Consumers to pay $2.4 billion for Comcast/NBCU merger? Really?
A new economic study written for local cable television providers concludes that the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal would ultimately cost consumers $2.4 billion more in subscription fees than they would fork over ot...
Would you like some broadband with those food stamps?
The government is recommending a suite of reforms to make it easier for the poor to get cheap phone service—and some of the proposals will eventually be extended to broadband. The most high profile of these suggestions urge...
ISPs on net neutrality: TV networks are the real villains
The FCC has—finally, mercifully—closed up its net neutrality docket. ISPs, Web companies, and public interest groups hustled to turn in last-minute filings yesterday, most showing a naked self-interest that was bracin...
Whistleblower: Parents Television Council is "beyond repair"
The Parents Television Council was not pleased with our update on the decency group's financial decline and internal troubles.
"Dear @ MatthewLasar - pretty lousy piece you wrote about the PTC," the organization's public relat...
Is "Kewl Breeze" a superkid, a sneaker, or a commercial?
How commercialized do we want our children's television to be? That thorny question has reared itself again, as the Federal Communications Commission ponders whether to accept the Skechers USA sponsored Zevo-3 cartoon s...
Self-appointed guardians of TV decency fall on hard times
It appears that the decency group that targets dirty tweeters, naughty Android apps, and anything else that gets between its Victorian cross hairs is having a rough patch. The New York Times reports that the Parents Television Co...
Who "ruled the air" in 1910? (and who rules it now?)
"We each have a signal. A stream of raw power that flows with us. A power. A superpower. A super communication power." So proclaims Verizon Wireless's innovative "Rule the Air" advertising campaign.
"Send your signal forth with l...
Watch out weather balloons: big wireless wants your spectrum
Want to know how bad the government wants to get more spectrum licenses to the wireless industry? Now they're going after the frequencies used to guide weather balloons.
"Last spring we identified some bands for analysis based ......
Report: Our ISPs may be slow, but at least they’re honest
The cable industry is cheering new data suggesting that most Americans receive something close to the broadband speeds advertised by their Internet service providers. The Ookla broadband testing service's report compares "promise...
Free conference calls and porn! The case for traffic pumping
There's a new study decrying the rural phone company practice that the big carriers love to hate: access stimulation, more popularly known as "traffic pumping." The technique "bleeds" phone companies "of billions," warns the esti...
