600 MHz auction enters final stage in U.S.

Media | 01/20/2017 8:04 pm EST

The American telecom regulator said it is entering the final stage of its incentive auction for repurposing 600 MHz spectrum for wireless use. In a statement Wednesday, outgoing Federal Communications Commission (FCC)...

Tom Wheeler leaving FCC in January

Media | 12/15/2016 5:53 pm EST

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler is leaving his post as head of the United States regulator on Jan. 20, 2017. Wheeler said in a written statement Thursday that serving as chairman...

CRTC chair OK with being ‘disruptive showman’

Media | 11/16/2016 11:21 pm EST

OTTAWA — With more than six months left in his term as CRTC chairman, Jean-Pierre Blais isn’t ready to start using the word “legacy” in relation to his term as head of the Canadian regulator, but in a...

Telecom groups launch new opposition to FCC net neutrality rules

telecom | 07/29/2016 4:01 pm EDT

An American association representing wireless service providers is asking for the United States federal court to rehear and re-evaluate June’s decision upholding the Federal Communication...

U.S. court upholds FCC net neutrality rules

telecom | 06/14/2016 4:28 pm EDT

A U.S. appeals court has denied an industry appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules. The court issued a decision Tuesday in favour of a framework the FCC imposed last year, which, among other stipulations, prevents Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking Internet traffic or giving priority to content from companies willing to pay to secure “fast lanes.” CTIA-The Wireless Association was among a number of U.S. industry groups challenging the rules in court. In a statement posted on the FCC...

Charter-Time Warner merger moves ahead, with conditions

telecom | 04/26/2016 6:43 pm EDT

The U.S. Department of Justice has given its approval for a pair of Charter Communications Inc. acquisitions, which, according to a Monday press release, would create the second-largest cable company...

FCC opens “unlock the box” proposal to comment

Media | 02/19/2016 4:41 pm EST

A new proposal from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) aims to free TV subscribers from their leased set-top box agreements with cable and satellite operators. In a 3-2 decision on...

FCC chairman praises zero-rating service

telecom | 11/19/2015 10:01 pm EST

Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), told reporters Tuesday a service that exempts some video from wireless data caps is “highly innovative and highly competitive,” Bloomberg...

CenturyLink funded to expand rural Internet in U.S.

telecom | 08/28/2015 6:22 pm EDT

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Thursday it will provide funding of about $506 million US a year to CenturyLink Inc. to deliver broadband Internet service to rural parts of the United States. The...

FCC approves open-Internet regulations

telecom | 02/26/2015 10:02 pm EST

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved a set of rules that, among other things, prevents Internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or giving priority to content from an affiliate or...

FCC chairman proposes common-carrier net neutrality rules

telecom | 02/04/2015 5:03 pm EST

U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler said on Wednesday that he will propose new rules this week to enshrine net neutrality in law and ban paid prioritization and...

U.S. AWS-3 auction raises more than $41B US

Media | 01/30/2015 3:00 pm EST

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s AWS-3 auction ended Thursday, and the regulator announced Friday that it had accepted $41.3 billion US in net bids from 31 bidders for 1,611 spectrum licences. The FCC had...

FCC boss leaning toward Obama’s position on net neutrality: reports

Media | 01/08/2015 9:21 pm EST

U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler could be hinting toward a net-neutrality policy along the lines of what President Barack Obama has suggested, categorizing broadband...

FCC expected to vote on net neutrality next month

Media | 01/05/2015 4:28 pm EST

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote on a net-neutrality proposal in February, the Washington Post and other news outlets reported late last week. The Post said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told other commissioners before the new year that he intended to have a draft proposal ready for internal review next month and wished have a vote on the matter within weeks. The report noted that the FCC's monthly meeting that month is Feb. 26. The regulations are anticipated to deal with the extent to which Internet service providers can provide so-called fast lanes, and charge fees to...

FCC to examine U.S. Internet traffic management

Media | 06/13/2014 6:28 pm EDT

Tom Wheeler, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, said Friday that his organization is looking into whether Internet service providers are purposely diminishing, for their own benefit, the flow of content from...

FCC moves ahead with Internet ‘fast lanes’ proposal

telecom | 05/15/2014 7:46 pm EDT

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved forward Thursday with plans to explicitly allow Internet service providers give select content providers so-called “fast lanes” to end...

OpenMedia joins fight in U.S. over net neutrality

telecom | 05/13/2014 3:56 pm EDT

OpenMedia said Tuesday it is actively fighting a proposal in the United States that would allow content companies to pay service providers for faster access to end users on the Internet, arguing that such a policy would affect the...

Tech giants call for FCC to protect net neutrality

telecom | 05/08/2014 3:59 pm EDT

Almost 150 U.S. technology companies, such as Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp., have written a letter to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission calling its proposed net-neutrality rules a...

New FCC rules create Internet ‘fast lanes’

Media | 04/24/2014 4:39 pm EDT

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday proposed new net-neutrality rules that would allow Internet service providers to charge content providers for faster and more reliable connections to end users. Under the proposed rules, ISPs would be allowed to charge a “commercially reasonable” fee to content providers, such as streaming services, that pay to maintain acceptable flows of traffic over the ISP’s network, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog on the commission’s website. The FCC has the power to determine what is and isn’t commercially reasonable, and to prevent “unjust discrimination,” Wheeler said. He denied that the changes would result in price increases for consumers and cited “misinformation” in media...

Netflix to pay Comcast for faster streaming: report

Media | 02/24/2014 9:05 pm EST

Netflix Inc. will pay Comcast Corp. for access to its network in order to be able to provide its streaming video customers with faster speeds and improved reliability, Bloomberg reported Monday, quoting anonymous sources. Based...