Tag Archives: FCC
AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA From Deutsche Telekom
Provides fast, efficient and certain solution to impending spectrum exhaust challenges facing AT&T and T-Mobile USA in key markets due to explosive demand for mobile broadband
Enhances network capacity, output and quality in near term for both companies’ customers
AT&T commits to expand 4G LTE deployment to an additional 46.5 million Americans, including in rural, smaller communities, for a total of 294 million or 95% of the U.S. population
Provides 4G LTE service for T-Mobile USA’s 34 million subscribers
More than $8 billion in incremental infrastructure spend by a U.S. company over seven years, enabling nation’s high-tech industry, innovation and economic growth
Creates substantial value for AT&T shareholders through large, straightforward synergies
Dallas, Texas, Bonn, Germany, March 20, 2011
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Deutsche Telekom AG (FWB: DTE) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which AT&T will acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in a cash-and-stock transaction currently valued at approximately $39 billion. The agreement has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.
AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile USA provides an optimal combination of network assets to add capacity sooner than any alternative, and it provides an opportunity to improve network quality in the near term for both companies’ customers. In addition, it provides a fast, efficient and certain solution to the impending exhaustion of wireless spectrum in some markets, which limits both companies’ ability to meet the ongoing explosive demand for mobile broadband.
HOSTED COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM (CMAS) FROM INTEROP TECHNOLOGIES ENABLES AFFORDABLE COMPLIANCE WITH FCC MANDATE
March 16, 2011 – Interop Technologies
With one simple connection, network operators can deliver public safety alerts to customers, avoiding CAPEX and complex deployments
FORT MYERS, FL.—March 16, 2011—Interop Technologies, a provider of core wireless solutions for messaging, device management, and connectivity gateways, now offers a hosted Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), enabling wireless operators to deliver alert messages originating from the Federal Alert Gateway to their subscribers without deploying a cost-prohibitive system on their network.
Since Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations stipulate that operators cannot generate revenue from the delivery of Presidential, Imminent Threat, and AMBER public-safety alerts, operators often find it difficult to justify the up-front investment required to implement a commercially available on-network CMAS system. However, operators that do not comply with the mandate risk losing subscribers to competitors that offer the valuable alert service.
On Web, FCC seeks middle course
New Internet access rules approved by federal regulators on Tuesday prohibit network operators from meddling with Web traffic into American homes but do not extend to the fast-growing market for smartphones and tablet computers.
The regulations passed the Federal Communications Commission along party lines, with two Democratic commissioners reluctantly siding with agency Chairman Julius Genachowski in a 3-2 vote.
The rules seek to uphold a principle called net neutrality, under which Internet service providers are supposed to give equal treatment to all legal Web content on their networks. But the measure met with swift opposition Tuesday.
Republican lawmakers immediately promised to work to overthrow the rules, while analysts predicted that cable and telecom giants will file lawsuits challenging the FCC’s authority to regulate the broadband market.
Genachowski, who had aggressively pushed for the rules for more than a year, did get the support of President Obama, who said the measure fulfilled an election campaign promise for net-neutrality regulations.
“Today’s decision will help preserve the free and open nature of the Internet while encouraging innovation, protecting consumer choice, and defending free speech,” Obama said in a statement Tuesday.
Mixed Reaction to F.C.C. Internet Plan
WASHINGTON — The plan from the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to ensure an open and neutral Internet drew mixed reviews on Wednesday from consumer advocates and Internet service providers, presenting the agency with an uncertain way forward as it considers new broadband regulation.
The proposal, by Julius Genachowski, would forbid both wired and wireless Internet service providers from blocking lawful content. It would also require broadband Internet service providers to give consumers basic information about how the companies manage their networks and would forbid discrimination in transmitting lawful content.
But it relies in part on a novel legal interpretation of how much authority the agency has over the Internet, one that some critics think is almost certain to invite Congressional opposition and court challenges. And it drew lukewarm support from one of the most important voices in the debate, Michael J. Copps, an F.C.C. commissioner, who has advocated stricter regulation and whose vote the chairman will need in order to get an order approved by a majority vote of the five-member commission.
HP pays $16.25m in fraud settlement
Hewlett-Packard is to pay $16.25m (£10m) for alleged fraud, following an extensive investigation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Justice (DoJ).
The fraud was allegedly committed by the company to win contracts for the governments E-rate program, which funds internet connections in schools and libraries in the US.
The FCC and the DoJ acted on tips from whistleblowers to investigate allegations that contractors working with HP and other companies lavished gifts on Dallas Independent School District and Houston Independent School District personnel in order to get contracts that included about $17m in HP equipment.
Meals and entertainment, including trips on a yacht and tickets to the 2004 Super Bowl, were provided by the contractors to get inside information and win contracts that were supposed to be awarded through a competitive bidding process.
