AT&T announced early on that users wouldn’t be able to use FaceTime over cellular connections on its network, for subscribers who aren’t on the carrier’s Mobile Share Plans. The decision was obviously not popular with users; it took long enough for Apple to make FaceTime even available over cellular data connections, and AT&T subscribers were hearing they’d be left out. But they aren’t the… → Read More
I’m going to get a lot of hate mail for this article, but it’s a fact that Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential pick, Paul Ryan, has mostly been a friend to Silicon Valley and the technology industry. Ryan’s voting record has supported better access to high skilled immigrants, an open Internet, crowdfunding for startups, and intellectual property reform. However, his ambiguous stance on net neutrality… → Read More
Waiting for the public markets to show a little more promise for tech IPOs, Openet has today announced that it’s completed a Series D round of funding totaling $21 million: $16 million in equity funds and $5 million in long term debt. Openet is a Dublin, Ireland-based developer of transaction management software used by 80 network operators in 28 countries — including AT&T, BT, Orange… → Read More
It may be a while before Congress & Friends get this whole Net Neutrality debate squared away. But that’s no biggie, since Dan Kaminsky has cooked up his own little solution to figure out if your ISP is throttling service.
It’s called N00ter, short for neutral rooter, and Kaminsky showed it off for the first time at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, reports Forbes. → Read More
t’s one thing when one of us here stand up for Net Neutrality, but when Sir Tim Berners-Lee does it you really ought to pay attention. Why? Oh, you know, because he invented the World Wide Web. You wouldn’t be able to click-click-click around the Web if it weren’t for him. Shocking: he supports Net Neutrality. What does he know, right? → Read More
We now know that Net Neutrality, even if what actually passed wasn’t all that special, faces an uphill struggle to remain on the books, having been voted down at a House subcommittee yesterday. What caught my eye this morning was the amount of money involved, with the nation’s biggest ISPs (AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon) giving out literally thousands of dollars to the committee members’… → Read More
Back to the drawing board. The House of Representatives struck a mighty blow against Net Neutrality yesterday, with the communications and technology subcommittee voting against the recently adopted Net Neutrality rules. The rules will actually remain in place until Congress or the president do something about them, ie, send them back to the FCC for further re-tooling or worse. → Read More
The Republican Party has a bone to pick with the Federal Communications Commission, and you’ll never guess why. Oh, wait, yes you will. Predictably, several Republican congressmen have come out against the evils of Net Neutrality, despite the fact that it passed several months ago, and despite the fact that it could charitably only be called Net Neutrality Lite. What gives? → Read More
Who saw this coming? (Oh, right: everyone.) Verizon has taken umbrage with certain aspects of Net Neutrality, and has taken the rather predictable tract of challenging the FCC’s authority in order to get out of complying with the rules. It’s nothing more than a simple case of if you can’t win an argument based on its own merit attack the credibility of your adversary. Verizon isn’t too… → Read More
Another day, another Net Neutrality story, this time concerning what the people have to think. As if anyone cares what we mere citizens have to say about all of this! A new Rasmussen Reports poll says that 21 percent of “likely U.S. voters” support Net Neutrality. Unfortunately, the poll’s wording makes Net Neutrality seem far more sinister than it actually is. As we all know, Net Neutrality… → Read More
With Theopeninter.net, web designer Michael Ciarlo has given you the holiday gift of being able to explain to the less web savvy members of your friends and family what net neutrality means (basically) and why exactly laymen should care about the FCC’s recent attempts to create “enforcable” Internet regulations.
And while granted there’s a lot more complexity surrounding the issue than “All ISPs… → Read More
Barely one day after the FCC passed a form of Net Neutrality, pleasing no one in the process, opponents have already committed themselves to repealing the “hostile takeover.” Sen. Jim DeMint, from South Carolina, has come out against the new rules, saying that “unelected bureaucrats rammed through an Internet takeover.” I suppose we should ignore the fact that AT&T, no friend of Net… → Read More
With a 3 to 2 vote earlier today, the FCC has put its stamp of approval on Net Neutrality. The funny thing is that it seems both “sides” of the debate are upset. On one hand you’ve got the detractors who say it’s nothing but an “unholy scheme” designed to bring the Internet under the unnecessary (if not unlawful) control of the government. A bit dramatic, but OK. On the other hand you’ve… → Read More
Reading Drudge and the Wall Street Journal this morning had me concerned that Julius Genachowski, the FCC chairman, was going to smash my modem into tiny pieces with a +2 mace in the name of flexing regulatory muscle. Hardly. It’s true that the FCC will vote tomorrow whether or not to implement some sort of Net Neutrality regime, but considering that it’s already stated what it means to accomplish… → Read More
This story is a bit old by now but it’s a doozy. Essentially, what you see here is a presentation slide from Allot and the ironically-named Openet handed out at FierceWireless describing a potential wireless money-maker – tiered, fee-based access to web services on a subscriber basis. Want YouTube? That costs a few pennies per megabyte. Love you some Facebook? Five dollars a month… → Read More
Editor’s note: Guest author John Borthwick is the CEO and founder of betaworks and in a previous life was a senior strategist for Time Warner and a witness in the Microsoft antitrust case.
