broadband access

Paul Karpowicz has nothing against broadband. But he has no plans to take part in a government effort to bring it to more homes.

Karpowicz is president of Meredith Broadcasting, which owns 12 local TV stations from Portland, Ore., to New Haven, Conn. Meredith also holds unused TV airwaves covering some of those markets and Karpowicz intends to use them to stream programming to handheld devices.

More than half of the people in the developing world are now cell phone subscribers, a U.N. report said Tuesday, highlighting strong global growth in telecommunications.

There were an estimated 4.6 billion mobile phone subscriptions at the end of last year, compared with about 1 billion in 2002, the International Telecommunication Union said in a report. In developing nations, 57 percent of people were signed up.

"The rate of progress remains remarkable," the U.N. agency said.

When it comes to broadband, we Americans are a bit like Maverick and Goose in Top Gun. We feel the need for speed -- download speed, that is. We cringe at reports that show average U.S. download speeds lagging behind those of other countries. Representative Rick Boucher [D-Va.], chairman of the House Communications, Technology & Internet Subcommittee, says that within the next five years, 80 percent of Americans should have access to broadband speeds that are more than ten times what we have today.

The Federal Communications Commission has a daunting task to complete this spring. The deadline for public comment on the FCC's proposed Net-neutrality rules passed this week, and now the FCC is accepting rebuttals and replies to comments made by Internet companies, industry associations, and government officials.

The proposed Net-neutrality framework or national broadband plan would regulate businesses in an effort to ensure that all people of the U.S. have broadband access. The rule change also means consumers will have more say in which Internet products succeed.

Making broadband Internet access universally available is this century's version of building highways or extending railroads coast-to-coast, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.

An Oct. 26 earnings report by Tellabs is the latest sign that the worst of the telecom spending slump may be ending. The seller of products that can boost network bandwidth said third-quarter revenue rose 1 percent from the previous quarter, the second straight period of sequential growth. Tellabs executives said the company may see added growth in the period that ends in December.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to mandate Internet service providers to grant consumers equal access to all legal Web applications and services -- and the debate is on. What was once the battleground for wired service providers has been expanded to the flourishing wireless industry, and that spells bad news for large telecom and cable operators like AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Comcast.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to mandate Internet service providers to grant consumers equal access to all legal Web applications and services -- and the debate is on. What was once the battleground for wired service providers has been expanded to the flourishing wireless industry, and that spells bad news for large telecom and cable operators like AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Comcast.

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.

Recession or no, more Americans are getting online via fast, higher-priced connections, a closely watched study of U.S. Internet use has found. As of April, 63 percent of U.S. adults had broadband Internet connections in their homes, according to the Pew Research Center. That's a big jump from a year earlier, when a comparable survey found that only 55 percent of U.S. adults had broadband access at home.