Category: Regulatory
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TC3 Part 2: Likely Strategic Goals for Next FCC Chairman; Obstacles Ahead
Introduction This is the second article covering the Telecom Council’s annual TC3 summit. The first article covered start-up company value propositions and the SPIFFY Award Winners. This piece is entirely devoted to likely FCC policies and obstacles faced in achieving their goals and objectives. Steve Augustino of Kelley Drye & Warren law firm presented an…
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Google Fiber – A Step Function Connectivity Improvement
A step function improvement in capability is how Milo Medin described Google’s Kansas City fiber project at the February 13th IEEE ComSoc meeting in Santa Clara. That huge improvement in customer experience is in contrast to the incremental gains of MSO [Multiple System Operator] and telco broadband networks, which have much lower access speeds. Medin, who…
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Follow the Money – Sports Programming, Golden Goose & Possible TV Revolution
Although not explicitly stated by any of the panelists, the political adage, “follow the money,” was an underlying theme to the Broadband Unlimited Webinar on Retransmission Consent held on Friday 11/30. There seemed to be agreement among the panelists – all of whom have been involved in the retransmission/must-carry regulatory game since it was enacted…
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FCC Allows Prohibition on Exclusive Cable Programming Contracts to Expire
[Editor’s Note: Paul Feldman is an attorney with the communications law firm Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth, Washington, D.C. (feldman at fhhlaw.com)] Recently, the FCC released a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that will likely impact the ability of some cable operators and telco video providers to obtain cable TV programming. In the…
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Top US Telcos Reject Broadband Connect America Funding
Ten of the nation’s largest carriers were invited to participate in the Connect America Funding program, offered by the Federal Communications Commission. The fund would pay carriers $775 per broadband line deployed to an unserved home within its territory up to a specific dollar level (which varies from one carrier to another). Seven of the 10…
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Give Us Visibility
With over 650 telecommunications’ operators behind last week’s letter that was sent to the FCC and their elected representatives, the rural telecom industry is as united as it ever has been. In the words of the letter, “This letter is…clear and unambiguous notice of our collective concerns with the ‘regression analysis’ based caps on Universal…