Access to fast, affordable and open broadband, for users and developers alike is, I believe, the single most important driver of innovation in our business. The FCC will likely vote next week on a framework… → Read More
The FCC has just released its latest report on the sate of broadband in the US of A, and the results are… less than encouraging, and for a number of reasons. The agency found that around two-thirds of Americans’ broadband connections don’t actually qualify as broadband under its definition. (Broadband to the FCC is 4 mbps down/1 mbps up.) What’s sorta odd is that this isn’t a result of the lack… → Read More
The political paralysis over network neutrality might be a microcosm of the broader political paralysis in America. Last week, after FCC chairman Julius Genachowksi laid out his Title I compromise strategy to finally resolve this seemingly never-ending debate, radical left and right wing groups conspired to destroy any possibility of consensus. On the left, activist groups like Free Press called… → Read More
This certainly changes things. You’ll recall that the Internet flipped out the other day when it emerged that Netflix‘s traffic carrier, Level 3, said that Comcast was taking advantage of its position as one of the nation’s largest ISPs by demanding more coin to pass on Netflix traffic to its customers. It is, in fact, largely boring tosh, but it speaks to something we’ve been talking about for… → Read More
The FCC continues to push for Net Neutrality, with an actual vote set for later this month. The Commission’s chair, Julius Genachowski, is set to give a speech on the subject today, but luckily it’s already been posted online. The reason for all of this? “The animating force behind all of these efforts is a shared appreciation for the Internet’s wondrous contributions to our economy and our… → Read More
*Now* do you people understand why Net Neutrality isn’t merely some thing that Slashdot-dwelling sysadmins argue about during lunchtime? Surely you’ve heard by now that Comcast, one of the largest Internet Service Providers in the U.S., has been fiddling with Netflix traffic? But no, Net Neutrality isn’t worth defending, right? → Read More
Last week’s guest on Press:Here was Tim Wu, author of the new book Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. Wu also wrote this guest post for us about why we should all fear Steve Jobs.
In general Wu — who gets credit for coming up with the term “Net Neutrality” — has a really important mission whether you agree with him or not: Raising alarm bells that the Internet, like every… → Read More
A report in the Financial Times suggests that Net Neutrality may, once again, be on the docket. The FCC is looking to have everything wrapped up as early as its December 15 meeting. Whether or not that actual happens—there have been several false starts, of course—who knows? → Read More
What are some of the tech implications of Tuesday’s mid-term election? One thing that springs to mind—Net Neutrality. Speculation has begun that the Republican-led Congress (well, House) will be far more willing to chuck Net Neutrality into the rubbish bin, leaving all of us normal folk wondering, “What happened?” → Read More
Your do-nothing Congress is doing nothing—shock! Lawmakers have adjourned their latest session in order to return to their home districts in order to campaign for the upcoming election. Boring, I know. One of the things they left on the table? Net Neutrality legislation. Thanks, Congress! → Read More
Is America losing its edge? This was the rather depressing subject of this year’s Aspen Forum, the annual event put on by the DC-based Technology Policy Institute. Attracting speakers as illustrious as former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Verizon EVP of Public Policy Tom Tauke, Intuit CEO Brad Smith, the author the National Broadband Plan Blair Levin and Linkedin co-founder Reid… → Read More
Editor’s note: Jonathan Askin is Associate Professor of Clinical Law at Brooklyn Law School and Founding Director of the Brooklyn Law and Incubator Policy Clinic (BLIP). He previously worked at the FCC and for the Obama campaign on telecommuncation policy.
I can’t help but analogize Google’s role in the Net Neutrality Wars with Anakin’s shift to the Dark Side in Star Wars.
I’m watching… → Read More
It looks like Sen. Al Franken, of Minnesota, wants to be Net Neutrality’s white knight. In the end, it doesn’t matter who want to be “that guy” so long as there’s a voice in Washington saying the right thing. Because as much as we can bang on here about Net Neutrality, we don’t exactly have millions of dollars to lobby Congress to see our point of view. → Read More
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c <td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Internet Exploiter http://www.thedailyshow.com http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:350576 Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party Jon Stewart? The next great technology pundit? Nope, but he does have a way of presenting the whole Verzion… → Read More
Last week, a firestorm erupted after Google and Verizon jointly proposed new rules to lawmakers for protecting the “open Internet” and net neutrality. When Google and Verizon professed their love for the open Internet (“Google cares a lot about the open Internet,” said CEO Eric Schmidt), they left out the future of the Internet, the wireless Internet. Instead, they would only apply to the wired… → Read More
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