broadband services

The Obama administration is calling on federal regulators to make more radio spectrum available for wireless Internet services so they can compete with broadband plans provided by the major phone and cable companies.

Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission on Monday that wireless connections offer the best hope for injecting new competition into the duopoly market for broadband services in the United States.

Q. I'm having issues with the MSN software Verizon gave me. Is there a newer version, or should I get another program?

A. MSN Premium is a combination of software and services (http://get.msn.com) you can buy for $9.95 a month or get bundled with broadband services -- though some, such as Verizon, no longer advertise it to new users.

At an investor conference hosted by Goldman Sachs on Sept. 17, top executives of big telecom outfits expressed mixed sentiments about the economic recovery but were upbeat about the outlook for the industry. One of them was Verizon Communications Chairman and CEO Ivan G. Seidenberg, who noted that the company weathered the recession better than its peers as it aggressively acquired wireless assets and shed some underperforming wireline operations.

In response to the Federal Communications Commission's request last month for comments about a definition of the term "broadband," key industry players have advised the FCC to tread carefully. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, for example, is cautioning against incorporating substantive requirements regarding speed, price or openness.

Businesses, nonprofits, libraries, hospitals and state and local governments have applied for more than $28 billion in funds for broadband projects from the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service.

Home Box Office and Comcast are partnering on a digital-content deal that will bring award-winning television shows and movies to cable-TV subscribers.

As an added value to Comcast's HBO and Cinemax customers, content from both channels will be available as part of the company's On Demand Online trial. On Demand Online is a free service that expands the number of top-rated TV choices available online to Comcast cable customers.

Clearwire has tapped Cisco Systems to provide the wireless infrastructure for its new 4G network. Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif., has been tasked with building new mobile WiMAX devices for Clearwire's network for small and midsize business markets, Clearwire announced Wednesday.

Clearwire currently provides mobile WiMAX services in Baltimore, Md., and Portland, Ore., and plans to bring its 4G service to more than 80 markets in the U.S. by the end of next year, according to the company.

Despite the slide in global economic conditions, Verizon Wireless says it intends to deploy a 4G wireless network in the United States, beginning in 2010.

To make this happen, the nation's largest wireless carrier has tapped Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson to serve as the primary vendors of infrastructure equipment based on a high-speed wireless technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE), said Dick Lynch, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Verizon Wireless.

A debate between the Federal Communications Commission and the outgoing Bush administration centers on the FCC's plan to make broadband available for free at government-mandated speeds.

In a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez said providing free broadband services would be counterproductive, result in a congested and inefficient broadband, and be inconsistent with the Bush administration's stand that the service should be allocated by the markets, not the government.

For the last two years, a California-based communication startup called M2Z has been advocating free national Wi-Fi broadband using the relatively narrow 2155-2175-MHz portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The cost of providing free Wi-Fi, M2Z says, could be covered by advertising revenues. A premium, ad-free service would also be available for a subscription fee.