With Laughably Misleading Op-Eds & Video
By 2.5.15
Yesterday, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler confirmed that he intends to have the Commission reclassify broadband as the vital piece of telecommunications infrastructure that it is, which has resulted in immediate backlash from the wireless and cable industry and the handful of astroturfed “advocacy” organizations they support. [More]
Police Use GPS Signal From “Dummy” Phone To Find $23K In Stolen AT&T Phones
By 2.5.15
Anyone who’s robbed a bank (or seen countless movies and TV shows about bank robbers) knows to expect that the bank might have put some sort of tracking device inside the stolen money to help police locate the loot. But it looks like phone retailers are using the same tactic to curb the theft of pricey smartphones from stores. [More]
FCC Chair Confirms Title II Approach To Net Neutrality; AT&T Already Warming Up For Lawsuit
By 2.4.15
In an op-ed today, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler confirmed what sources in the know have recently been saying: to preserve net neutrality, the FCC is indeed going to seek to regulate ISPs as Title II common carriers. [More]
FCC Proposes $640,000 Fine For AT&T’s Violation Of Airwave License Rules
By 1.30.15
If you don’t play by the Federal Communications Commission’s rules, then you’re likely going to get caught and have to pay a hefty fine. Just ask AT&T, which must pay $640,000 after violating rules and requirements for operating some airwave licenses. [More]
