Robert Kenny

A much-publicized meeting by the Federal Communications Commission later this month has been canceled. The meeting's agenda included a vote on a plan that could have provided free broadband wireless service to underserved areas of the U.S.

The FCC said the meeting for Dec. 18 was canceled following a request from Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) that the agency scale down other efforts in order to concentrate on the switch to digital-television broadcasts in February.

Pressure From Both Sides

In a scathing report released Tuesday, congressional investigators outlined a pattern of mismanagement, dysfunction and abuse of power at the Federal Communications Commission under the agency's Republican chairman, Kevin Martin.

The report -- the result of a nearly yearlong, bipartisan investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee -- accuses Martin of manipulating data and suppressing information to influence telecommunications policy debates at the agency and on Capitol Hill.

It was a mostly smooth transition for residents of Wilmington, N.C., Thursday as the Federal Communications Commission and city officials worked with local television stations to switch from analog broadcasting to digital.

Wilmington was the first city in the nation to make the highly anticipated switch because it is one of the few markets in which all its commercial stations have built their Digital TV channels.

The fees that cell phone carriers charge customers who break service contracts took a big hit in a California courtroom when a judge said such charges by Sprint Nextel Corp. likely violate state law.

The judge, in a tentative ruling issued late Monday, said Sprint will have to pay $18.3 million to customers who sued over the fees and credit $54.8 million to those who were charged but did not pay the fees.