October 2007
11 posts
FCC.gov: Searching in vain
As promised, here is the first in a series of posts looking at the usefulness of the FCC website. Others, including Michael Marcus and Cynthia Brumfield, have already catalogued just how much in disrepair the site is. (In fact, our own James Gattuso blogged today about the FCC site, which prompted me to finally kick off the series.) I’ve had lots of time to think about this while researching...
The outputs and outcomes of Regulations.gov
Regulations.gov, the federal government’s centralized regulatory docketing system that I look at in my new transparency paper, recently won an award from Government Computer News for “combining vision and IT innovations with an attention to detail and a willingness to collaborate.” The result of that award-winning combination, however, is not impressing everyone. A few days later...
So what _is_ Comcast doing?
Brad Stone of the New York Times has a good post on the Bits Blog regarding the Comcast kerfuffle (Jim, Why are we calling it that, again?). The gist:
It seems unlikely that Comcast has a secret agenda to shut down file-sharing applications and combat piracy on its network. But the company is clearly trying to have it both ways. It claims it is a neutral Internet service provider that treats all...
I'm from the Internet and I'm here to help you
If you’d like to get a flavor for the sort of impact that one (tenacious) citizen can have on making government data more transparent, check out this Google Tech Talk by one of my personal heroes, Carl Malamud. (I write about his exploits in my new paper on online transparency.) He talks about cajoling the ITU to put standards online, forcing the SEC to put its public information online, and...
Given enough eyeballs, all corruption is shallow
I’ve been laboring for a few months on a paper about government transparency on the internet and I’m happy to say that it’s now available as a working paper. In it I show that a lot of government information that is supposed to be publicly available is only nominally available because it’s not online. When data does make it online it’s often useless; it’s as if...
Is Comcast discriminating against BitTorrent?
The AP reports today the results of an investigation it conducted on Comcast’s “traffic shaping” practices as they relate to BitTorrent. The bottom line, if the AP is correct, is that Comcast interferes with packets coming from both ends of a BitTorrent communication. Comcast allegedly inserts messages pretending to be one or the other end requesting that the transmission be...
More French wireless bashing
The WSJ reports that the French government has “rejected the sole bid it had received for the so-called third-generation, or 3G license, from French Internet start-up Iliad SA, on the grounds that it didn’t meet required financial criteria.” It also says that the “failed auction for a fourth mobile-operator license could forestall new competition and keep prices at their...
Has AT&T been reading 'The Prince'?
In an interesting post today, Glenn Fleishman explores what AT&T’s purchase of 700 MHz spectrum from Aloha Partners today means for Verizon. While my conspiracy theory radar tingles a bit, I had this same thought earlier today. No point in paraphrasing; enter the blockquote.
AT&T spends $2.5b for 12 MHz across 200m people in the 700 MHz band: Let’s talk...
French Carterphone may halt L'iPhone
I love my iPhone. Despite what others might say, it is the most innovative mobile phone in a decade. I also think innovators should be rewarded, which is why I’m fine with the iPhone being locked to AT&T’s network. As a result, Apple gets a cut of my (and every other iPhone owner’s) wireless bill.
France might be left behind when it comes to this innovation, however. That...
Buying or pacifying?
In a blog post entitled “Buying regulation,” Susan Crawford wonders about the legality of the FCC reserve price scheme for the 700 MHz rules. (I.e., as long as the $4.6 billion reserve price is met for the much coveted C Block, then open access rules will apply. If the reserve price isn’t met, then the rules go away.) Crawford asks,
Think about it. How can the FCC condition...
Public safety spectrum update: Revenge of Cyren...
In my comments to the FCC in the 700 MHz proceeding, I addressed the Commission’s insistence that the licensee of a national public safety spectrum license be a non-profit entity. At the time I said,
This is odd since there are several commercial communications companies with the comparative advantage and expertise in designing, building-out, and maintaining wireless broadband...
